The text this morning is from Paul’s Letter to the Romans, the fifteenth chapter:
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.Thus far the text.
Dear friends in Christ,
To understand today’s text, we must understand that to the Hebrew world, the Gentiles had been declared unclean. The Hebrews understood this, just as we do, that each of us has been born sinful and unclean and that we are separated from God starting at our very conceptions. Even the Hebrews had to be made clean. And so they were, using the means that God set down for them through the prophet Moses and by the faith granted to them by God. But the Gentiles, they rejected God’s means of cleanliness and they rebelled against the Lord and Creator of the universe.
So, God chose the Hebrews, the Jews, to be His Chosen People, the people that would hear His laws, bear up under His covenants, and wait for the fulfillment of His promises. Note in this that the Hebrews were also supposed to obey the laws and covenants, and yet, they never did. Still, the Lord showed them mercy, He welcomed them into His people, not because of their righteousness, but because of His righteousness, for His glory and His purposes. Why? Because they sought after the Lord, they turned from their wickedness and received repentance and the forgiveness of sins.
You see, the Gentiles were different than the Jews. To Israel, the Lord showed mercy and steadfast love, that means that He withheld the wrath He was to show to the Hebrews for their constant transgressions. But, to the Gentiles, to those outside of the Hebrew nation, outside of the people of Israel, God withheld His wrath only so that He would show His mercy to Israel.
What this means is this: God did very often become vengeful against the Gentiles. Think of the plagues upon Egypt that He sent. Think of the way the Lord told the Israelites to destroy Jericho. Think of the what the angel of the Lord did to Sodom and Gomorrah for their immorality. The Lord would often show wrath.
But, when He did destroy these cities, these nations, it was to show those who were destroyed and those who were watching the destruction, Jews and Gentiles alike, that the Lord, Yahweh, is God and He is God alone. There is no other god that people should turn to, there is no other god that would save them. There is only the One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
But God also withheld His wrath and showed His loving-kindness to the Gentiles, and not just the Jews. Think of what God did in Nineveh. God sent to this great and evil city and people a prophet of the Lord’s choosing, Jonah, to preach to the city of Nineveh that they would repent of their heinous sins and be brought into the forgiveness of Yahweh. Why would God do that?
Very simply, God does that to show all those who heard and saw the story of Nineveh that there is no other god that people should turn to, there is no other god that would save them. There is only the One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
But, to places like Nineveh, we see God operating in a different way than we expect. We SHOULD expect that the Lord would wipe Nineveh off the map for their evilness, yet He withholds His anger and wrath from them in order to bring them into His people, in order that one should hear of the mercy of the Lord, in order that, for the sake of one who would repent, He would not destroy the city.
I can only imagine being in the place of Jonah, not to mention all the other Israelites. I can understand why Jonah was so upset over God’s mercy towards Nineveh, or to any Gentile people. They are not part of God’s chosen race, yet He would still show them mercy?
Today’s text makes this clear. God has chosen His people, and today, God has chosen His Church, He has made you to be Israel, His Chosen People, and He desires that you continue to endure in this life in the one true faith of Jesus Christ by being encouraged by the Scriptures.
This is the way God works: He preserves you in the One True Faith by making sure that you hear the Word of God and receive the gifts He would bring you. You want to know how to be saved? Hear the Word of God. You want to know what you can do to help make sure your children are with you eternally in the Resurrection and not in hell? Let them hear the Word of God. You want to make sure your parents are bringing you to hear the Word? Let them hear the Word of God; if they won’t, read it, sing it, pray it at home, you do it. It’s okay.
Paul tells us that we have encouragement through the Scriptures. And what is that encouragement? That they testify about Jesus Christ and the gifts that He continues to bring to His people through Word and Sacrament. In these gifts, we are saved through the waters of baptism, we are strengthened in the one true faith as we eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and there we find the forgiveness of sins.
But this gift is not just for us. Though we know that only through Jesus Christ is salvation to be found, especially as His Bride, the Church, preaches it, we know that God desires all people to be saved. In fact, the Lord died for all people. He died for the entire world. And He wants them all with Him in the Resurrection, He wants them all with Him, welcoming them into eternal life when He returns, when He Advents for the second time.
This is why Paul quotes 2 Samuel 5, “For this I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations, and sing praises to your name.” The Christian sings to God in the midst of the nations, the Gentiles, and tells them of the wondrous love of Yahweh, even now of Jesus Christ. And this is why Paul paraphrases Deuteronomy 32, Rejoice with him all people, for He avenges the blood of His children. And this is why Paul quotes Psalm 117, “Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol Him, all peoples!”
And this, this is why, this is why Paul quotes Isaiah, the great prophet, the writer of, if you will, the fifth Gospel for all that it tells us of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
“There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins… In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.These gifts of Christ, they are for the nations. All humanity is welcomed at this font. All humanity is welcomed in this Church. For indeed, even you, even in your great sin, you were welcomed here. You were welcomed by your very sin being forgiven. You were welcomed as you were washed in the baptismal waters. You were welcomed when you heard the words of forgiveness. You were welcomed when you tasted the Lord’s Body and Blood. And you were welcomed, not so that you could be as you were, a member of the Gentiles, a member of the nations that were outside of the Church.
No, you were welcomed so that you could claim the name of God, because He has placed it upon you. In your baptisms, you received the name of God upon your forehead and upon your brow, to mark you as one redeemed by Jesus Christ. And when that occurred, and when the water washed over you, you received it, the name of God, the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
And you were welcomed so that you may live in harmony with one another. Harmony does not mean that you are all of one, robotic mind. Rather, harmony works together, bringing the deep basses, the high tenors, the steady altos, and the soaring sopranos to all form one song, one song that sings about the Son of God, to all people. And this is your song: that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, of which I am chief. This is what was written from the former days, the writings all pointed to these great acts and gifts of Christ Jesus, for they all testify about Him.
For in these gifts of Christ, Word and Sacrament, you receive the benefit of the cross, you receive salvation, and you are strengthened to go and sing and be in your vocations. These gifts, these gifts that are for all people, these gifts that are for all the nations, these gifts that Father brings to us through the Son by the Holy Spirit, these gifts are necessary to preserve you into everlasting life in the one true faith of Jesus Christ, marking you as one redeemed by Him, so that you may go and no longer fear the wrath of God. For His name, His mark, His gifts, they preserve you, just as they preserved all others, for His sake, leading to repentance and the forgiveness of sins, the only thing that dispels the true wrath of God and leads to His loving-kindness for you, and for all the nations.
This is our preaching, this is our teaching, this our confession, this is what we take into the darkened world. You are redeemed, O Church. In glorious thanks for the salvation that has been won for us on the cross of Christ, we can go out and preach this Word to a hurting and damned world, the Gentiles, to bring them into the Church and for them to be taught and receive all the gifts of Christ.
We welcome those who are hurting and condemned, just as we welcome you each and every week, so that you may hear the Word of God, that you may hear you are forgiven in Christ, that you may remember you are baptized, that you may receive the Lord’s Body and Blood, and so that you may go, encouraged, welcomed, instructed, and that you may endure until the Final Day of this earthly life, the day of the Lord’s Second Coming. We anxiously await that day with the whole earth. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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