Unashamed

Unashamed - June 1, 2008,

     “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation….” Romans 116

In his letter to the Romans Paul is writing to the only congregation he didn’t know personally.  All the others – Philippi, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Thessalonica, and the others, he had founded the church and he knew  the leaders of the church and he knew their situation. Now he was writing to Christians in Rome who wanted to see him and he wanted to see them. He writes to them “I have longed to see you….” It has been said of Paul that he was “always haunted by the regions beyond”.

At the end of the letter he says he is even thinking of going as far as Spain, meaning that he was thinking of going further west, and for that he needed Rome as a base. So in this letter he has to present himself in ways that he didn’t have to for the other letters. He opens by presenting himself as a “slave” of  Jesus Christ, and he calls Jesus “Lord” and he describes himself as having been called to be an  apostle,  then he arrives at two  sentences which really tell all he wants them  to know about himself  – I am not ashamed of the Gospel, it is the power of God unto salvation.

Paul preached a gospel which was crystal clear about who Jesus is, the divine Son of God who became fully man.  He didn’t preach about a legendary figure, or a demi-god, or a myth – all stories in wide circulation about many ancient and mythical heroes, but instead of a real person who was fully one  with humanity, but who  because he is also divine has the power to save, and who died on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. And he preached powerfully that this Jesus was  raised from the dead.

He preached the power of the Resurrection, meaning Jesus was totally different from anyone else who ever lived. He is not just an heroic figure of the past but a living presence for believers now. And this was all good news --  gospel ---because it revealed  the divine heart of love at the center of the universe, God acting in Christ for the sake of sinners and out of freely given grace, for  everyone – Jew and Greek – and  by  this  time “Greek” meant the entire Gentile world -- displaying a love that will not let us go, nor let us off, nor let us down. And even though all this seemed foolishness to the Greeks and a scandal to the Jews, it was the power of God to righteousness.

And he wasn’t ashamed of it one bit. The Greek original begins with the word “not”  -- “Not I am ashamed of the gospel….” As in “absolutely”. That is where the emphasis is. Just  as now it was a pluralistic world, and probably he was told he should tone it down,  but without putting anyone else’s faith down he proclaimed simply and clearly that here is the “Good News”.  To the Corinthians he had written, “we preach Christ and him crucified.” That was it.  And even though it brought up the issue of Christ’s ignominious death on the cross, Paul wasn’t ashamed of it at all. Instead, he called the cross the very wisdom of God.

As I near the end of my ministry here after 26 yearsI can say  I am  not ashamed of the Gospel, either.  I agree with the catechism of the Church  when it asks the question, what about people of other faiths? The answer is only God  truly knows about people of other faiths, and it is not for us to judge, but only the Church has the Gospel and only the Church is entrusted with sharing that gospel in word and deed. And we should not be ashamed of it in any way: It is a story of immortal love, of the dignity and worth of every human being – call no man worthless for whom Christ died – and it  is meant for everyone no matter their race, their background, their economic condition in life.

The church is not a club for saints where only a certain “class” is welcome but a hospital for recovering sinners, and when it has forgotten that, or forgets it still, then  indeed it should be ashamed. When it spends its time in petty pickering or one-up-manship, as they did in Corinth, then they should be ashamed, when it is more interested in criticizing and putting people down than  in congratulating and building people up, then it should be ashamed, but it should never be ashamed of the Gospel. And remembering with humility why it is here in the first place will keep those other things from happening.

The two Sacraments Christ gave us – Baptism  and the Lord’s Supper – show forth the gospel. In baptism, as we had last week, we die with Christ and we are raised with Christ to newness of life in  him. The Spirit unites us with Christ in our baptism, unites us with him in his death and unites us with him in his resurrection. And in the Lord’s Supper  we remember both his immortal sacrifice for us and his glorious resurrection and as we share the Supper the Spirit speaks to our spirits that through his death and resurrection we are made whole, saved, redeemed from pettiness and redeemed from sin and redeemed from all the evils that beset us to live lives to the greater glory of  God, no matter our age, no matter our background, no matter our condition.

And how can anyone be ashamed of that?

Charles