To all God’s beloved in La Mesa-Spring Valley-Mt. Helix-El Cajon, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul’s letter to Romans might just as well be a letter to us too. What a great template he gives us for addressing and encouraging one another in and through the faith.
He starts with the grace and peace greeting, and then he always addresses his communities with, “I thank God for you.” In some letters (Ephesians and Philippians), he says, “I thank God every time I think of you.” And then, he basically says, “I miss you.” Even those he’s never met. Remember, Paul is writing this from the busy metropolis of Corinth, most likely, which is in Greece, a long way, especially in those days, from Rome. He’s not yet been to Rome, but he misses the faithful there anyway.
...Because, when and if they can be together, they will be stronger in the gospel, Paul is certain. He says, “I am longing to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you” -- and then he corrects himself -- “or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.” Faith is greater when we do it together. What a powerful template Paul gives us!
Pastor and author Lillian Daniel writes in her book When “Spiritual but Not Religious” Isn’t Enough that “Being privately spiritual but not religious doesn’t interest me. There is nothing challenging about having deep thoughts all by oneself. What is interesting is doing this work in community, where other people might call you on stuff, or, heaven forbid, disagree with you. Where life with God gets rich and provocative is when you dig deeply into a tradition you did not invent all for yourself.”
Faith is greater when we do it together. Paul is longing to share in the faith, and so, whether he meant to or not, he’s teaching us (by example) to long for it too. In other words, doing church. That’s what we Jesus-followers get to do when we get together. We get to do church. One of my great, dearly departed mentors, Fred Danker, was fond of saying: “God did the work; now we get to do church.” [pause]
There’s nothing challenging about having deep thoughts all by oneself -- we like Paul have to correct ourselves -- rather let’s have deep thoughts together, for the purpose of encouraging and strengthening each other in and through Christ...for the sake of the world.
So often in our world, in our culture, during our week, we put forward our knowledge in order to out-do each other, to “one-up” each other. Have you ever shared a story or some knowledge only to have someone go after you and say, “That’s nothing. Listen to this...”? Have you known any one-uppers? Are you a one-upper sometimes? I think we can all do it, and not always with bad intentions. But, this usually doesn’t build-up one another up, it tears others down, so that the individual looks better -- and that’s nothing new. It’s been going on for thousands of years. It’s verbal natural selection, where the strong survive.
But Paul is inviting these early Christian communities and us into something different -- into doing church, frankly. Where we encourage one another in and through the faith.
So, I want to talk about in and through the faith, when we talk about encouraging one another in the faith, I think it’s easy to assume we’re talking about human faith -- your faith, my faith, when we talk about encouraging in the faith, we point to the great people of faith, the saints, maybe your great Grandma, who never missed a day of church in her life...
And these are all good things, but...Paul does something very important here at the beginning of his letter to the Romans: He says that in the gospel, “the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith.” That is, it is through God’s faith, God’s faithfulness that we are here in this place. So when we encourage one another in the faith, through the faith, its not just trying to be as faithful and holy as Grandma, but even more to live and work and serve and rest assured in the faithfulness of God. God does the faith (ultimately); we just get to do church.
When Paul talks about encouraging and lifting one another up in the faith, he’s talking about remembering that God is the faithful one. We all loose faith at one time or another, but God is faithful to God’s promises, and that faithfulness becomes enfleshed in Jesus Christ. (That’s the 1 time one-upping actually builds us all up!)
What does this mean for us? We are saved by God’s grace, God’s action. Old Fred was right, God does the work, we just get to do church. And that means we get to be together. You can’t do church alone (many have tried...and are trying right now). You can’t sit around and have deep thoughts all by yourself...and meet that need. There is something that happens when God’s people come together.
And everyone should find a community of faith. Doesn’t have to be this one. But this one is where most of us choose to do church, right? And when you’re away from it, you miss it. At least, I do, mostly in ways that I can’t describe. Heather and I were gone for 2 weeks traveling, and when I came back home, last Sunday, to my worshiping community, I realized that I missed this place...mostly in ways I can’t describe. It’s because this is our worshipping community, this is where we do church.
I believe humans are actually wired to do church, to worship-God-in-community. But so many haven’t figured that out, or they feel the church has wronged them, and they’ve never looked back, or church has never been offered to them. But it’s amazing how hungry people are for the gospel, and for that sense of belonging and that word of forgiveness and grace. Everyone’s a drifter these days, non-committal, always waiting for a better option, and quick to jump ship as soon as it comes.
But Paul says, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel [I’m not jumping ship]; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith.” There is this sense in which our drifting, our bouncing from one thing to the next -- it’s like we have faith A.D.D. (faith attention deficit disorder) -- we humans there days will go to whatever looks newer and flashier. It’s as if we’re ashamed of the Gospel that we have right here before us. We are called to remain faithful, to not be ashamed of the gospel. Pick a worshipping community and stay there. I’ll save you the suspense: it won’t be a perfect place; but you’ll make it better. Be the church where you are; and let us continue to be the church here, on the corner of Avocado and Fury!
Paul calls us back, as he calls himself back, as he calls the Christians-in-Rome-who-he’s-never-met back. We are called to be saints. Don’t be ashamed of what we have here: a Gospel that will save your life, a God who is faithful (always has been, always will be)...and a community where we have the opportunity to nurture and care for each other, to challenge and hold one another accountable, and ultimately where we come together to give humble praise to the One who does the real work -- God in Christ Jesus. We have a lot to celebrate. We continue that now, encouraging one another, building one anther up, and always always giving praise and glory to God. That same God in Christ is with us now. And goes with us into the days that are before us...AMEN.
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