Untitled Sermon

I’ve come here this morning to share a very important message with you. This message concerns our shared Christian Identity. To accomplish this goal though I will need to be a little silly a first, and I ask your indulgence in this endeavor.

First though I have a volunteer.

I believe everyone gather in this Church probably has at least a passing understanding or familiarity with the school aged game called hokey pokey. Its rules are simple, and if you feel moved to join in, I won’t hold that against you, being filled with a sense of joy is exactly what I believe our fellowship time should be about.

Hold it Hold It Hold it.

Did you see what ---------- Did I said put your right hand in and he put his left in instead, I told him to put his right leg in and he put in his left.

Well, Brothers and sisters, that kind of thing may be okey dokey, but it isn’t hokey pokey.

The reason it isn’t hokey pokey, is that it fails to meet the requirements of the game, that being that when a move is called out, there should be at least some notion that the move will be followed.

I need to level with you though, I deliberately asked_______ not to do what I said, because I need her help with this sermon today, and I want to thank ____ for that.

This example is something I’m going to come back to, but before I do, I think we should take a few minutes to get some background information on this morning’s reading, because this should help me make my point.

This morning our reading was taken from Paul’s letter to the Romans, and if you look at its placement in today’s bibles, it offers itself up as a bit of a curiosity.

This is because it proceeds all the rest of Paul’s other letters, written to the assortment of other churches, congregations, and people he wrote to. Chronologically, many agree that it probably was written closer to the end of his ministry. Currently most theologians share the point of view that it was penned sometime during the winter of 55 A.D. fully 10 years after he started his traveling ministry.

The reason for its importance, and therefore it’s position in the canon, rests on 2 facts.

The first is that the letter itself is the largest work attributed to the apostle, and the second is that it is largely considered to be the most important work he had created.

We are told that the letter was penned in preparation of his visit to Rome, while on his way to Spain, and that he had wanted to address some of the problems he had seen developing in the early Jewish/Christian church’s.

Two accounts, independent of scripture, help point out these issues.

The most probable ancient account of the beginning of Christianity in Rome is given by a 4th-century writer known as Ambrosiaster: AM Bros eye asster

“It is established that there were Jews living in Rome in the times of the Apostles, and that those Jews who had believed [in Christ] passed on to the Romans the tradition that they ought to profess Christ but keep the law [Torah] ... One ought not to condemn the Romans, but to praise their faith, because without seeing any signs or miracles and without seeing any of the apostles, they nevertheless accepted faith in Christ, although according to a Jewish religious tradition.”

And from Adam Clarke the noted 19th century British Methodist theologian and biblical scholar.

((b. 1760–1762, d. August 28, 1832)}

“Paul had been made familiar with all circumstances of the Christians at Rome, and finding that it was a congregation composed, partly of heathens converted to Christianity, and partly of Jews, who had, with many remaining prejudices, believed in Jesus as the true Messiah, and that many contentions arose from the claims of the Gentiles to equal privileges with the Jews, and from absolute refusal of the Jews to admit these claims, unless the Gentile converts become circumcised; he wrote this epistle to adjust and settle these differences.”

With what we now know about Paul’s training and experience; that he was an expert in Jewish law, had both as a tent maker as well as a traveling minister many opportunities to deal with people in culturally diverse populations, and finally and perhaps most importantly had been witness to the Life of Christ and his teachings first hand, I can hardly think of anyone that was better equipped to accomplish this task.

After dealing with the Who, where, why, and when, I now want to talk to you about the what, what is our reading this morning saying to us.

In the most basic sense, these first 8 verses, can to be thought of as something of an indoctrination,

or what Todays Human Resource managers are currently calling an onboarding process.

Personally, I liken it a boot camp, an initial training to tell the Gentiles what their worship should look like in a mixed faith church.

In the first verse:

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Paul’s target audience is identified immediately in this verse, not by saying you…

Paul’s target audience is identified immediately in this verse, not by saying you… you gentiles, but by differentiating the kind of sacrifice, the one which is made rational service to God, He shifts from what was the traditional Jewish sacrifice, that of offering ritualistically slaughtered animals, etcetera, to the notion of living sacrifice, spiritual offerings, acts of devotion and piety. I think it’s fair to say that most of us can recognize the fact that two entirely different beliefs about what constitutes an acceptable sacrifice in the same congregation, would most likely be the cause of some turmoil. That being said the new converts, really had no buy in to the temple system of the Jews, or indeed Moses’s law, which included more than a few distasteful elements, like circumcision. Therefore, for them attempting to worship in the way of the old covenant might be:

okey dokey, but it isn’t hokey pokey.

In the second verse,

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Apart from the scriptural linkage, that carries the same message as other Pauline writings,

[You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.]

[Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, 10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of

[Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, 10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.]

Paul, reminds us that the powers and principalities of this world make all too easy the idea of ignoring the commandments and ordinances of scripture. Instead, more often than not, it appears those powers promote our turn toward

cultural values,

temporal values,

those values of the flesh that stand openly, and shamelessly in opposition to the values of the word made flesh in Jesus Christ.

Here is small example.

“Ooka and the honest thief”, is a Japanese folktale, that was published in storybook form for children by I. G. Edmonds. In the story, a man is caught stealing rice. When questioned by the Magistrate as to reason for the theft, we come to find out that the thief is taking the food to feed his starving family. He is therefore adjudged to be an “honest” thief and is released.

This tale has had barrels of ink spilled about it forever, it has been appropriated in every generation, and to some degree or another contains a kind of folk virtue, “doing what it takes to feed your family”. In a tangible way, the same holds true for every one of the things Scripture tells us not to be, “Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived!”, and why the Apostle admonishes us to train our minds, to look past the easy worldly answers, and ask ourselves, if the justifications, explanations, and clarification’s, we are offered by the offenders, and their supporters are truly working God’s intended plan, or like the serpent in the garden trying to manipulate us in to corruption.

We are called upon to love the sinner, yes, but we aren’t called to join them in sin. Following the ever-changing morals of the world may be:

okey dokey, but it isn’t hokey pokey

The next verse

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

The apostle here tells us, that in the same way that Christ lived his faith according to the grace that God extended to him, being the sacrificed savior, Paul wants to do the same falling back in to his role of teacher, and bids those early Christians, and by extension us, to also live humbly as we live out our mission, fulfilling the plan that God has for us. This we should do using reasoned judgement, or discernment, and not to allow ourselves to become puffed up, or use our call to Christ in a self-aggrandizing way. Being hifalutin, or pretentious about our spiritual gifts, or even about the faith that is considered the “inlet” that allows those gifts to become manifest, may be:

okey dokey, but it isn’t hokey pokey

For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

While I am confident that many gathered here have studied these several spiritual gifts, and perhaps even gone so far as to take classes and tests about them, I feel like it’s important that we run through them with at least some clarification, as it easy to become a little hazy about some of them. Actually being 100 % honest it happens to me all too frequently.

While I am confident that many gathered here have studied these several spiritual gifts, and perhaps even gone so far as to take classes and tests about them, I feel like it’s important that we run through a few of them with at least some clarification, as it easy to become a little hazy about their meanings. Actually being 100 % honest it happens to me all too frequently.

Prophecy involves a process in which one or more messages are communicated by God. Such messages typically involve inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of divine will concerning the prophet's social world and events to come. This is also known as inspired teaching.

One of the most famous Rabbinic scholar Maimonides (may mon a dees), suggested that "prophecy is, in truth and reality, an emanation sent forth by Divine Being through the medium of the Active Intellect, in the first instance to man's rational faculty, and then to his imaginative faculty."

We call the people who learn and then impart this knowledge prophets.

Ministry, While the word ministering could literally mean conducting any of the affairs of the church the word used in this scripture, probably alludes to handling the more temporal aspects of the Church’s work, because it is differentiated from teaching, prophecy, and exhortation.

The gift of exhortation is often called the “gift of encouragement.” The Greek word for this gift is Parakaleo (Para kal el). It means to beseech, exhort, call upon, to encourage and to strengthen. The primary means of exhortation is to remind the hearer of the powerful and amazing work of God in Christ, particularly in regard to the saving work of Jesus in the atonement.

The Spirit of God gives this gift to people in the church to strengthen and encourage those who are wavering in their faith. Those with the gift of exhortation can uplift and motivate others as well as challenge and rebuke them in order to foster spiritual growth and action. The goal of the encourager is to see everyone in the church continually building up the body of Christ and glorifying God.

In using the many gifts God has given us to build his holy nation, in our kindness to others, to our compassion, to our cheerfulness, stepping out in to the world as Christians:

is more than just hokey pokey, it’s okey dokey.