A Faith Lived Loudly

First Impressions Matter

Perhaps one of the most famous rules of thumb that I’ve ever heard is that “you only get one chance at a first impression.” Which, quite honestly, I’ve always found to be true. I’ll be the first to admit that I judge a book by its cover, if you get my drift. I don’t want to. It’s just the way that things are. What I try to remember is that the book needs to be read in order for me to give an accurate review of the contents.

Of course I’m speaking metaphorically here, so what I mean is, regardless of what goes through my mind when I first meet people, it’s important for me to take time to know them before making final judgments. Perhaps it’s one of God’s funny jokes, that a person who struggles with getting past first impressions should become a long haired, tattooed and pierced pastor. It’s a humble reminder. Because there was a time when people who presented the way that I do might not even be considered for leadership in the church. Cue the sign from the 60s “long haired freaky people need not apply” right?

But, regardless of the irony between a personality flaw of my own and the way that I present in every day life, I think we can still all agree that first impressions matter. They matter because they set the tone for the rest of the relationship. I’m not saying that this is right or wrong, I’m just saying that it’s a reality. And it’s a reality that the Apostle Paul was obviously aware of, which means that it’s a reality as old as time.

That’s why we are going to look at some of the ways that Paul introduced himself in his letters to various churches in the ancient Roman world. What we will find within just the opening verses of these letters are actually stunning and deep theological truths about who the Church is called to be. And it is in these opening “salutations” that Paul both introduces himself to the people and boasts about the reports that he is receiving about the work that they are doing. It’s a seemingly appropriate place for us to really begin our journey together, seeing as I’m still introducing myself to you and that I have received many reports about the work that is being done here at First Church.

To start us off we are going to look at the opening verses of the book of Romans, which is actually the longest of Paul’s letters and the first one that you’d come across if you were to flip through your Bible from front to back. But before we get there, I just want to do a little lesson, some Bible 101 if you will, about the nature of Paul’s letters and some key information that helps us better read and interpret them. So I’m going to put on my Professor cap for just a minute or two here.

The first thing that we need to understand is that Christianity started as a sect within the larger Jewish faith. The first Christians were Israelites, they were Jewish. This is important to understand when reading any of Paul’s letters, because he often highlights some of the tension created when Jewish and non-Jewish followers of Jesus started living together in the new Jesus communities that were being created. However there is another really important detail we’ve got to discuss.

Reading Someone Else’s Mail

Let me preface this whole discussion by stating this: because I don’t want you to misunderstand what I’m about to say. I believe that all of the Bible is the inspired word of God and that it is the primary authority for our faith. That means that I believe that everything that the Bible teaches — when properly interpreted — is the basis on which our entire faith, practice, and lives should be modeled. The Bible, for me, is a deep deep well of truth. A well whose bottom I will never reach.

However, even though I believe that the Bible is the word of God and a well of truth, that does not mean that it is simple. The Bible is a complex work of art that was crafted over thousands of years. It is the divine marriage of God’s will, ethic, and teaching and the voices of countless human authors, editors, and translators. It is a wonderful mystery, and that’s why we have been arguing over what it really says for about as long as it has existed. And one of the complexities that we run into, very frequently in our study of the New Testament, is the complexity of Genre.

This particularly comes in to play when we read, you guessed it, the letters (which make up most of the New Testament.) The problem with letters is that, although they seem very straight-forward, without understanding some of the context in which they are written we are only getting half of the story. Why half? Well, because they are only one side of a conversation. They are correspondences that are written to a particular people (whom we don’t have the pleasure of knowing) about particular issues (which we don’t have the pleasure of knowing the full details about.) In all reality, reading Paul’s letters are essentially reading someone else’s mail. It’s like listening to one side of a phone conversation.

However, that doesn’t mean we should just throw these things out. They are still inspired, they are still a major source of our theology and practice, and they are still God’s word for us today. We’ve just got to do a little bit of work to make sure that these things are actually saying what we think that they are saying. No big deal. I kind of like it, because it forces me to slow down and ask questions. I also always learn something new.

I Thought Romans Were Bad Guys

Ok so I’m taking off the professor cap, now I’m just a pastor, and as a pastor I have to mention that in the United States of America, opening or reading someone else’s mail is actually a felony — which, although doesn’t apply to letters sent two thousand years ago, should give you a little bit of excitement, or maybe thats just me. But anyway. Back to Paul. And the Romans. Let’s just read this thing.

The New Revised Standard Version Salutation

1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God

Pretty straightforward here. We’ve got our main man Paul, introducing himself. Who he is and what he does. Now here’s the deal. He’s about to work on that first impressions thing that we talked about earlier. And for the Romans, this is going to be more than just a first impression of the letter. This is actually their first impression of him, like, at all. Unlike most every other church that Paul wrote to, Paul did not plant the church in Rome. He’s not been there yet or met these people yet. So he’s about to do something that is strange in the next few verses. He’s going to essentially impress upon them his entire understanding of who Jesus is. So he’s already said I’m Paul, I’m a slave of Jesus, dedicated to the Gospel, the Good News, aka Announcing the Reign of God and the Coming of the Kingdom (thats the Gospel - in my words.) But hold on to your hats, because here we go...

The New Revised Standard Version Salutation

2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, 3 the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, 6 including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

Ok what a mouth full. Let’s take some smaller bites here.

Verse 2: The Gospel, the good news, it ain’t new news. It’s not unexpected. The Gospel doesn’t begin with Matthew’s Gospel and the New Testament. The Good News — the Announcement of the reign of God and the Coming of the Kingdom — well its something that was promised a long time ago, through the prophets who wrote the holy scriptures. The holy scriptures, to Paul, don’t include anything that we now call the New Testament, because hardly any of it had been written yet by the time Paul is writing this letter.

So what Paul means, is that the Gospel, the promise, well it is present in your Old Testament. You know, the really really hard part to read. The part that many Christians have tried to separate themselves from. Yes, that really strange first 2/3 of the Bible announces the promise of the Gospel that we hold so near and dear. And I’m really grateful for that, because I’ve dedicated a lot of my life to that part of the Bible. My specialization in Seminary was in Biblical Hebrew and the first 6 books of the Old Testament. I really like it, and I’m really glad that Paul doesn’t think that it was a total waste of time! ;) Ok I digress, and so does Paul who goes on in the next verse.

So Verse 3: The promise was that a descendant of King David, kind of the big cheese of Israelite history. The George Washington to our Israel right? The one that everyone was hoping that there would be another of. He united the kingdom and ruled over it with faithfulness and justice. Israel was the best it ever was under David. So it was only fitting that God’s Son would come from this particular line of people, a chosen line within a chosen nation.

Verses 4-6: The resurrection of Christ has sealed his authority over, not just Israel, but over people of all nations. The term gentile, simply speaking, means non-jews. So what Paul is driving at here is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is Good News, because it announces that Jesus is the authoritative power over all people on this good green earth. Not just Israelites, but all people, including, you’ve got it, the Romans. The people who nailed him to the cross.

But wait, I thought they were bad guys? Well, I guess not all of them! In fact, the church in Rome was a vibrant entity, that was at one time entirely made up of ethnic Romans, because Jews had been temporarily expelled from the city. But don’t take it from me, Listen to Paul’s next words:

The New Revised Standard Version Salutation

7 To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

There you have it. God’s beloved. Kind of ends the argument for us. So Paul, has now hit us with kind of a 3 part intro. This is who I am (A servant of God), this is who sent me (The Ruler of the World and source of salvation), and this is who you are (people who are loved by him.)

It honestly reminds me of a sermon that I gave last week right? Alright good stuff. Let’s move on. What’s up here, if this is just the beginning of the letter, then what’s next?

Living Loudly in Rome

The New Revised Standard Version Prayer of Thanksgiving

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world. 9 For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospel of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers, 10 asking that by God’s will I may somehow at last succeed in coming to you.

This is powerful stuff. The faith of the Roman church has kind of gone viral throughout the empire. Which on the one hand makes a lot of sense, because Rome is the center of the known world at this point. It’s the capital of the largest most expansive and mightiest empire to have ever ruled the world. There was no place in which the arm of Rome did not reach. So it makes a lot of sense that the growth and work of the Jesus movement would be become quite famous.

On the other hand though, we have to look at what was at stake… the Church was seen as a revolutionary movement. Think about it. I mean just in what Paul has said here in the opening verses about who Jesus is. Jesus is the son of God, the one who reigns in Power, our Lord. To us that seems like a natural and safe thing to say… but in Rome? In the heart of the Empire, within a stone’s throw of the imperial palace where Caesar laid his head at night? To say all of that in this place and to say it in such a way that you have become infamous is a dangerous road to travel. Because to Rome and in Rome there was one Son of the gods, one with all power to reign, one lord, and his name was Caesar. To say otherwise, or to replace him with a man who had hung and died on a cross was treason of the worst kind.

And yet. The Christians of Rome have not let that deter them. No, rather, their willingness to live out their faith here has traveled throughout the entire world. And that’s not any easy task when Roman roads are the only means of communication. We have it quite a bit easier today.

Now, in the spirit of honesty here I’ve got to tell you that there is likely a bit of, well, schmoozing, happening here. You see, Paul is buttering the Romans up. He does this in most letters. And he’s buttering them up, complimenting them, because he wants something from them. He wants their support, their financial support particularly, because his plans are to travel to Rome, to hang out with them for a little while and then to head out to the Western part of the Roman Empire. Particularly he has his sights set on Spain. So Paul is basically saying, listen I’ve heard about your faith and I’d like for you to live that out by financially supporting my coming efforts.

But, he’s not lying or even practicing any trickery. He’s just, well honestly he’s just being a pastor right? It’s what we do. We tell you that you’re doing good and then tell you to do better. And sometimes that means giving some money.

But, today I’m not asking for money so don’t leave just yet.

Living Loudly in Fort Pierce

You see, This letter could just as well be my introduction to you all. I’ve got to tell you that First Fort Pierce has lived in my head for a long time before getting the call to tell me that I was coming here. One of my dear friends grew up in this church. A few of my clergy colleagues who have been formative in my career came through this church. Your faith was bragged about to me by all of these people and many others. The fruit of your labor is paying off throughout Florida and beyond.

And I know that the past 9 months have been particularly trying. I know that their is a lot of healing still to be done. But I stand here, proud of the way that you have persevered. Proud of the way that you have continued on in the face of adversity, proud of your faith which has been and is continuing to be proclaimed around the world.

My question, my challenge for you, and for myself included, is this. What would it look like if we lived out our faith even more loudly? If we used every possible avenue to proclaim our faith. If our use of technology extended our reach to those who are only ever going to hear about us through the screens on their smartphones and tablets. What if our faith was proclaimed more loudly because of the way that we invaded our community. If the spaces where we spent our free time ended up being places of worship. What if we were known for being revolutionaries, actively working against the negative identities that the world has given to entire populations, and more importantly working against the negative identities that they have given to themselves.

Because Church, I believe that this is who we are called to be. Paul’s words to the people in Rome reminded them of the great power that had been given to them by their allegiance to Christ, and how that power was manifesting itself thus far. But they were also a call to something much bigger than they could imagine. A call into the unknown. This is what a faith lived loudly does. Its not just a noisy drum cluttering up the air and eventually becoming more white noise in an already loud world. Faith lived loudly is faith that marches forward, to the beat of a drum that declares in the unknown and unreached spaces that Jesus Christ is Lord, he is Lord indeed.

It declares that Jesus Christ is Lord of every neighborhood of Fort Pierce. That Jesus Christ is Lord in the bars, Jesus Christ is Lord in the Gambling establishments, in the schools, in the harbor, on fishing boats, in our homes and in our streets. Yes Church, Jesus Christ is Lord where we want him to be and where we don’t want him to be. Jesus Christ is Lord here, there, and everywhere. And we will know that we have lived our faith loudly when people we’ve never met before say, “First United Methodist Church of Fort Pierce,” yes I’ve heard of them. That’s the church that loves me, that’s the church that loves this town. That’s the first impression that we have to make, that’s the cover that will entice others to read the rest of our story.