All Scriptures are from The Message Version
It is helpful to use this blog as a discussion starter for two or more people but it will also stimulate lots of thought if used by one reader. The material is used by a Sunday Study Group at Hamilton Christian Church in St. Louis, Missouri. Commentaries for these scriptures can be found on Textweek.com through this link http://www.textweek.com/pauline/rom4b.htm
For the theologically oriented reader this scripture is an important part of Paul’s explanation of how and why gentiles who did not observe the Jewish Law would be granted salvation. A good deal of Paul’s thinking in the letter to the church in Rome is devoted to this topic. He as a formerly firmly committed adherent of the law who has had a vivid discernment experience on the road to Damascus with a new understanding of just who has access to God’s favor and a charge from God to take the message of salvation to the gentiles. But this blog is not for theological explorations (see the commentaries), it is instead to focus on What Does It Mean To Me!!! So let’s explore today’s scripture with that goal in mind.
Paul uses Abraham and Sarah as examples for us of the real basis for a fruitful relationship with God. Throughout scripture Abraham is held up as both the father of the chosen people (Israel) and as a vivid example of both what faith is and what comes from living a faithful life. First let’s look at the Abraham’s relationship with God for some practical ideas:
Romans 4:13-15 That famous promise God gave Abraham—that he and his children would possess the earth—was not given because of something Abraham did or would do. It was based on God's decision to put everything together for him, which Abraham then entered when he believed. If those who get what God gives them only get it by doing everything they are told to do and filling out all the right forms properly signed, that eliminates personal trust completely and turns the promise into an ironclad contract! That's not a holy promise; that's a business deal. A contract drawn up by a hard-nosed lawyer and with plenty of fine print only makes sure that you will never be able to collect. But if there is no contract in the first place, simply a promise—and God's promise at that—you can't break it.
• For a fuller background on the scripture you can read Genesis 15-18 but the essence are these words to the 99 year old man with no male heir in chapter 15:
4 Then GOD's Message came: "Don't worry, he won't be your heir; a son from your body will be your heir." 5 Then he took him outside and said, "Look at the sky. Count the stars. Can you do it? Count your descendants! You're going to have a big family, Abram!" 6 And he believed! Believed GOD! God declared him "Set-Right-with-God." 7 GOD continued, "I'm the same GOD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldees and gave you this land to own."
• How do you think that this interaction between Abraham and God took place? Did Abraham hear God’s voice and engage God in a conversation? How does God engage us today, what is your experience with discernment of God’s will for you in a particular situation or for general direction in your life? Is the communication crystal clear and without question? How much trial and error with renewed prayer is involved? What are some ways in which we can strengthen the quality of our connection to God’s presence in our daily lives?
• Paul talks about the fallacy of trying to be right with God based on doing what we are told and filling out the right forms instead of trusting; what does that really mean for us and our relationship with God? How important does this seem to say religious practices and the right beliefs are to our relationship with God? Maybe some lyrics from Eric Bibb’s If Our Hearts Ain’t In It might give us some ideas:
Go to church 7 days a week,
Read your bible three hours a day,
Say a 1000 Hail Mary’s, rush to confession every time you stray,
We can fall down onto our knees,
And call the archangels by name,
But if our heats ain’t in it, ain’t nothing much is going to change.
• What was God’s promise to Abraham and what made the promise real, caused the promise to be fulfilled? What does Paul tell us caused God make the promise to Abraham? Did Abraham make a request of God which was then fulfilled.
• What do you think might have been some of the reasons that God decided to do this? Was Abraham part of a bigger plan? Did God have confidence that Abraham would be faithful? Can we really know how and why God reaches out to humanity as a whole and us as individuals? How do you feel about the fact that the unknowable architect of an infinite creation wants to establish a relationship with that creation (us)?
• Paul tells us that there is a difference between trust in God and a business deal, a contract. What does that mean to you? Will we get guarantees and details from God or general direction and the need to stay connected to God as we move in the direction he sends us? Again what is your experience in faithful response? Is being faithful a guarantee of easily accomplished tasks with no problems and complications?
More from Paul on the promises:
16 This is why the fulfillment of God's promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God's promise arrives as pure gift. That's the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is father of us all. He is not our racial father—that's reading the story backward. He is our faith father.
17-18 We call Abraham "father" not because he got God's attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn't that what we've always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, "I set you up as father of many peoples"? Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!"
• What does Paul remind us of again as he begins this section of his letter? When you think of the words “God’s promise” what do they mean to you. What promise(s) do you feel have been made to you that you take with you on your faith journey? What does Paul say we must do to make the promises real – does he think that embracing them is hard? What is your experience; is discerning and embracing the promises of our faith easy or are there complications?
• Paul describes Abraham, what caused him to become our spiritual father, what seemed to be his qualifications? What was the only way in which Abraham would be able to take on his role as “father”? Does it seem that he had spent long hours attempting to discern what God had in mind for him? Why do you think that he was so willing and ready to respond?
• Paul cites two proofs of what only God can do – raise the dead and with a word make something from nothing – what do you think he is referring to? What are some things you would cite as those which only God can do? Is it easy to take them for granted?
Paul"s final thoughts:
19-25 Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That's why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right." But it's not just Abraham; it's also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.
• Paul tells us that Abraham put aside all of the very practical reasons that the promise could not possibly be fulfilled and accepted it as being valid. Is it wrong to raise questions and be conscious of the roadblocks that will have to be overcome when responding to something our faith calls us to do? How does Paul say we should handle those difficulties?
• Think of situations that can be uncomfortable for you (hospital calls, intervening in personal conflict, shedding an addiction, apologizing, taking on a project, you name it) and those times that you responded; what role did your spirituality play in taking it on and in dealing with the difficulties?
• What about the basis of our faith, should we feel we cannot ask questions for fear of being skeptical? How do you deal with questions, where do you go and what do you do to deal with them.
• What is Paul’s guarantee in the final sentence? What meaning does being right with God have for your life? Is it freeing, empowering, mysterious, questionable, joyous??? What words would you use to describe or explain it to someone? What words and thoughts would you use to express these feelings in a prayer conversation with God?
Closing Litany – Psalm 22
Here's the story I'll tell my friends when they come to worship,
and punctuate it with Hallelujahs:
Shout Hallelujah, you God-worshipers;
give glory, you sons of Jacob;
adore him, you daughters of Israel.
He has never let you down,
never looked the other way
when you were being kicked around.
He has never wandered off to do his own thing;
he has been right there, listening.
Amen
Next Week’s Lectionary Scriptures: Exodus 20:1-17, Psalm 19, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, John 2:13-22
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