Pentecost 2 May 25, 2008– Romans1:8-17 – Embarrassment of Jesus

St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church, Bullhead City

Dr. Earl J. Pierce

Grace, mercy and peace - - -

I just finished a new book called “Why men hate going to church.” As you can see on the cover, the man in the pew doesn’t look like he is very comfortably napping. Now, what the author says is not a reflection on any of the men here this morning, it does speak to the greater issue of how the population at large, especially the male population, thinks about the church.

After commenting about the men who are not in church, he says this about many men who do attend: “of the men who do attend church, most decline to invest themselves in the Christian life as their wives and mothers do. The majority of men attend services and nothing more. Quoting one man “I go mainly for my kids and my wife, Church is okay, but it really doesn’t enthrall me like it does her.” The author then goes on to say: “who is being touched by the gospel today?” Women. Women’s ministries, women’s conferences, women’s bible studies – Men’s ministry, if it even exists, might consist of an occasional pancake breakfast and an annual retreat.

He writes “how did a faith founded by a man and his twelve male disciples become so popular with women, but become so good at turning off men? The church of the 1^st century was a magnet to males. Jesus’ strong leadership, blunt honesty, and bold action mesmerized men. A five-minute sermon by Peter resulted in the conversions of 3,000 men.

Following up on that, the author asks “who else are missing from church?” and finds along with men, younger adults in the 18-29 year old bracket. He gives us a comparison of key values and how they are reflected in each group – please keep in mind this is a sliding scale.

Safety risk

Stability change

Harmony conflict

Predictability variety

Protection adventure

Comfort competition

Nurture daring

Duty pleasure

Support independence

Preservation expansion

I think you can draw your own conclusions from this comparison. If not, an illustration from the 1913 expedition of Ernest Shackleton to the south pole. Here is his advertisement to recruit men:

Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.

Now, how many applicants do you think he got for the 26 slots? Nope, higher, higher still. Would you believe over 5000 applied for the jobs?

The author goes on: Look how Jesus handled those who wanted to apply for his jobs. Along the way someone said to Jesus, I’ll go anywhere with you. Did Jesus say, praise God, another Christian! Welcome to the family. No! he responded with a stern warning, Jesus said, unless you leave it all you cannot follow me.” Talk about insensitive. Yet Jesus knew what we have forgotten: a man who is challenged into God’s kingdom will be a follower forever.”

One such man was Paul of Taurus. And one such group of men he wrote to was the small, young church in Rome. This summer our new testament readings take us through the book of Romans. And our messages will follow these readings, hopefully, seeing this book in light of the challenge that Jesus offers men, and yes, women as well, the challenge of standing firm in the faith, the challenge of reaching out in His name, the challenge of making things different right here in Bullhead.

And we have with us this morning our own walking, talking object lesson. Someone who has heard the call and is following our Lord from Colorado, to California, and now to the mission fields of Arizona, one who is not embarrassed about being called a follower of Jesus.

Jessica?

Ok, you’re right she is not a guy. And I said we were going to take a look at things from a guy perspective. Be that as it may, the challenge is the same, the potential for embarrassment the same. Let’s take a look at Jessica’s friend Adam, then. Fresh from the Marines – fresh from his first year at Concordia, ready to follow Jesus through his BA, then on to the seminary, and then?

Yeah, a marine – there’s a man’s man, right? There’s a man like Paul, not afraid of anything, not ashamed of anything, right? Let’s get into the Word:

8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

16For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Now, we could read this in a couple of different ways. First we could kinda water it down. I thank my God because of your faith – oh, yes, they were in church each week. All the committee assignments were taken care of. There was always enough food at the potlucks. Or, we could read it as it really was – Paul kept them in his prayers BECAUSE their faith was proclaiming in all the world. They were taking a beating, figuratively and literally. It was risky business to be a Christian in Rome at this time, dangerous business, and in many cases, deadly business. It’s not like today when we, as Christians, are pretty much ignored, no, they were hunted, captured, tortured, put in the Coliseum to go up against the lions and tigers and bears, oh, my. Late score in from Rome, lions 7, Christians, nothing.

This was the world in which the early Church lived and Paul encouraged them with these two verses:

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Have you ever felt ashamed about the Gospel? About being a follower of Jesus Christ? Well, that might be a bit strong, how about, have you ever felt embarrassed about following Jesus? Once that word gets out about you, how differently do people treat you, good or bad. Suddenly the language changes. Suddenly people start judging you – because they immediately think you are judging them. Oh, you’re a Christian, I shouldn’t be saying that.

And I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve run into someone who suddenly has these waves of guilt wash over them because I am there. But, that is not the same as my embarrassment about following Jesus. What guy, after all, wants to be seen as a goody-two-shoes. Somehow, we’ve fallen for society’s lead that being a Christian means being something less than a real man, we’ve taken the bait that attending church is not the manly thing to do. After all, a real man spends Saturday night partying, and can’t get up in time for church. A man’s man doesn’t need a savior, he can take care of himself. Who – ah – or what is it the marines say?

But, Paul, a man’s man, whipped, beaten, tortured for the Gospel, could say, for I am not ashamed of the Gospel. Why, he answers our question in the very next line – for it is the power of the God. Now, there’s a real guy term. Power. Strength. Control. Now, how am I going to get me some of that – Power.

I am sure that you all have noticed that I have changed the little dismissal blessing at the Lord’s table. Instead of just saying – depart in peace, I add, depart in peace and the power of the Lord. Why do I do that? Leaving it just with depart in peace gives us the impression that while we are living in a country of peace, we also have the peace of Jesus. It is a safe, secure world. Remember that list of values I gave you at the beginning?

But, while we are living in a country of peace, the world we are living in is not. It is not just that reminder of peace that we need to hold on to, but that power as well. We need power to make it through each day, power, a real guy thing, coming to us from a real man, Jesus, from a real God, Jesus. Holding on to that power is what we need to get from Monday to Tuesday, from Tuesday to Wednesday, and so on through the week.

The power we find in that Gospel goes beyond just strength for today, it gives us righteousness for eternity. Paul goes on: “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed.” And then we have the real man’s battle cry “The righteous shall live by faith.”

What kind of man? Real men. Men who used to drink, party to all hours, carouse endlessly. Men who found out that this was getting them nowhere and something else was needed. Men like Ari Augustus – a black African living in Italy. A tough guy, he would have had to be – black living in Italy back then. Not quite sure of this Christianity stuff, but knowing that his current lifestyle was getting him beat up, thrown out, landing in jail. Until he took hold of those words, the righteous shall live by faith and found power, the true power that leads to forgiveness and salvation. You may had heard of Ari by just his last name – St. Augustine, the first major theologian since the apostles.

Then there was this German beer-drinking student, scared to death of his own shadow because he knew that even his shadow was a sinner. Here was a guy who would spend hour upon hour in confession of every little possible thing that he could think of that God would hold against him. It got so bad that his confessor would say to him, aren’t you getting a little greedy, taking up all of God’s time in the confessional. His confessor had the wisdom to send him to Paul.

He later wrote – I greatly longed to understand Paul’s letter to the Romans, and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, the “righteousness of God” because I took it to mean that righteousness whereby God is righteous and deals righteously in punishing the unrighteous – night and day I pondered until – I grasped the truth that the righteousness of God is that righteousness whereby grace and sheer mercy he justifies us by faith. Thereupon I felt myself born again and to have gone through open doors to paradise.

He didn’t stop drinking beer, but Martin Luther did find the power to change the church for all time. What a guy. By the way, when Luther was a monk, he belonged to the Augustinian order, founded by, you guessed it – St. Augustine.

One more, a man went very unwilling to a bible study one night. Probably his wife dragged him, but we don’t know. Someone there was reading from Luther’s preface to the his commentary on Romans – John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church later wrote “about a quarter to nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for my salvation; and the assurance that he had taken MY sins aways, even mine and saved me from the law of sin and death.” Yes, again, the righteous shall live by faith.

It takes a real man to hold onto those words. A real woman too. The power of God that is available there is more than just peace, safety, comfort, and security. The power of God that is there in the Gospel is His power to change our lives and His power to change the world through us.

If you have been in my office you have seen a picture that I look at across from my desk. It is a photograph of a schooner sailing through, and below some very large icebergs. The title below says RISK. Under that is this little line – “a ship is safe in the harbor, but that is not what a ship is built for.”

Okay, guys, and gals, today we welcome a new mate on our ship, let’s go sailing.