Proper 5 / Pentecost 3 / OT 10
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
... (for he is father of all of us, as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations") ...
-- Romans 4:16-17
It is customary for us to believe that Abraham is the original father of the Jewish people. Paul, however, suggested that Abraham was the father of the whole community of faith -- both Jew and Gentile. "... The promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendents, not only to the adherents of the law (the Jews) but also to those who share the faith of Abraham...." To follow the logic of Paul, Abraham received the promise of God and it was "recognized to him as righteousness" before he was a Jew -- that is before he was circumcised. This also happened several generations before the people received God's commandments at Mount Sinai. This all illustrated for Paul the effectiveness of grace that God released on the world and which was available to both Jew and Gentile. The critical turning point for Paul was trusting in God "who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist." It is important for contemporary Christians to recall that, for Paul, the Jews continued in the promise of God even as the Gentiles who had learned to trust in the God "who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead" were then included in. There is a modern irony to the fact that many Christians, who have been saved by the grace of God, want to deny that same grace to the Jewish people and create a new name, Jesus, that they must adhere to in order to be saved. This is a distortion of what Paul believed.
-- Romans 4:16-17
It is customary for us to believe that Abraham is the original father of the Jewish people. Paul, however, suggested that Abraham was the father of the whole community of faith -- both Jew and Gentile. "... The promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendents, not only to the adherents of the law (the Jews) but also to those who share the faith of Abraham...." To follow the logic of Paul, Abraham received the promise of God and it was "recognized to him as righteousness" before he was a Jew -- that is before he was circumcised. This also happened several generations before the people received God's commandments at Mount Sinai. This all illustrated for Paul the effectiveness of grace that God released on the world and which was available to both Jew and Gentile. The critical turning point for Paul was trusting in God "who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist." It is important for contemporary Christians to recall that, for Paul, the Jews continued in the promise of God even as the Gentiles who had learned to trust in the God "who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead" were then included in. There is a modern irony to the fact that many Christians, who have been saved by the grace of God, want to deny that same grace to the Jewish people and create a new name, Jesus, that they must adhere to in order to be saved. This is a distortion of what Paul believed.
