By J.D. Walt

Prayer of Consecration

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you.

Jesus, We belong to you.

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Scripture

I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit—I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

 Romans 9:1–5 (NIV)

 

Consider This

We come now to a part of the letter I have all but ignored over the years. I say this by way of confession. I have no good excuse other than exegetical laziness and a lack of concern for the human race. And now, I shall make my best effort at repentance. 

Paul, having come to the close of his magisterial elocution and declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, now faces his worst nightmare. His own people are rejecting the gospel and its God. He takes it head-on now:

I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit

The story of the God of Creation, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the true story of the whole world. It is everyone’s story. It is not, as post-enlightenment modernity would have us believe, one choice among the pantheon of gods and religions, and philosophies on offer in the marketplace. There is no other true story. Sure, there are myriad myths and philosophies and belief systems and so forth, but there is only ultimately one true story. This does not mean we need to despise, downgrade or denigrate the multitudes of other stories and their tellers floating around out there in the world. We simply do not believe them. We believe the story of creational monotheism as revealed in the Hebrew scriptures which has come to its ultimate redemption and fulfillment in Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, the Lord and Messiah, Savior of the World—crucified and risen from the dead—and now ascended to the right hand of God where he awaits a final return to the earth where he will consummate the new creation. 

The people called Israel were raised up by God to declare and demonstrate this, the true story of history and eternity; of the heavens and the earth, for the blessing of the whole world and the glory and praise of God. They are the chosen stewards of this story, which is their story, for the whole world. Look how Paul says it:

Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

Unfortunately, the people called Israel (largely due to their leaders) are actively rejecting Jesus of Nazareth as the Jewish Messiah and Savior of the World. This is hitting Paul with blunt force as he writes the next major section of his letter to the Romans (9–11). The grief overwhelms Paul because their rejection of Jesus is tantamount to a rejection of not only the whole story of God but of God himself. Paul is crushed. 

I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

The entire purpose of Israel, the people of God—to declare and demonstrate the story of creation and redemption for the salvation of the world and the glory of God—is on the brink of utter abrogation. Paul sees the finish line finally in sight for his beleaguered people, this long-game nation, and they are falling down in the final stretch. He can’t take it. He’s willing to pay the ultimate price for the team. This statement shows us the depths of Paul’s despair:

For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel.

So here are two questions for us as we sit now within a decade of the two thousandth year of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.

My answers are yes and not really; or maybe sort of.

 

Prayer

Abba Father! Lord Jesus Christ! Blessed Holy Spirit! Would you awaken us to the true and real story of it all? And would you forgive us for our failure to hold sorrow and anguish over our slumber? And would you forgive us for constantly putting our own little stories at center stage—which is to say would you forgive us for not really believing the big story? We so desperately want to awaken to our moment in your movement. We want to play our part in this cosmic story of creation and redemption. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen.