Romans 9:1-18 “Marathon Sermon”

Welcome to the Olympic Marathon Sermon! I think you all know that the marathon race is 26 miles long. Jared, who started the worship with the Olympic flame, has run marathons. He has another here on Kauai in two weeks. So, in honor of the 26 mile marathon, I have prepared a 26 point sermon! And, I am ready to run this sermon! Just like a real marathon, if you think I am looking tired, you are welcome to hand me a paper cup of water to keep me hydrated as I run through my points!

Point number one: Paul starts by talking about Truth with a capital “A” in Greek. I notice that most bibles do not have the capital “T” to match. Indeed Paul is talking about the one singular Truth that is Jesus Christ. We are not talking about any other truth than the one Truth that is made manifest when Jesus himself states in John 14, “I am the Way, Truth, and Life.”

Point number two: Paul says in our text that he is “speaking” of this Truth. Now this is really interesting because Paul is not speaking at all. In fact, he is writing a letter to the Romans. He is in fact not “speaking” therefore. The term in the original Greek here is “lego,” and is used to denote a command in other parts of the bible. In fact, the great commandment of Jesus Christ to love God and one’s neighbor, Matthew 22:36, starts with Jesus using the term “lego,” “Ego de lego humin. . . .” So, we have to understand this as Paul commanding Truth in Christ.

What is this Truth by which we are to live? The book The Heart of Christianity has been on most pastors’ reading lists for the last decade. It was written by a professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University by the name of Marcus Borg. I would say that the book is definitely worth reading as one very learned professor asks and answers the question “Why he is a Christian?” On page 223 of 225 pages of his book, we come to these lines: “So why be a Christian? In my case. . . . The Christian tradition is familiar; it is ‘home’ for me. I was born into it and grew up in it.” The Borg conclusion is not particularly profound, but it shares a kind of intellectual honesty that most Christian authors would never dare state.

This raises the question for me today as to whether or not I AM a Christian because my mother and father loaded up their four kids into the backseat of a Ford LTD sedan every Sunday and drove us off to Hillcrest Church, Untied Church of Christ. Is that why I am a believer today? Am I a Christian today because I am a “child of Christian parents”? Or, as the Apostle Paul states in his Letter to the Romans, because Jesus is the Truth of my life, the Truth of the universe, the Truth of God?!

Now I tell you the truth—I am using the same words as Paul at the start of this chapter—I am not a Christian simply because my parents were Christians.

This is also what Paul is saying to the new believers in Rome through this letter. He goes on to state that he does not lie. His “conscience is confirmed by the Spirit.” I want to really lift this out of the Scripture for us this morning so that we may consider what Paul is saying just in these first couple of lines. If you want to know the truth of someone’s heart then take it back to the Spirit in prayer.

I must share with you that I have in my own life really come to rely on the Holy Spirit through prayer to tell me if what I am hearing from others is true or not. In this day and age, there are so many scams in our world. Every other phone call I get seems to be a scam of some sort. A majority of my e-mails are trying to drop tracking cookies onto my computer. I swipe my credit card at a merchant and my personal information is being hacked by somebody in China or Russia. Actually this last week it was a fraud alert from Canada. How can we know in this modern age of information what is true or not?

Those who claim the truth are usually the worst offenders in terms of spreading lies. During the Ukrainian crisis I have been checking out what propaganda is being generated by Putin’s government in Moscow through the age-old Pravda newspaper. “Pravda” means “truth” in Russian. So, I can log onto Pravda and read the truth about what is happening in the Ukraine. The only problem is that “Pravda” does not like to substantiate its facts and “truth” is anything but in Pravda. It is fascinating to read how lies can be made into what others might deem as “truth” so easily.

Here is my third point out of 26: Paul is speaking the truth of his own life when he tells that he is in the utmost anguish in regards to his own upbringing and his newly found faith. Unlike most of us here this morning, Paul was not raised by Christian parents. He did not Sunday School when he was younger. He cannot ever say that he is a Christian simply out of tradition or familiarity--I mentioned was the reasoning behind the answer for Professor Marcus Borg for his being a Christian.

No, the Apostle Paul is in a faith in which all things are new. Christian traditions are just starting up. Some of our traditions might have even been started by Paul! We do not know today. Paul states that we owe our worship style very much to our Jewish forebears in faith.

In Paul’s upbringing, he was told that he was a Jew because his mother was a Jew. That is the matrilineal blood line of Judaism still today. He was told that he was also Roman because of his father’s heritage. Paul knew what it was to be a Roman citizen. Paul knew what it meant to be a Jew. However, as for being a Christian, he was still just figuring it out—not unlike the rest of us.

I say this because I want you to imagine for a moment that you have never gone to church in your whole life. Imagine how strange it would seem. Why is somebody reading from a book up on a platform? Why do some of the members stand up and sing while facing the congregation while at other times everyone sings together? Why do you stand up and sit down so often? Why do you have to pay into a little plate that is passed around? For an un-churched person, worship is like landing a spaceship on Mars. We do not even speak the same language! “Why does that guy in the front wear a collar and think that I am at all interested in what he has to say?”

In Paul’s time, becoming a Christian meant that you were going to have to give up your family and traditions. You were going to be persecuted. You would know real hardships because of your faith. That was the truth of Paul’s time.

Point 13, if I am not mistaken: I am not going to keep you in suspense any longer. Paul says that he is a Christian for this one reason: “God has shown mercy on his life.” “Please look at verse 16 with me: “It depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.” Here we are on our marathon sermon during Olympic Sunday, and we hear that it is not about human exertion!

What does that mean? What is this “mercy” that Paul speaks of? In Paul’s own life, he had been a murderer. He had gone out to kill Christians. He was there when Saint Stephen was stoned by the Sanhedrin. He was an evil man. Open up to Acts 9 with me to read verses 1-9, “Meanwhile, Saul still breathing threats and murder. . . .” The bright light of Christ comes over Paul and he is saved by Jesus. He is healed and given his sight back by a believer named Ananias. He is rescued time and time again from prison and shipwreck and the like. He is spared the wrath of angry crowds. He knows God’s mercy.

When evil takes over somebody’s life. Perhaps that person steals or becomes addicted to drugs. Whatever the case, I know that God can take out that person with one little bolt of lightning. To be sure, that person is only still with us by God’s mercy. For the evil that has transpired in my own life, God could have zapped me a hundred times over. I am with you here today but by the Lord’s mercy.

Point number 20, I think: Now, let us look at verse 17 of Romans 9. “I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” Please note that this line was being spoken to Pharaoh of Egypt. God could have struck down the Pharaoh at any time. God eventually does take out the entire Egyptian Army at the time of the crossing of the Red Sea. So, it really is only by God’s mercy that a lightening bolt does not come down from heaven to take out the Pharaoh. Isn’t it?

God is merciful in this case for the expressed purpose of showing God's power. Should I not also therefore assume (as Paul does rightly) that the mercy I have witnessed over my own life from God is in order to show the ultimate and absolute power of the Almighty in this world?! Yes, of course!

Point 26, I guess I hit the wall running through this sermon already and am still in the race: Why is Paul a Christian? He has been raised up—not by his own parents but by God—to show God’s power that God’s name (Jesus) will be known and proclaimed throughout all the earth. Guess what? That is why I am a Christian! Not because my parents were Christians and I went to Sunday School, but rather because God has shown such mercy over my life by sending God’s Son Jesus to save me rather than sending the lightening bolt to take me out. I am a Christian today in order to show the power of Jesus Christ in the world today. I suspect that that is why all of you are Christians as well. We are all children of the promise of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Amen.