I have a confidence that things can be made to work. As I went to write this blog entry yesterday, I discovered that the WordPress dashboard from which I enter my blog editor had disappeared. 10 minutes on hold and then 15 minutes with a tech from our web host produced no results. I tried again this morning, checking error logs myself and then called back. With the new information a different tech got the dashboard to display again and I thought all was well. However, after I hung up and went to begin writing I discovered that none of the links on the dashboard worked. I still couldn’t get to the editor. I considered calling back, then noticed a new version of WordPress was available. What could I lose? I updated and voila! everything was working again.
So here I am writing about faith for the fourth Sunday in Advent after that experience of “faith” in software and such breaking down for awhile. Yet I was confident there was a fix, because, well, that’s just how these things usually work.
One’s trust in computer systems and their accompanying technicians can be sorely tested, but faith in God is a story of a different order. At the beginning of Romans, 1:1-7, Paul declares his trust in, his service to the “gospel of God,” which he then in verse 3 says is the “the gospel concerning his Son,” that is, Jesus Christ.
Paul has this confidence in the Gospel he preaches because, as verse 2 says, God promised it “beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures.” Paul trusts what the Gospel says because it was confirmed beforehand by what God foretold through the prophets.
Then in verse 4 Paul cites further confirmation of the Gospel he trusts and preaches in the fact that Jesus was vindicated as the Son of God by the Holy Spirit who raised Him from the dead. In short, Paul has faith because he has heard and seen what God has done and so trusts in what God will do.
All this comes down to the point in verse 5 that his trust in Jesus Christ gives him a mission “to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles.” Paul’s own faith is to result the faith of others. His faith is to shine in the world in such a way that others come to faith.
I’ll just quickly note that Paul’s faith and Christian faith in general is a faith with content and with practical implications. That’s implied in the phrase in verse 5, unique to Romans, appearing at both the beginning and the end of the letter, “the obedience of faith.” It’s not just some vague faith in general, some Hollywood “just believe” injunction, but a solid trust in what God has done and will do in and through Jesus. And this faith in Jesus changes us, makes us obedient to its subject. As we grow in faith, in trust in Christ, the way we live is changed. We become more obedient to the form of life we see in Jesus, more full of grace, full of love, full of peace.
So the closing verse of this greeting which opens Romans is a benediction on those who experience faith in Christ and shine with that faith in obedience, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” May we obediently let our faith shine more and more so that with Paul we might invite others into that grace and peace.