Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Jan 19

19 January 2020

Text: Rom 9:1-18

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

St. Paul is grieved that most of his countrymen rejected our Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah.  It is especially tragic as St. Paul recounts God’s grace shown to his fellow Israelites: “To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.  To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever.  Amen.”

But their rejection of our Lord does not mean that “the Word of God has failed.”  For what does it mean to be an Israelite?  St. Paul goes on to demonstrate how we Christians are “the children of the promise” who “are counted as offspring.”  For it is faith that matters in the matter of the covenant.

The apostle points out that Abraham and Sarah believed in God’s promise that they would bear a son, who was Isaac.  And so too, Isaac and Rebekah bore children through belief in the promise.  To be an Israelite in the covenant is a matter of believing the promise.  For children can be either biological or adopted.

Moreover, this is a matter of “God’s purpose of election.”  For He calls whom He wills based on what God told Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”  And this is of great comfort to us, dear friends.  For whether our endeavors seem to be successful or a failure, it doesn’t matter.  It all depends on God’s hidden will.  We are called simply to be faithful, to preach the Gospel or support the preaching of the Gospel according to our own vocations. 

“So then,” says St. Paul, “it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.”

We give thanks to God that He is merciful, and that He does not dispense His mercy based on the accident of ancestry or even based on our flawed human will and paltry works of the Law.  Rather God shows mercy to whom He shows mercy.  And this is why the Psalmist proclaims (and we confess with him): “Oh give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good.  And His mercy endureth forever!” 

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.