Upcoming Sunday Epistle Readings
Sunday 20 August 2017
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
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This is a topic that is very near and dear to the heart of the apostle Paul. He is the apostle to the Gentiles, but he never forgot his roots. Paul was a faithful Jew. In his own words, he was a “Hebrew among Hebrews, a Pharisee among Pharisees, an expert on the Law of God.” He has an amazing pedigree among the people of God. In his ministry among the Gentiles, Paul suffered greatly at the hands of Jews who were offended by the fact that he made Christ known even among those whom good Jews like him would have thought were the last ones in whose midst one should speak of God and call the hearers of the message to repentance and faith. For those who were receptive, there was the temptation to think that Paul would react in judgment against his own people, making their rejection of the Gospel and the message he proclaimed a word of divine rejection of them. The apostle reminds us here that God is faithful even when we are not faithful. He does not reject, but he remembers his promises and his election of those called not by mortals but by God to be the people of God. And how comforting this should be for us and for all people, Jews and Gentiles alike. The fact that God remains faithful and does not reject, but rather remembers the promises and the recipients of the promise, gives us hope that God will never reject us. God’s mercy has no end.
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Father Timothy Alleman
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