MattGlover.com

On Sunday night we started a new series, this time exploring what it means for us to be living the Christian life in a culture that largely ignores the standards that God calls us to. Over the next few months, a number of our young people will be sharing just a short bit of their story by answering the question, “What does it mean for you to live the Christian life/faith in your world?”

At the same time, we will be working our way through the book of Romans in the New Testament. Romans is a letter that a guy named Paul wrote to the newly established Christian church in Rome. Paul had formerly been one of the chief persecutors of the church, but after a miraculous encounter with Jesus, became Christianity’s most celebrated thinker and missionary. The church is Rome was perhaps the first gathering of Christians where the number of Gentiles (ie non-Jews) was greater than the number of Jewish Christians. Paul’s letter to them is to help them work out what it meant for them to be living the Christian life in their world.

The start of the letter contains a whole lot of pleasantries before quickly moving into some meaty stuff. On Sunday, we focussed on Romans 1:18-32.

The passage starts off talking about God’s wrath - not something we like to talk about much. Thinking of God as loving and compassionate sits with us much more comfortably, but we can’t ignore what the passage says. However it is important to realise that God’s wrath (anger) is not directed at people, but rather at the sin that has messed up the relationship God wanted to have with us.

On first reading, it seems odd that God would “hand us over” to our own sinful desires and lusts, however it is always our choice to turn our back on God. But when we read stories like “the Lost Son” and see how the father acted in that story, we get a better idea of what God is doing. God doesn’t just hand us over and forget about us, but stands by the gate, desperately waiting for us to return. Sometimes people do, but often they don’t.

But Paul says in his letter that there is simply no excuse for making the choice to turn our backs on God. Even those that have never heard the gospel message have no excuse, for God is revealed in nature in the most amazing ways. The debate about ‘intelligent design’ is a great illustration of how scientific research keeps pointing to the existense of some greater being. What is revealed in nature is not enough for the relationship that God wants to have for us, hence the need for Jesus to live and teach it, but it is a start.

When humanity decided to go it’s own way, and God said “ok” the first thing to get messed up was sexuality. Paul describes how sex, something that was meant to be the most intimate and beautiful expression of love between a husband and wife, became distorted and broken through sex with multiple partners of all genders. Sadly, these few verses have been used to condemn those that struggle with their sexuality for many years, but it is important to remember two things.

The first is that the Roman church was mainly Gentile (non-Jew). These folk had grown up in the Greek culture that was dominant at the time of Jesus. In this culture, homosexuality was tolerated and promoted, and it is likely that many of these new Gentile Christians had no problem with it. The Jews, however, had always believed that homosexual sex was not part of God’s design for human sexaulity, hence Paul’s teaching on the subject.

The second is that Paul is talking about all sexual acts outside of marriage. He wasn’t talking about inclination, orientation, genetics or temptation. People that struggle with these things need to be supported by the faith comunity, not condemned to struggle alone and isolated from God’s people.

It wasn’t all about sex though. Idolotry (serving and worshipping things made by human hands) was rife in Rome, and it seems that little has changed in our comsumer society. Material objects are worshipped because we think they will make us happy and fulfilled, somehow answering our prayers for a life of meaning.

Interestingly, in a list that contains things such as murder and deceit, Paul also mentions “those that disobey their parents” - just in case any of us thought we could think this passage doesn’t apply to us. Thanks Paul…

Paul finishes the passage with these words:

Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those that practice them. (Rom 1:32)

In Australia at the moment, the TV reality show Big Brother  is drawing to a close for 2006. Each year it is shown it becomes more morally questionable and lowers the bar when it come to taste. Earlier this year I wondered about where the producers of the show would take it after the out cry caused by last years sex, nudity and filth laden show.

Only hours before I gave this message, two male housemates were evicted for sexually assaulting one of the female housemates. In the following days people right up to the Prime Minister called for the show to be taken off the air for showing this assault live over the internet. The response from the show was chilling - “It was only a joke gone wrong” they said.

Basically, what has been said is that they’ve done nothing wrong, approving of the mens antics and using it to promote this ever more sickening form of entertainment aimed directly at our young people. Not only do they do these things, but approve of those that practice them…

It makes you wonder how different our culture is from Rome of 2000 years ago.

Anyway, it can be a bit depressing if we were to end the story there. But Romans is a long letter and there is still much more to come. Seeing the results of God’s wrath helps us appreciate all the more the gift of life that Jesus brings. It makes me more determined to do what I can to make sure that as many young people as possible get the chance to have that life and not get drowned by the alternatives that only suck the joy and meaning out of already difficult lives. Living the Christian life means living as “aliens and strangers” in the world because God’s values are different, vastly different, to what we see happening around us. But in the community of faith, we find the place in which we belong.

I hope you can join us as we explore what it means for us to live the Christian life.