Fourth Sunday of Advent - Day 22 - A gift to all, thank you Paul.

Romans 1:1-7

           I will resist the call in this passage for 'God's beloved in Rome'. That would be too easy a dig if you will and besides, I praise God that Pope Francis seems very capable to stir up the status quo and perhaps return that church to the roots of faith.

           But as usual, I digress.  Paul as a willing servant of God and to the Gospel, is calling people to faith. It is not the faith of Jesus alone. Far from it, Paul is preaching to a whole new group of people. The Spirit, alive and well and all embracing has broken the lines of restraint that God chose only the Jews. How could God choose only one race? or one group of people? One subset of his entire creation? Paul really got the message correct and although it took time and arguments, he prevailed. The message of God's love is extended to all. Not just Samaritans, slaves or women. The message is experienced and offered to all, slaves, 'dear slaves' of Roman Centurions, women, prostitutes and tax collectors and now into Asia, Rome and all the corners of the world. If we do not believe in the massive all encompassing embrace that Paul is speaking of, what he preached and believed, then we should all be banished from Christendom unless we fully embrace Judaism first. The fundamental argument is that Jesus is a Jew and that he came to save the people of Israel. Jesus was a practicing Jew.

         No, either the message is limited to the Jews or it is open to all. The gift of Christmas is that Jesus was born for ALL of humanity. Every race, nationality, gay, straight, yellow, white, blue, purple and black. EVERYONE. ALL of God's people.

          The magnificent gift of Christmas is not just that God is gift us individually (although he certainly is ) , God is embracing all of humanity. Praise Jesus ! Praise God !

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures,

the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh

and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,

through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name,

including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.