the blog's name

As I neared the end of a much longer series of sermons than I usually preach a friend in the church asked me if I realized that I had used the same phrase in every sermon over the past many weeks. I actually knew exactly the words she meant.

The series was an examination of Paul's letter to the Romans. Paul wanted Jewish followers of Jesus to accept non-Jewish followers of Jesus as equal members of the people of God. Paul also wanted non-Jewish followers of Jesus to realize that God had been calling a people to himself and entrusting that people with a special vocation for a very long time. This calling on people was described in the Hebrew scriptures at the center of their story as a people who had been separated out in the world. But also, in the Genesis account this basic calling was identified as the original purpose and vocation for the whole human race. Paul was not writing the foundations of a new faith he was declaring the fulfillment of the faith he had been zealous for all his life. In its fulfillment that faith now had been opened up to non-Jews as well--or rather--that faith and calling had been re-opened to all humanity again.

At the center of the Jewish people's identity as the people of God was the series of covenants God made with people throughout their history. Part of these covenants were covenant promises made by God to the people. Paul was telling Jews and non-Jews alike that non-Jews were receiving the promises that had been given to the descendants of Abraham. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is God of all. The God of Moses and the people of the Exodus is God of all.

When I went back to my notes I found the phrase that my friend had noticed repeated each week in the sermons. In week three of that series I had said: Our calling to be the people of God is to represent God in the world and to reveal God to the world. In the story of the creation of the first man and the first woman were supposed to be the image of God and this meant that they were supposed to be a reflection of God that showed the rest of creation what God is like and they were supposed to exercise authority as God’s representatives—reigning over the rest of creation. They were supposed to ensure that God’s ways and will were known and that the world lived in God’s ways and will. That calling was given to Adam and Eve and it was given to the people of Israel in the covenants that made them who they were as a people and it is given to us as the people of God in Christ.

That is where the name of this blog comes from.