We who are in a position of power are indebted to bear up the weakness of those in a position of powerlessness. Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you.
This is Paul’s relentless challenge to the Roman church (Romans 15:1-13). There’s an uneven power dynamic in the church and Paul just isn’t having it. This discrepancy is especially present in the difficult, fractured practice of table fellowship (explored throughout Romans 14). The Jewish Christians and gentile Christians of the Roman church can’t agree on what’s appropriate to bring to lunch. So Paul calls upon the “strong” to pick up and carry their “weak” brothers and sisters, even though there is disagreement and annoyance throughout. We’ve all been welcomed by Christ into the church and to the table. Who are we to then deny that welcome to a brother or sister?
None of this is Paul’s idea, by the way. No, this unification of varied peoples finding their true identity in the one true God is something the scriptures were talking about centuries before. So Paul brings the Psalms into the conversation. He brings Isaiah. He brings Deuteronomy, all of which are saying things like, “Praise the Lord, all you gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him.” (Psalm 117) Ancient voices that were taking the voice of Israel and the voice of the whole world and making it one new beautiful thing. Long before Paul, this was the plan since Moses, since Abraham. This oneness is always how it was going to go. The whole world is going to fall in love with Jesus. That was always going to be the case. And when we fail to welcome as Christ has welcomed us, when we resist oneness, when we keep each other as other, we’re not just breaking the rules that Romans gives us. When we fail to welcome and to be one, we are running against a very ancient programming.
The whole world belongs to God. The whole world is going to fall in love with Jesus. The Church is learning to glorify God with one voice. That’s not only true now, but always was.
Throughout this passage, Paul keeps using the word “hope.” It seems impossible that humans with different temperaments, backgrounds, priorities, upbringings, and cultures could become truly one in Christ, but this hope we encounter in Romans 15 is plenty comfortable with the impossible. One of the great proclamations of Romans is that human stubbornness is not too much for the faithfulness of Christ to overcome (Romans 3:3). So when we say that the whole world belongs to God, the whole world is falling in love with Jesus, and the Church is in fact learning to glorify God with one unified voice, we’re not being unrealistic. Just the opposite.
And as good as this good news is, it is undeniably complicated. It’s complicated to figure out how to be one. To love and to welcome is constantly requiring more of us than we feel able to offer. But Paul’s prayer from here in Romans 15 is our best starting place. “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
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