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This Sunday's text is Romans 1, 16-18, and Romans 2, 17-29.
A reading from the letter of Paul to the Romans.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes,
first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed,
a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,
just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith.
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people
who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
Now you, if you call yourself a Jew, if you rely on the law and boast in God,
if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law,
if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind,
a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish,
a teacher of the little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth,
you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?
You who preach against stealing, do you steal?
You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?
You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?
As it is written, God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.
Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law,
you have become as though you have not been circumcised.
So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law's requirements,
will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised?
The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you,
you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.
A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly,
nor circumcision merely outward and physical.
No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly,
and circumcision is circumcision of the heart,
by the spirit, not by the written code.
Such a person's praise is not from other people, but from God.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Thank you, Denise, for that scripture reading,
and good morning, Christ Church.
Welcome.
We're so glad that you're worshiping with us.
My name's Andrew, one of the pastors here,
and we're looking forward to continuing our series through this book of Romans.
You know, it's been 17 years,
and this is our first time going through this book,
so it's been quite a ride,
and we look forward to keep going.
Right, Jonathan?
That's right.
Will you pray with me before we get into the text?
Father, on this Pentecost Sunday,
we marvel at the incredibly unique reality
that your divine spirit fell on people from all over the place,
every kind of person.
And we thank you for that truth, God,
that the gospel is for everybody,
that there is good news for the nations,
and that you are not a respecter of persons,
but you desire those who will come to you simply by faith.
We pray that we'd be those kinds of people,
that we might know the righteousness of God in Christ
and celebrate that glorious gospel truth,
that the righteous will live by faith,
the power of God unto salvation.
Make that ring powerfully, I pray,
this morning in the preaching of your word
as we receive the sacraments
and the fellowship that's had here.
Would you do that, God,
by the power of your spirit,
in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
You know, I have these moments in my life
where I just kind of roll back the tape
and I just replay these really regrettable moments in my head.
And one of them I've shared here before.
It's a time when I was in high school.
Maybe some of you remember that story
where I, like, cheerfully, smugly
yelled at a group of other students
that they were all going to hell.
And I, like, I remember it like it was yesterday.
My buddies and I, you know,
we were kids who went to a private Christian school
and we were running past this other school
that, you know, didn't share the same religious tradition as we did.
And the students of that school,
they began to jeer at us
and I yelled back,
you're all going to hell.
And I yelled it with, like, a smile on my face
and an air of superiority
and self-satisfaction.
And, you know, as I've kind of rolled back the tape
on that moment again and again,
and I remember this every single week,
you know, I've tried to understand
how I could utter such, like, hateful words.
And I think it had to do with this tribalistic,
self-righteous understanding of my religion,
of my Christian faith.
Like, in my mind, I was on the right religious team,
the winning team,
and those other students,
they weren't.
Because they didn't go to my private Christian school.
And that's what made me better than them.
Me and my team,
we believed the Bible.
Me and my team,
we worshipped the true and living God.
And so, therefore,
me and my team were superior.
And everyone else deserved hell
for not being on my winning team.
In my simplistic mind,
I was saved,
not primarily by the grace of God
through faith in Christ,
but because I belonged to the right team.
All because I'd grown up on the winning team,
the Christian team.
And it was everybody else then.
Everybody else that needed to be saved,
but not me.
Because my status before God was fine
because I identified as a Christian.
I identified with the right religion.
And that was a huge part
of my meager understanding
of what it meant to be a Christian,
to have the truth about God
and thus to be religiously superior.
And now you wonder
why so many people loathe Christians, right?
For being so combative,
so arrogant,
so self-righteous.
It's because of people like me,
if I'm honest.
It's crazy to me
that I'm up here preaching the gospel.
It's because of people like me.
This understanding of religion
or of Christianity
in which there are good guys
on the winning team
bound for heaven
and bad guys on the losing team
bound for hell.
And for the rest of my life,
I will be repenting
of these shameful words
that came from my lips.
And I thank God every day
that his grace is greater than my sin.
Now I do believe though
that there is a right religion
and that there are many wrong religions.
And that you do have,
and that there is an insideness
to the kingdom of God
and you can also be outside
of the kingdom of God.
Yeah, sure.
I do believe that that's what Jesus
and all the scriptures teach.
But does simply affiliating
with the right religious group
automatically secure someone
inside the kingdom of God
and make them superior?
No.
Not at all.
See, I share this shameful story
from my life
to demonstrate how
even when we are in possession
of God's truth,
if God's truth
does not actually possess us,
all we'll ever do
is weaponize God's truth
for our own evil supremacist ends.
Like man, I was in high school.
I believed in the gospel
as a high schooler
that Jesus died for my sins,
that I was a sinner
who needed to be saved
by God's grace
totally apart from any merits
of my own
and yet my sinful heart
was so twisted
that I weaponized
God's beautiful message
of mercy and grace
and I turned it into
something that allowed me
to condemn
and disparage others
who did not belong
to the tribal religious
in-group
that I called Christianity.
And honestly,
maybe that's why
some of you in this room,
whether you're a Christian
or not,
honestly kind of hate Christians.
And I don't blame you.
I hate myself too.
I hate what I said
20 years ago.
And you'd be right
to reject
this kind of divisive,
combative,
self-righteous religiosity
that calls itself
Christianity.
Listen, if you're here today,
maybe you're exploring
the Christian faith,
but you're not sure
if you want to identify
with Christians like me.
Or maybe you're in a season
of deconstructing
your Christian faith
and you're tired
of just all the toxic division
and all the hypocrisy
in the church
because of people like me.
Will you please hear me
when I say
you're absolutely right
to be disappointed
in the church,
to be disappointed
in Christians?
You're absolutely right
to be skeptical.
But please also hear me say
that while Christians
and the church
will surely disappoint you,
Jesus will never disappoint you.
And maybe you're thinking,
well, that's a crummy religion, right?
Like a religion that admits
it's full of flawed followers,
but I'm here to tell you
that that's exactly the point.
That's exactly the point.
There's actually nothing
more humbling,
equalizing,
unifying,
and reconciling
than the Christian faith.
Precisely,
precisely because it admits
that we are all sinners
in need of one common Savior,
the Lord Jesus.
And this is what makes
Paul's letter to the Romans
so unique and also
so relevant for us
in our present age
of like outrage
and polarization
and disunity, right?
So as we come to Paul's letter
to Rome,
let me remind you
what Paul's doing here.
Paul is writing to a church
at the center of,
at the center stage
of world history, right?
Right in Rome,
a cosmopolitan church
made up of both Jewish
and Greco-Roman converts.
Converts that likely have
tons of cultural baggage
and tons of cultural biases
making it hard for them
to get along, right?
So in this letter,
Paul is explaining
the gospel and its logic
so that his Jewish
and Gentile brothers
and sisters in Rome
will not only embrace
one another,
but also they'll embrace
and support his
missionary efforts
westward towards Spain
amongst people
that even Jews
and Greco-Roman people
would consider as barbaric.
And so we've been following
Paul's careful argument
about what the gospel is
and also what the gospel does
and how it changes
the way we view those
who are other to us.
And Paul's argument
is that the good news
about Jesus
is the power of God
unto salvation
and not just for a select few,
but for everyone,
that is every kind of person
who simply believes.
Anyone.
Good news,
not just for the Jewish people,
but for the nations
and good news,
not just for everyone
who behaves,
but for everyone
who believes.
Anyone who hopes
and trusts in Jesus
by faith.
For the righteous,
he says.
Those who are truly righteous
in the eyes of God
are those who live by faith.
Faith in God's righteous
and only Son,
Jesus Christ.
Now in making this case
that everyone can be saved
by the power of God
through faith,
Paul starts by explaining
the other side of that coin,
which is that everyone
needs to be saved
by the power of God,
particularly from
the wrath of God.
Saved from the wrath of God,
this righteous wrath
that seethes and rages
against all our unfaithfulness,
all our unrighteousness,
all of our idolatry.
Judgment is coming,
Paul writes.
Justice against all injustice,
all the injustice
that we've all committed
against our God
and against his creation,
all the ways we've suppressed
the truth in our unrighteousness
and exchanged the truth
about God for a lie
and worshipped and served
created things
rather than the creator
and dishonored
our glorious creator
and disordered his good creation.
Judgment is coming.
And so I want us to imagine
this letter being read
in these mixed congregations
in Rome, right?
You have Jewish people
in these congregations,
you have Greco-Roman people
in these congregations,
and imagine the Greco-Romans, right?
Hearing the gospel,
like tearing up,
deeply convicted
about their past ways of life, right?
How they once bowed down
to statues of Jupiter
and Aphrodite
and Apollo and Mars,
these gods of thunder
and power and art
and beauty and war,
these created things,
these gods that
they could never really count on,
these gods that never,
ever saved them
and yet demanded
so much of them.
And imagine how good
the good news
of Paul's gospel
must have sounded to them,
that they,
these former pagan idolaters,
even they,
could be saved
simply by faith in Christ.
But now also imagine
the Jewish listeners
in this congregation
who Paul begins to address
in our text today
in verse 17.
Chapter 2, verse 17.
You see, Paul is a Hebrew
of Hebrews.
He's a former Pharisee
and expert in the law of Moses,
and so he can anticipate
how the Jewish listeners
are going to be receiving
what he has to say
up to this point
in the letter.
And what he does
is he gets into their shoes
and into their state of mind
and he articulates back to them
their own self-conception,
starting in chapter 2,
verse 17.
Now if you,
now you,
if you call yourself a Jew,
if you identify
with the chosen people of Israel,
if you rely on the law
of Moses,
you know,
the Torah,
and boast in the one true God,
verse 18,
if you know his will
and approve what is superior,
that is,
if you know God's ways,
if you know right from wrong,
verse 19,
if you are convinced
that you are a guide
and that others are blind,
that you are a light to others,
and others are in the dark,
that you are a wise instructor,
and others are fools,
that you are a teacher,
others are infants,
and all because you
and your people,
your tribe,
your team,
you have the law of Moses,
and therefore all this truth
and knowledge from God,
if you are convinced
that you belong
to this elite,
privileged class
of especially righteous people,
Paul says,
then he flips the script
on them in verse 21,
you then who teach others,
do you not teach yourself?
See,
Paul anticipates here
in verse 17
and following
that for every tearfully repentant
and convicted Greco-Roman listener
to his letter,
there might also very well be
a Jewish congregant
smugly,
self-righteously
nodding their heads
in agreement
with every word
of Paul's letter
up to this point
concerning God's wrath
and God's justice
and his judgment
against pagan idolatry
and all unrighteousness.
Paul anticipates
the judgmental
Jewish glances
aimed toward
their Greco-Roman neighbors
in the pews
around them
because,
like,
to most Jews,
these were filthy Gentiles
who came from cultures
of pagan religiosity,
idol worship,
greed,
insolence,
unstable families,
alternative sexual practices,
and various other
depraved habits
that would disgust
any Torah-respecting Jew.
So to every Jewish congregant
tempted to self-righteously
gaze upon
their Greco-Roman
brothers and sisters
in Christ
with contempt
and with an air of superiority,
Paul has a word for them,
and it's also a word for us.
Paul asks his Jewish listeners,
are you really as faithful?
Are you really as righteous
as you believe yourselves to be?
Have you really taught yourselves?
While preaching against theft,
do you ever steal?
While preaching against adultery,
do you ever commit adultery?
While preaching against idolatry,
do you ever do anything sacrilegious?
And you know what?
At least externally,
there probably were
many Jewish listeners,
just like many of us today,
who've never really stolen anything,
never slept with someone
other than our spouse,
never robbed any temples.
And the temptation here is to be like,
oh, so maybe I am righteous
in the eyes of God,
saved by my own obedience
to the law,
but Paul isn't done.
And he asks in verse 23,
you who boast in the law,
all of it,
do you dishonor God
by breaking the law?
And he's saying,
you know,
don't even answer
whether or not you steal,
commit adultery,
or rob temples.
Have you ever dishonored God
by breaking the law?
And at this point,
every mouth is silenced
because honestly,
no one,
no one can plead innocence.
I mean,
even with the sins of stealing,
right,
and adultery
and sacrilegious things,
even if we haven't explicitly
done any of these things,
ultimately the root
of every sin
is the same.
All these sins
come from the same place
all other sins come from,
from a sense of self-interest
and superiority
and hubris
and arrogance
and disdain
and contempt
and just this desire
and willingness
to treat other people
not as people
but as things,
to look down on them,
to use them
as if we were God
and God was not.
That the rotten fruit
might be different
but the roots
are always the same.
And the only difference
between us
and a thief
or an adulterer
or a blasphemer
or a murderer
is often just opportunity,
our context,
desperation,
and maybe just
how far down
the same wayward path
we all are.
So Paul says,
just as it was
for our people
who had the law
in the olden days
of Israel,
when the prophet Isaiah
indicted our people,
the people who received
the law of Moses
for being terrible
representatives
of Yahweh
among the nations,
so also today,
verse 24,
as it is written,
God's name
is blasphemed
among the Gentiles
because of you.
Because of you,
he says to them.
He's saying,
in case you thought
that merely having the law,
having the truth
would make you special
and invulnerable,
think again.
Not even circumcision,
the Jewish sign
of belonging to God
and his covenant people,
not even circumcision,
in and of itself,
automatically makes you
truly right with God.
Now, if you're young
in here
and you don't know
what circumcision is,
go ahead and ask your parents.
Or if you need
a plan B,
you can ask Pastor Jonathan
and he'll explain that to you.
So I'm not going to do that.
But circumcision
was this thing
that a lot of Jewish people
in the first century
trusted in
for their righteousness,
for their safety
and security before God.
Just like some people today
put more faith
in their baptism
than in Christ
and thus live
however they want,
thinking,
I'm good.
I'm good with God
just because I got
some water on me
at some point in my life.
In the same way,
some of Paul's Jewish readers
thought that their circumcision
was some kind of magical,
protective mark
on their bodies
that kept them
in God's good graces.
There was one ancient rabbi
who even taught
that Abraham sat
at the very entrance
of Gehenna
and would not let
any circumcised person
from Israel
go down into Gehenna.
But here in verses 25
and following,
Paul says,
it's not enough
to be Jewish
on the outside
if you aren't circumcised
on the inside.
Verse 28,
A person is not a Jew
who is one only outwardly
nor is circumcision
merely outward and physical.
No,
a person is a Jew,
a person truly belongs
to God's people
who is one inwardly.
And circumcision
is circumcision
of the heart
by the Spirit,
not by the written code.
Such a person's praise
is not from other people
but from God.
And you see,
what Paul is saying
directly to his Jewish listeners
and even to those of us
who think that we are safe
and sound
because maybe
we have the Bible,
we have the truth,
we've picked the right religion,
we've been baptized,
we're members of a church,
we go to church on Sundays.
What God's Word
is saying to all of us
is that it's not enough
to possess God's truth
but God's truth
has to possess us.
It's not enough
to have God's truth
but God's truth
has to have a hold
hold on us,
all of us,
on our hearts.
Like just because
we have the truth
doesn't mean the truth
will necessarily
work itself out
in our lives,
Paul says.
I think about a Peloton,
all right?
You know,
I actually have a friend
and he's a little overweight
and,
well he's a lot overweight
and he decided to get
an expensive stationary bike
and put it in his room
to get healthy.
But you know,
the last time
I was in his room,
his bike was not being used.
In fact,
it was being misused
as a laundry rack.
And so even though
he had the stationary bike,
he hadn't allowed the bike
to have any of him.
Even though he had this resource
to help him lose weight
and get healthy,
he never worked this helpful
life-giving resource
into his life.
And I wonder
how many of us Christians
are in this similar situation today.
We feel secure
in our relationship with God
because maybe
one prayer that we prayed
when we were in third grade,
we feel secure
in our relationship with God
because we have
and know our Bibles
and we say we believe them
and agree with them
even though we don't
really open them up,
we don't meditate on them,
we don't memorize them,
we don't study them.
Or we find security
before God
because we know
all the right things about God.
Oh yeah,
I believe he's triune.
I believe that Jesus
is God and man,
that God is omnipotent.
I know those words,
omniscience,
omnipresence,
that he's a sovereign creator.
We know all these things
about him,
but so do the demons
and so does Satan.
Even though this knowledge
mostly just stays in our heads
without affecting our hearts
and our hands.
We know he's God,
but we don't worship
and serve him as such.
Or maybe we've been baptized,
but we don't live
like we've been washed clean.
We don't live
like the Holy Spirit
has been poured out upon us.
You see,
just as Paul was saying,
it's not enough
to simply identify
as being Jewish
or to have
or know the law
or even to be circumcised.
And the same goes for us.
It's not enough
to identify as a Christian
or to have and know the Bible
or to even be baptized.
To be a Christian
isn't merely to agree
with the doctrines
of Christianity.
To be a Christian
is not just to assent
to something in your head.
No, to truly be a Christian,
we must be so cut to the heart
by the truth of God
that it works itself out
in our hands as well.
The God of Christianity,
the God of the Scriptures
isn't simply after our heads
just wanting us to know
and believe the right things,
you know, intellectually
and rationally,
and neither is he
simply after our hands
needing us to serve him
and do the right things
to earn our righteous status
before him
or save the world
on our own.
No, the God of the Bible
is a God who,
first and foremost,
he's after our hearts.
He's after our affections.
He wants us to love him
with all our heart, soul,
mind, and strength
and to love others
as ourselves
just like he has.
He wants to cut out
a special, central section
in our hearts
forever marked as his own.
And that's what Paul
is getting at
in verse 29
when he says,
a person is a Jew
who is one inwardly
and circumcision
is circumcision
of the heart
by the Spirit
not by the written code.
Paul is saying
it's one thing
to be circumcised externally
but what matters more
is a circumcision
of the heart.
And by that he means
a heart that is tender
and set apart
and marked off
and dedicated
to loving
and serving God
fully, heart, soul,
mind, and strength.
That's what God deems
it says here
as most praiseworthy
compared to whatever else
other people might praise.
A circumcised heart
is what God praises.
Something only the Holy Spirit
can do
and not the written code
of the law.
Now maybe you're here today though
and you think to yourself
well that's precisely my problem
that I can't circumcise
my own heart.
Like I know that there are
some of us here today
and maybe you even want this.
Maybe you got it all lined up
in your head.
You're trying to live
this Christian way
but there's something
that's just not fitting right
with your heart.
And maybe you want it
but you're just not there yet.
Your head, your heart,
and your hands
just aren't all lined up
and it's frustrating to you
how little control you have
over your own heart.
And I want to encourage you
to continue drawing near to God
as he draws near to you.
And I want you to know
that even in your frustration,
this frustration of yours
that you cannot circumcise
your own heart,
I want you to know
that that is the whole point
of the gospel.
That God has to do it for you.
And that God always comes
where he's truly wanted.
So I want to encourage you
to continue meditating
on the gospel.
The good news about Jesus
is that really circumcision
was always really meant
to point to in the first place.
You see, circumcision,
the sign of covenant inclusion,
was never meant to be
some kind of magical identity badge
marking out some people
as special or superior
in comparison to others
without the sign of circumcision.
No, circumcision
was always meant to be
a picture of something
that we could not do
for ourselves.
Really, circumcision
was a sign of the covenant
insofar as it was a picture
of the seriousness
of the covenant
that those who violated
their covenant relationship
with their maker,
with Yahweh,
deserved to be cut off
and torn apart.
And don't you see
that this is exactly
what happened in Christ?
In our place,
Christ,
the only covenant keeper,
the only one
who never broke the law,
the only one
who always,
ever,
always honored God.
Paul says elsewhere
in his letter to Colossae
that in Christ,
by his death,
we were circumcised.
Our sin natures
put to death
and buried with him,
nailed to a cross,
our debts canceled.
And this,
this gospel truth
is the only kind of truth
that can change our hearts.
The truth of God's
sacrificial love
for us in Christ.
In other words,
the written code of the law
could only ever tell us
to obey
and to get circumcised.
The spirit of the gospel
proclaims to us
that Christ
has obeyed the law
in our place
and that Christ
is our circumcision,
the one who bore
our covenant curse
and was cut off
so that we might live,
so that we might be forgiven.
And the question for us is,
do we just have
a hold of this truth
in our heads
or does this truth
have a hold of our hearts
and our hands as well?
You know,
in verse 29,
chapter 2,
verse 29,
chapter 2,
it closes
with this interesting line
about the person
whose heart is circumcised
by the spirit
rather than the written
code of the law.
And Paul says
that such a person's praise,
listen,
such a person's praise
is not from other people
but from who?
It's from God.
And I think that
that is so key
to what Paul
is trying to accomplish
in his letter
to the Romans
in this mixed congregation
of Jewish
and Greco-Roman people.
I think it's so key
to what he's doing there
and what God's doing
here through us.
What God wants to do
by the logic
of his gospel.
You know,
when I yelled
at those high schoolers
that were,
when I told them,
you know,
you're all going to hell
20 years ago,
I was doing so
from my tribe,
right?
And on behalf
of my tribe.
And I even remember
my two Christian buddies
running beside me
chuckling
at what they understood
to be,
yeah,
maybe brash,
but in their minds
probably a true statement.
And this was all part
of our tribal
understanding
of Christianity.
And you know,
their chuckles,
it made me feel affirmed,
right?
I felt like I had
their praise,
I had their affirmation,
I had the approval
of my tribe.
You know,
this is how
every single
tribal identity
works though.
Every hostile
in-group,
out-group
dynamic,
it's always about
seeking the praise
of mere mortals
from within
our tribe,
right?
And even when
God is often
involved
in our tribalistic
ways,
God is made out
to be a God
in our own image,
right?
Some parochial God
who only serves
our interests,
right?
A God who
hates the uncircumcised
or who hates
those who don't
eat kosher
or a God who hates
those who vote
differently than we do.
A God who hates
the particular sins
of this certain group
but tolerates
all of our behavior.
But Paul says
that those who have
had their hearts
circumcised
by the Spirit,
hearts made tender
by the gospel,
this message
about the righteous
Son of God,
sacrificing His life
to save
the unrighteous,
they no longer
need,
want,
or even satisfied
by the hollow
praises
of mere
mortals.
but their praise,
Paul says,
is from God.
And man,
isn't that
not only
incredibly liberating
to not have to live
for the praise
of fickle,
flawed,
and finite
human beings anymore
but isn't it
just altogether
better?
Like who cares
what the peasants
think if I have
the love
and affirmation
of the King,
right?
If I have
the adoration
of the King,
who cares
how the world
values me
or how much
praise they give me
if the creator
of the world
praises me
for my immaculate
righteousness
in Christ
by faith.
And not only
is this liberating
and life-giving
and the highest
possible honor
to receive
the praise
of God
because of what
Christ has done
for us,
but don't you see
how it also opens
up our hearts
toward any
and everybody
no matter
how different
they are
from us?
Like how
simultaneously
destroys any
reason we might
have to boast
of our own
superiority.
And yet it
doesn't reduce us
to a humility
that is humiliating
and dehumanizing
and dishonorable,
but rather it
maintains for us
a noble,
confident,
secure,
and honorable
humility
in Christ.
See, this is the
incredible logic
of the gospel
that Paul is
commending
to the church
in Rome.
In Christ's church,
God commends it
to us today
as well.
The power of God
unto salvation,
the good news,
right?
The power of God
unto salvation
for everyone,
every kind of person
who believes.
And that's the
good news of Jesus,
that's the good news
of Pentecost,
and that's the good news
that will transform
our lives
and our city.
In the name of the
Father,
the Son,
and the Holy Spirit.
Will you pray with me?
Father, would you
forgive our
tribalistic
instincts,
our tribalistic
ways,
our scarcity
mindsets,
and all the divisions
and barriers
that we put up
to position
ourselves
as superior
to others?
God, the truth
of the matter
is that we are
insecure
because we know
we've rebelled
against you.
We know what's
coming to us
and we're just
trying to get
as much as we can
before we meet
our maker.
But God,
you've offered us
a better way.
You've offered us
abundance in Christ.
You've offered us
not uniformity,
but true unity
in diversity
by your Spirit.
You've leveled
the playing field.
We're all sinners
before you
and we can all
be saved
the same way
by grace
through faith
in Christ.
Would you make
this a church,
oh God,
that bears witness
to that wonderful
reality?
Would you make
us a church
that tears down
these barriers
in the name
of Jesus
and with the Spirit,
with the power
of the Spirit
be so evident
here as we go forth
making disciples
of all the nations
in the name
of Jesus.
Amen.