( Romans 1:13-17 ) - [ Deutsch ]
Romans 1:13-15:
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
The biblical text takes us to the year 55 or 56 AD. The apostle Paul is in Corinth and is writing a letter to the church in Rome - the glittering centre of the world as it was known at that time. He wants to visit the church. Rome of the years 55/56 is the Rome of Nero, who became emperor in 54. The first five years of his reign are considered happy: Nero puts the legal system in order, lowers grain prices and delights the people with games. Happy years in Rome, some of whose splendour perhaps also shone into the Christian community. Although they did not profit from it. Most of them did not have Roman citizenship, but were freed people and slaves, around a third probably women.
Paul now writes to them, on the one hand to set a light against the imperial splendour and on the other hand to give comfort and encouragement to the unnoticed, the downtrodden.
From the year 55, I now take you some 1,460 years later from the Mediterranean to the German countryside, to Wittenberg. The Augustinian monk and future reformer Martin Luther is tormented by his guilt. Although he leads an austere, impeccable life, he feels like a sinner before God, afraid of his severe judgement. Luther's soul is in torment and his so-called tower experience delivers him from this torment. He later describes it as a great liberation and it was the end of a theological struggle.
I would like to read to you the passage from the letter that the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome and that became the starting point for Luther's doctrine of justification and thus for his Reformatory work. Two verses that form the second part of today's sermon text:
Romans 1:16-17:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Martin Luther, a doctor of theology and professor of biblical interpretation, will have understood these verses quickly. I don't know if the Christians in Rome understood immediately what Paul wrote to them. To our ears the verses sound somewhat strange - "from faith for faith" - so I would like to read to you these verses, which are central not only to the letter to the Romans but to Paul's whole theology, in another translation from the "New International Version":
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.’
We are all saved. We cannot and do not have to do anything for our salvation. It is a gift to us through the grace of God. A gift that will become effective when we believe in it. This faith, the trust in God's grace, is not something I can make for myself, but it is given to me for free. I will have my personal tower experience when I trust in God's grace, his saving love for me. I am looked at by God with completely different eyes, different from what I can imagine.
The first hearers of the letter to the Romans were considered worthless in the eyes of the society of that time.
And now Paul writes: God looks at you differently. With grace and love. And therefore you are no longer marginalised, but saved by God. Martin Luther saw God's stern eyes on him, which only saw his sins. Until he came to realise: God does not look at me in this way, but looks at me with grace and love: I am saved.
We are not really marginalised and probably do not fear God's punishment so much. Yet we can learn much from Paul's words for ourselves.
God's love is unconditional.
Although people have turned away from him again and again, he does not expect anything in advance. He does not say, "If someone has converted or become a thoroughly good person, then I will redeem him."
His love knows no ifs and buts.
Can I believe that, even though our human interaction is often so very different, even love is tied to conditions or disappointed love turns away?
And if I can believe it, what does that mean for my life?
The one thing is: I can accept myself just the way I am.
If Christ loves people so much that he dies for them while they were still sinners, I don't need to judge myself - and I mustn't judge anyone else either.
And the other thing: I may take God's love as an example - an unattainable example, but a good guideline.
That my ifs and my buts, which so often stand in the way of love, become smaller.
That boundaries in me are also broken down so that it is possible for me to approach people who are so completely different from me. That I don't judge people too quickly who look different and live differently.
Because God loves me so much, it can be easier for me to love too. Therefore do right deeds, bear one another's burdens, and you will fulfil the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2).
Our love for creation, for creatures, for other people is not an achievement, but a thank you to God. Thank you for life on earth; thank you for the people who live with us and help us to live; thank you for the good news that death does not turn us into nothing. So: Thank you that God exists for us and takes care of us in life and in death.
We love one another because we give thanks.
That is how Paul sees it. That's how he writes and preaches it all the time and can even write (Rom. 13:10): "Love is the fulfilment of the law."
Love is not a special achievement, but the special thanks to God. That is faith. Faith is love out of gratitude.
Amen.