Advent 2 | Christina Baik - Rom 15:1-13

A reading from Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 15, verses

Romans 15 · chapter mention

one through 13. We who are strong have an

obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to

please ourselves. Let each of us please his

neighbor for his good, to build him up.

For Christ did not please himself.

But as is written, the reproach of those who reproached you fell

on me. For whatever was written in

former days was written for our instruction that through

endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures,

we might have hope. May the God of endurance and

encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one

another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together with you,

may with one voice glorify God the Father of our Lord Jesus

Christ. Therefore welcome one another as

Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.

For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the

circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to

confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order

that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy as it is

written. Therefore I will praise you

among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.

And again it is said, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people, and

again praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the

peoples extol him. And again Isaiah says, the root

of Jesse will come, even he who rises to rule the Gentiles, in

him will the Gentiles hope. May the God of hope fill you

with all joy and peace and believing, so that by the power

of the Holy Spirit you may be, you may abound and hope the word

of the Lord. Good morning, Church.

It's good to see you all. Thank you.

OK, OK, so as Father Aaron mentioned, I was in the

classroom for quite some time. And a phrase I often hear in

schools, especially when exams get handed back, as you can

imagine, you can probably guess, hey, what'd you get?

What'd you get? What'd you get?

Right? It was so pervasive in the

schools I taught at that I actually had a ban it for my

classroom, you know, and pause a given lesson to invite my

students to unpack. What is at the root of this

impulse to ask that question constantly.

So many of us fall into the trap of wanting to keep tallies where

people are at, right? How they doing.

We compare ourselves to that individual as standard and

depending on where we land on a given day, right?

We feel like pretty incredible about ourselves sometimes.

And that's maybe even a little complacent.

Maybe we're really anxious, like I need to catch up, I need to do

better, or even despair. Maybe I'll never measure up,

right? And then we start spiraling.

All of all of this tense us into isolation when we're weak.

So whether we're on a high or low point, trying to keep the

show going on our own is exhausting, isn't it?

And frankly, it's unsustainable. And this is true of all of our

identities because we carry a lot with us, right?

As students, athletes, artists, employees, supervisors, as sons,

as daughters, parents, for sure, right?

And even as Christians, we tend to treat the Christian life like

a solo performance. There's a lot of pressure when

we do that. It's one more area where our

personal discipline, successes and failures rests on our

shoulders alone. And this tension is exactly what

Paul addresses in his letter to the Roman Christians in our

passage today. The temptation to make faith

about us, our performance, our highs, our ability to stay

strong. As a good friend put it for me

recently, as I was kind of talking it through with her, she

said when we do that, we can find other people's problems and

struggles are drained and we can also find their strength

intimidating. We need God to change your

hearts in those cases, for sure. So returning to this image of a

soloist on a stage, sometimes a solitaire voice is strong and

resonant. Listeners are compelled by it,

whether it's pained or uplifting.

The message of a song is clear and we are so moved by it.

Other times it's hoarse. Perhaps a singer is sick.

The song is hard to hear and thus the message cannot be

heard. The singer needs to rest.

Perhaps they can't hit the high notes that day or having trouble

projecting across the room. They need more voices to bolster

the sound. A singular singer can truly

achieve much with their instrument.

It can be quite beautiful, but as a human being, there are

limits, right? There's days of weakness that

come with days of strength. But God's vision is more

beautiful than that. God's vision for the Kingdom is

a chorus. It's not a room full of

soloists. We are, as it says in verse 6 on

page 10 and 11 in your bulletin, with one voice.

We are two. With one voice, glorify the God

and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Indeed, Romans 15 reveals that the goal is not to eradicate the

weakness. That's very countercultural,

don't you think? It's to work together to build

one another up, to strengthen the body, this body right as a

whole. We are all, every single person

in this room. Members of a chorus who sing out

of an outpouring of celebratory praise, not individual

performance. And when we live in harmony like

this, we glorify God. Our harmony is God's glory, and

I find that so stunning. It's our joy, our peace, our

flourishing together that brings God glory.

That's how he designed it. That is so beautiful.

This vision is in direct contrast to so much of the

messaging that we, and frankly Paul's Roman Christians in his

context, receive in our daily lives.

Isn't it because society praises us strong, the independent, the

soloist virtuoso? And in fact, earlier in his

letter, in Romans 12, Paul writes this.

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the

renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the

good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

And immediately in that same chapter, he follows this with a

reminder that the church is many in one body in Christ.

I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly

than he should think. Instead, think sensibly as God

has distributed and measure of faith to each one.

Now, as we have many parts in one body and all the parts do

not have the same function in the same way, we who are many

are one body in Christ and individually members of one

another. This integrated body is at the

heart of today's message. 2 Paul opens in chapter 15.

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the

failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

Let us, let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to

build him up versus 1 and 2. The baseline assumption here is

that members of the body will be weak at times.

In fact, Scripture, as it says in verse 4, was written for our

instruction that through endurance and through the

encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.

Faithful endurance and encouragement give us hope.

There's recognition here that we have things to endure.

Oh man, do we ever, right? And that we need encouragement

and support to bear challenges and persist through them.

That's built in, right. So I invite you to take a moment

now and consider what are what are the things that you need to

endure lately? And you could think through all

the areas of your life. It might be physical, it might

be interpersonal, it might be deep within your heart.

In what areas of your life would you love some encouragement?

And also consider what would it look like for you to accept

edification from someone else in those areas?

Because for some of us, it's really hard to accept it, right?

In fact, the English language, this translation in this first

verse is really revealing of our fallenness in some notable ways.

Let's look at it. Words like obligation bear with

and failings of the weak that those words have some tough

connotations in our society. Some of us might read that and

think, oh, that's nice of Paul to to call upon the strong to

take on the burden of those who are weak.

But man, I don't want to be a burden on people.

I don't want people to feel obligated to build me up.

Does some of you think that sometimes?

So we may suffer in silence and not ask for help or prayer.

Or if our struggle is in the open, maybe we're not willing to

accept the help. It's OK, right?

Perhaps we hide and isolate ourselves from the body instead

in the name of not wanting to be a burden.

I definitely did there. But this is not conservation for

you or for me or for any of us. Actually, the original Greek is

so much more beautiful and positive than that.

So let's dig into it. We who are strong, OK?

The Greek word for strong, Dina toy, can come in many forms,

right? As we know, strength comes as

wealth, influence, conviction, your faith.

And interestingly, in the Greek, these are not moral categories.

This is not about being like a good Christian versus a bad

Christian. The strong bear responsibility

not because they're better, but because they currently have

greater freedom and capacity to care for other people.

We who are strong have an obligation.

OK, Well, Filaman, literally, we owe it the obligation.

It's a kind of love that that Father Aaron talked about last

week. It's the kind of responsibility

for others that one willingly undertakes in love because our

strength is not our own to keep. We owe it to those who have

less, and thus we give it joy joyfully.

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the

failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

Here the failings of the weak a do not do not ton.

I can never pronounce that one denotes lack of strength, not

lack of virtue. The weak are not yet formed in

their convictions, not yet capable of exercising freedom,

not yet steady in faith. Maybe things are just really

hard right now, right? The term is tender.

It's not derogatory. There's so much love in here,

right? In Rome, pleasing yourself was

the goal to gain status through self determination.

Doesn't that sound familiar? Our society definitely elevates

that too. Paul points out, however, that

God's vision orients our goals away from self-serving to self

giving. Paul uses scripture to show that

Christ is our example of this. Of course, verse 3, for Christ

did not please himself. Christ frankly had all freedom,

all strength, all rights, but he used none of it for his own

comfort. This is radically different from

what society expects and thus piques people's interest and

curiosity. He stood out as we are called to

stand out. It opens a door for others to be

welcomed into this hope, this radical, different hope that

Christ brings. Paul continues in verses 5

through 6. May the God of endurance and

encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one

another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may

with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus

Christ. Scripture reminds us that

endurance and encouragement come from God, not ourselves.

Thank God, because if encouragement comes from God,

then no one can boast and being the strong one on a given day,

and no one needs to hide when they're weak.

How beautiful that built into glorifying God.

The purpose of our lives is US living in harmony with one

another. That's amazing, right?

Built into God's vision is building one another up for one

another's good. By caring for others when we're

strong and by accepting care from others when we're weak, we

fulfill God's design and thus glorify Him.

I mean, come on, right? Like, God truly wants what's

best for us. And for me, a clear illustration

of this is what can happen in a Citigroup or a small group Bible

study. When we first moved back to

Chicago in 2018, despite having grown up here myself, it felt

really hard to find community, to be honest with you.

Everyone's super busy, right? A lot of relationships felt

really like touch and go. And as a relative introvert

myself, I kept waiting for others to welcome, like, welcome

me in, invite me, reach out to me.

And so for years, I felt very much in the fringes of pretty

much every community I was a part of, including Emmanuel.

And I had heard various times, as many of you have, right, that

the way to become part of a community is a serve in it.

I knew that up here in my head, but my heart wasn't quite open

to it because I felt a little bit awkward.

You know, I felt kind of shy about it, self-conscious maybe.

And our apartment, those of you with kids, you know, as I

cluttered with kids stuff, right?

And frankly, I I'm working on this, but it generally makes me

anxious to have people over when things are a mess.

But my husband, Seth, and I knew from leading small groups

through inner varsity and college and participating in

various Bible studies through our, you know, over the years

that creating intentional spaces where people can grapple with

scripture together and pray with and for one another can be a

huge blessing to people. I think a lot of you in this

room know that. And if you haven't experienced

that before yet, I invite you to consider it.

So we opened our home and our city groups over the years have

become an extension of our family.

And some of you are in this room.

It fills my heart with song to see our older kids, Nina and

June look forward to Tuesday evenings.

They run downstairs to greet people at the door.

And they're learning godly hospitality and opening up their

rooms, sharing their stuff, you know, reading to the younger

kids and, and selecting the toys that they know the kids will

like ahead of time. And as the kids, I mean, it's

like crazy. There's like 10 kids in the in

our flat. Like the kids are running up and

down the halls. It's wonderful.

It's just like beautiful chaos, right?

They like drop by the table throughout the evening to like

grab snacks and maybe they'll curl up on some of our laughs as

we're talking. They get to listen to our hard

questions, right? They recognize that, oh, people

ask questions and they read scripture.

It's not just like knowing all the answers, right?

They listen and they notice. Hopefully you know how we follow

up on one another's prayer request.

Hey, how, how was that procedure?

How was that conversation? How do you feel this week about

this, Right? And this Christian life together

is beautiful. Not because everyone's a model

Christian, whatever that means, right?

But because we're living in our messy, chaotic, complex lives

together and supporting one another in it.

And in this way, we're all singing together.

And honestly, like, isn't that more compelling than everyone

posturing as having it all together, You know, being super

Christian or whatever, you know, or even oblivious to the

struggles of the person sitting across from them.

Our collective song is radiant not because every individual

singer is perfectly in key, but because we are singing a common

song of praise and welcoming others to join in our chorus.

To deny someone help, then, as the giver or receiver, is to

deny God His glorious song. It isn't about us, so it's not

making it about us. We make it hard for ourselves

when we do that right? So when we Peacock our spiritual

highs as a Christian Gold Star, even if we just do it on the

inside, we make it about us. When we hoard our strengths to

ourselves, whether it's our able bodiedness, resources, or

availability, we make it about us.

When we isolate ourselves from the body when we're weak, such

as by refusing care and support when it's offered to us, we make

it about us. Let's resist those temptations.

Instead, as Paul continues in verse 7, let us welcome one

another as Christ welcomed us for the glory of God.

The Greek word for welcome here, Proselyn banaspi, is a command

and has two parts that this is really cool.

The prefix prose is in the word. It signals movement toward the

other person. It's not waiting for them to

come to you. Also, it's not even just

tolerating them from a distance. It's actively stepping in their

direction and the route Lambano is like an embrace to take

someone into your care. Man, God is in language too.

It's just so amazing. Imagine what this kind of

wholehearted welcome can look like at church and also in your

day-to-day with anyone you come across.

Like, imagine them right now that people's faces that you

come into contact with all the time.

If we're to actively go to them and welcome them in and embrace,

what does that look like? How does that feel?

Have you ever experienced it? As Christ entered our situation

and welcomed us into life with Him, we are to warmly welcome

others into our lives too, and this welcome expands a community

beyond all boundaries. We need that now always and

actively resists society's inclination to cut off the weak

or exclude the outsider. And indeed, Paul was writing to

a diverse Christian community made-up of Jewish and non Jewish

gentile believers. There was tension amongst those

groups at the time, right? And he strings together passages

from various parts of the Hebrew Scriptures in the remaining

verses of this reading, like the laws of prophets of writings, to

emphasize how God's vision was always inclusive.

The rejoicing verse 11 was for all the peoples.

God's promise of salvation is for everyone because verse 13,

He is the God of hope. And while the particular

cultural tensions within Paul's Roman audience were different

from ours, today we have many of our own.

And like them, we need rescue from comparison and competition.

It's pervasive. So in addition to giving and

receiving care, who can you welcome?

And let's be honest with ourselves, what comparisons and

competitions do we need to let go of in order to welcome them?

Paul concludes with the benediction because he knows

that we cannot rely on our efforts alone to do this right.

We can only be united in care, harmony and worship through the

power of the Holy Spirit who sustain us, who sustains us as

we strive to, as written in verses 5 and 6, to live in such

harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus, that

together you may, we may with one voice glorify the God and

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So likewise, I invite you

literally to hold your palms up to receive an extension of calls

blessing upon the Roman Christians to us today and into

the second week of Advent. May the God of hope fill you

with all joy and peace and believing, so that by the power

of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Amen.