It’s about 55 AD. You live in Rome. It’s a city of 500,000 people, with theaters and markets. It’s an architectural wonder, a city with a water supply system that travels 50 miles by aquaduct, bridges, coliseums, a sophisticated sewer system. You live in Rome, the capital city and hub of an empire the geographic size of the United States, with 50 million people.

There’s religion in Rome, lots of pagan religion. And, perhaps 50,000 Jewish people live there. And the new Christian faith has found its way there as well in the 20+ years since Jesus died. People gather in small groups, housechurches really, and you belong to just such a gathering. In fact, you are going to a meeting tonight, with torches and candles keeping out the darkness.

You feel some apprehension. Not all is well in the housechurch. It’s only 20 people. Some of the Christians are Gentiles, non-Jews, Greek or Roman and some of them from pagan backgrounds.

Others are Jewish Christians- God’s people for centuries, some now believing in Jesus. Only a few years back, 49 AD, the Roman Emperor Claudius expelled all the Jews from the city, including those who followed Jesus, leaving only Gentile Christians to meet as the church.

But five years later Claudius has died and the restrictions are loosened, and the Jewish Christians have returned. They want their say, and their customs reinstalled. The church is trying to adjust to it all. It’s hard. Which kind of Christian are you? Greek? Or Jew? It doesn’t feel so much like one family, it feels like “us and them.”

When you enter the house to meet, there’s excitement in the air. A letter has arrived from Paul, the well-known apostle. Stories have circulated about Paul, the Jewish Pharisee who imprisoned and killed Christians and then became one himself. Stories of him being knocked off a horse by the Spirit of God, and of him hearing the voice of the risen Jesus calling him to minister. Stories are told of Paul’s passion and courage in extending the gospel beyond the Jews, to the Gentiles. If you are a Gentile believer, that’s good news…but if you’re Jewish, you wonder how he sees things. Us and them.

People draw near to the fire. The leader has a scroll in his hand, it gets very quiet, you settle in to listen to this letter. Please stand as we read from Romans 1 (verses 1-7, then skipping down to verse 16). The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Two weeks ago I took a couple of study days and went up to Whidbey Island to immerse in this book of Romans. Our son Nick called from Spokane and asked what I was doing, and I said “I’m up here at the beach with Lucy (our black lab) and the Apostle Paul.” And Nick said “Wow. That’s good company!” It was. But Lucy was a little easier to deal with than Paul.

Let me tell you from the beginning, most of you are not supposed to be able to track with something like Paul’s letter to the Romans. That’s what sociologists are telling us. Sound bite commercials, 1-minute videos, multi-tasking, emailing, twittering, facebooking, constant visual stimulation, all of that has supposedly left us with significantly reduced attention spans and an inability to focus on concepts for any prolonged period of time.

And that’s bad for reading Romans. Because Romans is packed with logic, philosophy, long reasoned arguments and huge paragraphs. In fact, verses 1-7 that we just read, 90 words in the Greek is all one sentence! Incredible! Talk about someone who needed an editor! Anyway, despite the fact that we are not supposed to be able to track such material…I believe otherwise. I believe that we can, with extraordinary benefit, read this in these 16 weeks, and I encourage you to use the schedule on your insert to follow along.

Paul’s 90 word opening sentence is packed so full of meaning we could spend 16 weeks just on it. It’s a delicate time, and Paul is going to great pains to be clear:

• He’s being clear about who he is, because he hasn’t met most of the Roman Christians before: he’s a servant, apostle.
• He’s being clear that his authority is in his calling to the gospel.
• He’s being clear about who Jesus is- Son of David, Son of God,
• the One resurrected from the dead (since just celebrated Easter, notice how quickly Paul gets the resurrection in here).
• He’s being clear that God’s grace comes through Christ.
• He’s being clear that not just Jews but also Gentiles are being called by Christ.
• He’s being clear that the real power in the world…is the power of the gospel: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith.”

And, very importantly, he is clearly addressing both the “us” and “them” of the church at Rome. “Grace to you,” that’s the standard Greek greeting. “and peace,” , that’s the standard Hebrew greeting. He uses them both. Us and them becomes we.

I just read a novel called The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle, 1995. Fascinating. It’s an exploration of “us and them.” Not Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, but a story set in modern day Southern California. It’s the story of 2 couples: Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher, white, upper class, ambitious, sushi-ordering, recycling activists who live in a gated hilltop community. And Candido and America Rincon, who are in the U.S. illegally from Mexico. As it turns out, they live just a few yards away from each other. Delaney and his family up in the gated community, Candido and his wife and newborn illegally camped out down in a ravine just out of sight. When Delaney’s car hits Candido one day, their paths cross for the first time.

Us and them. Delaney had moved to the gated community exactly to be rid of the problems that Candido represents: poverty, language barriers, safety. Delaney finds himself nearly obsessed with the idea that immigrants like Candido are responsible for wildfires, graffiti and every other problem imagineable.

On the other hand, Candido sees in Delaney all the other wealthy Americans- ignoring his plight, his pregnant wife, refusing them work or food or a place to stay. Us and them. As you can imagine, the perspective from the two sides show very different pictures. People are problems instead of human beings. It’s painful. Us and them.

It’s especially painful for someone like me who lives in comfortable America. Really convicting. Pretty depressing. Toward the end of the book comes a very powerful picture. Without giving away everything- (a lot, but not all…if you haven’t read it in 14 years, I can’t be responsible!), the ravine wall gives way in a huge mudslide dragging Candido and his wife and baby, and also Delaney down with it.

Candido barely makes it to safety, and he lies out of breath, cursing his life, cursing his luck, cursing the wealthy Americans who have refused to help him at every step. And as he sobs and catches his breath, the dark water swirls by. As in a dream, he notices in the dark water a white face surge up from the swift current, and a white hand grasping for help. It is, of course, his enemy Delaney’s hand. What happens? You read it.

Us and them. The Apostle Paul is writing delicately to a very young church of Christians from many, many backgrounds with different traditions and ways of looking at the world. Jews and Gentiles. Paul addresses them both- individually first, and then together. The Gospel is for both. The good news is for both. The good news is so good, that Paul spends the first 17 verses on it. But then he takes a sharp turn, and delves deeply into talking about sin.

It’s not a popular topic, is it? It wasn’t my first choice to preach on. Can’t we just talk about things that make us feel good? Have you seen the little U-Tube video from Belgium, in the Antwerp Central Railway Station? It’s rocketing around the electronic media right now. It’s part of a rehearsed promotion, but it’s delightful.

In this cavernous railroad station, the sounds of Julie Andrews singing Do-Re-Mi from The Sound of Music start playing. People are looking around. Eventually, a couple starts to dance in the middle of the station. Then more and more join them. The music is cranked. Then a bunch of schoolkids come in, and they join in. Passersby are mesmerized.

Then the music changes, still Do-Re-Mi but with a techno beat, now 200 people are dancing. People start to clap and sing, and take pictures and call their friends. Smiles are everywhere. Even though it’s rehearsed, it’s a heartwarming feel good.

Can’t we just think about things that make us feel good, that are positive? Well, sure. If we want to ignore what is going on in our world, and in our lives, and inside of ourselves. The alternative is to listen to Paul, who finds it important, after he has rattled off the good news, to spend a lot of time on sin.

We don’t have to be embarrassed about this. Jesus talked a lot about sin. Fleming Rutledge is a woman preacher, an Episcopal priest I think highly of, and have quoted many times before. Rutledge says that in some ways, the whole book of Romans is simply a commentary on Jesus saying “I came not to call righteous people, but sinners.”

The playing field is leveled for us and them- it’s we. The hard thing about starting at the beginning of Romans is this: Paul judges both Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians to be in deep trouble. Mostly in chapter 1 he addresses Gentile issues, but both are in great need. Both are swirling in a dark current. And only by admitting it, and turning a different direction, can they be saved. That is to say, that we need to understand how serious the bad news is before we can understand how liberating the good news is.

Rutledge (again) wrote that “people need to understand that they are in the grip of an enemy that has the capacity to defeat them.” The enemy is Sin. We usually deny it. We either say that there is no such enemy, or that if there is we aren’t in its grip, or that even if we are that we are more powerful and will not be defeated. Alcoholics Anonymous, or other 12-step type programs understand this better than most of the church, because they start with “I have a problem.”

I was at the gym this week, lifting weights. As always, there was a loud radio station on, music blaring across the room. And as I did my bench presses, I heard an ad- “Tune in tomorrow morning to listen to our twin psychics- they’ll tell you who you are.” I don’t actually think we need psychics, not even psychic twins, to tell us who we are. The Apostle Paul will suffice. Let me read a long chunk of Romans 1, from verses 20-32.

Strong words. This is some of the strongest and clearest language in the New Testament (v24-27) about homosexual practice. This is of course a huge issue in American culture, and in the American church in particular. In fact, the Presbyterian Church has been in a 30 year argument about it, and just discussed locally and nationally and voted for the third time to affirm the leadership language of “marriage between a man and a woman” or “chastity in singleness” in our constitution. This is contentious, and difficult and painful.

Now, I think this and other Biblical texts send out a clear word that the practice of homosexuality is NOT God’s intention for our lives. But homosexuality is not what I’m preaching about today. If you want a sermon in more detail on that, I did one a few years ago and it’s online or in the church library. Or I can point you to all sorts of resources on every side of this issue.

The reason I’m not preaching on homosexuality is that it is not the problem that Paul is talking about here. It’s a symptom. Paul uses it as an example, his strongest one, of a life that is alienated from God. There are 21 other examples, things listed in verses 29-30-31. These are examples of what happens when a life has been alienated from God. Seperation happens, and these are results of it. Gossip, or homosexual behavior or heartlessness are not the things that cause alienation, but the result.

So what’s the cause? Despite the fact, Paul says, that God has made Himself plain and understandable, even through creation, “(people) exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images…they exchanged the truth abut God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.”

The biblical word for that is idolatry- worshipping something, someone other than God, giving someone or something the ultimate place in your life intended for God. It could be a person. Yourself. A determination to live life as you choose, a decision to live without God. It could be nationalism. It could be money. It could be the American Dream. Anything that lives where God was meant to, and it is that choice, that turn, which alienates us from God. That is Sin with a capital “S,” that is not an act but a condition which results in the acts.

Three times in these verses it explains “God gave them up”—in the lusts of their hearts, to degrading passions, to debased minds. God didn’t give up on them- he gave in to them. “Okay, you refuse to be with me, refuse to live as I designed you to. Have it your way.” And what did they choose? The 22 things spelled out here, which by the way is not nearly an exhaustive list.

What we ask for in turning away from God is life without restraints, and this is what it looks like. We get terribly concerned about statements like “the wrath of God” (v 18), but the wrath of God doesn’t sound so terrible here, does it? “Okay, I’ll give you what you want.”

But the results that come make it clear- it’s not supposed to be this way. It’s not the way God intended it or designed it or wants it. Did you ever see the movie Grand Canyon? Sort of a “B” movie, I think, but with one great moment. An attorney in L.A. takes a short cut around an LA traffic jam at night. He ends up getting lost, and his “short cut” drops him into a neighborhood that is dark and threatening. People on the street stare at his fancy sports car.

And then his car breaks down. He’s worried. He calls a tow truck, but before the truck arrives five young gang kids threaten him. The tow truck appears just in time, and its driver, (Danny Glover), starts to hook up the car. The gang members are irked. They had other plans for the car and for the attorney. Feeling the ugly tension, the tow truck driver takes the gang leader aside and says:

“ Man, the world ain’t supposed to work like this. Maybe you don’t know that, but this ain’t the way it’s s’pposed to be. I’m s’pposed to be able to do my job without askin’ you if I can. And that dude is s’pposed to be able to wait with his car without rippin’ him off. Everything’s s’possed to be different that what it is here.”

Not the way it’s supposed to be. I have to tell you, I’ve had kind of a heavy few weeks, not just at Bethany but in my extended family and other situations in my life as well. I’ve had conversations about broken marriages after 40 years, about infidelity, about sexual confusion, about broken promises, about pornography addictions. Conversations about protecting reputations and writing relationships off. Conversations about watching out first and foremost for #1.

This is not the way its supposed to be . These are not the things that cause seperation from God so much as they are the result of it. It’s not about “them.” Or about “us.” It’s about “we.” WE the people whom God has claimed and called to be his own… by God’s grace, turn to transforming power…

We’re all stuck in places we weren’t meant to be in. We’re all swirling around in dark water, our hand sticking up grasping for help. I’m not going to tell you what happens in the movie Grand Canyon and I’m not going to tell you what happens in the novel The Tortilla Curtain, but I am going to tell you what happens in the gospel story. Jesus Christ not only reaches down and grasps our hand…he jumps into the darkest of waters and saves us. It’s the only way. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” For “them.” For “us.” For “we.”

And so we come to this table…on level ground. God doesn’t see us as this person who has done this or that person who has done that. He hears a person who says “I’m in trouble and need help.” God says come. Come to me, come to my table, come and let me heal you.