Haverhill Commons Church Haverhill Commons Church

Most Americans hear “Trump” or “Biden” and run for cover. In fact, when it comes to politics, one of the strongest dividing lines in America is between those who care a lot…and those who don't.

There were also plenty of reasons for the believers at the church in Rome to disconnect from their governing authorities, too. In Romans 13, Paul urges believers not to disconnect, but to engage. In this sermon we present a framework for engaging politically as Christians in America today.

Why difference does theology make? All the difference in the world.
It starts with our minds: upending the destructive patterns of the world and replacing it a pattern that builds up and encourages. A pattern that offers wholeness to our souls as we seek to conquer evil by doing good, and put our trust in God that His righteousness and justice will prevail in every aspect of our lives and in the world around us

In Romans 11, we see Paul wrestling with one of the great tragedies of his life. His people had rejected him and rejected Jesus, but Paul found meaning in that loss.

God was able to use Israel’s transgression, their rejection of Jesus, to bring the rest of the world to faith. It’s almost as if the rest of the nations were watching Israel from the sidelines, and Israel, play after play, kept stumbling, kept going backwards, kept fumbling the ball. And as Israel stumbled, the rest of us were learning.  

Learning that we cannot be perfectly faithful but that God is still faithful. How did we learn this? By watching Israel try and fail, over and over again. Though it broke Paul’s heart, he found meaning in that loss because it led him to tell everyone else about Jesus.

Paul didn’t get stuck in grief, he believed that God would turn tragedy into triumph. We, too, experience grief and the danger is that we’ll get stuck in our grief. If you’ve been in the deep waters of grief, if you’re sinking down or at the bottom even right now, our hope is that we trust that God is present to us as we grieve, that God is moving even in the loss, that God is transforming even the tragedy, and that God can take the ashes and make something beautiful.

What happens when you hold onto your plan so tightly that you almost miss the new thing God is doing in your midst?

In Romans 9, Paul begins by lamenting that Israel had chosen the sense of safety and security provided by the Law over faith in Jesus. God’s plan for the Israelites was for them to experience new life in Christ and to share that new life with others.

The Law was not a bad plan. After all, it was the plan that God had given to Israel. But it was part of a larger plan and Jesus was the culmination of that plan. But instead of embracing Jesus, the Israelites chose instead the comfort of what they thought they knew.

To embrace new things means we often have to let go of old things. Admittedly, that is scary. In Israel, we see our own tendency to retreat to what is safe and secure instead of embracing the new thing God is doing. But when we let go and see the new thing God is doing in us, we also begin to see the new things God is doing in our communities.

When we’re talking about the current activity of God in our lives and on the earth, we’re talking about the activity of the Holy Spirit. If we’re in Christ, then the Spirit lives within us. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives within us.

When we put our trust in Jesus, we are changed. We are no longer slaves to sin but alive in the Spirit. One of the ways Paul tries to convey the significance of the indwelling spirit is through the language of adoption. We are chosen, permanently part of God’s family.

This passage also tells us that the Holy Spirit, even now, groans over the brokenness and suffering of the world. A sound that pours out to say what words cannot. A sound of lament, of anguish, of sorrow. God groans over creation, which means, God cares.

And we have the power to embody the future glory of God’s kingdom into the world around us right now. When people wonder if God cares, they’ll look at us, God’s people, to see if we care.

Each of us has a story of shame. We feel shame for the wrong we’ve done, but we also feel shame for the wrong that’s been done to us. The horrible truth is that sin is indiscriminate. It hurts and shames the one who is guilty and it hurts and shames the one who is innocent.

Adam and Eve were given a commandment: do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Incredibly, they were naked and they felt no shame. Then the serpent deceived them, and she and Adam did the one thing God told them not to do. 

God’s command was good. It protected them, connected them…but the serpent used the command to cause them to sin.

Shame researchers agree that the only way to counter shame is to do the opposite of what shame wants us to do. Shame wants us to hide from the possibility of being hurt. But the only way forward is through. Shame research is “discovering”what God has been doing all along: turning towards us with vulnerability.

Crucifixion was designed to not only kill but to humiliate. The cross is not only about sin, it’s also about shame. Jesus confronted sin and shame on the cross through vulnerability, defeating it once and for all and making a way for us to be healed.