Scripture texts: Romans 9:1-5, Isaiah 55:1-5, Matthew 14:13-21
Our second lesson today is one of the most difficult ones in all of the New Testament. It’s the beginning of the “What about the Jews?” text, where Paul muses over his thoughts and feelings about what will happen to the Jewish people now that Christ has come. This is a question the Church has struggled with along with Paul. Our answers have often been self-interested, evil, and violent. “Convert or die” has far too often been our answer, and that thinking, that mindset, of course, led to the Holocaust and all of its horrors.
We may not like to admit it, but this started with Christians and their long history of antisemitism.
Paul, for his part, gives no such hostility in his musings over the question. He is hopeful, but uncertain, about salvation for his own people. How sad it is that we have read his uncertainty as sanction for cruelty, license for abuse and persecution. But Paul is simply being honest about not knowing the mind of God. He quotes numerous Scriptures that say one thing or another throughout the 9th, 10th, and even 11th chapters of his letter to Rome, debating with himself about what might be the truth. His uncertain conclusion is that salvation will come to all people, Jew and Gentile alike.
Paul is really no different than any of us. Most of us, I can imagine, have crossed paths with people of other religious understandings or no religion at all. And while we remain called to proclaim the Gospel to such people in word and in deed, what happens if we see no response to that Gospel in them? The right and proper answer, which I’ve noted over the last several sermons, that’s not our concern is little comfort when the person we are dealing with is beloved to us: Our best friend, a favorite relative, a wayward child, or some such.
I remember keenly a story that was told to me by one of my seminary professors regarding a favorite uncle. He was a man who did not believe, who rejected Christ even on his deathbed, and yet to the young man that would become my professor, he was wonderful and loved human being. “Can I be damned to save him? Can he take my place in heaven?” asked my professor hypothetically, but also in all sincerity. Paul says much the same thing himself, “For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people.”
Paul’s not grandstanding here. His love for his own is great, just as my professor’s love for his uncle was great. Just as my love for my atheist and agnostic and Hindu and Jewish and Muslim friends is great. Just as your love for those folks who do not believe yet you call friend or family is great.
But I believe we can take heart. It’s been no secret to any of you who’ve heard me preach and teach over the years that I fall in line with Paul’s conclusion that salvation will be for all people. That when the final judgment comes, hell will be empty because of Christ. But like Paul, I am also uncertain about that. I do not know the mind of God and I do not know what, in the end, he will do. I can hope that he will save those that I love who outside his flock.
And that hope is not without support. Paul quotes Scriptures numerous to back up (and refute) his claims in his debate, and I can do the same. In fact, the lectionary was kind enough to give me a few today that I can use for those purposes.
The prophet Isaiah was, of course, steeped in the reality of the Old Covenant. The covenant made to Abraham where God claimed that he would send through Abraham’s family a “blessing for all the families of the Earth.” The whole purpose of the Hebrew people, the whole reason they were Chosen, was to serve as priest and intercessor between God and the rest of the world. It was they who would introduce the nations to Yahweh. It was they who would show the world what Christians would later call the “kingdom of God,” a place where the hungry were fed, the sick cared for, and where every life mattered.
Isaiah, as did many of the prophets, called the Israelites to remember why they were Chosen. His call to the people in the 55th chapter of his prophecy is universal. All who thirst, come to the water that God offers. See there is a covenant with David’s kingdom and it will call nations to learn of God. Nations that do not worship Yahweh will come to learn of him.
These prophecies never came true, or did they? Has God brought all nations, all peoples, all tribes and languages, under his wing through Christ, the one who is “a blessing for all the families of the Earth?” I hope so.
And then our Gospel lesson is the famous story of Jesus feeding the 5000. It’s the only miracle of Jesus that all four evangelists report on. I’ve always wondered why there were leftovers. It’s always seemed an unnecessary flourish that Jesus put on his miracle, that he was “showing off,” and that didn’t seem like Jesus. He’s not the “Hold my beer. Watch this.” type.
So there has to be a reason why he made twelve baskets full of extras from the miraculous meal. The evangelist John calls every miracle a Jesus a sign, something that points to the reality of God’s kingdom. And these extra baskets too are a sign of that kingdom.
Perhaps it is the same sign as when made the water into wine and made far more wine than the partygoers at that wedding could ever drink. Exceeding abundance marks both these miracles. Is that a characteristic of the kingdom? Is it because grace overflows? Is it because his love, like the cup of the 23rd Psalm, runneth over? And if it does so, is there not room in God’s heaven for more souls than we can imagine? Does grace abound even for those who do not believe?
Maybe.
I don’t know for certain, but I hope. What I do know for certain is that God loves me beyond comprehension. Even though I know I don’t deserve that kind of love. And I know he loves you that way too, even though you too do not deserve it. As Brennan Manning often said, “God loves us so much he’d rather die than be without us.” Jesus made proof of that by dying for us on a cross, evidence of God’s immensely incalculable love for us. I know that I am saved because of that love. I know you are too.
Is that love big enough for the whole world? I believe it is. It’s a love for everyone. Christ’s sacrifice was for everyone. His rising from the tomb was for everyone. He said “It is finished” from the cross on that fateful Friday. I believe he meant it. Is it truly done for all? One day, we will know. Amen.
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