Belonging: Confession
Call On the Name of the Lord
Romans 10:8b-13
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. March 6th, 2022
When I was serving up north I was sitting in on a Kiwanis meeting. The speaker that day was a representative from a fairly well known Christian charity, I won’t name names. They were there to explain their mission and the effects it has had on those they serve. The focus was on their mission to the Philippines. They told us how they meet the needs of many who are impoverished in the Philippines, and how they share the gospel with them as well. It was all very heartwarming to hear. I only had one issue with them. The Philippines is 87% Christian. By contrast the United States is 63% Christian. The Philippines is among the most Christian nations in the world.
If their goal is to spread the gospel, why are they targeting the Philippines? But this didn’t seem strange to anyone else in the room. They likely were not aware that there are more Christians per capita in the Philippines than in the United States. The assumption was they were another nation who was in need of our help, a different people who needed to hear the words of the gospel.
Incidentally, one of the reasons President McKinley gave to justify the Philippine-American war, back in 1899 was our duty to Christianize the country. Mission boards from all protestant denominations mobilized to divide up the nation and evangelize. There was only one problem: the Philippines was almost entirely Catholic at the time.
Even today we watch the war in Ukraine. One of Vladimir Putin’s supposed justifications for his actions is the need to protect Russian Orthodox Christians in the separatist regions. But Ukraine is also an Eastern Orthodox nation, with their own national church. Christians fighting Christians. If only we would agree not to fight each other we could do a whole lot for world peace.
It truly is a scandal for the Church that we find ourselves divided. It is one thing to be divided on theological questions. From time to time in Church history there has been differences of opinion and debate is required to sort it out. It is quite another thing to allow ourselves to be divided by race, ethnicity, or nationality. These are precisely the divisions Christ overcomes by grace.
Our epistle reading this morning comes from the latter half of Paul’s letter to the Romans. Here he is addressing an issue that had threatened to split the Church in Rome apart. That is, how can non-Jews be Christian? How do the nations follow the Jewish messiah? Everyone was in agreement gentiles could be saved in principle. The Spirit that was upon them was undeniable. But how they, or I should say we speaking as a gentile myself, were to be incorporated was still a matter of debate.
Some argued that if gentiles were to be saved, we must take on the works of the Law in order to be made part of the covenant people. Which would mean circumcision, a whole new diet, taking Saturdays off, and following a new calendar. Others argued that Jesus fulfilled the Law so Law observance was no longer necessary.
Paul tended to be in the latter camp. He says, “if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” There is no needing to be part of a certain people, or having a certain culture, or dressing a certain way, or being of a certain class. But if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and no one else. That our brother Jesus is the King of Kings. That he holds the reigns of history, that he is in control. And if you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and so you do not fear the grave, then you will be saved.
We are the people who hold to a common confession. The confession of Jesus’ Lordship, the confession of Jesus’ resurrection. When we are able to confess these things, we are in a way one. Saying Jesus is Lord, and saying death has been defeated unites us as a people and sets us apart. That is also why Paul goes on to say, "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him.”
All who call on the name of the Lord are saved. All. All who confess Jesus as Lord and confess his resurrection are made a new people. No more do we have these distinctions between Jew and Greek, or between filipino and anglo, or between Ukrainian and Russian. Do you confess as I confess? Then we are thicker than any blood. That is how it should be.