Good Monday morning. We had a lovely morning yesterday for our parking lot worship. Great attendance, too. There were even veggies from the community garden to share. COVID may have changed us, but it has not stopped us! God is Grrrreat!


I don’t feel like jumping into Revelation without face to face interaction even though it is next in line. How about going back to Paul’s letter to the Romans? This is the longest, but probably the newest of his letters. The intent of the letter is to persuade the Christians of Rome to support Paul’s intended mission to Spain.


Paul may have thought he might die before he got to Rome, so he wanted his message on the nature of the Gospel of Christ on file!


Many Jews had been kicked out of Rome or left due to the Emperor Claudius’ persecution and tensions within Christian house groups around 49 CE. Emperor Nero may have lifted the edict of expulsion and Jews returned, including Aquila and Priscilla (named in Acts). Anti Jewish sentiment was growing among Roman aristocrats and was beginning to emerge in non-Jewish Christian circles as well. There were also growing tensions between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians.


So, to begin, we’ll just stick our toe into Romans. Here is Paul’s salutation.

Romans 1:1-7 NRSV


1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, 3 the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, 6 including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

7 To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.


Paul arrived in Rome three years after he wrote this letter and died about 8 years after. That’s enough for today!


Blessings on your day,

Pastor Sue