Daily Devotional • July 13
A Reading from Romans 10:4-17
4 For Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
5 Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things will live by them.” 6 But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say?
“The word is near you,
in your mouth and in your heart”
(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim), 9 because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For one believes with the heart, leading to righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, leading to salvation. 11 The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.”12 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. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
14 But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? 15 And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” 16 But not all have obeyed the good news, for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.
Meditation
Somehow, the line in today’s lesson about faith coming through hearing is easy to remember—and often applicable—and I seem to quote it a lot; I doubt I’m alone. But Paul does go on from there: How can anyone hear unless someone preaches? Fair enough; it’s fairly obvious that they have to hear something. But further still: How will anyone preach unless they are sent?
What does it mean to be sent? Paul’s own experience was being sent from the church at Antioch, where it was made clear to the gathered Christians that God wanted Paul and Barnabas sent out to spread the gospel. It was a call reinforced by the consent of the community. This is unlike Paul’s lone conversion on the road to Damascus and subsequent struggle to find his place in the Christian world. Oftentimes, God’s pattern is to call people individually without necessarily telling anyone around them—Abraham, Moses, Mary—and the call to follow alone is one that requires a lot of courage and can’t be downplayed in the spiritual life.
But neither should we, fraught as we are in a hyper-individualistic society, minimize the importance of a community which can recognize God’s calling of its members. It is one of the quirks of human nature that others often see our gifts before we do. How much more ought that to be true where those who carry the Holy Spirit himself gather?
We will not all be called to preach in the formal sense of offering sermons. We will not even all be called to explain the gospel news verbally. But we are all sent out, at the very least at the end of every Mass, to carry the grace we have received there back out into the world.
Elizabeth Baumann is a seminary graduate, a priest’s wife, and the mother of two small daughters. A transplant from the West Coast, she now lives in “the middle of nowhere” in the Midwest with too many cats.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Church of North India (United)
Trinity-by-the-Cove Episcopal Church, Naples, Florida
