jwquaker

Trusting the Promise

By Jared Warner

Willow Creek Friends Church

August 16, 2026

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Click to read in Swahili

Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili

Romans 11:1–2a, 29–32

I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.

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Since I have been pastor here at Willow Creek we have been using the lectionary. I have given my reasons, one reason is because it is a three-year cycle of scripture readings that give a decent overview of the entire bible. There some limits though. If we stay with the lectionary readings we will not read much of the minor prophets, and it is possible that it will start feeling like I just repeat myself. I do repeat myself. I will largely speak out of the Gospels because I think the words that the apostles remember Jesus saying are very important. Then there was a year when I used only the Old Testament readings. I did this because I felt that there was some background information missing from many of the contemporary teachings I was seeing online and hearing on the radio. The problem with the Old Testament readings, is there is so much history and context that we just do not fully understand. I would spend hours and days reading and studying. I would follow rabbit trails through various word studies and commentaries, and then I would realize that our meeting for Worship was in eight hours and I had not written anything yet.

The main reason I started using the lectionary is that I know who I am. I know my weaknesses and I know that I am easily distracted. I do not have sermon series planned out for the next year like some pastors. I often wish I was like those types of pastors. It would make things so much easier if I only knew what I was going to do. But that is not me. My leadership style is almost like an amoeba. I just flow around and if I like something it becomes the next best thing, but if I do not like it I put up my defenses.

You might be surprised to know that this little Meeting is frequently marveled about at the Yearly Meeting office. I have been asked on multiple occasions what I have been doing over the past sixteen years. Because when I started many in the Yearly Meeting were sure that this meeting would have closed, yet we did not. Instead, we began to grow little by little. Our outlook began to change little by little. Instead of being one of the Meetings they worried about they began asking what we would do. The problem is I do not have a clue.

What have we done? We adapt. We listen to what the needs are, and we make honest attempts at meeting the needs. Do we get it wrong. Absolutely, but we do it together. We flow and adapt to what is going on around us. And we become what we need to be at that moment.

Back to the lectionary. I began using this list of passages sixteen years ago, because we have multiple people picking music. At times some of them want to know in advance what passage I am going to use. So the question came up, and I simply said, I will use the lectionary and if I do not tell you specifically, we will default to the Gospel reading.

It has worked well. For sixteen years those picking music can look through the lectionary, and they will know a general idea of what scripture I will be using, and they can pick songs accordingly. The interesting thing about this, I have always thought the lectionary readings have been the right verses for that Sunday. In sixteen years, I have spoken on some pretty hard topics, and yet they have been what needed.

Which brings us to today’s passage. Last Sunday I said that we would be gifted with what was necessary at that moment. This is a very Quakerly perspective on the spiritual life. When we began as the religious society of Friends, our spiritual ancestors would meet together wherever they were on any day of the week. They believed that every day was given to us by the Lord, and that each day should be lived to honor God. They did not always meet on First days, they did not necessarily meet on the 7^th day either. Those early Friends would travel around the countryside, make an announcement, and people would come. They would meet in silence, waiting on the Spirit of Christ to move them to speak, and they would respond accordingly. They did not prepare a message, like I do. They just spoke.

I have often thought about that. I have been pretty harsh to myself for not having that level of faith. I would love to just come in and speak. I have done that during midweek services. I do that with the students during bible study. Sometimes we do not even get to the study I intended on doing because the questions that they have asked were too important, so we discuss them. But on Sunday, I am compelled to write everything down. It was only after our Congolese Friends started attending that I realized why this was happening. Our Friends came, and we as a meeting had to figure our how to respond. It was suggested that we provide some form of translation so that they could participate more fully. I did not want to put extra pressure on them, so I thought about different options.

In the writing software there is a translation tool where we can translate a document with a click of a button. I did not know anything about it at first. I did not even know it existed, because just a few years ago it did not exist. But not long after they started attending that feature was added to my document program. I wrote everything down because God knew sixteen years ago that we would need to translate everything today. It was not failure. It was preparation and being obedient even when understanding was not there.

Paul in today’s passage speaks of something similar. All through this letter to the Romans, Paul struggles with some fairly deep thoughts. He speaks of Israel, justification by faith, predestination, living by faith, and pretty much any other theological concept you can think of. But the past couple of weeks he has tackled the disparity between Israel and the faith of the Gentiles.

Is Israel saved because of their heritage? Do we need to become like Israel? Are Gentiles really saved? Is it necessary for all people to come to God through Jesus, or is there another way?

I want us to think about these things for a moment. Israel is important, but we need to keep the context. Israel has never, even in their golden age under King David, been a global superpower. They have always been this seemingly tiny nation at the crossroads of empires. This seemingly insignificant nation ends up at the center of many things. If we think about the great empires of the Ancient world, nearly all of them dealt with this tiny nation. And they had to, Israel was at the center of the available trade routes accessible to those empires.

I am someone that like to watch and keep track of various archeological findings. I actually subscribe to the Biblical Archaeological Review. And my dream vacation is to go on a dig somewhere in the lands mentioned within scriptures. The problem there are those types of trips are few and far between, and no one I know thinks that working in the arid sun all day digging in the dirt sounds like a vacation.

The thing is as these archeologists have conducted their various digs, they are finding things they did not expect. In Egypt, they are finding things from as far away as China. In India, they are finding things from Greece. They are evening finding bronze that contains tin sourced in Wales, that is found in the land that should have been ancient Persia. These things are changing our understanding of the world. We once thought that every culture was isolated, now we realize that there was ancient global trade. Some scholars have even gone so far as to suggest that the ancient world might have had trade routes to the Americas, because of the plants and seeds they have found. We have these global trade routes, but right in the middle of all the empires is Israel. A small inconsequential nation every culture must pass through to trade with the other empires.

Even before Israel existed, God chose them. God created this people from one couple who were unable to bear children. He called out to them while they lived in Ur, which we are finding out was a major city in the first great empire, Sumer. This empire is spoken of in the book of Job, the friends of Job come from all the major centers within this empire. And eventually those great cities form their own nations and cultures. But God selected for himself, not Egypt, not India, not Assyria, not even Sumer. He chose Abraham, a single man and his wife Sara. He called out to them to leave their family and their nation and to go out to a land he would give to them. They went. They trusted God. He said to them that they would be the parents of many nations, and that their descendants would be the light to all nations. Yet Sara was nearing ninety years old, and a child was not yet born. God promised Abraham, and Sarah laughed. And their small nation eventually did sit at the center of empires.

God made a promise, and God kept that promise. They did not understand at the time, yet God was working all things out according to his purposes.

In today’s passage Paul says, “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” I sat with this passage this week and I struggled. Last week I said that we will be gifted with the things necessary at that time, and at other times those gifts may not be necessary. And then I read this, and I was thinking I had misspoken.

I began to look deeper. I looked at this word, “Irrevokable” and suddenly theological positions of many traditions came crashing in at once. Can Israel be saved apart from Christ? Is it absolutely necessary for Israel as a nation to exist? These are arguments that are thrown around in our current era. There are some that believe that the current war between Iran, Israel, and the United States is a divinely sanctioned conflict that must occur, and if we say otherwise we are rejecting God. And many of these arguments are made because of this word used in this verse, “Irrevocable.”

I looked in the various translations I have, and I consistently saw the word irrevocable. Nearly every modern translation gave the same reading. I looked at this word, and the first thing I saw was that normally this word is not translated as Irrevocable, instead it is translated to mean something like without remorse or regret. The ones that did not translate it that way was the New Jerusalem Bible, which is a Catholic translation, and the King James Version. In the New Jerusalem Bible it says, “There is no change of mind on God’s part about the gifts he has made or of his choice.” And the King James says, “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”

To me the New Jerusalem Bible and the King James are more accurate in this case. But it bothered me to see that nearly every translation I looked at said irrevocable. I began looking even deeper. This word is used twice in the New Testament, once it is translated as irrevocable and the other time it is translated as without remorse. That did not help. So I opened the theological dictionary of the New Testament. This is a book where people write their entire doctoral thesis on one word, and they follow nearly every use of the world in known writings. Even here it seemed as if the vast majority of the usage of this word focused on without regret. But there was one usage in a decree during the early church era, where irrevocable was the proper translation. The leader of a city was calling for the end of violence, saying that anyone that would continue the violence against this certain group of people would face swift and harsh punishment. This punishment was irrevocable, because peace within the city was required.

I sat with these things in my mind. I looked at the notes scholars gave for their translation choice and I understood. The point is that God did not revoke his promises. He made the promise to Israel. And that promise will continue. It does not matter if they believe or not. God will stand by his word. But I still struggle with the translation. It suggests on the surface that Israel is saved because they are God’s chosen people. No matter what they do, God will forgive them. This is problematic because Israel is not perfect. Scripture is filled with examples of their kings honoring God as well as their leaders participating in idolatry. They were even judged and sent into exile. Does this mean that God was denying his own promise? And if we look at contemporary things, can we speak out against actions perpetuated by the nation of Israel, or is that being anti-sematic?

This does not mean that Israel is saved apart from Jesus. It only means that God will not remove the promise given, he will not change his mind. He is without remorse. Even though Israel often failed to live up to their end of the covenant, God will continue to preserve them as a people. And we see this throughout history. Israel remains. This seemingly insignificant nation has survived countless exiles, genocides, persecutions, and they still remain. They remain, not because they are perfect. No they remain because God is merciful and just.

Israel exists not because they are perfect, not because they deserve it, they exist and remain in existence because they are the people through whom God fulfills his promise to the entire world. They were chosen and God does not have regret for making that choice. He does not remove that promise because they failed. They are chosen because they were unlikely. God made them a people, he established them as a nation. He placed them in the land that sat on the crossroads of the entire world, and through them, he revealed his teachings, and his son.

But what does their gift, and the promise made to them reveal to us?

“For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy.”

This is an enigmatic passage. It almost feels as if Paul is double speaking but once we wrestle with it once we are able to understand the conflict within it opens up to us.

God does not revoke his promise to Israel. He has preserved them in spite of themselves. Over the past few weeks I have had people send me messages saying to me that I should be careful with my words in this area, and I understand where they are coming from. When I say that Israel is not saved apart from Christ, it does sound as if I am being anti-sematic like so many religieuse leaders in the past have been. But I do not have any ill will to them as a people. I thank them for their history, and for the steadfast presence and faithfulness throughout history. But that does not mean that they are always right.

I love a great many people that I do not agree with. I believe in the sanctity of life. I believe that every person is created in the image of God. I hold my position, and I respect the position of others that do not share my belief. Some do not understand how or why I do this, but it is easy. I respect them because they have their own mind. I cannot convince them to change their mind without giving them a reason to. My pro-life position does not stop at birth, I am pro-life which means that I believe that every human being is an image bearer and because of that they have dignity and should be respected. It does not matter their social standing, religious background, nation of origin or any other definition we place to divide people. Every human being is an image bearer and has dignity because God loves them. And because they have dignity and are loved by my God, they should be treated with the same dignity that is given to each of us. Every baby has a right to be live, every child has a right to live, every immigrant, every enemy, every theoretical extraterrestrial has a right to life. Guess what everyone has some opposition to my beliefs.

Why even bring this up? Paul spent the past few chapters speaking about the promises to his own people, and where we as Gentiles find our place in that history. We do not replace Israel, nor does Israel have salvation in any other way except through the full revelation of God in Jesus. Each of us are held accountable to the knowledge we have. Paul says, “For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.”

“Prone to wander Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love,” the hymn writer once wrote. We are each prone to disobedience. Everyone everywhere is shut out, and separated from God. But wait Paul said that nothing could separate us from the love of God. This is true. God loves, that is his nature. God provided for each person a way to return to him. That way is irrevocable. It comes through the promise of God to Israel, and ultimately through Jesus. We can either reject the love God has for us or we can accept it on his terms. God does not regret the choices he made, nor does he repent of it. That is the way, the only way. Anyone who calls upon the name of Jesus will receive mercy.

Yet we still wander. Every single day we go back and forth. Every day we struggle. Trying to decide if we trust God or not. God has not changed, his teachings remain the same, we struggle not because God’s methods are so difficult. No we struggle because we are selfish. We want our way. Throughout the Psalms David laments that he followed God, yet his enemies seemed to gain power and influence. We lament because those making decisions in our society are unaffected by the choices they make as well. We lament and cry out for justice and mercy. Jesus said that the poor will always be with us. There will always be those that have and those that do not have power and influence. This is not the injustice of God, instead it is his mercy. Mercy? When Peter drew the sword on the guards when they came to arrest Jesus, Jesus told him to put the sword away. And he said one simple statement. “Those that live by the sword die by the sword.” He also told us, that in the manner we judge others will be the manner in which we will be judged.

Life is a cycle. We are born we live and we die. We learn and we forget. Systems therapists will take detailed family histories, and as they explore those histories they will be able to find issues and events that brought about responses that we struggle with today. It might be three generations back, but once we start on a path we tend to stay on that path, we teach that path to the people around us. We give to our children and grandchildren the fear and shame we experience. We pass on the hate and the selfishness. But what if we change the cycle. What if we confess and turn a different direction? We break that cycle.

God has promised, God has gifted. He does not remove, repent of, nor does he regret the promise he made. He will honor what he said even though we are disobedient. And he provides a way to change the cycles through Jesus. Jesus left the throne in Heaven to live among humanity. He was born within a family, and lived within a community. He worked alongside his relatives. He experienced the full human life, and yet he did not sin. He taught, and he provided and example. He became true Israel. And through him everyone can return to God. God stands knocking on the door of our life, will we respond? Will we turn toward him and enter into his life and lifestyle, or will we continue to live in our selfishness? Will we be the one that will change the cycle?

We might not understand what God is doing at this moment. We might not even sense that He is near. But we can know and trust. We can take on his life and lifestyle. We can look at history and see that empires rise and fall, but the group of people that God made a promise to remain. Through hardships, through persecutions. They remain. A small insignificant nation at the crossroads of empires. A people scattered and exiled through the world. They remain. They remain because God does not revoke his promises. His promise to us is just as irrevocable. Will we trust that he has us within his hands?

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The Rhythm of Christ

By Jared Warner

Willow Creek Friends Church

August 08, 2026

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Click to read in Swahili

Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili

Romans 10:5–15 (ESV)

⁵ For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. ⁶ But the righteousness based on 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 with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. ¹¹ For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” ¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. ¹³ For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” ¹⁴ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ¹⁵ And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

Last week we spoke about how from the beginning God counted humanity as the elect over creation. This might have caused some of you to think I had committed some sort of blasphemy, but I think it is important to remember. Israel was elect, yes, but election does not mean salvation. Election does not necessarily mean exclusively chosen. It does mean chosen but chosen for a purpose. Israel was the one nation, out of all the nations, to be the one through whom God would reveal His kingdom to the world.

This sometimes causes us to wonder what that might mean. There are some that believe that elect means chosen for all time. Others might think that is ridiculous. I want us to consider what elect really means. Honor and purpose.

Paul speaks about many things throughout his letters. He speaks about gifts in several. Gifts of healing, prophecy, teaching, hospitality, and discernment to name a few. This is by no means all the gifts that God’s Spirit gives as in the Old Testament we are told that some were given the gifts of craftsmanship in order to fashion the instruments and fabrics found within the tabernacle. These artistic gifts are not mentioned in the list of gifts Paul made, does this mean it is not a real gift? Not necessarily Paul said that these gifts are given for a purpose. It is not given to make you, or I look like amazing superheros, although that does sometimes happen. They are given to encourage the church. We are given gifts, we are given opportunities, and placed into situations where God will gift us with an ability to use at that moment to bring a greater influence to His kingdom.

Do these gifts remain with us forever? Not necessarily. They are given freely to those God chooses, to those God elects, for his purposes. We do not dictate to God who is gifted and who is not. We cannot choose which gifts we are given, but Paul encourages us to strive for the great gifts. This means that we should be so focused on God’s Kingdom purposes that we are where God needs us to be at the time we are needed. And we are willing to be obedient to his call.

But these things are not ours to control. We cannot wield the will of God like magic. We cannot command God to bend to our will. We cannot demand that God give us favor. Jesus himself said that there would be many that would come before the Father and proclaim all the good they had done, even miraculous things and yet God will say to them, “I never knew you.”

This is the backdrop, or the context, we need to consider today. We have these ideas of whom the elect are. We have ideas of what righteousness is. We have concepts of how followers of Jesus should look and act. All of these are in some ways correct, but in other ways they are lacking. They are lacking because of one thing. Where is Jesus?

“Moses writes about righteousness that is based on the law,” Paul says, “that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven? (That is, to bring Christ down), or Who will descend into the abyss? (That is, to bring Christ up from the dead)/ But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.”

I want us to consider that part of the passage for a moment. We have in these words an image of ascension and descent. The rising and lowering. One might even think of it as waves upon the sea. A frequency of sound, or a rhythm.

In the late 1600’s there was a physicist that noticed that when you hang two pendulum clocks on the same wooden beam the arms will eventually swing the same direction. It was weird, and because it was weird they began to notice it in other places. We still study this, if you place several metronomes together on a platform and start them at different times, eventually they will synchronize, they were able to determine how long this will take and defined it as the Kuramoto model. They even noticed that this model shows up within our bodies. When people are around each other long enough they begin to anticipate what the other will do or say. We see this on an assembly line as people work together or on a sports team a player will know exactly where their teammate will be without even looking. And the no look pass is cool no matter what level of play it is. It goes even deeper though, our enzyme production can synchronize as well. Meaning we get hungry when the people around us are hungry among other things.

It is fascinating when you think about it. It all revolves around what they call the coupler and the frequency. When the coupler is weak, things remain in disorder, but when that coupler is strong seemingly out of nowhere everything snaps into sync. There are several things that go into this formula, the distance between the objects and their current frequency as well as how many objects are involved. These all play a role within the process, but eventually, if no other forces added to this system, the objects will synchronize.

I will not claim that I understand the science or math behind all this. But I have watched it happen, and each time I see it I am just as amazed at the first time I saw it.

There are ups and downs. Rises and falls. Waves or frequencies that we measure in nature, in one moment they seem to be in disorder, but then eventually they unite. This is what I see when I read these words that Paul wrote. Well that is one thing I see, the other thing I see is a graphic that my theology professor always used in class depicting the vicarious humanity of Christ. Jesus came down from heaven to mankind, and then he lifts mankind up to heaven. Jesus became humanity so that humanity can be restored back to God.

Even this image of the vicarious humanity of Christ offers something like the Kuramoto model. What exactly happens when Jesus became incarnate?

Let us go to the beginning. God said on the sixth day of Creation, “Let us create man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; mail and female he created them.” At that moment creation was in sync. CS Lewis in his Chronicles of Narnia depicted creation in the book Magicians Nephew. In that book Aslan created Narnia through singing. And out of the song various things began to emerge, depending on the resonance of his voice.

I have always loved the imagery Lewis creates with his words. And in the story as long as the echo of creations song remained creation continued. But there was a force of disorder that entered Lewis’s imaginary world. Discord, or disharmony. When Aslan was present the world sang with him, but where the White Witch was creation stopped. This eventually lead to Narnia being trapped where it was always winter but never Christmas.

God created humanity in a harmonious state. We were created to go out into the world to have dominion over it. We often look at dominion as being almost negative, we dominate bring it into submission. But dominion can mean lead, tread, have charge over, or authority. Everything points to something domineering, but we are looking at it from a place where disharmony rules.

When God created the earth, humanity and God were in sync. We were to go into the world and live within it while reflecting God to everything else. That is Godly dominion, it is synchronized and in harmony. But soon there was another force, that convinced our first parent that God was not being honest. This serpent convinced us that we should have the knowledge of good and evil. Prior to that moment we only knew good, we only existed in harmony. But the deception caused us to wonder if there was more. We began to resonate with evil.

Evil introduced a different frequency. Soon as humans moved closer to one another, they began reflecting what each tribe, or nation determined to be good. And another nation did the same. Each was disconnected and disordered for the other. And we began to build cities and empires to protect what we thought is best for us. Excluding those that were different. Eventually evil took hold, and we began killing those that threatened what we saw as good in our own eyes. We sought after knowledge that would give us power over the others. We conspired, lied, cheated. Even sought forbidden things that directly opposed God.

We made our own rhythms, we sang our own songs. We created waves that crashed into other waves and the entire world was worked up into a storm that threatened the existence of life. So to protect what God had created, God saved a remnant. Allowing the rest of the world to be overcome by its own sinfulness. Then God restarted the rhythm, he restored the frequency.

Again, humanity sought the things that opposed God. Again they wanted to make a name for themselves. They wanted to become like God on their own terms. But we cannot become what we do not know. And God confused the languages. God did not give up, instead he chose one nation to work with, Israel.

Did he save this one nation? Yes, he chose them out of every other nation to be the one nation in the world to teach. They were set apart from every other nation to learn the rhythm of God. They were chosen to be reflect God to all nations.

Moses writes about it, Paul says. Moses said that it rises and descends, and that we can know it. That the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. Are we listening? Are we moving closer to the proper resonance so that we can become coupled with it?

Israel was given the sheet music so to speak. They practiced it, but eventually they got tired, and they wanted to improvise. When I was in college I took a class called music appreciation and in that class we listened to a lot of music. I even began to appreciate some of it. But there was one form of music that was fascinating, jazz. It was this free form of music that you could recognize, but each performance was different. I began to love Jazz. Then I went to a jazz concert on campus. I did not like jazz that much after that. We love the idea of improvisation. We like the idea that there are no boundaries and I can just do what I want. But unless we know the music, we are not playing a song. A good jazz artist knows the song, they know the cord progressions and what notes go with each other. They can fill the space with something completely new, and yet they do this within the rhythm and key originally set. Israel was given the key and the original rhythm. It began with them, but even they did not learn the song, even though the word was near, they wanted to go their own way.

God let the band break up. He let ten of its member so off to form their own band, he even let the remaining two members go off on their own journey. Yet God continued to keep the bass line going. And some living in exile began listening and playing once again. They relearned the music, the returned the instruments. Some even came back to the original stage and went on a reunion tour.

Tensions rose again. Discord entered the music, and the rhythm was once again lost. But God still kept the bass line going, but humanity was not quite getting the melody. So God sent his son, into the world. God came down from the throne in heaven to become Israel himself. God lived with us. He taught us the rhythm of life. First, He made it his custom to worship with the community. Second, he often withdrew to isolated places to pray. And third he ministered to those in need within his community.

Worship, prayer, and service. Loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit, and living the love of Christ with others. That is the rhythm of God. Draw close, feel it in our bones, and respond.

Jesus, God incarnate, came to show us this rhythm of life. He showed us the power and hope within it. And then he sent his disciples out to continue the ministry. There is a going out, and a coming in again. Another cycle, another wave. While we listen to the rhythm of the Spirit.

God became man, so that man can return to God. Jesus lived the rhythm, so that we could learn the rhythm. And God through Jesus provided the way to return through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. God took on the very things that cause disharmony, and he restores them to life once again. That word is near you, in your mouth, and beating in your heart. The very name of God can be heard in every breath that we take. Yet, we cannot join until we return to him. We cannot be saved unless we synchronize to his life and lifestyle. We need to be coupled to the giver of life. Paul says that this is not only for Jews, they had the music, but the music was not only for them. The music belongs to God and was to be played throughout the whole world. To him there is no distinction between Jew or Greek. Paul also says there is no distinction between slave or free, or male or female. This means we are of the same substance. We are human, and God created man in his image, male and female he created them.

But Paul says, “how will they call on Him, in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’”

This goes back to where we began today. Who are the elect, and who are chosen? Who has a gift, and how are they to use it?

Each of us are here today because someone somewhere did something that caught our attention. We heard the music so to speak. It might have been your grandparents, or maybe someone you worked with. Maybe it was someone in your class at school, or even your parents. Someone somewhere along your journey in life, was inspired by God to come alongside you, and while they walked that journey they reflected the life of Jesus to you. You began to hear the spirit’s whispers, and you desired more. Eventually you asked a question, and they provided an answer. You thought it was weird at first because it did not make sense, because it did not seem to sync with the life you had known. But they continued to live, and how they responded to the challenges of life caused you to question if your ways were really good.

Eventually, you were faced with a choice. Will you continue to walk your own path or will you synchronize your steps with those of Christ. It does not matter who you were or where you are at this time. God loves you, and no one can separate you from that love. But you cannot live in that love until you repent and return to God. You cannot return to God unless you confess that you have been living in sin and choose to submit to His life and lifestyle. And when we draw closer to him, that submission becomes easier because the Kuramoto model is at play. Our rhythm become his rhythm. And just as it was his custom to worship, withdraw to pray, and to minister to the surrounding needs. We begin to do the same.

Humanity was chosen to bear God’s image, and only humanity. We were the ones selected out of all the creatures of the earth to bring everything else under the rule and rhythm of God. Each of us must listen to the music and respond. Each of us must live the love of Christ where we are, so that everyone around us can hear of the love God has for them. Will we join in to that rhythm? Or will we remain instruments of dissonance?

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For the Sake of My Brothers

Matthew 6:31–34 (ESV)

³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ³⁴ “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Query 7

Do you try to observe simplicity in your manner of living?

Do you frequently inspect your affairs and settle your accounts?

Are you careful to live within your income and avoid involving yourselves in business beyond your ability to manage?

Are you just in your dealings, punctual to your promises, prompt in the payment of your debts, and free from defrauding the public revenue?

EFC-MA Faith and Practice page 61

By Jared Warner

Willow Creek Friends Church

August 2, 2026

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Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili

For the Sake of my Brothers

¹ I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— ² that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. ⁴ They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. ⁵ To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. Romans 9:1–5 (ESV)

This week I looked at this passage with dread. I looked at it with dread because there is so much packed within the words. So much history, theology, misunderstanding, and division.

You might not notice it at first, but one could make an argument that Paul in this section is being anti-Semitic. I know that you might scoff at this because he is saying he would rather be cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of his own people. How can that be considered anti-Semitic?

This has been the largest struggle of the past few generations. Since the second world war we have had to deal with a very serious problem, a problem that has multiple faces and understandings. What do we do with, or how do we regard Israel?

Paul begins by saying, “I am speaking the truth in Christ – I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit – that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.”

To begin we need to look at the context. When speaking of context it is important to look at all things involved. In literature, we learned that context involves looking at the words prior and after the section we are considering. But context involves more. Context includes culture, history, the weather, social status and much more. Every year we are gaining more information, and all of this adds to the contextual understanding of a passage. One of the things that annoys me most when discussing scripture is when people say, “the plain reading of the passage.” It annoys me because the plain reading is not as plain as we might think it is. The plain reading leaves out the context, and when we leave out the context we are allowing our context today, to dictate what we read.

We cannot get out of this trap. We accuse some denominations of doing this as we consider aspect of what has been called the culture war, but we do not see that we do it ourselves. We do it to such a degree that often we no longer know what scripture actually says because we have filtered it through our cultural lenses. And when ever someone attempts to teach us something using a different contextual perspective, we label them as being woke or liberal.

Paul says, “I am speaking the truth in Christ – I am not lying.” The context. Paul is writing this letter to a population of believers that has never set foot in Roman Palestine, or Judea. He is writing this letter to a people that only knows the gospel through a philosophical perspective. They are aware of the Old Testament writings, but to them those writings hold just a little more power than the writings of Homer. They are stories of a far off people in an almost alien culture.

Yet they regard these writings with respect. And it is right that they do. Paul would later write to one of his apprentices, that all scripture is God breathed. When he wrote those words he is not considering his own writings as being the inspired word of God, but he is speaking of the writings found within the law and the prophets. The writings within the Old Testament are important. They are the historic testimony of God’s interaction with humanity from the beginning of time until this day. We should hold them with great respect.

The problem though is that we are just as naive about those scriptures as the ancient Romans were. We do not understand the context, because their culture is different from our own. We look at the law as rules we should not break because we approach scripture from a western worldview. This is not completely wrong, but it is not completely correct either. There are aspects of the western ideals within the teachings of scripture, but that is what it is, teaching not legislation. They are words to prompt reflection and interaction. Or from a Friendly persuasion a Query.

Paul is aware of both the eastern and western takes on things. He will make statements that resemble the teachings of Greek philosophers alongside of the teachings of Moses. He does, not because the writings of Plato are scripture, but because that is the mental structures the people he writes to are looking at their world from.

He states, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulations, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger or sword?…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31-39)

This is the literary context. Nothing will separate us from God, Paul says. He says this, and he goes on to say I am speaking the truth – I am not lying. But then he says that he has great sorrow and unceasing anguish. He wishes that he were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of his brothers.

Who is the elect?

Theology, division, misunderstanding meet. If we look at the teachings of the Old Testament, we would believe that Israel is elect. Rightfully so, because God says in Deuteronomy that Israel is his inheritance as he divides the nations of the earth among the Sons of God. But what does that mean? Does the election of Israel mean that only Israel is saved? That only those bound genetically to the line of Abraham have any hope to salvation? Paul goes on to quote from Malachi 1:2-3, “’I have loved you.’ says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have you loved us?’ ‘Is not Esau, Jacob’s brother?’ declares the Lord. ‘Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated.’” Jacob the younger son, gained the blessing and inheritance from his father Isaac, and Esau the land of Edom became a wasteland, yet both were children of Abraham. Both should have been children of the promise.

One is elect and the other is not. The people of Judah, the decedents of the tribe that brought us David, should be among the most elect. Yet Paul says he would give everything up, that he would be accursed and cutoff from Christ if only that would be true. He wished that it would be true. His greatest desire is that Israel would be saved.

Israel were selected out of every nation of the earth to be the people of God. They were the ones who received the promise and the teachings or law of God. They were given the priesthood, and the proper liturgy of worship. They knew how to worship God. It was to and through them that Christ came. Yet Paul does not include his own people among the elect, and it breaks his heart.

They had the knowledge. They have the scriptures. They have the promise, the history, the traditions. Yet, their heritage does not save them. Nor will ours.

Who is the elect?

This goes deeply into the theological debates raging within the church since its formation. The debate separates us into different camps, largely among Protestants we have the Calvinists and Arminianism. For those that hold to the Calvinist perspective God has chosen, and predestined the elect from the dawn of creation, who will be saved and who will be damned to the lake of fire. We have no say, we have no option. You are in or out, and nothing you do can change it. Those within this camp will quote the words of Paul, using Romans 8 as their proof text that nothing can separate the elect from the love of God. It seems pretty clear, why would anyone oppose this? Well some are not elect, that means that God chose from the dawn of creation some to be saved, but he also chose some to be cursed.

This has led us to some very problematic actions. It has allowed injustice to be accepted as fate. Those born into slavery were destined to be slaves. Those born poor were destined to be poor. Those that have wealth and power it was by divine right that they have that power. It is God’s ultimate plan.

Where are you in that plan? Nothing you do, nothing you say, nothing you possess changes anything. You are either elect or cursed. Should we have supported the abolition of slavery? Should we have opposed Jim Crow? Should we have gotten involved in World War 2? Should we care about Ukraine, or the conflicts within Africa?

Then there is the other side. Arminianism. This is the theological idea focuses on human free will, or conditional election. This theological idea emerged around the same time as when the Religious Society of Friends emerged, and greatly influences our understanding of salvation. We tend to like this theological ideology a bit more because it does give us freedom because we get to participate with God. It is this theological idea that promoted social justice as well as the rise of Evangelicalism. We have a part to play. The problem is what do we do with the discussion of election within scripture?

The theological arguments are all lacking to some degree, because for every verse we use to prove our position, we can find one or two that support the other position. Which brings us back to what election means?

What if election has nothing at all to do with salvation, but instead honor? If we consider this humanity as a whole is elect because we became the most honored of creation as we were the beings created in the image of God. Personally this makes a great deal of sense to me. Because we have the honor of being the image bearers of God, we have the opportunity and privilege to reflect the image of God to creation.

This aspect of election, I feel, is often neglected. It almost negates the whole message of the Gospel if we do not recognize how we were created. It completely nullifies the entirety of scripture as a whole. If humanity were not elect or honored over all creation, why would God need to choose Israel? Why would Israel need a land of promise? Why would they require David to become king, and the messiah to be born of the linage of David? What is the necessity of Jesus?

I have come to this conclusion because the promise given to Abraham was that his descendants would become a light to the nations. God always intended to bring fallen humanity back to him. God’s greatest desire was to restore humanity back to Eden.

Unfortunately this restoration takes time. I want us to consider for a moment the temptations that Jesus faced in the wilderness. The first was to turn a stone into bread. Jesus had the power to do this. He had the power to feed over five thousand people through a simple prayer over a small boy’s lunch. Yet Jesus told the accuser, “man does not live by bread alone, but by the word of God.” We do not often look deeply at these temptations. But these three temptations truly encapsulate every temptation we face.

The first is fulfilling our immediate needs. What are you willing to do to get what you need to survive? The adage is everyone who is hungry is a thief. The accuser then takes Jesus to the pinnacle of temple and urges him to jump, because scripture says that God will send angels to protect him from harm. Jesus responds to this by saying that we should not test God. Yet we do test God. It is almost our very nature to push the limits of those in authority over us. Children almost have a hereditary knowledge of just how far they can push their parents before punishment. And this is the annoyance that is the wrath of God. We test we push, we try to see just how far we can go before something bad will happen.

The third temptation we may not fully understand. Jesus is shown all the kingdoms of the world. This temptation is the fulfillment of our ultimate dream. God’s greatest desire was to bring all the nations back to Him, and the accuser said I will give you your greatest dream if you only worship me. What will you do to gain the entire world?

Each of us face these temptations every single day we live. We want the promotion, so we pad the books to our favor. I once worked with an extremely devout man. He was one of the people that was at the church every time the church doors were unlocked. He could quote scripture for any situation, and he was of the piety that believed the best and only version of scripture was the authorized version. This man annoyed me, but at the time I could not say anything against him. We both worked in the rental car business, and he was always better than me in sales. It does not make sense because when I looked at him doing the work it did not seem like he did any better than me. But we were both up for a promotion. They were opening a new branch and needed a branch manager, the two final candidates were me and him. As far as I knew he had the job, because his numbers were better. But they began to look at the numbers close. This righteous man, this devout man, wanted the promotion so much that he offered to enter the paper written contracts for others and took personal credit for their sales. He committed fraud to get what he wanted.

This is what the temptations represent. We as humanity left the garden because we wanted to determine good and evil for ourselves. But how do we determine what is good and what is evil? We base it on ourselves. What is best for me. All cultures are built on this concept, every kingdom and every nation. What is best for me or my kind? How has this worked?

Even the elect Israel, fell into this worldly trap. Even Israel the chosen people, who received the teachings directly from God, turned their backs on those teachings and decided to determine good and evil based on their own understanding. Yet this was never how God wanted things to work.

We were elect, honored, and we turned away. But God so loved the world that he gave his one unique son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have life. The election and the honor has always been based on God, whose image we bear. Jesus is the most honored because he embodies every form of election, every promise God made to humanity. And he is God with us. Nothing can separate us from that love. God did all of that while we were still at odds with him. God did it while we were still making every attempt at making our own way. Humanity cannot be separated from that love.

And yet Paul says that he is grieved. That he would rather be cursed and completely separated from God for the sake of his brothers. God has love for humanity, but Jesus did not think equality with God was something that could be grasped. Usually we think of that verse as meaning something that can be understood. That of course, is not completely incorrect, but it is not full either. To grasp something also means to take. And in reference to that verse in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, the term grasp means to steal. Again this is the third temptation. Paul is grieved because he wants his own brothers to understand, to be included among the elect because it was to them God gave the honor of the patriarchs, the law, and the promise. But Jesus, the incarnate man, is the elect, not a nation.

Each person, no matter who they are or where they come from must come to Jesus. It cannot be forced, it cannot be taken. Instead, it must be a willful submission, like the relationship between a husband and a wife. A mutual existence where each one dies to themselves so that they can become a blessing to the other.

This is God’s plan, that each of us will recognize the honor we have to bear his image to the world. That we would willingly join with him in the life and lifestyle he established at the very beginning of time. He wants us to fulfill the teaching he gave to our first parents, to go into all the world and to be fruitful and multiply. This does not mean that we are commanded to have a bunch of children, but instead we are to plant seeds of the garden, His garden everywhere we go.

We are called to bear his image to creation. And this begins with submission to him, and to each other. Which is at the root of this month’s query.

Do you try to observe simplicity in your manner of living?

Do you frequently inspect your affairs and settle your accounts?

Are you careful to live within your income and avoid involving yourselves in business beyond your ability to manage?

Are you just in your dealings, punctual to your promises, prompt in the payment of your debts, and free from defrauding the public revenue?

On the surface it appears that this query speaks to our financial affairs. But there is more to it than that. Are we living among those within our community well? Are we dealing honestly with them or are we giving them a reason to grumble and oppose the kingdom? Are we bearing the light? Are we being image bears?

The reality is that God so loved the world that he became his own promise to us. He loves us and nothing can separate us from that love, it is available to us all at any moment. Yet I, along with Paul, grieve for my brothers, for my countrymen, because we so often do not see the love God has for us so we reject and turn away. We chase after our own concepts of good and evil, and end up causing harm instead of bearing the light of God. We know what is right because the Spirit of God is always present wooing us to turn, and yet we want our way, by our terms. Will we listen? Will we respond? Will we become the people God has called us to be?

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