WEATHER ALERT:

In-person programs have been canceled until Wednesday at 5 PM at each of the church’s locations, with the exception of recovery meetings, backpack stuffing for school partners, and the food pantry at Overland Park, which will each continue as scheduled.

The church will reopen on Wednesday at 5 pm for all scheduled programs.

We are all “project cars”

August 20, 2024
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Daily Scripture

Romans 3:9-20, 23

9 We have already stated the charge: both Jews and Greeks are all under the power of sin. 10 As it is written,
There is no righteous person, not even one.
11 There is no one who understands.
    There is no one who looks for God.
12 They all turned away.
    They have become worthless together.
There is no one who shows kindness.
    There is not even one. [Psalm 14:1-3]
13 Their throat is a grave that has been opened.
    They are deceitful with their tongues,
        and the poison of vipers is under their lips. [Psalm 5:9]
14     Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. [Psalm 10:7]
15 Their feet are quick to shed blood;
16         destruction and misery are in their ways;
17         and they don’t know the way of peace. [Isaiah 59:7-8]
18 There is no fear of God in their view of the world. [Psalm 36:1]
19 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, in order to shut every mouth and make it so the whole world has to answer to God. 20 It follows that no human being will be treated as righteous in his presence by doing what the Law says, because the knowledge of sin comes through the Law.

23 All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory.

Daily Reflection & Prayer

In today’s reading, “Paul concludes the discussion that began in Romans 1:18. He provides a chain of Old Testament quotations to support his claim about universal human sin.” * Paul used his familiarity with the Hebrew Scriptures to show the Roman Christians (maybe notably those with Hebrew backgrounds) that it was not a novel idea that all people, Jewish or Gentile, needed a savior. The prophetic, poetic faith he’d always believed about the Messiah led to that conclusion.

  • Paul used five Scriptures (Psalm 14:1-3, Psalm 5:9, Psalm 10:7, Isaiah 59:7-8, and Psalm 36:1) to show that no one, from the most immoral Gentile to the most careful Pharisee, kept God’s law fully. He also quoted Psalm 51:4 in Romans 3:4. (One preacher said the moral law is like a sheet of glass. If it’s broken anywhere, it’s broken–cf. James 2:10.) Is that bad news? Or can it draw you into a community of people who all share the need to live by trusting in God’s gracious faithfulness to forgive?
  • Paul’s wrap-up stung for those (like the younger Paul himself) who hoped pious deeds would set them right with God. “Anyone who imagines that they can stand before God and appeal to ‘works of the law’ as a reason for final justification, that is, for a favourable verdict at the last judgment, is barking up the wrong tree.” ** The darker the night, the more clearly we see the stars. How does Paul’s view of our darkness without God help you see the light of God’s grace more clearly?
Prayer

Lord God, my ego would like you to “owe” me salvation because of my own goodness. But that’s backward. I thank and praise you for the gift of salvation based on Jesus’ goodness and grace, not mine. Amen.

GPS Insights

Picture of Brandon Gregory

Brandon Gregory

Brandon Gregory is a volunteer for the worship and missions teams at Church of the Resurrection. He helps lead worship at Leawood's modern worship services, as well as at the West and Downtown services, and is involved with the Malawi missions team at home.

Since I became a Christian, I’ve been told numerous times that I’m going to hell. Every time this has happened, it’s come from other Christians. People will latch onto one aspect of my faith that they disagree with, discard the whole thing, and then argue vehemently about it. I’ve been told I’m going to hell for the political party I support, the people I refuse to judge, and even my mental health condition. The general sentiment is that I’m doing Christianity wrong and need to be corrected to do it right (which inevitably lines up 100% with how the accuser is practicing it). As frustrating (and frustratingly common) as this is, it’s not a phenomenon unique to Christianity.

Psychology as a field of study is progressing rapidly and new research is put out every year. With new research comes new understanding of psychological conditions. In particular, neurodiverse conditions such as autism and ADHD are understood by the medical community more than ever—and with that, the public’s awareness of these conditions is growing. As more people understand these conditions, more people realize they may also find help in effective treatment and seek a diagnosis. This has unfortunately led to a backlash of people saying that neurodiverse conditions are over-diagnosed and that these people aren’t disabled enough to really have these conditions. Ablism aside, if people (including myself) can live a more normal life with effective medical treatment, why wouldn’t we want that?

This thought process is called gatekeeping. It occurs everywhere: from big ideas like faith and psychology to small ideas like hobbies and fan communities. I saw a woman online accused of not being a “real video game fan” because she liked Animal Crossing (which is a fine game, by the way). Same principle. I sometimes see this applied internally, such as a person going to therapy expressing doubt that their pain and trauma are “bad enough” to really need therapy. We’re often told we don’t belong, and sometimes we internalize those thoughts and doubt ourselves pre-emptively.

We all like to belong, yet when we feel like we do belong, we often like to exclude. What it comes down to is that each of us wants to feel special. In our desire to belong, we want to feel like we belong more than others, and this leads to many unhealthy thoughts and behaviors in all types of communities.

The message of Christianity that Paul preached here is that, while we are all special in God’s eyes, none of us are any more special than others—no matter how much we may feel that others are doing it wrong. There are things we can do wrong in our faith, but that’s the point: we all need God because we all have problems we need to fix, people we need to treat better, and beliefs we need to change. It’s fine to talk about what we should and shouldn’t do, but if most of our thoughts and conversations go to what others are doing wrong (rather than looking at ourselves), we’re likely gatekeeping our faith in a way Jesus never intended.

© 2024 Resurrection: A United Methodist Church. All Rights Reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References

* Michael J. Gorman, study note on Romans 3:9-20 in The CEB Study Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2013, p. 281 NT.
** Wright, N.T., Paul for Everyone, Romans Part One: Chapters 1-8 (pp. 50-51). Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition.