greetings

Good morning friends,
This morning lift up the family of Ambassador Holbrooke as they mourn his loss. We also lift up others who mourn in this Christmas season.

As I mentioned Sunday, the readings for Advent skip around a good deal. We've read the end of Romans recently, and now we are reading some of the beginning. This is a powerful and important letter, one I think we'll study in supper and scripture sometime in the early spring. Paul greets the church in Rome, a church he has not visited at this point, in the name of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He sees himself as set apart as a messenger of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That gospel, that good news, in a nutshell is that in Christ all people have access to God and our called to belong to Christ. Belonging to Christ makes a claim on our lives and it frees us from other claims that seek to separate us from God. This call to all people, not just the people of Israel, is a radical change in understanding and one Paul takes pains to explain later in this letter. May you feel God's grace with you today.

God bless,
Sam

Romans 1:1-7

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

7To 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.