Revisiting Romans

Over the Summer, we've been having a sermon series on the book of Romans at SOTV ... what an amazing challenge it has been to take this book of deep theological insight, complex argument, and moments of brilliance and come up with sermons that both: a) do it justice, and b) seem relevant to 21st century church comers. A couple of my sermons have been posted here (For reasons I don't understand, they are not available as mp3 files that I can post over to the right)

The reason I feel it's necessary to blog about this though, has much more to do with sharing the brilliance of N.T. Wright than it does with me getting you to listen to my half-baked sermons! I'm probably way behind the curve on reading N.T. Wright - he is such a prolific and wonderful scholar/author! But I am now officially on the bandwagon. Here's a quote that literally made tears spring to my eyes as I was reading his commentary on Romans in the New Interpreter's Bible:
"The God whom Paul has glimpsed in the gospel, whose justice and mercy he has been expounding in this his greatest letter, is vast and mysterious as the sea, near and intimate as breath, decisive and compassionate as a Galilean holy man on his way to a cruel death. The Wisdom tradition, the prophetic tradition, the Pentateuch, the psalms, all are now poured out in justice and mercy, through the gospel of Jesus the Messiah and the power of the Spirit."

Then... talking to my friend Deb Stehlen this past week, she recommended Wright's latest, Surprised by Hope, so that is now on the top of the to-read list. I'm so thankful for this cool drink of water for my theologically thirsty soul.