Meditation on Romans 3:19–28
First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown
Pastor Karen Crawford
Reformation Sunday
Oct. 27, 2024
A couple of days ago, I checked my Facebook feed, and I saw a memorable 26-second video.
A UPS driver is making a left turn at a busy intersection. Three wild turkeys step into the white lines of the crosswalk, walking toward his vehicle, which is blocking their way. The turkeys reach the truck in the middle of the crosswalk, they look up at the driver, andhe looks down at them.
“How did you end up here, guys?” he asks.
Cars are passing by as if three turkeys crossing the road is an everyday occurrence.
Then, I see the UPS driver’s hand. He is motioning for the turkeys to stop and wait with him for a space to open. I unmute the volume at this point and, sure enough, the turkeys are making gobbling sounds, looking up at the UPS driver, as if they are waiting for instructions. A space finally opens. The UPS driver begins to accelerate and make his wide turn.
“Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go,” he says, motioning to the three birds as he picks up speed.
And they follow him! They run beside his truck. They trust him and follow him, amidst the chaos and confusion of the traffic. They make it safely to the other side!
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This image of the man guiding and guarding the wild birds who got caught in a dangerous intersection, keeping them safe as he leads them to cross with him on the other side, speaks to me today, as we welcome nine confirmands as full, active members of our church.
No, I am not qualified to drive a big box truck. And the students who joined by profession of faith are wonderful young men and women—with no resemblance to wild turkeys.
But I am breathing a great sigh of relief that these nine students have chosen Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. They made a decision to try to follow him in their lives. They have stepped from the middle of the road of uncertainty and confusion, where many of them began this challenging program more than a year ago.
They were urged to ask questions and listen as others from the community, church, and wider denomination shared stories of faith, witness, and service. We invited speakers, such as an icon artist from the Monastery in St. James and a rabbi and his wife from the Stony Brook temple before we attended Shabbat worship with them last fall.
We studied Scripture, considered the stories of God’s people and what that might mean for today. We learned about God’s love, mercy, and grace. They told me about sin. What an interesting conversation that was the day they shared about sin at school. We prayed and learned about prayer. We learned about the Presbyterian Constitution—the Book of Order and the Confessions. We learned about the sacraments and celebrated Communion and talked about how Jesus welcomes all to come to His Table. Everyone decided that our church has the best Communion bread!
We learned about mission and the many ways our congregation serves our neighbors and one another. We engaged in hands-on mission, filling bags of candy for children at the homeless shelter, serving at the Smithtown Food Pantry, and making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for needy children in Brentwood. We hosted a live animal program from Sweetbriar Nature Center for Creation Care Sunday, and sold succulents the students had planted in church anniversary mugs to raise money for the center.
We hosted two animal blessing services that reached out to our community. Several students helped plant the daffodil memorial garden. The students also served as ushers and helpers in Sunday School.
An important part of the program happened outside the class. Each student had a mentor, who received a handbook with activities for enrichment, relationship building, and discussion. Students also had journal assignments to complete at home.
The program culminated with statements of faith. We held a writing workshop and students received help from their mentors, a writing coach, and me. It was the most difficult part of the program. The students were being asked, for the first time in their lives, to consider their personal beliefs, write them down, and share them with the Session, their families and mentors, and me.
The question of faith was a big question for the reformers of the 15th and 16th centuries. Before that, the people were forced to rely on the Church to tell them what to believe and what to do to be saved. The Church was powerful, political, wealthy, and corrupt. They required people living in poverty to buy indulgences so that they and their loved ones would go to heaven. Ordinary people were unable to read the Bible for themselves and find out God’s will for their lives as it was against the law to translate Scripture from the church Latin.
Reformers made the Word of God accessible to people in their own language. And when people began to hear the Bible in their native tongue and read the Bible for themselves, they realized how the Church had been misleading and abusing them. It changed what many had been led to believe.
One of the Scriptures that spoke to the Reformers of the 15th and 16th centuries was this passage in Paul’s letter to the Romans, when he tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God! This is assurance that no one can make themselves right with God by anything we do. Our good works won’t save us. We have redemption in Christ alone! We are justified—made righteous—by grace, which is a gift from God.
Two verses key to understanding this passage are verses 21 and 22. Up until recently, scholars translated the Greek, “But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed and is attested by the Law and the Prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all who believe.” In other words, we are saved by OUR faith. Our faith in Jesus is what makes us righteous. That’s what we have been taught.
But we are the Reformed Church, continually reforming and seeking to be transformed. Recent scholarship has discovered that this is an error in translation, which totally changes the meaning. And it’s only one little word that makes the difference. In Greek, the word for word translation is “faith Jesus Christ”—no prepositions at all. With a new understanding of the biblical Greek grammar, most scholars no longer believe that Paul is saying by faith IN Jesus Christ, we are saved. Instead, they believe it is through the faith OF Jesus Christ that we are saved. We have shifted from being saved by our own faith, which can be seen as a good work, to being saved by the faith of Jesus Christ.
Our redemption, dear friends, comes through trusting in the work of Jesus, the only righteous one, who was perfectly obedient to God when he gave himself for the sins of the world.
As the students were sharing their faith statements with Session and the families on Tuesday night, I couldn’t help but think what a hard thing they were doing. It would have been a hard thing for any adult to do what the students are required to do, to consider, write down and say what we believe.
And it should be a challenge to all of us, if we are seeking to know and grow and walk with Christ, more and more. We should be asking ourselves, every now and then, “What do I believe?”
And the question that naturally follows should be, “If this is what I say I believe, how, then, shall I live to be more faithful?”
I am so grateful to our mentors and to Dulcie McLeod, our writing coach, for all the time they spent with the students. Thank you, mentors, for your gentleness, patience, kindness, and sensitivity. But your work isn’t done. Please continue to reach out to your students. Be a soul friend.
I will miss our students, gathering for classes, activities, and events. I want you to know, dear ones, that I am still here for you, and I will be for years to come. I am your pastor and your soul friend. And though you are finished the program, there is one more assignment. In your journals, on page 122 and 123, you are asked to reflect on confirmation and becoming an active member of your church.
The first part of the assignment is, “Decide three things to commit to doing.” So what are those three things you will commit to doing in the church? Where will your ministry begin here? What will you do with all that you learned?
And the second half of the assignment is to plan three times to meet with your mentor—in one month, 6 months, and a year. Therefore, it isn’t just the responsibility of the mentors to reach out to you and show that they care. It is also your responsibility to reach out to them and show that you care.
Today, we are not celebrating the end of a program, but a new beginning for the students’ journey of faith, now that they are welcomed and accepted as full, active members, with all the benefits and responsibilities of membership as adult members.
The last part of this message is for everyone. Listen.
Remember the UPS driver who helped the turkeys cross the road? You know, “Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go.” What amazes me is not just that the turkeys follow the UPS truck, but that they change the direction they are going to follow him, running with him as he makes the turn. Why do they trust him? Why do they listen to him, when there’s so much other noise and traffic all around them? But they keep going—and they make it safely to the other side.
We live in a hectic, high pressure, dangerous world. We have so many choices, so many paths that we CAN take. God lets us choose. But there is one right path—and that’s through believing in the faith OF Jesus Christ, who offers help and strength for every day. He is the one who took your sins away. No one else has the power to do that.
I ask you now, “Is he your Lord and Savior? If so, how, then, should you live?”
Let us pray.
Holy One, thank you for our redemption in Christ alone, who, by his faith and work on the cross, has taken away our sins. Thank you for your Word and Spirit, which guide and strengthen us each day, and for the courage of the reformers of the Church, long ago. Strengthen us to be reformers today, to be open to the Spirit’s transformation and seeking to live out what we believe more faithfully. Thank you for the nine students who have professed belief in Jesus Christ, their Lord and Savior. Help us to show our love to them, nurture their faith, and encourage their involvement in their church in the months and years to come. In Christ we pray. Amen.
Sharing God's Love and Grace 