My wife collects nativity sets.  She has 13 sets and we’re running out of space to display them.  I’m kind of sad about that because it was always a good fall-back gift.  When in doubt, a “different” nativity set was always a good purchase.  I may have to buy some piece of furniture in order to display more nativity sets so that fall-back gift option remains open.  At any rate, Kim has 13 different nativity sets and they are very different.  I don’t know the “technical” names for all of them, but I know she has a Fontanini.  That set is lacking a camel so there is future gift potential there, but an expensive one—I understand a camel costs something like $200.  But, there’s a Fontanini, there’s a pewter set, a Dreamsicles set, a Dedham set, and a set she saw in Jackson Hole, Wyoming where all the characters are bears—a Joseph bear, a Mary bear, a shepherd bear and so on.  There’s even a bear in sheep’s clothing!  So, lots of different sets.  We hosted the staff Christmas party on Friday and everyone commented on the nativity sets.

The sets are very different—from Fontanini to bears—but they have at least one thing in common.  A “complete” set includes all the characters of the nativity.  A set would have, of course, a Joseph, a Mary and a baby Jesus.  But a complete set would also include at least one angel—sometimes creatively displayed hovering over the scene.  A complete set would also include at least one shepherd and one wise man, or king—although most have three kings and two or more shepherds.  All the more to create purchase opportunities for clueless husbands!  But, a complete set includes shepherds and kings.

Now, the probability that both shepherds and kings were at the nativity scene at the same time is miniscule.  Apparently, there is a two year window for the arrival of the kings, based on what they tell King Herod.  Herod wants to know when the star first appeared and where the new baby king might be found.  Later, when Herod, in his madness, sends soldiers to Bethlehem to find and kill the new king, the soldiers are instructed to kill all male children two years of age and under—based on the information the kings gave him.  So, there’s a two year window for the kings while it appears the shepherds were told by the angels of the birth of Jesus some time close to the event.  That both shepherds and kings were present at the nativity at the same time is unlikely.  Yet, a “complete” nativity set includes both.

Such inclusion is probably not historically accurate, but it is an accurate metaphor for the birth of Jesus.  Because, this Jesus, this baby born in Bethlehem—whose birth we celebrate in two weeks—is grace come down...for everyone.  A central message in the story of Christmas is that the baby born in Bethlehem has come for everyone.  There is no one who is beyond his love and care, no one whom he doesn’t want to reach with God’s grace.  From the most humble, or outcast of characters—like shepherds, to the most noble, or upper class of people—like kings—this Jesus has come for everyone.

That is much the same point Paul is making in this closing section of his letter to the Romans.  Paul is addressing two realities of his time and place, both of which speak to the inclusive reach of God’s love and grace in Jesus Christ...and both of which speak inclusive relevance for our time and place.

The first reality Paul is addressing is that of the strong and the weak.  Paul knows the temptation for the strong to use their positions of strength, their positions of authority to their advantage.  The “haves,” if you will, use what they have so that they might have even more.  Worse yet, the strong are tempted to use their strength to crush the weak—not only using their strength or authority to their advantage, but also using it to weaken those beneath them.  In business, it creates a wider gap between the haves and the have nots.  Politically, it creates systems of oppressor and oppressed.  In the church, it creates a kind of “us vs. them” mentality—those who are part of the club and those who are outside.  There are no shepherds and kings together in this scene.  But Paul knew this was not the example set by Jesus.  The strong should help and support the weak, bring benefit, not to ourselves, but to our neighbors because even Christ did not please himself.  Those who profess to follow this Christ, this baby born in Bethlehem, are certainly called to follow his example.  With Christ, there is no strong pushing their advantage over the weak.  Rather, there is the strong seeking to help the weak.

The second reality Paul is addressing seems very foreign to us today, but has similar relevance as the strong and weak issue.  That is the issue of the Jews and the Gentiles.  The Jews were the people of the covenant, the descendants of Abraham, Moses and David.  God’s covenant was made and held through them.  God’s Anointed One would come through the Jews.  They were the keepers of the covenant.  The Gentiles, on the other hand, were outside the covenant.  However, one day—with the coming of God’s Anointed One—the covenant would be for the Gentiles also.  A careful reading of the Old Testament revealed that truth and included in that reading would be the four Old Testament passages Paul quotes in this section of his letter.  Quoting from Moses, David, Isaiah and the Psalms, Paul reminds his readers that God’s Anointed One is coming for the Gentiles also.  That event occurred with the birth of Jesus.  God’s covenant is for the weak and the strong, Jews and Gentiles.  We may not face the same issue in the debate about the covenant for Gentiles as well as Jews, although we’re grateful for its conclusion.  After all, most of us would be considered Gentiles in the debate.  But, the covenant is made available for all.  Where the issue applies for us is anywhere we might exclude someone from the reach of God’s love.  Status in life, physical appearance, socio-economic class…none of these things…nothing about a person excludes them from the reach of God’s love and grace.  The covenant is for everyone.

Into this great mixture of people—weak and strong, Gentile and Jew, shepherds and kings—this mixture that makes up Christ’s church whether Rome in the 1^st century or Shepherd of the Hills today—Paul describes what the fellowship of the church looks like.  The church, first of all, ought to be a place where there is consideration of one for another.  The strong don’t press their strength to their advantage.  Rather, the strong seek to use their strength to encourage and strengthen the weak.  One goal within the fellowship of believers gathered together before the Christ child is to strengthen and encourage one another.

Another goal—and a tool to be used in our fellowship—is the study of Scripture.  Paul is speaking as much to us as he is to the Romans when he writes, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope,” (15:4).  It is through the study of Scripture that we come to learn more about the One we’re following—the One whose manger we shepherds and kings gather around.

As we draw closer to the kind of fellowship Christ desires for his church—where each speaks and acts out of consideration for the other, where each studies and is guided by Scripture—we draw closer to the kind of unity God desires for us and the kind of worship He deserves.  Paul writes, “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” (15:5,6).  Another goal in the fellowship of those gathered before the Christ child is to become more and more united in our service and worship of Jesus Christ.

If you have followed recent events in the life of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), you’re well aware that the question of unity in the church has been very much in question.  A 20-member Theological Task Force was formed in 2001 to study, discern and discuss the issues before the Church that divide us.  Called the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church, the members met at various times over the last four years to pray together, fellowship together, study together and listen together to various experts on a wide range of topics related to their task.   Recently, the Task Force published their report which will eventually be received by the General Assembly meeting in June of 2006.  Until then, the report will be read, reviewed and scrutinized.  We will discuss it here at Shepherd.  The report does not accomplish the impossible—definitively answering, to everyone’s satisfaction, those issues before us.  However, the report does provide some guidelines, discussion points and recommendations around which we all—shepherds and kings—can gather.

For example, the Task Force cites its own experience in addressing these issues—recommending the same for each of us in our own discussions.  Listen to this portion of the report and notice how much it repeats the kind of fellowship Paul’s been writing about.

The task force in its own life has drawn from Reformed tradition in cultivating these disciplines of patience, forbearance, and communal discernment that characterize the church as a community governed by Christ through Word and Spirit.  Among the practices that have drawn us closer to God and one another are:

-Sincere self-examination, mutual confession, and repentance of ways in which all of us have undermined the church’s calling and faithfulness.

-Joint participation in worship and in the sacrament of unity, the Lord’s Supper.

-Communal study of the Bible that seeks common and mutually enriching understanding across dividing lines.

-Honest dialogue that seeks first to understand differing viewpoints before criticizing them.

-Careful study of foundational aspects of church history, theology, confessions, and polity that bind us together as Presbyterians.

It sounds very much like the fellowship of believers Paul urges upon us in the closing of his letter to Rome—to bear with one another in our strengths and our weaknesses, to study the Scriptures together to bring us closer to Christ which, in turn, will bring us closer to the kind of unity God desires for us.  Note it is not unity for unity’s sake.  The Scriptures speak of God’s standards for His people and we are called to live under those standards.  However, it is a unity reached through forbearance with one another and the study and discussion of what Scripture teaches us.  John Stott, in his commentary on Romans, writing about this particular section of Romans, gives us some helpful guidance for this journey.  “[The] truths on which Scripture speaks with a clear voice are essentials, whereas whenever equally biblical Christian, equally anxious to understand and obey Scripture, reach different conclusions, these must be regarded as non-essentials.  In fundamentals, then, faith is primary, and we may not appeal to love as an excuse to deny essential faith.  In non-fundamentals, however, love is primary, and we may not appeal to zeal for the faith as an excuse for failures in love,” (pp. 374, 375).

It is a challenging journey to seek out this kind of fellowship Paul is writing about—where the strong support the weak, where forbearance is offered to all while the Scriptures are studied together as God’s word to us.  But that is God’s desire for us expressed most eloquently in God’s grace come down to us in the Christ child born in Bethlehem—the One around whom shepherds and kings gather.