1. Final greetings of the Epistle
Today, we observe the last worship service of the year 2010. We are reading the Epistle to the Romans since last October and this session is the last lecture of the series. Paul wrote ending greetings to believers in Rome in 15:30 ; - Brothers and sisters, I beg you to help me in my work by praying to God for me. Do this because of our Lord Jesus and the love that the Holy Spirit gives us.

And, after revealing his wish to come to them, he wrote blessing words to them, ;- The God who gives peace be with you all. Amen.(Romans 15:33)

Though he had almost finished the letter that way, he became aware that he should present Phoebe, the messenger of the latter. So he continued writing the following part, the chapter16, today¡Çs lecturing passage.

We often have the impressions that Paul was a very serious preacher and the contents of Romans are very difficult to understand. However, by reading attentively the letter, we see that those impressions are false. He sent warm greetings to some believers as his close friends by adding names with personal characterizations. For example, ; - ¡ÈPriscilla and Aquila… and who risked their own lives to save my life(see Romans 15:3-4) Or ; - ¡ÈAmpliatus, my dear friend in the Lord¡É (see Romans 15:8) We understand from those expressions that he was rather a friendly pastor than an unemotional preacher. He prayed from his heart for each believer. And the list of those names allow us to imagine various experiences of Paul with them. We will see some details of their pasts written in the passage.

Paul wrote the names of Priscilla and Aquila at first. ; - Give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila, who work together with me in Christ Jesus and who risked their own lives to save my life. I am thankful to them, and all the non-Jewish churches are thankful as well.(Romans 16:3-4)

Paul met the couple in Corinth. Originally they had lived in Rome, then moved to Corinth because of Claudius¡Ç ban of Jewish people from Rome. They were tentmakers, just as Pal was. Paul stayed and worked with them in Corinth. Paul talked and preached to the Jews and Greeks there in the synagogue. (see Acts 18:1-4)

But conflicts occurred afterwards between Christians and Jewish people who rejected the divinity of Jesus. So Priscilla and Aquila set off to Ephesus and hold meetings with Ephesian Christians at their house. The activity built the foundation of the church of Ephesus. The incident to which Paul referred must be occurred in Corinth and on that occasion they might save Paul¡Çs life, regardless of deadly risk. Paul expressed in the letter the sincere gratefulness to them who had already got back to Rome.

After those greetings Paul added, ; - Also, greet for me the church that meets at their house.(Romans 16:5)
The verse tells us that Priscilla and Aquila kept holding meetings at their house in Rome, too. Christians of that time didn¡Çt build church buildings and worship services were conducted in personal residences. We will observe Sunday worship at the house of one of our members too during the reconstruction work of this building. It seems very meaningful to read this very passage. Because we will the occasion to experience the similar condition of worship to Christians of the early church.

Then Paul wrote ; - Greetings to my dear friend Epenetus, who was the first person in Asia to follow Christ.(Romans 16:5)
Epenetus must be the first convert to Christianity in Asia (ancient name of Anatolia*), as a fruit of Paul¡Çs preaching in Ephesus. And Paul wrote names of other friends to sent respective greetings in following verses .

*1 Anatolia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatolia

2. Bothers and sisters in Lord
I¡Çd like to lead your attention to 2 remarks on Paul¡Çs name list. One is the fact that it includes many women and slaves, who were considered to be inferior in Jewish society of the time. More precisely, the one-third of names are female. And, like Greco-Roman cultures, the Jewish culture was based on male chauvinism. In such societies, women were a part of possession of their father or husband, almost similar to slaves. Nonetheless, women played very important roles in the church. They were even respected by male believers. Paul wrote name of Priscilla before her husband Aquila. And Phoebe, a woman, was presented as an important helper in the church in Cenchrea. Junia, one of Paul¡Çs relatives, is said to be the first female apostle *1. (also see Romans 16:11-7) And ¡ÈAmpliatus, Urbanus and Stachys¡É were very frequent names for slaves. (see Romans 16:8-9) Furthermore, ¡Èthose who are in the family of Aristobulus¡É and ¡Èall those in the family of Narcissus¡É indicate servants who worked for the households of Aristobulus and Narcissus. (see Romans 16:10-11)

The list let us guess that many of male Christians in Rome were servants, slaves or freed slaves. And, regardless of those inferior social statuses, they considered to be equal to Roman citizens as workers of the Lord. Paul wrote in another letter, ; - You were all baptized into Christ, and so you were all clothed with Christ. This means that you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. In Christ, there is no difference between Jew and Greek, slave and free person, male and female. You are all the same in Christ Jesus.(Galatians 3:26-28) The verses tell us that Christian relationship in the church was formed regardless of the consideration of social positions. They were all brothers and sisters in God.

The second remark is the way in which Paul described each person. For example, he called Priscilla and Aquila, ¡Èthose who work together with me in Christ Jesus (Romans 16:3) Previously, he asked Christians in Rome for warm acceptations and supports for Phoebe. (see Romans 16:2) Then he addressed to Urbanus as ¡Èa worker together with me for Christ.¡É (see Romans 16:9) He praised Tryphena and Tryphosa, female Christians, who worked very hard for the Lord. (see Romans 16:12) All of descriptions show that Christians there collaborated in harmony as servants of God. Despite the difference of gender and social status, they respected and helped each other. Paul¡Çs message is that the church can be stable if it is based on such a mutual understanding.

*1 Junia, a female apostle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junia
http://www.godswordtowomen.org/juniapreato.htm

3. Remember the father of Rufus
Today¡Çs invocation verse is Mark 15:21; - A man named Simon from Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was coming from the fields to the city. The soldiers forced Simon to carry the cross for Jesus.

Mark wrote the well-known episode of Simon from Cyrene with this description, ¡Èthe father of Alexander and Rufus.¡É We can guess from the writing that Alexander and Rufus were members of the church of Mark. Besides, that ¡ÈRufus¡É might be the same person as ¡ÈRufus¡É written in Romans 16:13 ; - Greetings to Rufus, who is a special person in the Lord, and to his mother, who has been like a mother to me also.

There was a Jewish colony in Cyrene in Africa and Simon had come back to Jerusalem, probably to celebrate the Passover. Unfortunately for him, He encountered a footslogging of condemned men and was forced by Roman soldiers to carry Jesus¡Ç cross. He must bear the burden till Golgotha and attend the execution of the men, totally unknown to him. He should want forget such a displeasing and undesirable event as soon as possible. But something significant must happen to him*1. As we saw before, Mark described Simon as the father of Alexander and Rufus. And Paul presented Rufus and his mother as special persons in the Lord.(see Romans 16:13)

It seems that the mother of Rufus had once supported the ministry of Paul somewhere then moved to Rome. She probably lived there with her son and attended the church of Rome, or Christian community.

Perhaps, after witnessing the Cross of Jesus, Simon had a certain spiritual experience which made him convert to the Christianity. And, led by his faith, his wife and two sons might become Christians.

Simon, in carrying the heavy cross, kept watching sufferings of Jesus who were covered with dust and blood. Simon surely wondered for which reason that poor man was condemned to such an awful punishment. At that time, Simon didn¡Çt understand what the scene meant. However, after the event, he should know why and how Jesus was arrested, judged, condemned and executed. He also heard that Jesus hadn¡Çt given any defensive words for himself in the court. Simon also knew that Jesus didn¡Çt take any violent action against blaming words or spits on his face.

In living time, Jesus had compassions on the sick. So he healed them. He was strongly moved by the sorrow of persons who had lost their family members. So he resurrected them. But, despite such a divine power he had, he didn¡Çt use it for his own sake. Jesus¡Ç way of living was ¡ÈTo save neighbors, without saving myself.¡É Almost all acts of ordinary humans are concentrated on self-defense or self-survival. Human love is selfish by nature. In contrast, Jesus did every thing he could do for others and did nothing for himself. Simon learned the fact thanks to the attendance to cortege and execution. He must saw God in Jesus. Thus, he might join followers of Jesus afterwards, then encountered resurrected Jesus and converted.

Simon from Cyrene carried the burden unwillingly, like us. No one wishes to bear the cross. However, when we are forced to face and accept the burden as God¡Çs gift, its weight turn to seem meaningful. When I entered the Tokyo Baptist University 16 years ago, each new comer told the reason for which they decided to study there. Their reasons were varied. A man said that the cue was the loss of his young son. For another, it was a catastrophic failure in business. Another man had made his mind the suicide of wife. In short, all of novices chose the way due to very harsh experiences. They wanted to know the meaning of their trial on the path to faith. And the Cross of Jesus alone can set us free from sufferings.

When we challenge courageously pains and sufferings given by God, we arrive to find them meaningful. Thus harsh trials change into blessings. For instance, by caring a child who suffers from a genetic or inherited disorders, the parents should understand that many other children share the same pains. And we often realize that those parents often cherish such a child more than healthy ones. Thus we understand that lives of disable children are not always miserably unhappy. That understanding led numerous persons to doubt if it is a right act to pass genetic testings before birth in order to eliminate abnormal embryos. Then they should become awake of the abnormally high rate of abortion cases in Japan, almost 300,000 a year.

Besides, probability of having disabled babies is not the most frequent cause. Some parents choose abortion for far more trivial reasons. They don¡Çt want another female baby because they had already some girls. Or They thought that education for another child would cost too much. So much so, we must reflect on the value of lives given by God more seriously. In that way, we will see those conducts as sin before God, then repent to be forgiven.

Though women and slaves were considered to be inferior in the society, they played important roles in the church of Rome. In other words, the feeling of fellowship went beyond borders of social statuses there. Believers became literally brothers and sisters in the Lord. They considered each other to be co-worker in God. Their relationship was independent from secular and common estimations. Of course, a certain restriction must be found because humans are never perfect. Nonetheless, their chief was always Jesus Christ and they were aware of following in footsteps of him. This Shinozaki church had various difficulties through out the 2010. And we will surely have troubles in the coming 2011, too. But, as long as we seek mutual relation in harmony in the Lord, this tiny flock must be blessed by God. We now know God¡Çs protection over us in this last worship of the year.

*1 Simon of Cyrene http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_of_Cyrene