"The Word... Is in Your Heart."

I ask for the grace to pray and meditate faithfully. 


Romans 10:5-13
5 Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that ‘the person who does these things will live by them.’ ⁶But the righteousness that comes from faith says, ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?” ’ (that is, to bring Christ down) ⁷‘or “Who will descend into the abyss?” ’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). ⁸But what does it say?
‘The word is near you,
   on your lips and in your heart’
(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); ⁹because^* if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. ¹¹The scripture says, ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame.’ ¹²For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. ¹³For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’


1) "the person who does these things will live by them;" "...The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart;"


2) I fear the recipe here for "cheap grace."  It makes me think of the cartoon of a man standing at the pearly gates and Saint Peter is saying, "Yes, you are a believer, but you forgot the not-being-a-jerk-about-it part."  Cheap grace has no expectations, no responsibilities.  However, verse 6 is explicit that the righteousness that comes from faith does not ask about who is going to heaven or into the abyss.  Real faith that comes from the heart does not speculate on judgement.  Haven't we just heard that God will do what God will do?  What does "calling on the name of the Lord" look like?  Do we?  I'm also reminded of a colleague observing that most clergy are theoretical theists and practical atheists.  Do we believe that we are the ONLY hands and feet of Christ?  Do we actually pray?  Do we listen for response?  Do we know what a response sounds like?  I'm reading Catherine Keller's Cloud of the Impossible, slowly, just a paragraph a day and doing lectio with each paragraph.  She calls the intersection of what is non-knowable and what is im/possible apophatic entanglement: the place where what we cannot know (the will of God?) and what we must do (social justice?) meet.


3) What is the invitation in all this?  be wary of cheap grace, avoid works righteousness.  Over and over again, we turn everything over to God, even though we don't know what God will do with it.


"Help us to trust in what we cannot know, without being reckless."


Breathprayer: "The word... is in your heart."