Truths and Love

Pastor Marissa preached this sermon on August 2, 2026 at Beechmont Presbyterian Church on Romans 9:1-5.

PCUSA, Israel and Palestine

At its last General Assembly, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) adopted several actions concerning Israel and Palestine. These are not new decisions, but measures built on decades of previous statements.

Among other things, these actions included:

• A recognition that Israel has violated the international prohibition against genocide in its conduct of the war in Gaza.

• Advocacy for an arms embargo. The Assembly called on the U.S. government to halt the transfer of offensive weapons to Israel until international humanitarian law is observed.

• Encouragement of consumer boycotts. Presbyterians were encouraged to avoid purchasing products that directly support or profit from the occupation or from military actions identified in the Assembly’s decisions.

• Further divestment. The Assembly approved additional socially responsible investment actions, including divestment from companies such as Palantir Technologies and GE Aerospace.

• And continued support for Palestinian human rights. The Assembly reaffirmed the denomination’s commitment to international law, human rights, and a just peace for both Palestinians and Israelis. Church leaders emphasized that this criticism was directed at the policies of the State of Israel—not at Jewish people or Judaism—and explicitly rejected antisemitism.

It is important to understand what these actions do not mean. These policies express the denomination’s official witness and advocacy. They guide the work of national agencies and encourage congregations and individual Presbyterians to respond. But they do not compel every congregation or member to adopt every advocacy recommendation, since local churches retain significant authority within Presbyterian polity.

One of our confessions states that God alone is Lord of the conscience. This affirmation means that no human authority—whether church, government, or individual—may bind a Christian’s conscience beyond what Scripture, under the lordship of Christ, requires.

There is a distinction between the church’s corporate witness and the conscience of an individual. The people commissioned to serve as the General Assembly do not claim infallibility, nor do they have the authority to require every Presbyterian to agree personally with every social witness statement. Christ alone is the Head of the Church. Individuals are free to wrestle with, disagree with, or reject the Assembly’s conclusions as matters of conscience.

The church must be prophetic and speak truth in the world—but it does not possess absolute authority over the consciences of believers. Some people call this a healthy tension, but it is a tension nonetheless. It is one that may cause sorrow and anguish among believers, and one that may leave us wondering how we can live together in the midst of it.

Paul’s Anguish

The passage we read from Romans is full of tension and emotion. The Apostle Paul is known as one of the Bible’s great theologians, and usually, when we think about theology, we do not think about emotion. So Paul’s words here may surprise us because they seem to come from his heart as much as from his mind.

The version of the Bible called The Message may communicate Paul’s pain more clearly to our modern ears:

“At the same time, you need to know that I carry with me at all times a huge sorrow. It’s an enormous pain deep within me, and I’m never free of it. I’m not exaggerating—Christ and the Holy Spirit are my witnesses. It’s the Israelites . . . If there were any way I could be cursed by the Messiah so they could be blessed by him, I’d do it in a minute. They’re my family. I grew up with them. They had everything going for them—family, glory, covenants, revelation, worship, promises, to say nothing of being the race that produced the Messiah, the Christ, who is God over everything, always. Oh, yes!"

Romans is one of the most beautiful letters in the Bible. In it, Paul writes what, according to Martha C. Highsmith, is “some of the most inspiring testimony in all of Christian Scripture.” But after chapter 8, he seems to fall apart. He sounds like someone who has seen the truth and the light—and who wants everyone he knows to experience the same thing, but feels frustrated because they don’t.

This is natural. If we discover a good restaurant, we want to share it with others. If we find a good deal, we tell everyone we know about it. If we watch a good film, we recommend it. But when someone watches the same film and tells us that it is trash, we can feel angry and sad at the same time.

Paul is so distressed by this situation that Highsmith tells us that “he is willing even to surrender his own relationship with Christ, if only the Israelites could see what they have”—what Paul himself has found.

But the truth is that, to this day, we could say that Paul remains in anguish. There are still people who recognize Christ as their Messiah, and there are others who do not. That tension is still a part of life, whether people like it or not.

But the most beautiful thing for me in this passage is that Paul does not give up. He still loves his family and recognizes all the things they have received. He does not write them off. They are still a part of his life and of his letter.

And if we can learn anything from this passage, it is precisely how to live with the tension so that we may understand what God is doing in the world.

No Tension, Only Extremes

It is interesting that Highsmith states that our world today does not seem to follow Paul’s example. We do write one another off, ignoring God’s plans and God’s grace—grace that extends beyond our circles, our opinions, and our visions. There are times when we do not even feel sorrow or anguish as we watch one another fight and become divided.

On one side of the coin, we have people who have used this passage to fuel antisemitism. Antisemitism is prejudice, hatred, discrimination, or hostility toward Jewish people because they are Jewish.

Some Christians take satisfaction in the idea that God has rejected the Jewish people. This is how they interpret this passage in Romans. But this is a distortion. Paul’s attitude is the opposite. He is anguished because his fellow Jews do not understand who Christ is and what Christ has come to do. Rather than celebrating rejection, Paul experiences “sorrow and unceasing anguish” over Israel, having experienced for himself the joy of life in Christ.

On the other side of the coin, we have people who believe that the Jewish people have a right to return to Israel and that God wants them to do so. This position sees Jews as the descendants of the biblical Israelites and the heirs of the covenant between God and Abraham.

Some Christians view the fulfillment of this biblical promise as a prerequisite for Christ’s return to Earth. And so, because they want Christ to return, they want Jewish people to take control of Israel by any means necessary. That is what has been identified as Christian Zionism.

But this is also a position of exclusion. Expansion excludes—and, in this case, it excludes the Palestinian people, some of whom are Christians, contrary to popular belief, and therefore part of the Gentile church to which we also belong.

Kyle D. Fedler says that the overriding concern of Romans 9–11 is not anthropology—that is, which humans are saved and which humans are damned. That is a common concern for human beings, but it is not Paul’s primary concern. Paul’s message is about God and, in particular, the steadfast mercy of God.

God’s mercy—God’s grace—fights against our self-righteous need to know who is in and who is out.

We read in the passage that Paul is willing to “be cursed by the Messiah so that his family could be blessed.” Fedler says that Paul follows the example of the Christ he worships, “willing to take the punishment upon himself so that others might be saved.”

He states that Paul is certain that Christ gave himself willingly out of absolute love for humanity. And I dare to say that Christ did this whether he was loved in return or not—whether those for whom he did this believed in him or not.

A Conclusion About Truths

Fedler ends his commentary by saying that “whatever conclusion Paul reaches regarding the salvation of Israel must begin and end with his absolute assurance of God’s steadfast love, as revealed in the cross of Christ,” because what is at issue is the certainty of God’s grace.

God’s grace goes beyond our understanding.

God’s grace chooses unexpectedly and without our consent.

God’s grace should have such an impact on our lives that we become willing to surrender our own certainties and remember that we are not in control of God’s love or favor.

Any extreme position that denies the humanity of others ultimately excludes. Yet the God we meet in Jesus Christ continually moves toward reconciliation, mercy, and a widening embrace.

I have to admit that I, too, as a Christian and as a pastor, carry with me at all times a huge sorrow.

I believe that the actions of some members of the Israeli government have violated the international prohibition against genocide. I believe that what Hamas did is evil. It is also horrible to read in the news that, among the seven largest Jewish diaspora communities outside Israel, total antisemitic incidents are up 136 percent and violent incidents are up 97 percent compared with 2022, the year before Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

This sorrow does not make me a Zionist.

It also fills me with sorrow to hear members of our Christian family justify the killing of innocent Palestinians because Israel is "God’s nation." I do not believe in a God who would justify such violence and death.

This sorrow does not make me an antisemite.

This sorrow helps me understand that I do not possess all the truth.

This sorrow calls me to be humble.

This sorrow teaches me to hold on to God’s love and grace—even when I do not want to.

That is what this anguish does to my conscience.

So my invitation to you today is not to adopt a particular position and certainly not my own position. It is this:

Listen.

Learn.

Love.

Allow yourselves to feel sorrow and anguish.

Keep opening your hearts and minds to God’s amazing grace.

Do not let your lives lean toward hate.

Do not let your impulses lead you toward exclusion.

The Lord we follow spent his life breaking down those walls.

Of that, I am certain.