Rev. Doug Floyd

World Mission Sunday 2025
Rev. Doug Floyd
Romans 9:30 – 10:21

The Lord God is walking. Calling. Seeking his son Adam and his daughter Eve. He is calling, “Where are you?” His children hide from their sin, from their shame, from their good and gracious Father. His call, His Word, His question burns in their hearts.

They must respond. Adam trembles, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”^[1] They are broken, shamed. They are riven. That is, they are torn apart.

Christian Wiman writes,

God goes, belonging to every riven thing he’s made
sing his being simply by being
the thing it is:
stone and tree and sky,
man who sees and sings and wonders why

God goes. Belonging, to every riven thing he’s made,
means a storm of peace.
Think of the atoms inside the stone.
Think of the man who sits alone
trying to will himself into a stillness where

God goes belonging. To every riven thing he’s made
there is given one shade
shaped exactly to the thing itself:
under the tree a darker tree;
under the man the only man to see

God goes belonging to every riven thing. He’s made
the things that bring him near,
made the mind that makes him go.
A part of what man knows,
apart from what man knows,

God goes belonging to every riven thing he’s made.[2]

St. Paul quotes Isaiah, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”^[3] Jesus is walking. Calling. Seeking his lost children. They run from His light. They are broken, shamed. Riven. That is, they are torn apart.

St. Paul writes, “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart…”^[4] From the creation of the world, the Word resounds throughout the lands, echoes in the valley, hovers over the oceans, burns in the human heart. It bursts forth from the belly through the throat and out the mouth, For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”^[5]

This is the mission of God. As a people called by God, welcomed by God, we participate in His mission, declaring His kingdom, His redeeming grace is come to the nations. Each of us are missionaries. The Old Testament scholar Christopher J. H. Wright explains, “Fundamentally, our mission (if it is biblically informed and validated) means our committed participation as God’s people, at God’s invitation and command, in God’s own mission within the history of God’s world for the redemption of God’s creation.”[6]

In Romans 9:30-10:21, Paul is telling us about God’s mission to restore the Jews and the Gentiles. He will restore His people by calling the Gentiles to Himself. He goes out into the highways and byways and compels them to come in. In Romans 9:30, we read, “What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith;”^[7]

Even today our Lord is calling people through proclamation, through story, and even through dreams and visions. It is not just happening overseas. It happens here. Fr. Les has told us his wonderful story of Jesus calling him in a dream. I have another friend who was in the middle of a New Age vision when Jesus ripped open the sky and said, “Follow me.” He did. And still does follow Jesus.

The Gentiles have become children of Abraham by faith. They have heard the call of God, the welcome of Jesus and they have believed. What about the Jews? “Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. ³²Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, ³³as it is written,

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” ^[8]

Israel was called to believe and give thanks. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. ^[9] And, ¹⁴Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, ¹⁵and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.^[10] Obedience was rooted in trust, in worship.

Paul is grieving, crying out to God to redeem His people. They have zeal just as Paul had a zeal, which led him to attack the church. They have not seen that the end of the Law is the righteousness of Christ for all who believe.

Sadly, many people who grew up in church and maybe even served in churches are like those Jews which fail to hear. They turn from the light. They are hiding from God. The Lord goes out walking, seeking His people.

The Word of Christ has gone forth, and it will not return void. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”^[11] St. Paul and Psalm 19 remind us that all creation echoes with the Word of God. “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” ^[12] Yet the people cannot, will not hear.

God in His abundant grace will use the conversion of the outsiders, the aliens, the Gentiles to draw His people back to Himself.

“I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.” ^[13]

And again He says, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” ^[14]

God is on mission drawing the nations to Himself. We are missionaries in the home, in the school, in the store, at the coffee shop, and even on social media. We bear His Word and He is speaking through us even when we are not always aware.

Our Lord God is reconciling the world to Himself. As He walks and calls, the sinner is coming, the rebel is coming, the hard-hearted is softening, and even His recalcitrant people will one day hear and come home.

Let us follow our Lord, our God as He goes out to every riven thing he’s made.

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ge 3:10.

[2] Wiman, Christian. Every Riven Thing: Poems (Function). Kindle...