Canter Bridge

Paul, the quintessential Israelite, finds his vocation outside the boundaries of his land and people. He knows himself to have received a particular calling ‘to the nations’. There is no telling just to what degree—it is likely to be considerable—the apostle saw his destiny mirroring the Isaianic servant of the Lord, for whom it was a ‘small thing’ to restore Israel’s lost tribes. For that enigmatic figure, the properly proportioned calling consisted in taking light to the nations.

In the fifteenth chapter of his letter to Roman Christians, Paul seems bent on persuading his readers that Israel’s messiah died and returned to life on behalf of a similarly wide objective, indeed ‘so that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy’.

He assembles a representative roster of statements from the psalms and prophets that for him—though not for some modern scholars of those same texts who see rather more subjugation and less voluntarism in their predictions—promise widespread divine mercy to the nations.

Those texts are full of the notion of gentile nations bringing tribute to the Lord in Jerusalem in history’s final hour. Though the gift is unfailingly glorious, it is not always clear that it is given with a happy heart. Paul seems to anticipate that it will be so, indeed that the nations will realize their full, joyful shape and calling in serving Zion’s God. More remarkably, he seems to hint that the quality of the gentiles’ eschatological offering may hang in the balance unless people like him do their work well among those nations. A remarkable turn of phrase suggests he may think this way:

Nevertheless on some points I have written to you rather boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

This is Paul at his most characteristic: strenuous in effort, ambitious in vision, convinced that YHWH’s mercy runs wider and deeper than has yet been apprehended. Eye always on the horizon, straining to see just who and how many might appear there, striding towards Zion, bearing their best.