Groaning for Love

Greetings again, beloved friends! It has been a loooong few days, so I am going to give you all a recap that is as concise as I can possibly make it:

General Conference decision. If you are an avid reader of this blog, you may remember a post about the United Methodist General Conference occurring in Tampa, FL this past week. My specific interest about this conference was their decision about removing the phrase, "The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching" in their Book of Disciple. Unfortunately, they voted not to remove that statement. You can read more about it at these two links:

http://www.umc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=lwL4KnN1LtH&b=8054757&ct=11740597&notoc=1

http://www.gc2012conversations.com/2012/05/03/delegates-fail-to-agree-that-they-disagree-on-sexuality-issue/

Groaning for Love. The past few days I have been involved in the Romans Conference here on campus. It has been such a wonderful conference with great preaching, singing, lectures, papers, and workshops. Since Romans is arguably my favorite authentic Pauline letter, I was totally geek-ing out through most of this conference. I heard a sermon called "Groaning for Love" based on Romans 8:18-39 (remember 8:31 is what this blog is named after). It was a pretty awesome sermon emphasizing that God groans with creation until eventual future glory, and nothing (that's right nothing) can separate us from the love of God! Oh, do I ever love that passage! =)

The Shape of the 'I' in Romans 7. My favorite lecture of the entire conference was "The Shape of the 'I' in Romans 7" by none other than our esteemed Professor of New Testament, Beverly Gaventa. She spoke about the referent of 'I' in chapter 7. Her argument was that 'I' in conversation could be used in referent to the speaker or the subject of the matter being spoken about. She argues that in this case, the use of the 'I' is comparable to the prevalent use of the 'I' in the Psalms as a way for a reader or listener to engage the 'I' as their own. So in the Psalms, one would pray a psalm using 'I' as if it were their own prayer. I know this sounds confusing, but just pull me aside the next time you see me, and I will excitedly explain it more clearly! I was totally wow-ed by this lecture though! Dr. Gaventa took two of my favorite things, Romans and the Psalms, and smashed them together in a very meaningful way!

Also, just as a sidenote: There was a man who looked exactly like Sigmund Freud at the conference. Dr. Freud would have been celebrating his 156th birthday this week! I hope I didn't bore you too much with my loving Romans out loud! Peace and Blessings!