"Emmanuel: Glimpses of God Incarnate," November 28

Sunday, November 28

Romans 11:17-24

“God as Grafter”

IN TODAY’S PASSAGE FROM ROMANS, Paul imagines God as an olive grower tending the sturdy rootstock and precious, luxurious fruit of the olive tree. This tree represents God’s chosen people, holy and beloved, chosen and called, to whom God gave the holy gifts of a name, a covenant, and the Law. It is God’s prize possession, and as a good olive-dresser, God sometimes prunes the tree back, encouraging proper growth.

But here, Paul’s metaphor takes an unexpected turn. For how could we imagine that God would graft onto this domesticated cultivar some wild olive branches? No olive grower would do such a thing! Wild olives are often smaller, with less yield, and harder to press. An olive grower might graft cultivated olive branches onto a wild rootstock, but wild onto cultivated? That’s unnatural! (Rom. 11:24)

Paul, here, speaks directly to our Gentile ancestors and through them to us, reminding us of the radical grace of God that allows us to share in the blessings of God’s cultivated olive tree. We worship God through God’s good gift, sharing in the nourishment of the Jewish rootstock into which we are engrafted. Through God’s unnatural act, we also become part of God’s chosen people, holy and beloved, chosen and called. We also receive a name, and the covenant, and yes, even the Law. We are strengthened and nourished by the root until we flower, and fruit, and give our own unique harvest to the glory of God. Yet we bear different fruit from the rootstock, for that is the way with grafts.

Paul’s extraordinary metaphor also comes with a warning: don’t get cocky. We are not better than the root onto which we are grafted, nor do we get to disparage the root which nourishes us. We, all of us, grow, flower, and fruit at the mercy of the Olive-dresser, whose gift gives us life. As we prepare our hearts this Adventtide, let us give thanks for God’s chosen people, the descendants of Israel. And let us always stand in awe of God the grafter, who shows such grace toward us wild olive branches.

– Rev. Dr. Margaret Aymer, The First Presbyterian Church, Shreveport, D. Thomason Professor of New Testament Studies