For the next four weeks the readings for the day will be taken from St. Paul’s letter to the church at Rome. Since he did not know this church he used the letter as an introduction, setting out his understanding of the gospel. For example, we find in chapter 1 a reference to the “wrath” of God. Nowadays we don’t ordinarily preach about God’s wrath. We tend to contrast the wrath of God with the love of God. St. Paul thought differently — God’s wrath was an aspect of God’s love. The wrath of God is a passionate “NO” to anything which keeps us from living a grace-filled life. We might think of it in current terms as “tough love” — love which insists that we become better.