Excerpts from the message by Melissa Guthrie at The Banquet: Sensory Worship on January 24, 2026, reflecting on Romans 1:1-7
Do you send mail? Not email but mail? Not bills and cards but letters?
My mother loves mail! She sends cards with letters and almost always includes stamps. I think I’m supposed to use those stamps to send mail to her!
Dear Mom, I had eggs for breakfast and I’m taking the kids to school. Today is Josie’s holiday party and we’re making gingerbread houses…
By the time my mother gets this letter, those gingerbread houses would have crumbled or been eaten, Christmas gifts would be unwrapped, Christmas would be packed back up. We would have spoken on the phone several times and she could have seen photos on her phone of the holiday party!
I should send my mom letters; it would make her day and she would feel loved.
Do any of you send The Christmas Letter? The summary of your year, updates on each family member? Where you traveled and what was accomplished and what the kids’ favorite activities are at the time?
…
For many of us, writing and receiving letters is a long-forgotten (or never-learned) practice. This is especially true of a longish letter like Paul’s, with its more than 7,000 words. That would be a 20-page email!
Moreover, IF we write a letter, we probably don’t use 102 words to introduce ourselves. Even if it’s a formal letter, a business letter, we list our name and address, the addressee, and we GET TO THE POINT. Paul provides his full resume!
What’s the point of Paul’s resume, I mean, letter?
I want to unpack Paul’s wordy, long winded, rambling, loquacious, lengthy, drawn out… introduction. There are more synonyms for long but I wanted to briefly emphasize the detail he gives in his introduction.
Paul’s details point to his identity AND to the identity of his recipients.
Who is Paul?
Paul is a “servant of Christ Jesus.” He is an “apostle,” a divinely authorized messenger. Paul has been “set apart for the gospel of God.”
Who are the recipients?
After the very involved explanation of who he is, Paul turns to address the Romans, God’s beloved. As Paul is called to be an apostle, so they are called to belong to Jesus, to also be set apart as holy for service. So are we…
All this points me toward some introspection. Who am I? Who are you?
Each of us has (needs) an envelope and piece of paper.
((If you’re reading this reflection, get an envelope and piece of paper. Really. We’re waiting… Do you have an envelope and paper?))
On the top left corner of your envelope, I want you to write your name and then list 2-3 descriptions for yourself. First –
We’re not providing our resume, not writing 102 words like Paul.
But who are you? When we introduce ourselves, we often share WHATs. I think WHYs are (more) important.
Zach Mercurio writes about this:
“When someone asks you to ‘introduce yourself’ but offers no parameters, what do you say?
If you’re like most people, your brain flips the autopilot switch and you start uttering some mix of these “things:” name, job title or college major, certification, and maybe if you’re feeling extra comfortable, a hobby.
Over the past decade, I’ve spoken with thousands of people in nearly every occupation and stage of life. When I ask people “who” they are, their responses are eerily the same. People define their thousands and thousands of days of living and working with a list of mundane statistics.
The problem is that if you remove your name from your list of facts, you could be anyone. Anyone can do what you do. Anyone can accumulate the training you’ve accumulated. Anyone can acquire the work or school experiences you’ve acquired.
You are much more. You are what you believe in, your unique experiences, your struggles. You are your story and that story is your value, your one-of-a-kind contribution to the world around you.”
What are some of your one-of-a-kind contributions to the world? No pressure, right? The envelope is for your name and a few descriptions. The blank paper is for a short letter that offers some good news for other people.
What can you write to a neighbor (or to a local community or our city or state or nation)?
To immigrants, children, parents, teachers…
Paul’s greeting is grace and peace. What is your kind word?
We’ve got a lot of mail to send. Amen? Amen.
You can read kind words from Salvage Garden on our blog and in Facebook posts. Many of these are love letters to you. #SalvageGardenYouveGotMail