Celebrate!
Rev. Dr. Ernest F. Krug
July 10, 2011
Romans 8: 1-11
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spiritset their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spiritset their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
She entered the anything-but spirit world of a prison and taught violent criminals to perform Shakespeare’s Hamlet. This is a play about a man plotting a violent crime and its consequences. What is remarkable to me is not that these inmates found it a powerful and cleansing experience to do this play. What is remarkable is the amazing courage of Agnes Wilcox, who chose to enter the prison environment to help these inmates find a depth in their beings they didn’t know they had. One inmate, when asked why he comes to rehearse Hamlet with Agnes, first described the inhumanity of prison life. Then he said, “She makes us feel human.” Last Sunday, we heard about the law and sin–how we all make excuses for our bad behaviors. In a high security prison you can see the worst of bad behavior. This morning we will think about our own choices and what it means to live according to the Spirit.
As Paul wrote in Romans 7, we generally know what right and good behavior is. The difficulty is doing it. There are so many competing interests in our lives. How do we discern the will of God? How do we follow the leading of God’s spirit when our perceptions are always distorted by self-interest? So on this depressing note Paul ends Romans 7.
Paul begins Romans 8 with a statement so amazing we have a tendency not to comprehend it. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” In other words, to be a Christian, one baptized into the covenant which seals us with Christ forever, is to be in Christ and to have Christ in us. We are in fact members of a spiritual body claimed by God as God’s own. This spiritual body lives forever. The big question is: Do we believe it? Do we claim this reality for yourself with the same conviction with which it claims us? If you do, life should always be experienced as good because its goodness hinges on a relationship–a permanent relationship–with Christ. Every day is a day to celebrate as it was for Paul, whether we are wrongfully imprisoned or not,wealthy or poor, healthy or ill. And Paul, of course, was wrongfully imprisoned, was not wealthy, and suffered with bad health after his conversion experience. If we don’t believe that we are in a permanent, eternal relationship with Christ, whether life feels good depends on our health, our accomplishments, our mental state, and our self-interest.
A young boy I’ve mentioned in previous sermons, named Jimmy, exemplifies what it means to trust Christ in adverse circumstances. I came to know him about 40 years ago. Hisimpact on my understanding of Jesus’ love for each of us is soprofound, it merits retelling. I suppose Jimmy was much like any other boy. He liked to play. He enjoyed having fun. He had finished a year of school and was feeling pretty smart. He could run fast. He could express himself. He had a loving family. Then one day he began getting tired easily. He appeared pale and had some purple spots on his skin. He saw his doctor. The diagnosis: leukemia. What followed was a nightmare for a six-year-old child: blood tests, a needle to get bone marrow, spinal taps, chemotherapy, feeling sick, then better, then sicker, then facing death. A priest brought him communion about a week before he died. He said, “Jimmy take this wafer to have Jesus Christ inside you.” Jimmy replied, “I already have him inside me.”
Without sophistication or theological education, Jimmy got what Paul is getting at. Indeed, it strikes me that we often understand Jesus’ abiding love best in childhood. Then, we grow up and we learn about being competitive, looking out for ourselves, gauging success by our accomplishments, power, and prestige. It is in that context that Paul tries to explain the difference between ‘flesh’ and ‘spirit’. In the eleven verses we read, Paul uses the word ‘spirit’ 11 times and the word ‘flesh’ 10 times! In order to comprehend Paul’s confidence in God’s claim upon us in Christ and the eternal life that follows from it, we need to understand these two concepts.
‘Flesh’ has two meanings. The first is the physical reality of human beings–a physical reality shared by Christ–the Word which became flesh and lived among us. Flesh can also mean self-centeredness leading to resistance to God. Paul concentrates on this second meaning. He is very concerned about our lack of trust in God and our resistance to God because he experienced it first-hand himself–until he was caught up in the Spirit on the road to Damascus.
Spirit has at least two meanings. One is a person’s life force. When that spirit enters us we are alive; when it is withdrawn we are dead. But there is also the conviction that Christ sent his Spirit, after the resurrection, to rest in and upon his people, a life that is not withdrawn. The flesh remains vulnerable to death and decay, but the Spirit provides us a new body, and we continue with Christ. The Spirit is that agent of grace which not only empowers us to be agents of Christ, but also renews the entire community of faith.
So I ask you now: Can we be so confident that we are in Christ? If you are anything like me or Paul, you realize that an important choice must be made, and it is not easy: to live according to the flesh or to live according to the Spirit. And this is not a one-time choice. It is a choice we make over and over again at every decision point in our daily lives. We must not minimize our dependence on God’s grace to make the right choices; however, there are certain things we must reject and certain things we must affirm to cooperate with the Spirit of Christ within us. Let me elaborate on these critical choices in our lives.
Jesus taught us to reject two things in particular: (1) placing the self above God or neighbor and (2) trusting in things other than God’s love as the source of meaning in life. We place self above God or neighbor whenever a decision we make has nothing to do with honoring God or building up other human beings who need our love. We fail to trust God’s love when we find the most meaning in what we can achieve or accumulate, fleeting though those things are. These are those self-centered, God-resistant behaviors which Paul equates with setting ones mind on the flesh. But even more important, perhaps, than the things we should reject are the things we should affirm. There are two very critical affirmations: (1) affirm that you are claimed as God’s own; (2) affirm God’s presence with you in Christ to enable the ministry to which God has called you. This, says Paul, is what it means to live according to the Spirit. As I look back on my young friend Jimmy’s life, I believe that he was young enough not to be led too far astray by self-centered appetites or false idols. And somehow he comprehended the depth of God’s love for himself. Similarly, Agnes taught the prison inmates to begin to get in touch with an experience of humanity from which many had been excluded by the circumstances of their lives. Perhaps they might someday learn that it is Christ in us which anchors our humanity.
I don’t think it is by accident that the story of Jacob and Esau, which we heard in the First Testament reading, is coupled with the Romans 8 passage in the lectionary. It reinforces the importance of affirming the right things and trusting in God’s love for us. Consider Esau. When he was born, he came out “red,“ indicating that he had received the greater share of placental blood and was the more robust of the twin brothers. He grew up strong and skillful. His twin brother, Jacob, was the weaker of the two and a schemer. Esau, the eldest, had it made, but when he was really hungry one day, he sold his birthright to Jacob for a pot of stew. The message: Esau’s appetite and pride kept him from keeping the right priorities. To use the language of Paul, Esau was bound by the self-centered appetites of the flesh. Jacob was a conniving scoundrel, but he trusted God and God’s promises. Indeed, we can can do the same.
In my present work doing clinical ethics consultations at the hospital I experience with patients and families difficult choices about how people should live out the end of their lives. I have been privileged to know some individuals who, while grieving the pending loss of a life they found very meaningful and relationships they held dear, do not feel that life ends when they breathe their last. This is not to say that the transition is easy, because this life is the only life we know. But they experience God’s closeness and the permanence of God’s purposes. They appear to be aware of a community of saints which transcends this life. I believe they begin to have a deeper understanding about what life in the Spirit means. Potentially, we can face death with a sense of peace when we believe what Paul is asserting in Romans 8. Paul wants us to celebrate even when bad things happen to us or death confronts us.
In trying to comprehend the power of what it means to live according to the Spirit, I return to the centrality of trusting God. In a society that teaches self-reliance, we must trust God’s claim upon each one of us and on this community. God is at work among us to deepen our humanity and deepen our sense of community. We should set aside any anxiety about this life by looking to fulfill God’s purposes: serving others and building community. Self-interest becomes a lower priority, which is completely contrary to the priorities of the world. Indeed, the promise is not just to us as individuals, but to all who are in Christ–past, present, and future. In every community of God’s faithful, we are given opportunities to help others, to repair damaged relationships, to recognize Christ in people we don’t know, to bring love, forgiveness and hope to lonely and despairing persons. Just like the work of Agnes in that prison–not being offended or frightened by the ‘flesh’ because she recognizes the potential of the Spirit in each inmate.
So, what does this mean for us? I’m sure you are thinking about the many different ways people in this congregation put their minds on the things of the Spirit. Let me remind you of yet another opportunity this coming Saturday, when we have our Rejoicing Spirits worship service, followed by an all-church picnic. When the planning group met to prepare for the upcoming worship and picnic, we asked ourselves how can we make worship and the distribution of food after worship a sacramental act of mutual sharing in the name of Christ? First, it is important for as many of you to come as possible because this demonstrates the movement of the Spirit. Then, the key for this or any other ministry is to trust Christ’s presence at work in and among us. Christ is there among those who seek to build others up in community in response to the life of the Spirit. That is the future into which we are called by God to live. So celebrate! and live according to the Spirit.
Amen
