Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Ninth Sunday After Pentecost Year A 2008

09 Pentecost A 08
July 13, 2008

Romans 8:1-11
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 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, 4 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. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 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, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 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. 10 But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 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.

Spirit and Flesh

We are preaching this month about the process of discernment, particularly as we ask the question, “What does God want Philippi to be and do?”

This relates certainly to the question, “what does God want me to be and do?” And I suppose there may be people here this morning who are wondering about that as well.

Last week we spoke about standing still and letting God’s grace wash over us. More importantly, we spoke about relying on God and not on ourselves for the direction we need as a congregation.
This week we speak more directly just how does one rely on God for direction.

Discernment is a fancy word that basically means making choices. The root word in Latin means to “perceive apart.” How do we “perceive apart” God’s particular will among the many choices available to us?

It would seem that when we get down to cases—“Should I do this or that?”—we are presented with a bewildering array of choices. So many good things we could do. What Paul is offering here is a bigger choice, a larger context in which to think about these things.

The word “Spirit” is mentioned ten times in this passage. The word “flesh” is used nine times. The theme here would seem to be obvious.

A choice is set before us. Spirit or flesh. What is meant by these words?

Paul says that the flesh weakens the law, so that the law cannot do what it was meant to do. Living according to the flesh is death. The flesh is hostile to God and does not submit to his law. The flesh cannot please God.

Paul is talking about sarx, which we translate into English as “flesh.” But sarx might be better translated as “instinct.” We all have natural instincts God has given to us. But if we turn to those instincts as ultimate things, which is our normal unreflective tendency, we become enslaved and caught up in sin. It is good to be married and have that pleasurable intimacy with one’s spouse, but if we want to have that same intimacy with many other people, we have become enslaved to our instinct. It is a normal instinct to provide for oneself and one’s family, but if we dedicate our whole lives to the pursuit of money, we have become enslaved to the instinct.

The law was given as a kind of dream of God to the people of God, God’s vision of how his people would relate to each other. But instincts, the natural desires God himself gave us for our benefit and growth, replaced God in the highest place within his people’s hearts. And so his law, his great vision for what his people would look like, was weakened, as Paul says, and was not able to do what it was meant to do.

Because these instincts for survival, in all their myriad forms, so easily take the place of God in the rule of our hearts, we really can’t completely trust our consciences. At the level of “sarx,” we are all hostile to God, because God calls us away from the things we hold the dearest, and demands that he take the top place. Paul even seems to suggest that the universal problem of death is due directly to this problem. The “sarx” is the present body that is decaying and dying.

In contrast to this, Paul says that the Spirit of God is a new kind of law that sets us free from this impossible situation. Those who live according to the Spirit are able to fulfill what the law was meant to do. The Spirit is life and peace. Indeed the Spirit is the Spirit of eternal life that is at work in each believer, transforming him or her into a new being, one destined to rise from the dead, one who is able to do what ordinary human beings are unable to do. Paul calls them elsewhere, “the children of light.”

A woman had a dream that she walked into a new shop in the mall and to her surprise, found God behind the counter.

"What do you sell here?" she asked.

"Everything your heart desires," said God. "Everything."

Hardly daring to believe what she was hearing, the woman decided to ask for the best things a human could wish for. "I'll take some peace of mind and love and happiness and wisdom and freedom from fear, " she said. Then as an afterthought, she added, "Not just for me. For everyone on earth."

God smiled. "I think you've got me wrong, my dear," God said, "We don't sell the fruits here. We only sell the seeds."

Perhaps we could think of the Holy Spirit as a seed, a very small thing, something you might miss if you didn’t look hard enough. It’s also rather fragile, particularly at the beginning of its life. It is implanted with the word of God, particularly that strange and disturbing and wonderful message, “Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.”

Jesus tells the story of the sower in another passage appointed for this morning:

You remember the story? Some seed on the path that got taken by birds because it couldn’t even take root. Some seed went in the rocky soil where it couldn’t put down deep roots, so when the sun came out it withered and died. Some soil fell among the briars and so while the roots were deep, the briars choked the plant. But some seed fell on the good soil, took deep root, and produced much fruit.

And so the process we must turn to is the process not of trying to think up things to do, but rather of emptying ourselves of everything that could stand in the way of God’s spirit, clearing the soil so that our minds are no longer on the things of the flesh but on the things of the spirit.

What does this look like?

First off, I think a Christian community must be marked by self-honesty. There are those at Philippi that appreciate my self-revelation, my little confessions of fault. There are those who are made rather uncomfortable by them. I do them not to gain approbation or critique, but rather as an example to you of the self-honesty Christ calls us all to.

I’ll say it bluntly: if you can’t think of anything you do in disobedience to God, you are lying to yourself. No one can point these things out to you. God has not given that job to anyone but you. And of course, being bluntly honest with others about their faults is not being honest at all. It’s just being rude.

That being said, I want to make it very clear also that admitting one’s faults as fully and as completely as one can is a great relief. It is part of a path to real peace. How much time do I spend justifying myself, when I could be spending that same time building up someone else?
But self-honesty is also about being self-aware. So many people seem to walk around with one of those lead vests they use to block x-rays, burying their feelings under its weight. Self-honesty can also be about removing that lead vest and feeling ones’ real feelings.

And there are those too who genuinely feel they are hopelessly bad and unforgiveable. That is as dishonest as thinking one is beyond reproach. The truth is that with God all things are possible.
Being truly honest with oneself is the spiritual work of clearing the soil, or to put it in Paul’s terms, getting the mind off the flesh so that it can focus on God’s Spirit.

Moreover, public sharing of the truth of one’s self can be encouraging to others who are afraid. This is another important aspect of congregational life. An atmosphere in which people publicly evaluate themselves, without commenting on other’s self-evaluation, is a safe place to grow.
Secondly, remaining open to God’s Spirit necessarily involves regular and frequent worship, prayer, study. Nothing will come out of the soil if there are no seeds. God is the sower and God gives the growth in the soil.

And thirdly, witness and service, that is, the public testimony to Jesus Christ and the resurrection through outreach and evangelism in his name both locally and around the world is a part of remaining focused on the things of Spirit. Part of this work is generous giving to the church, so that all that is done is done in Christ’s name. To paraphrase the old saying, you can’t keep Christ unless you give him away.

I said in a newsletter article three years ago that the church grows when people are growing. The only one who can truly give the growth is God, and therefore, if we are truly growing, God is here with us. When individuals in the church grow, the work God does through them also grows. Moreover, when individuals are growing, they attract a crowd.

As we reflect on Philippi’s mission for the next five years, each one of us might ask ourselves, “Am I growing in the Spirit of Christ?” If the answer is yes, we might then ask, “How and in what particular ways am I growing in the Spirit? What is Christ doing through me?” The answer to those questions could become your witness to your neighbors and friends about what Christ is doing for you. It could open the door to more ministries.

And if the answer is no, we might ask, “What must I do to ready myself for God’s power to work in my life? What is standing in my way? How can my pastor or my church help me?”

The same question can be asked of Philippi. Is Philippi growing in the spirit of Christ? How exactly and in what ways? Is there anything keeping us from growing into the fullness of Christ as a congregation full of the power of the resurrection in this particular place and time? In what ways are we focused on the flesh at Philippi, and in what ways are we obeying the Spirit?

More next week.

Amen.

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