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SERMON
Our passage today is the epistle reading from the Revised Common
Lectionary. I hope that as you've encountered a variety of somewhat
random readings from the lectionary over the last few Sundays, that
you've felt blessed by both the variety and the unity of the Bible. It's
an amazing book, and I would once again encourage you to be spending
some regular time in it.
I think the book of Romans is one of the most theologically dense books
of the Bible. Not dense in a bad way, but dense as in "full of
material." It's like one of those meals that is so rich that each bite
becomes a feast. That is the book of Romans; a banquet of rich
theological themes that is also packed with practical nutrition for our
faith. If you ever get a chance to read it straight through, I highly
recommend it, because each chapter and passage builds on the one before
as Paul systematically lays out the gospel.
In fact, for us to truly get into the text today it would be helpful to
fill in some background material first. Of course, because the content
is so thick, I'm going to try and speed it up by using an analogy.
Following the customary greetings, Paul dives right into his
presentation of the Gospel. The first 3 chapters cover the fallen nature
of humanity. Paul shows precisely how each and every person falls short
of God's plan, and is justly deserving of condemnation. He demonstrates
how all people have enough information to choose rightly, but that we
seem powerless to do it. Sin is an almost irresistible force, pushing us
along.
It is kind of like (and here's the analogy) a river. We were down at
Tovelle on Friday for a picnic, and I have to say the Rogue really is a
nice river. Now you can stand on the shore of a river like that and
think, "Oh, this is no big deal, it's just a little water going by." But
you'd be wrong; even a little river carries a lot of force. It is, in a
sense, unstoppable.
Have you ever been to Grand Coulee Dam? You know I've stood at the base
of it and just gazed in awe at that mighty structure. What a feat of
engineering that is! But, you know, as you stand in the shadow of all
that concrete, I personally think you can almost feel the weight of the
water behind it, just pushing. It makes me nervous. And you have to
realize, that the only reason that dam is still there is because they
still let the river through. I wonder how long it would last if they
plugged up all the holes… A river is an irresistible, unstoppable force;
and so, says Paul, is sin.
And, that river of sin flows inevitably down to its end; God's wrath, a
waterfall of infinite proportions, just falling away into nothingness.
And, says Paul, each of one us is bobbing merrily along in that river.
Now it would be bad news if we were just floating along in the river
with our water-wings; tumbled and bounced about by the freezing current.
But God was gracious, and gave us the law, let's say for the purposes of
our analogy, a canoe. Great news, right? Sort of. The law is good; it
protects us from the rocks, and keeps us out of the freezing water. The
law keeps us from drowning. But the law also carries us down the river
with the current. The law, though it is God's good gift, in the end
becomes the vehicle of our destruction, because we are too feeble to
keep the law. Sooner or later, it will carry us over the falls. Even
with a canoe, we are powerless to fight the force of the river.
That's the first three chapters of Romans, more or less. But then comes
God's greatest gift. Listen to Romans 3:21-24:
But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been
made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This
righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who
believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
God, in Christ, came to our rescue. As we bobbed helplessly along
toward our doom, Christ hopped in the boat with us and started paddling
up river. And that's where we pick up today's passage: what is our
response to God's gift? Paul seems to think that we have a part to play
in our own rescue.
Paul has presented the basics of the gospel, and now he wants to see
that gospel take root in people's lives. But in order for that to
happen, people need to recognize that a change has taken place, and they
need to see that they have the responsibility to respond. Paul reminds
people that they have a choice to make between lives that are as
different as night and day, and that this choice has eternal, life and
death consequences.
"In the same way, Paul says, "count yourselves dead to sin but
alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your
mortal body so that you obey evil desires." There is no neutral
position when it comes to sin. There is no standing still. Paul is
asking people to choose ultimately who will reign in their lives. Death
to sin is life before God, but the reverse is also implied; life in sin
is death before God. We need to pick up our own paddles and work right
along side Jesus as he saves us from our trip over the falls.
Paul has shown God's decision in Jesus Christ, to pour out grace upon us
and to free us from the power of sin. We cannot let ourselves just bob
along in the current. We cannot allow the river to sweep us away as if
nothing had happened, as if Christ were not with us, as if Christ had
not died for us. Sin is no longer your sovereign, Paul is saying, so
stop living as if it were. Stop bowing to its desires and pressures,
don't give in to its demands, don't let it carry you away.
Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of
wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been
brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as
instruments of righteousness. I think Paul understands how hard that
is. This passage is full of conflict. It's a battle. The Greek word here
for instruments,
o[pla is also translated as weapons. In fact, it's the root of
the word hoplite, which were the Greek warriors (you know, with the big
shield and spear and the big helmet with the broom on top). The language
here is of battle. When we give sin reign in our lives, we strengthen
sin's power in our lives; but in contrast, when we let righteousness
rule, we strengthen God's power in our lives.
I'm reminded of the story of Native American grandfather who compared
the power of good and the power of evil in his life to two wolves, one
darkness and one light, who were fighting within him. When his grandson
asked which wolf would win, he said simply, "The one I feed." There is a
constant battle within us, and we must be careful not to give sin any
ammunition. Our actions create patterns, patterns become habits and
habits are hard to break.
But that can work in our favor too. Habits of righteousness become
powerful forces for reshaping our lives. As we give our talents and
resources to God, God uses them to build and strengthen us, and to sow
the seeds of new talents and resources. Service to Christ strengthens us
for even better things.
"For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but
under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but
under grace? By no means!" Sin shall not be our master, not now, not
ever. But how are we supposed to stop doing the things that are so
habitual we don't even think about them? Isn't it interesting that Paul
doesn't point to a list of rules? That he doesn't say the answer is in
the law? What Paul is talking about is not rules, but RULE, sovereignty.
Paul points not to a "what" but a "who." Who will be master in our
lives? Who will reign on our heart's throne?
Paul has already talked about our freedom from sin. But freedom does not
mean autonomy. Freedom does not mean that we get to do whatever we want.
The question is not whether or not we will have a master, the question
is who that master will be. Continued habitual obedience is in essence a
kind of slavery, and if you want to know who your master is, you merely
need to look at your pattern of behavior. People can find all kinds of
ways to become enslaved. We are slaves to our jobs and to our free time,
slaves to our appetites and slaves to our desires, slaves to our
favorite TV shows, slaves to our coffee pots, slaves to bodies, slaves
to fashion, slaves to favorite political agendas.
You know one of the first steps of good basic financial planning is to
keep track of where your money goes in a given month. How much is spent
on bills, how much for groceries, how much at the movies, how much
eating out, how much for tithe and so on. I wonder, if we did the same
sort of thing for our time, for our energy, for our resources, what we
would come up with.
"Don't you know," says Paul, "that when you offer yourselves
to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you
obey- whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to
obedience, which leads to righteousness?" If we act like slaves… if
we live like slaves… if we obey like slaves, we are slaves whether we
carry the chains or not. "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck,
quacks like a duck… chances are it's a duck." Our actions make us,
functionally, slaves, whether we like it or not. The question for Paul
is not whether we will be slaves, but to what or to whom we will be
slaves. And Paul, like Jesus before him, reminds us that we cannot have
two masters.
"But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you
wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.
You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to
righteousness." Now this is an interesting little distinction. Paul,
who has one of the strongest voices for salvation by faith, through
grace, here says not "you wholeheartedly believed" but "you
wholeheartedly obeyed." Ultimately, though, the two cannot be
divorced in Paul's mind. Faith in Christ and commitment to Him as Lord
are one and the same. Faith without works is just as dead as works
without faith.
I also find it interesting that it is not "the form of teaching which
was entrusted to us," but "we who were entrusted to the form of
teaching." Our faith is not simply a matter of following a teaching,
or a set of rules, or words. Our faith is in the teacher Himself. We are
entrusted to his care and to his guidance. And it is His presence with
us that gives us our freedom. It is His presence with us and his daily
work in our lives that frees us to become what God intends us to be. It
is, ultimately, a kind of slavery that is better than the best freedom
we can dream up.
There is no question that God still asks for absolute and unquestioned
obedience, but it is a slavery without degradation, without fear,
without confinement. It is a slavery that has our best interests at
heart. Paul knows that slavery is perhaps not the most appetizing image,
but it gets his point across.
"I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural
selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to
impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery
to righteousness leading to holiness."
Sin is a sort of progressive condition, lessening the sinner with
each moment, and increasing the tendency to sin. Just as a river
increases in force the closer it draws to the falls, so sin gets harder
to resist the further we float along in it. But righteousness is also
progressive. The more we commit ourselves to following Jesus, the more
time we spend in His company, the more we listen to him and the more we
let Him reign in our lives, the easier it becomes to do what he wants us
to do. The more we obey, the more we are strengthened to obey. In
theological terms, this is called "sanctification." It is the Holy
Spirit's gradual reshaping of our lives to match the image of Jesus. It
should be a natural part of our faith, just as natural as fruit growing
on a tree.
I remember my first experience canoeing in a river. I was 19 years old
and had taken a job at Tall Timber Ranch as the Outdoor Program
Director. At the beginning of the summer we went for a staff canoe trip
on the Wenatchee River. I ended up being in a canoe with one of our
directors, Stan "the Mountain Man" Fishburn. When it comes to the
outdoors, Stan is a guy with experience, wisdom, and natural ability, he
could control a canoe effortlessly. But on this day what was more
significant was his passion for teaching.
I didn't realize it as we paddled along enjoying the sights, but Stan
was teaching me how to canoe. Not in a "do this, do that" kind of way,
just quietly showing me "neat tricks" now and then. He taught me the "J"
stroke so I could turn the canoe without slowing down. He taught me
"braces" and "prys" to use when the canoe was tipping in the whitewater.
He taught me ways of finessing to find the good current, how to surf on
a "burm" of water, how to paddle efficiently and to remember to rest so
that your arms don't fall off. As I spent time with him, as he shared
with me, I was able to pick up his skills, so that by the end of the day
I was stronger, smarter and wiser when it came to canoeing.
This, in a sense, is what "sanctification" is. As we spend time with
Christ, as we pick up a paddle and start moving ourselves up river, away
from our own destruction, we become more like Christ. We become smarter,
stronger, more faithful, more Christlike. It is just a natural product
of being in the presence of Jesus; like fruit grows on a branch when it
is connected to the vine.
That's Paul's next image. "When you were slaves to sin, you were free
from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that
time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in
death!" The word translated here as benefit is actually
karpo~, the
Greek word for fruit. It is the natural product of our actions. A pear
tree will produce pears, an apple tree will produce apples, a plum tree
will produce plums… it is what they are made to do, it is natural.
Our sinful actions, says Paul, produce a harvest of death. That is the
natural result, the fruit, of a life that is spent without God. And it
makes sense. If God is the source of all life, of all that is good, then
there is no life and no good without God. Sin has its own destruction
within itself, because it is by definition being "apart from God" and
nothing can exist apart from God.
"But now," says Paul, "that you have been set free from sin
and have become slaves to God, the benefit… the fruit… you reap leads to
holiness, and the result is eternal life." It is just as natural
that an increasing relationship with the one who is the source of life
and goodness should bring about an increase in life and goodness.
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
One way or another, Paul expects action. While salvation is purely a
gift from God, Paul is not content to have us sit back and enjoy the
scenery while Christ paddles us home. There is no neutral, for us, and
there is no standing still. We have a choice, we can either float along
in the river of sin and get what we earn (our wages) or we can take up
the gift that God has extended in Jesus Christ and make it a part of our
lives. We can pick up a paddle and head up river, learning from our
Master as we obey Him in faith.
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