New Life

 July 23 2023

Romans 6

         One of the things that still surprises me is that the daily newspaper is no longer a part of my life. I mean, I grew up with my Mom and Dad faithfully reading the paper everyday so I just assumed that this reading of the newspaper was one of those things which would continue on and on, little did I know. It didn’t help that the content of the newspaper dwindled down to such a point that the highlights began to be the obituaries and the comics, in that order. This lack of stuff to read about, in a newspaper, seemed a little weird because there are a lot of us who remember when there was all kinds of stuff to read about. When Jennifer and I were married the paper carried the news of our wedding, even explaining what kind of wedding dress was worn on that fateful day. And there were always a lot of different columnists to read. I remember that on Saturdays there was even a religious section. I recall, one time, reading in the newspaper a column written by a Catholic priest who had written a great response to the question of whether or not he had been born again. This was during a time when knowing whether one was born again or not was of utmost importance almost becoming a source of pride for some who not only knew that they had been born again but also when it had happened. To all of this interest in being born again, this Catholic priest replied to the question as to when he had been born again, stating that he had indeed been born again, it had happened on a Friday when the one called Jesus had been crucified for his sins. I was totally floored by his response which is obvious because more than thirty years later that response is still with me. How very true that our being born again is more about what Jesus has done for us then it is about us flaunting that it is by our faith that we have been born again.

         Paul, in todays scripture,  also focuses in on the mighty acts of Jesus when speaking about the subject of baptism. Paul does not speak to whether or not baptism is a public display of a personal faith decision; this does not concern him at all. No, Paul is speaking about baptism because in this instance he is concerned about baptism being the means by which we enter into the life of the church. Paul asks those who make up the church, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? I mean, if God is going to continue to hold out his forgiveness of our sins then why don’t we keep on sinning and then, we can repent and ask God for forgiveness and once we are forgiven then we can just head back out to do a little sinning once again. Is this the way we, as the church, are supposed to live as people who have been saved by grace? Paul already knew that such questions were nothing but nonsense. You see, right from the beginning, those who had gone through the waters of baptism were already aware of the true power of grace. Baptism is death and life, of dying to one world in order to live in another, to die to living in the age of sin and death so that we might live to the glory of God. You see, as Paul reminds his audience, when we were baptized into Christ Jesus, we were baptized into the very death of Jesus. Here is why this is so: The people of Israel were chosen by God to represent the nations. As their Messiah-King, Jesus represented the people of Israel, the very people who represented all of the people of the world. Jesus our Messiah-King took upon himself the judgment and condemnation of all people, so that what was necessary for the Old Covenant to be satisfied, a deserving death for those who lived under that contract, might be delivered by the one who did not deserve such a death at all. So as Paul writes in the fifth chapter of Second Corinthians, “…we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died…”. This very truth is what is on display when one is plunged beneath the waters of baptism. As Paul explains it here in this sixth chapter of Romans, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death…” So, in much the same way that the Catholic priest explained how it was that he had been born again, so Paul here is saying that when Jesus died and was plunged beneath the waves of death which rolled over his body for three days, we, in some mysterious way, were there in that moment, united with Jesus right there in that most God forsaken of times. Only as Jesus entered death, and we with him, only as we know that we have ceased to live in the age dominated by the sin of Adam, only then can we be done with sins control. As we rise out of the waters of baptism we enter into a new age, the age of the new Adam, an age where his resurrection reigns. Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so too we can now say that we can walk in a whole new way of life, a way of life that too brings glory to the Father.

         Over and over again in this sixth chapter of Romans, Paul speaks of death and life. Paul writes in many different ways that we are those people, the ones who have been united in the death of Jesus, people who are absolutely certain that we will be united in a resurrection just like his. This profound truth means so much to us. When we know that we have been raised from the dead with Christ then we know that our life in the old age, where sin reigned over us, this has at last come to an end. So, being united with Jesus Christ means that we are no longer slaves who are controlled by the power of sin because you know, dead men don’t do a whole lot of sinning. And death no longer has any power over us either because we are to conclude that we are most assuredly alive to God in Christ Jesus having been raised up in resurrection power.

         All of this is such great news, hallelujah, we are free, and the power of sin and death has been broken and we are able to experience life in the hope of the resurrection. And then, Paul goes and ruins it for us because he says ok, all you people who have risen to a new life, don’t let sin reign in your mortal bodies. He goes on to say, that we should not obey the desires of sin, to give ourselves over to the control of sin so that our very bodies becomes a weapon to be used in the cause of unrighteousness. So, what is it Paul, are we dead to sin, or not? Have we really been raised to new life,Paul, or have we been raised to a life which looks a lot like the old life, a life that is continually bothered by sin’s pursuits?

         What Paul is getting at when he bursts our bubble by telling us to not let sin reign in our body just as he gets done telling us that we are no longer a slave to sin, is that it is up to us, we are the ones who have to decide what we are going to do with our new found freedom that is ours when we are raised to new life. Paul states the issue as being just whose cause are we going to give ourselves to? Are we really going to let the sin which controlled us, the same sin which we died to, to now be the one that we allow to use us for all kinds of unrighteousness? Even the possibility of this happening seems a little absurd yet we know that Paul has mentioned such a thing because it seems that he has witnessed this turning back to sin in at least one person’s life. The question that Paul insists that all those who are baptized have to answer is just who is it that I will stand ready to do whatever they desire of me? Here again, Paul uses a word that bears this image of standing. We may recall that when Paul began the fifth chapter of his letter to the church at Rome, he began by stating that through Christ we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. Here in the sixth chapter, Paul again speaks of standing only this time Paul wants to know just who is it that we stand ready to do their bidding, who is it that we will now serve, sin or the God who has saved us from sin.

         When Paul says that we are to present ourselves either to sin or to God, the image that is conveyed is that of someone standing before their boss, ready to go and get to work. Now Paul seems to know that most people once they have found a way out of sin are not going to go back to a life under sins control. Paul expects that those who have been baptized are going to be those who stand ready to give themselves as workers of righteousness because they are responding in love to the God who has brought them from death to life. This response of love arises out of resurrection faith, a belief that out of the nothingness of a life bound to sin can come a life raised up, bound to the glory of God. And as we consider how profound all of this is, Paul goes further by making a pretty audacious claim, that sin will have no dominion over us since we are now not under law but under grace. Now, this seems to be somewhat opposite of what we might believe because for many people the way of grace seems to be the way of weakness and the way of law seems to be the way of strength. The offering of forgiveness and mercy, this willingness to be reconciled, this all seems to be the least effective way to keep someone on the straight and narrow. No, what many people think is needed is the upholding of the law and the proper punishment to make people respect that law, this is how we can eliminate the dominion of sin. Yet here Paul would respectfully disagree. No, what keeps sin from dominating our lives is this thing called grace, this favor of God welcoming us into his love.

         As Paul puts it, we are going to stand ready to do what ever we are told, either before sin, which leads to death, or before God which will lead to righteousness. The question is just which voice are you waiting to hear from, just who is it that really has our attention? You see, when it is put like this it is easy to understand why Paul knew that it is grace, not law, which is the power that keeps sin from having dominion over us. The power of grace is found in the holy love of God. This holy love of God does not love us just when we are obedient to the law; no, God in his holy love loves us even in our disobedience. This holy love of God is a love which loves us not for what we are able to do but rather this holy love loves us all because we are treasured by God. Where all the law could do was judge and condemn us, leaving us as good as dead, our God who esteems us to be of immeasurable worth, in his grace, searches for us and brings us home so that we might find life through him. This is our faith in the resurrection, this unshakable belief that God desires a life with us beyond the death that we so rightly deserve. Yes, the law keeps a record of our failures but the holy love of God sees beyond our weakness and pride and God draws us to himself out of his great love for us. You see, the reason that God gave Jesus upon the cross to take upon himself our death is that God treasures us. Through Jesus we are to know that we are of infinite worth to God. And here is what Paul knew, that as we become more and more convinced of who we are to God, a treasure to make his own, a treasure that is watched over, and kept safe within his steadfast, faithful love, if this is how we know who we are to God then it just makes sense that we will most assuredly treasure this God who treasures us.This is the power of grace.

         You see Jesus tells us that there are two places that we can lay up our treasure. In the sixth chapter of Matthew, Jesus teaches us, “Do not lay up treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. Instead lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there also is your heart.” The treasure that is in heaven is our Heavenly Father, he is the one we are to treasure, to hold within our hearts. The reason that this is so important is that this new resurrection life we are living out is a life under a new covenant, one where, as we read in the thirty-first chapter of Jeremiah, God will put his law within us, writing his very law on our hearts. When our Heavenly Father is our treasure, when we know him as being of infinite worth to us, then his words, the words which are his law, these words will also be treasured. This is when we will stand before him, obedient, listening intently, ready to go as he directs. I mean, is this not to have the law of God written upon our hearts? 

         You see, it is that we treasure our Heavenly Father, this is the reason for us to be obedient to the teaching as Paul says that we were committed to. This word, “committed” , is a word which means to hand over. The imagery is one where our Heavenly Father lovingly places those newly born again in the loving arms of his church. The church are those who will teach those newly baptized to know the ways of Jesus, to teach them to know the voice of the one who treasures them. At the very heart of the core teachings of Jesus is a prayer, the heart’s desire of the Heavenly Father who loves us. To learn the prayer is to learn the very aspirations of the Father who treasures us. The one we call, “Our Father”, desires that he is known as being holy, as the God who loves with a holy love. It is his kingdom that he longs to be brought into existence through the making of peace. It is his will that is to be done here on earth just as it is in heaven. His generosity is to be known as overflowing just like his extravagant forgiveness is to be the standard of our forgiveness. Our Heavenly Father is to be known by us as our sole means of deliverance from evil. This is what our Heavenly Father speaks about from his heart and when we treasure him then this is what will be carried in our hearts as well. When the Father’s longings become our longings then we can say that righteousness has taken hold of our very selves so that sin no longer has any power over us. When our heavenly Father’s prayer guides our lives, this is when we will be like him, holy, holy in our love, for our actions will happen because we treasure our Heavenly Father. This is when we will find that we love others without any regard to the worthiness of anyone to be loved by us. This is, I believe, what Paul was trying to get this church at Rome to remember. They were to remember baptism, the death of Christ being the very source of their own death; his life the very fountain of their life. Of course, they were not to let sin reign, obeying the desires which sin stirred up. No, they were to be listening to the one who treasured them, loving on all of them because he claimed them as his own. They were to remember the longings of their Heavenly Father and how they had learned to listen to his voice here within the love of this church. So perhaps Paul would say, those things which you have died to, let those things remain dead. And this new life you have been given, get on with living this life your Heavenly Father has given to you. Get on fighting the good fight of righteousness instead of fighting with each other. Focus yourselves on eternity for in that light the fleeting parts of this life seem all so trivial. To God be the glory! Amen!

         

Grace Reigns

 July 16 2023

Romans 5:12-21

         There are many ways that I become aware of my age, the list is growing everyday, but one of the more annoying ones is that when you go to the grocery store the background music is the same music that you used to listen to in high school. So, it has come to this, all the songs which remind me of my youth have now been declared to be good for nothing more than background music?! I mean it is rather sad if you think about it. Well, not only does the music of my youth become someone else’s oldies but groups are always remaking the music we used to listen to, and that too catches me off guard. My daughter sent me a link of the band, Fall Out Boy, who re-wrote, Billy Joel’s song, “We Didn’t Start The Fire”. The new version though still has the original chorus that goes, “We didn’t start the fire, it was always burning since the world been turnin’…”. As I listened to those lyrics again I thought it sounds like Billy Joel and Saint Paul could share notes because what Paul writes here at the end of the fifth chapter of this letter to the church at Rome, Paul is telling his audience and us, that, no, we didn’t start the fire, you know this fire that has swept across all creation, the fire of sin and death. This fire has been burning not quite since the world’s been turnin’ but pretty close since it was, as Paul pointed out, Adam who had struck the match. And this fire of sin gave rise to death, and this death gave rise to more sin and the whole thing just took on a very evil life of its own. So, yes, we did not start this fire, it has been burning since the world was turning but this is not the end for Paul is going to let us in on what God has to say about just such a song.

         So, as Paul continues here at the end of this fifth chapter of his letter to this church at Rome, he begins with the period of time before God ever gave the law to the people of Israel. Was there sin from Adam until the law was given to Moses? Yes, sin was alive and well, it could be said that during this time sin was the king, the one in control. Yet the sinning that occurred in this time frame was not a transgression. A transgression is a deliberate crossing of a line which God has specifically said that we are not to cross. This is seen clearly in the life of Adam and Eve who were told not to eat of the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden of Eden but Adam and Eve chose to thumb their nose at God and they just got on making a little fruit salad for dinner.   

         So, yes, sin was in the world even before the law was given to Moses and the people of Israel but we have to wonder, just what affect will the law have on our world held captive in this swirling fire of sin and death? I mean, if you had been given the most perfect law, written down as the very words from heaven, wouldn’t you expect Paul here in this second paragraph of his writing about sin, that when the people of God obeyed the law they overcame their sin and the powers of death were at last defeated? But this is not what happened at all because what Paul writes about is how the transgression of Adam brought about judgment and after this judgment, there came condemnation. Now, in order for this judgment to be just, to be deserved, it just makes sense that this judgment was spelled out as being a real possibility when the people of God received the law from God. This is exactly what we find in the twenty-eighth chapter of  the book of Deuteronomy. There we find, first what we might call the good news, the blessings God promises to the people of Israel if they are obedient. And then comes the bad news, the curses that await the people of God if they disobey the laws that God had spelled out to them. The worst and final of these curses was the curse of exile where God would bring a nation against the people of Israel and God’s people would find themselves scattered among the nations. This is the promised judgment of God to his people and as we read in what we call, the Old Testament, the people of God did disobey God, quite horribly so. Ten of the twelve tribes of Israel were scattered among the nations by Assyria. The other two tribes, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin lived in what was known as being Judaea. As we read in the prophets, especially the prophet of Jeremiah, the Babylonian army did come against Judaea and the city of Jerusalem and the best and brightest were hauled off to Babylon. So, the judgment and condemnation that Paul writes of is found there in the historical fact of exile. It is this judgment and condemnation which always hung over God’s people that brought fear of punishment into their hearts so that what the law ended up doing is just adding power to the reign of evil, the sin and death that feed off of each other. Paul writes that the law came in along side of sin, as if it were an ally that was able to give sin even more power.

         Now it seems that when the course of history looks as bleak as it does according to Paul, you have to wonder what the answer is and what the answer is is that judgment and condemnation were not the end of the story. You see, what the giving of the law did was not just to point out the inability of God’s people to be obedient to the law but it was rather to point out something very profound about God and his love. Listen to how Jesus speaks about his Father’s love for his people, from the forty-fifth verse of the fifth chapter of Matthew, “For your Heavenly Father makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust”. You see, these terms, “evil”, and “good”, as well as “just”, and “unjust”, are terms that can only be understood through the law. What was discovered through the law is that God’s love is not dependent on anything that his people did. When they were obedient, following in the goodness of God, God loved them. And when they were evil, unjust people condemned to exile, God loved them. The love of God did not just love those who loved him in return, as we so want to have happen when we love on someone. And God did not just love those who were like him, because God is the total opposite of evil or unjust and even still, God still loves even those who are evil and unjust. God’s love, you see, is a holy love, a love quite different from the way we want to love people. When we set out to love we want to love on people who are very much like us, loving on people that we are fairly certain will love us in return if we love on them. The very common way to treat people is to be against our enemies and be all for those whom we know love us and who are on our side. But holy love is so radically different because God does not love anyone for what they do but God loves people for who they are, and that is that people are what God treasures. At the beginning of his journey with Moses and the people of Israel, God told the people of Israel that they were his treasured possession. That God considered his people his most treasured possession is the very foundation of his holy love. This is why we also find in the book of Deuteronomy in the thirtieth chapter that God tells his people that when they are in exile, very far from home, if from there they think upon the Lord their God, and they return to God, then God assures his people that he will have compassion on them. You see, when God’s people stopped and thought about the blessings and the curses, it was quite obvious that they deserved to be left in exile for what they had done could be considered a very certain death for them. Yet even so, this was not the end, for there beyond this certain death, there was God waiting for his people to turn around and allow God to receive them back to him, in an act of lavish compassion. The law came in and increased the sin within the lives of God’s people, but as Paul so rightly knows, where sin abounded in God’s people there was seen the overflowing, excessive, abundant, lavish welcome of God who greets his people with compassion all because he treasures them. Jesus knew that his disciples were treasures of infinite worth this is why on the night that he was betrayed, he prayed that his Heavenly Father keep watch over those he loved, and guard them, he asks, for they were greatly valued. Jesus states that where the very treasures of God are kept beyond harm is right there in the name of God, a name that speaks of God being a God of faithful, steadfast love. This is what Paul speaks of when he speaks of grace, or the favor, the very welcome of God. Jesus upon the cross took upon himself the condemnation of all people, receiving the very judgment of death so that through this one righteous act we might know that God desires a life with us beyond this death we deserve. We are justified in our belief in the resurrection because Jesus shed his blood for us so that we might know forever our unbelievable worth to God, that he considers us a treasure worth in exchange of the precious blood of his own dear Son. Through what Jesus has done for us we are welcomed to stand where Jesus stood, welcomed to come and be loved on just as our Heavenly Father has always loved the Son. This is God’s amazing grace. Here in the Father’s love we discover that we have come to be in the safest place for us to be, in his love where we are watched and guarded over because we are treasured by God. Yet, there is more, because Paul does not only speak of God’s amazing grace but he also speaks of the gift that is ours through the favor or welcome of the one we call Jesus. Jesus welcomes us, and he pours out on us the Holy Spirit, the living presence of God’s holy love. The Holy Spirit pours the love of God into our hearts, this love which treasures people, loving people whether they respond with love or if they respond with contempt, loving on those who are so unlike us, loving people as being the very treasures of God. The Holy Spirit is the living presence of love which finds people beyond their certain death and through his love brings them to find life within their Father’s arms. Yes, the transgression of Adam’s death, brought judgment and condemnation, and yes, through this one transgression, death and its power controlled people but this is nothing compared to what Jesus has accomplished on our behalf because instead of death reigning over us we are able to reign in this life we have been given. You see, through Jesus, all of us have been welcomed into the very love of God, the love which the Son of God has always experienced is now ours to enjoy. And through our being welcomed by Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the living presence of the holy love of God has been poured out on us from the wonder of heaven. Now we can be absolutely certain that we are held safe in the arms of the Father and this is how we endure in a world dominated by sin and death. Yet, we do not merely endure because the Holy Spirit fills us to overflowing with the living presence of the holy love of God so that we are moved to go out to treasure the ones who are treasured by the one who treasures us. This holy love of God moves us to go to those suffering in a world dominated by sin and death and by our faith in the resurrection we bring hope of life beyond the most certain of endings. This is what it means for us to be people who reign in life. This is what John is speaking of when in the fifth chapter of his first letter he writes that those who are born of God overcome the world and the victory that overcomes this world is our faith, our faith in the resurrection. It is through the obedience of Jesus, this is how we now have faith in the resurrection from the dead, the overpowering of the very power of death. Sin may have reigned in death but as Paul teaches us it is this grace of God, his favor and welcome of us because he treasures us that we are now held in his love where death no longer has any control over us. God keeps us safe in his love, in his grace, so that the righteousness we claim by faith will now be found in our actions. This is when grace reigns over sin and death. Thus as Paul puts it, by one man’s disobedience the many become people who were firmly set in the ways of sin. The question then was how could those who are so immovable in their sin become people who could be found to be set firmly in righteousness? The answer is that it is the grace of God, his welcome of sinners which he claimed as his treasures, this reaching out in love by the very one the sinful scorned, this is what is able to move those so immovable in their sin.

         So, back and forth, Paul has gone, first speaking to the hell on earth that was unleashed through the transgression of Adam, and then speaking of the intervention of heaven, the welcome and favor of our Heavenly Father and the favor of Jesus who baptizes us in the Holy Spirit. All the law could do under the reign of death is to just bring forth judgment and condemnation. Condemnation as sinners and the certainty of death are what this world has to offer. And it seems as if Paul is asking the members of his church to consider which scenario they are living under when they judge people, condemning them as being nothing more than sinners? Isn’t it rather obvious that in doing so these so called believers in Jesus seem to be under the reign of death instead of reigning in life through the grace of God? It is our faith in the resurrection, this is how we are now declared righteous by God and this means that we believe that God desires a life with us beyond death, beyond judgment and condemnation. It is there beyond our judgment and our condemnation that we believe God in his grace stands with arms wide open welcoming us into his life. Grace, this is the very welcome of God, and if we are welcomed in then how can we not believe that God desires to welcome everyone in. Grace, this is what transforms a world, which is ablaze with the fire of sin and death. Grace, this is what brings forth faith in God’s claim that we are at last righteous in our relationship with him; sin stands defeated. Grace and this gift of righteousness, this is how we reign in life; death no longer has control over us. Grace is our victory. So, why would we want to judge and condemn others when this is the way of the defeated powers of sin and death? Why would we not want to live out the victory of life which reigns over sin and death? Why would we not want to instead live in the power and victory of grace which is ours because we are treasured by God?And God not only treasures us but he treasures all people so why would we not believe that if people knew their incredible worth to God that this would not transform them just as it has transformed us? This is what our faith in the resurrection demands that we believe for this very transformation from death to life awaits the whole world and everyone in it.  When we live out our faith in grace this is when we can say that we reign in life through resurrection power. Yes, sin and death seem oh, so strong but they are merely defeated powers whose reign has passed. Now, God calls us to live as people who know that grace reigns, righteousness reigns, life reigns, and resurrection reigns, for this is the life eternal which is ours in Jesus Christ. Praise be to God. Amen!

         

Abounding Grace

 July 9 2023

Romans 5:6-18

         As many people who have read the Bible find out, there are a lot of really profound nuggets of truth to be found within its pages. All we have to hear is, “God so loved…”, and we know by heart a life changing truth about the love of God because he has given us the most wondrous gift called Jesus. Or we might begin, “The Lord is my shepherd…”, and when we hear these words we remember that we will not want for anything for we have a good shepherd who will lead us to where there are green pastures and he will cause us to rest beside those still waters. These are just two of these small little sayings that are just densely packed with life giving truth. And there are so many more of these little bundles of truth that await being discovered within the pages of scripture. What a joy it is when you come across one of these little sayings that you had never heard and be so amazed at what it speaks to you. I had this experience just this past week as I was reading through the fifth chapter of Romans preparing the message for this Sunday. Now, I am not fluent at all in Greek, the original language of scripture, but Bible Gateway does have the Bible with the Greek and English together which is very interesting. What is fascinating is that those who translated the original Greek sometimes did not translate the Greek word into its normal reading simply because that normal understanding of this word did not fit their version of the story. Sometimes this using of a different reading of a word doesn’t change the overall teaching of Paul but sometimes, as I found this week, this overlooking the normal reading of the Greek words meant that a profound saying was literally lost in translation. What I am referring to is found there in the eighth verse of the fifth chapter of Romans which is normally translated as being, “God shows, or demonstrates, his love for us for while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” The word translated as, “shows”, or “demonstrate”, is actually a Greek word that is always translated as, “standing with”. In other words what Paul was really saying was, “God stands with us, this is his love for us.” That, to me, is a very profound statement. It may be that it was too profound of a statement for translators to stomach, this notion that the almighty God is to be found here standing with us. Yet, I have little doubt that this is exactly what Paul meant because this whole section of his letter to this church at Rome is bracketed off by this idea of standing. As we might remember from what we learned last week from this fifth chapter of Romans, there in the second verse of this chapter, Paul writes that we, “have also obtained access by faith  into this grace in which we stand”. Here grace is described as being a place, an unshakeable space where we can stand, there where the Son of God has always stood, within the very love of God. So, Paul begins this chapter with this image of standing right at the beginning and then in the very middle of this same section he again states rather bluntly, “God stands with us, this is his love for us.” The God of all creation, the God of all power and all knowing, this God loves us and because he loves us the place where our God desires to be standing is right here beside us. Yet, this is not the last time that Paul refers to this task of standing because in the nineteenth verse what Paul writes, “For as the one man’s disobedience the many stood firm as sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will stand firm in righteousness.” So, what is implied is that we not just stand in this grace but that we stand unwavering in our living out of the righteousness God expects of us. And the reason why we become planted firmly upon this grace which leads to righteousness is that, God stands with us. God stands with us, wherever we might find ourselves, at home, at work or school or at the store or at the doctors office, no matter where you or I might stand, there God stands with us, all because he loves us.

         Now, we have to agree that what Paul tells us here, that our God stands with us, is an awesome revelation, it really is good news, but as always when we study scriptures, we must know the context surrounding what we are reading. This good news, that our God stands with us, this is his love for us, this is found right at the center of what appears to be a discussion Paul is having about four types of people that Christ has died for. Paul says that the Messiah died upon the cross, for the spiritually dead people, and also for those people who do not fear God, and, of course, plain old sinners and last but not least, enemies. When you stand back and look at these four groups of people it becomes rather easy to see that these are those people that we would rather not stand with us. We would rather see people such as these on the outside of our little group instead of on the inside with us. I mean we already know that this church determined that those allowed to get a lunch pass were those who had placed their faith in the power of the resurrection because this is the faith which is a faith of the righteous. So, those who are righteous by their faith in the resurrection these are the ones who are allowed in and knowing this, we have to wonder, just who is it that is kept out? Perhaps, it might be that there was a sign over the righteous club house that stated that those who were spiritually weak, those who just can’t get it together by their own power, those who had no fear of God, just plain sinners and of course, enemies-if this is you, keep out! Yes, that sounds kind of harsh, perhaps it would be better to state that we would let in the very opposite of these four kinds of people, so that the sign read: Those who are spiritually with it, those who fear God, saints and friends of God- you all come right on in. You see, it is easy to state who we want in with terms that sound quite legitimate but are in fact quite wrong in what they imply. What is wrong in what was said about who is allowed to come in is that anything was said at all, and I think that this is what Paul was getting at. You see, Jesus did not die for those who had it all together spiritually, he did not hang on the tree just for those who had a healthy fear of God, Jesus did not suffer in agony just for the saints, and he sure did not give his very life just for his friends. Jesus simply could have not died for any of these kinds of people because the truth of the matter is that they never existed. No, Paul says that it was while we, that means all of us, were spiritually dead, when the right time had come and we could do nothing about it,  Jesus, at that right time, died for those who had no fear of God. This one called Jesus died a horrific death, so very different than if he had died for an upright or even, a good person. No, it was while we were sinners, this was when Christ died for us. Through the shedding of his blood, through this tasting of death for all of us, we are justified in saying that Jesus is our sin offering, taking upon himself our judgment, so that in exchange we might receive, mercy. Instead of death, Jesus has offered us, life, a life where we are at last able to stand with God. This is what we believe, this is our resurrection faith, the faith that justifies us as righteous. This resurrection faith is a faith that believes that the power of the resurrection, the power of God’s holy love, this is the power that is greater than the power of death. All those that Paul speaks of that Christ has died for, these were all those held by the power of death. They were the spiritually dead, those who feared death instead of fearing God who gives life, those who had spiritually missed the mark, the way of life and those who stand in opposition to God which is obviously a death sentence. Into these situations where death held sway, Jesus gave his life knowing that the power of the resurrection is greater than the power of death. The power of the resurrection is the power of God’s holy love, which desires to give us the very best no matter what the cost, a love which loves us no matter if we love in return, a love without conditions or limits. This holy love that binds us to our Heavenly Father, who is the well-spring of life, this is the power that sets us free from death.

What we can also say is that resurrection power is the power that brings life back into relationships which have died. The shedding of the blood of Jesus was so that our sins could be forgiven for as we are told in the seventeenth chapter of Leviticus, there is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood. This shedding of blood is the offering of life so a relationship that has died might be brought back to life. The underlying reason for the offering of this life is the belief that life together is better than a life apart. This belief is resurrection faith.

         This resurrection faith is how we are justified in our claim that we are righteous before God, yet this faith is not just some statement uttered before God and the faithful. No, our faith affects how we live because if we say that we believe that life is a greater power than death then we must demonstrate that belief by choosing life instead of death. To choose life is to choose life together because this is the resurrection life that Jesus has given to us. It is the living out of our resurrection faith, allowing our belief in life to affect our relationships, day by day, this helps us to understand why Paul speaks about our justification by the blood, or our reconciliation through the death of God’s Son on one hand, and then speaks about our salvation from the wrath of God, or our salvation through the life of Jesus, on the other. Our justification by faith is the beginning of our salvation journey. This journey begins when we know that the reconciliation God has made possible is our most certain hope. Salvation is the rest of the journey, the day by day, hanging on to our faith and the living out of this faith in our everyday lives.  You see, when we understand that resurrection faith is a faith which seeks life and life together, for this is why God stands with us, then does it not make sense that we, of all people, have to be busy forgiving those we are estranged from? When we forgive the gift that is offered before the relationship can be healed is us, the very gift of our life reaching out to repair a relationship for this is how dead relationships are brought to life. What is interesting is that it is Jesus who is there to keep us from the wrath of God. It is really rather surprising that we even need to worry about the wrath of God, after all we have resurrection faith. Yet, if our resurrection faith does not move us to forgive when forgiveness is needed then we need to hear once again what Jesus taught us to pray, as found in the sixth chapter of Matthew, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Do you see how the forgiveness of God hinges directly upon our own willingness to forgive? As Jesus teaches us in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew, those who refuse to demonstrate mercy as God first forgave their sins out of his great mercy, for these remains nothing but judgment. Another word for judgment is wrath. If we refuse to be merciful, than all that is left for us is judgment because by our actions we have said that we can stand in judgment of others and thus have no need of the mercy of God which is a deadly lie.

         So, we need to remain committed to our faith in the resurrection and Paul tells us that we are saved by him, by our resurrected Jesus. This is the Jesus who was willing to love us with the greatest act of love, the laying down of his very life for us, all in order that Jesus might have a life with us beyond death. Our very faith in the resurrection is found in the fact that Jesus is with us, we stand with God. Paul tells us that it was while we were enemies, when we were those who could just walk away from our broken and dead relationships without a thought, never leading with mercy or reaching out in forgiveness, this is when the Son died for us, all so that we might be reconciled to God. This word, “reconciled”, means, in much simpler terms, to walk together again. Can you see the image, God not only stands with us, he also walks with us, and we walk with him, and as we walk with him, he is teaching us how to walk in his ways, the very ways of life. The life that walks in the ways of God is a life that imitates God, so as God first became reconciled with us so also we must be people of reconciliation. This is what Paul is saying in the eleventh verse of this fifth chapter, where we again must clean up a word that needs a better translation, that word being, “rejoice”. The word translated as being, “rejoice”, is a word that is never translated as such but rather it is a word that means to hold ones head up. It is a word that speaks of honor. Despite the translators best guess, honor does make sense when we think about how those at Rome were overly concerned with who belongs with the righteous and who does not. The way that groups like these try and enforce their beliefs and rules is through shaming those who haven’t made the grade and honoring those who are clearly among the faithful. And Paul, being a good pastor, is not clueless that this is happening and he just takes this idea and uses it to his own end. Paul says that the highest honor is twofold. First, through Jesus our Messiah, we now find ourselves in God, and we are honored that God desires to stand with us. Secondly, through Jesus we can now seize a hold of, lay our hands upon, this act of reconciliation and we are to find honor in doing so. It’s a little wild that Paul is putting our standing with God in the same breath as this act of reconciliation but upon reflection, what he says does make sense. You see, if God honors our efforts to do all we can to walk together again with those we are out of step with, then perhaps we will more readily be willing to do the hard work of forgiveness. This will keep us from the temptation of not wanting to forgive someone for we know that if we withhold mercy this will in turn destroy our relationship with the God who has done all that he can so that he can stand with us. You see every time we forgive someone we are exercising our faith in the resurrection. Forgiveness is our belief that beyond a dead relationship there can indeed be life, so that when we seek to be reconciled with someone right there we can see the miracle of resurrection life springing forth out of our resurrection faith. Thus we also realize that being forgiven through the death of Christ has indeed transformed us. No longer are we spiritually dead because now our resurrection faith has brought forth resurrection life. No longer are we enamored by the power of death for now we are in awe in the life giving power of God and nothing else.  And no longer are we an out of step sinner for now we walk with God. We can say with certainty that no longer are we enemies with God refusing to forgive, for now we believe in the resurrection, in the power of God to bring lives together and we exercise our faith through the offering of forgiveness and reconciliation. This is the life that God honors, and so it is a life that we should honor as well. As God chooses to stand with us, for this is his love for us, we should desire to stand with all people for this is the way they will know our love is real. This is the life God honors because such a life honors the God who loves us. Can you imagine a world where the person who received the highest honor was the very one who was relentless in their seeking of forgiveness, the one who was tireless in their pursuit of reconciliation? It just makes sense that such a life should be honored for such a life is honored by the God who stands with us!. Amen!          

Peace With God

 July 2 2023

Romans 5:1-5

         Good morning! It is always difficult to decide just what should I preach on next because there are just so many great lessons in the Bible. As I thought about it, though, it became quite obvious that the book of Romans seemed to be where I should be this summer because I just recently discovered yet another intriguing commentary on Romans. You see, pretty much every year for the last several years, I have read some kind of commentary on Romans. Last year I shook things up and instead of reading a book I watched a video series on the book of Romans done by the author, N. T. Wright. So its no surprise that once again this year I would go searching for another study on the book of Romans and I found one with the strange title, “Reading Romans Backwards”, by Scot McNight. Doesn’t that title catch your interest?! I mean, who begins reading a book by starting where the ending is? Yet, there appears to be a very good reason why the book of Romans should be started by reading the fourteenth through the sixteenth chapters and that is that here is where Paul is most clearly seen as being a pastor to a church. You see, what is often forgotten when we read the book of Romans is that this really was a letter written by a pastor to a real church, a church that had some real problems. This letter was never written to be a textbook for the history of salvation or a roadmap to help people find eternal life, even though it has been used for those endeavors. No, this was a real letter written to a real church with real problems and if we are a real church we might want to figure out just what problems they did have and what was Paul’s answers to those problems, just in case, you know, our church might some day have problems.

         So, yes, this whole reading of the book of Romans from back to front has changed how I understand just what Paul was writing about here in this letter that he wrote to a little church in Rome. It is there in the last couple of chapters of Romans that we find out the plain truth of the problems plaguing this little church but today, instead of just focusing on their problems, I think maybe we should instead focus on the potential, just what could the church of Christ really be if God had his way. This focusing on what could be and should be in the life of the church, this is what Paul is going to write about before he ever gets to the problems going on in this church in Rome because his hope is that when this church consideres the ideal Paul sets before them they just might be convicted of just how far off the mark they really are.

         The core ideals of who we are as a church that Paul writes about are all contained in a small section right in the center of the book of Romans, the fifth through the eighth chapters. Now, right here, at the beginning of the fifth chapter, we have a term that is usually understood in some abstract way, this, being, “ justified by faith”. We have probably heard about this doctrine or core belief of the church, justification, which states that we are declared righteous through our faith in Jesus Christ. Now, yes, this is a true statement about being justified by faith but to a little church at Rome, to be justified by faith was a statement about who you were willing to eat lunch with. The question that needed answered is just who is it that we should be seen eating with? How can someone justify their claim that they have every right to set their lunch tray down right here at the table of the Jesus followers? The simple answer is faith, all that was necessary to sit and eat in the community of the righteous is faith. Right here, though, we have to all get on the same page as to just what is meant by faith. Well, we don’t have to worry about defining just what is meant by faith because Paul has done that for us, as we find in the fourth chapter of Romans. The faith that God is looking for is that faith that our God is the God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence those things that do not exist. In other words, our faith is resurrection faith. Or to put it another way, the power of our resurrecting God is greater than the power of death, this is what we believe with absolute certainty. This is what is meant by faith. 

         So, yes, if you had resurrecting faith because of your resurrected Savior named Jesus, you could come on in and share in table fellowship with those who knew themselves as being declared, righteous. Yet, not only did this faith make possible a persons being counted one of Jesus’ followers, they, more importantly were now counted as having fellowship with God. This is what Paul means when he says that, “…since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. Here again, we have another word with many meanings, this word,”peace”. Here though our understanding of what is here meant by this word, “peace”, hinges on this peace with God being the result of our faith, our resurrection faith. When we know God as being the God who gives life to the dead, when we know that our God has defeated the power of death, this is when we have peace with God. And this peace we have with God is ours through our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who has conquered the power of death, our resurrected and resurrecting king.

         This is great news, isn’t it, that now through resurrection faith we can be at peace with God, yet we are kind of left wondering just what does a life that is at peace with God really look like? I mean, is this life where I and God are at last getting along, is this life going to be one where everything is calm seas and smooth sailing right up until we fly away to glory? Or is this life at peace with God perhaps very different than we might expect? This hint for us to expect the unexpected is found in what Paul writes next after proclaiming that now we have peace with God, because we read a rather odd statement, that through Jesus we have also  “…obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand…”. So, we could say that our faith is our all-access pass into this thing called grace. I think you have to admit, that it is kind of weird how Paul speaks of grace as being a place, as somewhere that we are now able to stand. Yet if you understand that Jesus took our place in death so that we might take his place in life, what Paul is saying grace really is begins to make sense. You see, when we have resurrecting faith then we are forever united with Christ so that where he has stood for all eternity as the Son of God, this is where we now find ourselves, held within the love of God, God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the very same experience Paul speaks of in the second chapter of Ephesians where he writes that, we of all people, we have been seated, with Jesus Christ in the heavenly places. Or as he describes it in the third chapter of Colossians, our life is hidden with Christ in God. Or as John has said of Jesus in the first chapter of his gospel, that Jesus came from the bosom of the Father, and if that is where the Son is found, then we can say that there is where we too are found. So grace is the favor of God who welcomes us into the eternal love which has always been in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

         All of this so far sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Yet, as we stand there where the Son of God has always stood, at the intersection of the Father and the Holy Spirit, we have to figure that our lives will end up being just like the life of Jesus. You see, Jesus, the very Son of God stands between the Father whose will he must do and the Holy Spirit who is the living presence of the holy love of God. It is the Spirit who flows forth from heaven to earth with the boundless, relentless, endless love of God. This is a love called agape, is a love which seeks the very best for someone no matter what the cost, it is a love that loves without expectations, a love which loves and keeps on loving no matter what. This is the love that pulsates through us through the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit. Into this most powerful moment though, comes the pounding words, suffering, endurance, a tested truth, hope, glory. Here are the sign posts for the life of Jesus. We must wonder, why, why must suffering be the headliner for this life? The answer is that all of humanity is suffering. Every person you meet, no matter where you go, is someone who at some point will experience suffering. The love of God is a love living in our hearts through the presence of the Holy Spirit which compels us to go out to the suffering of our world, to come along side of them and take their suffering upon ourselves. This is why we suffer because we are united by our love with a world full of suffering people. The suffering this world experiences comes out of the power of death and we overcome this power through the living presence of God’s holy love that pours out from within us. 

         So, yes, the holy love of God chases us out into the world, and unites us with people right at their point of suffering. The question that we have to be wondering is just how in the world does God expect us to keep on, keeping on, with our loving of this world? This call to get up every morning and carry our cross, you know, that’s hard duty. Crosses are heavy and they seem to get heavier the longer you carry them. To this Paul has a word: endure. Now the word Paul uses for endurance gives us a clue how we can remain faithful in our loving of the world. The word Paul uses is a word that means to abide, or rest under. The image this gives us is running under a roof during a rain storm. You rest under that roof knowing that it will keep you from getting soaking wet. In much the same way, where we must abide is in our Father’s arms. As Jesus was preparing to go to the cross, he tells his disciples, as found in the sixteenth chapter of John, that he is never alone because his Heavenly Father is always with him. Jesus endured the cross because he was held there by the Father. So, as the living presence of the holy love of God binds our life with the suffering of the world so that same love unites our life to the life of our Heavenly Father, the one we can abide under to weather out the storms we are called to endure.

         Paul here is sketching in broad strokes the very life of Jesus. Jesus, the living presence of the holy love of God residing within him, bound himself to our suffering humanity, taking upon himself our curse because the holy love of God would not permit him to do anything else. And Jesus endured the suffering unto death, faithfully loving with his very last breath, praying for the forgiveness of his enemies. Jesus endured because he was held safely in the arms of his Heavenly Father. What was seen in the life of Jesus is the truth, the truth that the power of the holy love of God is greater than the power of death. This is what becomes evident as we love those who suffer in a suffering world and we continue to love without conditions or limits, enduring patiently within the arms of our Heavenly Father. We have a very real need to experience the power of the holy love of God. We need to watch the victory as this holy love of God defeats the fear, the anxiety and the worry which drives people away from God. We have to have a personal knowledge of this power of the holy love of God because this is our only hope. Paul says that we should find our honor in the hope of the glory of God. This glory of God is the victory of the holy love of God over the power of death. This is our hope not because of some doctrine or statement of faith but because we have watched with our own eyes how the holy love of God overcame someone’s fear, or gave peace to counter a person’s anxiety, or watched as faith came alive in a person’s heart. These are just glimmers of a greater glory which one day will flood the earth. This is why this work that God’s love compels us to do is honorable work for this is a work that is always working towards a final victory for all the world.

         At this point we have to step back and consider just what Paul is really doing here, what is he trying to tell us as he is speaking to this church at Rome? I believe that first, Paul, is stating that the ones who are justified in their eating at the table of the righteous are indeed those who have resurrection faith. Yet, this faith has a higher and better purpose than to just serve as a badge of who is righteous and who is not. No, this resurrection faith gives us peace with God. This means that when we believe that our God can defeat the powers of death, we have bound ourselves up with the work that God is up to in our world. This resurrection faith opens the door for us so that we might know that our life is right there where Jesus the Son of God resides, right now, at the intersection of the Father and the Holy Spirit. There the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts, a vast unending current of holy love. This love compels us to go out and unite ourselves with the suffering people of our world, to make this world’s suffering our very own, to bear up that suffering and be willing to suffer ourselves for the sake of the world. This holy love of God also causes us to rest in the arms of our Heavenly Father, to be shielded under his wings, to know that with him is our ultimate security. As we allow the presence of God’s holy love to make alive this love in us, and we experience the power of this love over the power of death, we will know, in our little victories, the truth of the greater glory that is to come, the greater glory which is our only hope. So, yes, resurrection faith does mark us off as being righteous, but being righteous is not really about separating ourselves from the world so we can gather together as righteous people who stand apart from the world and its suffering. No, being righteous, rather than separating ourselves, is really rather about uniting ourselves, uniting ourselves with the suffering of our world, being united with the Father, being united in our hope and united in our glory. So, think about this: Is your faith more about separating yourself so that you see yourself as being one among the righteous or is your faith that which causes you to be united with others in their suffering, and that which moves you to find security in your Father’s arms? Can you really say that your faith in the resurrection is what causes you to be caught up in the righteous work of God, the God who calls us all to come  and experience for ourselves the overcoming of the power of death through the power of his holy love. Amen!

Stay Close To Jesus

 June 25 2023

Romans 8:28-39

         Well, our last day to worship together as Canton South Church of the Nazarene has arrived, sadly enough. This is of course, a difficult day and I wondered of I should even prepare a message. There might be some who would say, well what’s the point. The point is that God has something to say to us this morning if we are willing to listen to it. This has always been the starting point for every message I spoke from the pulpit. I always began each message asking God just what is it that he wanted to say to us who are your people, Canton South Church of the Nazarene, and this day is no different. As I come to the end of the eighth chapter of Romans, I hear God saying that there is something here that we need to understand as we prepare to get up and go from this place.

         Last week, we heard from the middle section of the eighth chapter of Romans and there Paul spoke a great deal about our life in and with the Holy Spirit. And Paul says about the Holy Spirit that through him the love of God is being poured out from heaven, so that we can say that the Holy Spirit is the living presence of the holy love of God. This holy love of God, this love which seeks the very best for someone no matter what the cost, this love which loves and keeps on loving, this love which comes completely without any expectations, but just loves us because there is just no other way for this love to be, this is the holy love of God whose living presence is the Holy Spirit.

         Through this Holy Spirit, Paul teaches us we cry, Abba, Father, the beginning of the prayer Jesus taught that we often call, ‘The Our Father”, or the Lord’s Prayer. This is a prayer which has at its core a cry for the will of our Heavenly Father to be done here on earth as it is done in heaven. As we enter into this time of prayer we do so as people who come in weakness. Our Heavenly Father searches our hearts. He is looking for those who are willing to bear his name out into the world. Our God wants our lives to witness to the fact that our God is a God of faithful, steadfast love. Our weakness is found in the answer to the question: Is this faithful, steadfast love what God will find in our hearts when he goes looking for it? Yet, there in that moment we find that the Spirit reaches into our heart and by his living presence brings into our lives the faithful, steadfast love of God. So, through the Spirit our Heavenly Father knows us as one who is willing and able to carry his love out into the world. This is what the Lord’s Prayer asks for, that our Heavenly Father, hallowed or holy be your name. Our Heavenly Father is known as being holy through those willing to carry this holy love out into the world, to be people who will seek the best for others regardless what the cost, to love without limits or expectations, to love no matter what. This is what Paul is writing about here, that when these people of this church at Rome rose up from this time of prayer that they would do so as those in whom the living presence of holy love was alive in them. Out they would go, people bearing the name of God, their Heavenly Father witnessed as being a God of relentless, boundless love. 

         Now, its important for us to make sure we understand that after a time of prayer we need to get up and go to work because this helps us figure out what Paul is really getting at in this twenty-eighth verse of the eighth chapter of Romans.  Often, this verse is translated as being, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose”. As this is interpreted, Paul’s words seem to contradict the truth that all Christians soon figure out which is that it is hard to see just how all things work themselves for good as there are many things that sure seem to be working for evil. So, it really seems that how this has been translated needed to be corrected. Someone much smarter than I am, by the name of Haley Goranson Jacob, took another look at this and it turns out that a much better way to translate this scripture is, “In all things God works for good with those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” Doesn’t this sound so much better and it fits with what Paul is writing about here. When we rise from prayer, we are to go as those who have been equipped by the Holy Spirit to join God as he works for good out in the world. This is the purpose his Word, the Word we know as Jesus calls us to do. Jesus calls us to follow him into the world to join our Father there in his work. Listen to how Jesus speaks of this as found in the fifth chapter of John,“My Father is working until now, and I am working with him.”  As Jesus lived here on earth he understood himself as working with his Heavenly Father to bring about the victory of good through the bearing of the holy love of God out into the world. And because we are in Christ, this is our calling as well. So repeat after me, “My Father is working until now, and I am working with him.” This is what Paul is saying must be our response to our time in prayer, a willingness on our part to get up and get to work. God is busy working for good, and he is calling all who love him to come and join him in the work of doing the good that overcomes this world’s evil. Those who are found to be working with their Heavenly Father in his workshop of a world, these are those who are considered as bearing the very same attributes as the Son of God, the one we know as Jesus. As God knew all along that the Son of God would enter creation as one of us to redeem us, so too in him, God knew we would be his redeemed to go into all of creation to live as those set free to love freely. As God had arranged before the foundation of the world that his Son would be the one who would experience the unthinkable, death itself, in order that through him creation might as last have life so too God has so arranged that in Christ we too might be those who defeat the power of death through the love of Christ so that life might come to the world. Isn’t this what it means to be conformed to the image of Christ? Of course! And just as in Christ God arranged that we would join him in bringing life to the world, so too as Christ was called to join his Father in his work, so too we hear that same call and get up and we too go to work with our Heavenly Father. As Jesus was justified through the resurrection so too we are justified through the resurrection power living in us. And as Jesus is glorified so too, in Christ we will experience his glory, this victory of holy love over the powers of death. 

         I believe that what Paul is doing here is pleading for this church to get busy joining their Heavenly Father in doing good instead of using their time to give power to works of the flesh which caused them to judge and condemn one another. I mean, what is their excuse for being up to no good instead of being busy doing good? Paul seems to ask, “Is it that you are afraid of the powers of death and darkness? Why would you give into such fears? Don’t you know, our God is with us?! I mean, honestly, who can really be against us when God is with us? Paul seems to ask this church at Rome, “Is the reason that you are not out their working is that you are afraid of not having enough to get the job done? How can you think this when you know that God did not spare his own Son but gave him up all for us? And if he has given us this greatest gift how can we ever believe that he won’t give us all that we need to bring good into this world? Paul goes on to say, “If you are busy working with God to bring good into this world who can really bring any charge against you? We can defend our actions by stating that we work with God so it is God who will justify all that we do. “Who is going to condemn us then?”, Paul asks, recalling here at the end of the eighth chapter what he began with which was that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation for those who are working with God to bring good into this world because they are those the crucified and risen Christ Jesus has got their back, he is always working with them. As we bear his holy love out into the world what we discover is this love is always with us, and there is nothing that can ever separate us from this love. This is an amazing promise Paul holds forth for us. I think he wants us to know, without a doubt, that there are no limits to where the love of God might be found. So, there is no room for any belief that there might be someone who is beyond the reach of the power found in the love of Christ.There is no tribulation, no distress, no persecution, no famine, no nakedness, no danger, no sword, nothing so fearful that the love of God can not overcome that fear and defeat it. As Paul writes, “No, in  all of these terrifying situations we are super conquerors, we can experience victory, but only through Jesus Christ who loves us. And what a love that Jesus has for us! This is a love that death nor life, nor angels and rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, not height nor depth, absolutely nothing in all of creation that can keep Christ Jesus our Lord from reaching us with the love of God. What a beautiful comfort.Yet this is also a challenge for us because now we know that if we have a source of love which can be ours in any situation and that there is nothing in this world which can stop this love from reaching us then we have no excuse for refusing to love someone. So, it seems as if Paul turns to this church at Rome and he asks, “If the love of Christ is ever present with us then can we really justify our judging and condemning of one another? Absolutely not! No, the love of Christ poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit empowers us to join our Heavenly Father in his work of bringing his good to life all over the world. This working with God to bring good into this world, this work of bearing in ourselves the the holy love which is ours in the Holy Spirit, this work has an impact on my hope that we might all remain close to Jesus when we leave this place. Here at the end of the eighth chapter of Romans, Paul is very clear just how it is that we can stay close to Jesus. The answer is that as those who love God we must be willing to go out and work with God wherever we go. We must go in the power of the Holy Spirit and take this love of Christ, and love on people with the holy love of God, the love that desires the best for someone no matter what the cost, the love that loves and keeps on loving, the love which has no expectations or strings attached, a love which loves only because we have first been loved just like that. This is how we can all stay close to Jesus. So may God find us at work with him, and may we find Christ always close to us. Amen!

The Victory of Holy Love

 June 18 2023

Romans 8:12-27

         Well, it doesn’t happen very often but, every once in a while, the Scripture that I am going to preach on actually connects in some way with the holiday celebrated on that day. As you also might have gathered, having worshiped with me the last five years, I work hard at keeping holiday celebrations to a minimum within our time of worship because, well, this is a time of worship and God just deserves our undivided attention. That being said, it sure seems like when you do have the words of Paul cry out, “Abba, Father,”, you just have to think that giving a shout out to Father’s Day seems rather appropriate.

         Well, not only does our scripture seem tailor made for Father’s Day, it also is a great section of the Bible that speaks to the last words that I have for you as your pastor. As I stated last week, I want all of us to stay close to Jesus. Let all of us understand that our church experiences come and go, but Jesus, the one we find where two or three are gathered, this Jesus is eternal. So, stay close to Jesus.

         This eternal relationship we have with Jesus is our connecting point with our scripture for today from the eighth chapter of Romans because here Paul writes of two very different futures that are ours depending on who we allow call the shots for our life. As you may recall from last week, the problem that had infected the social life of the Church of Rome is that there was a whole lot of judging going on. The Jewish brothers and sisters refused to eat meat because of the mere possibility that it may have been part of a sacrifice to idols. The Gentile believers thought such an idea was ridiculous because after all idols don’t even exist, so what’s the big deal? And so the Gentiles judged their Jewish brothers and sisters as being weaklings when it came to matters of faith. The Jewish brothers and sisters then proceeded to judge their Gentile brothers and sisters as obviously being lesser people because it was, after all, that God’s salvation came through the Jews. Do you begin to see how all of this judging and condemnation going on in this little house church in Rome was threatening to destroy any hopes of their being a people united in their love for Jesus?

         You see, while we tend to make light of judging others, doing it all the time without much thought about it, God, on the other hand, takes our judgment and condemnation of others quite seriously. In fact, it is this condemnation of others, this is the very reason as to why all that is found here in the book of Romans, how it is that through Jesus we are justified by faith, and now through Jesus we have salvation, all of what Jesus has done is really focused upon people judging and condemning one another. The problem with this pointing of fingers and our looking down our noses is that such attitudes come out of people whose minds are set on the flesh. To have our minds set on the flesh means that our minds are focused on the fear, the worry and the anxiety that arise out of our being faced with a certain death. So, to live by the fear, the anxiety and the worry, is to live a life where death is given the power to rule over our lives. And a sure sign that death rules in our lives is that we judge and condemn others, confirming that we are indeed not living by the Spirit. How very different was Jesus, who gave his life upon the cross condemning sin in the flesh, because he took upon himself the judgment and condemnation that we rightly deserved all so that beyond our judgment and condemnation we might have a life with him. His life is a life whose heart and mind are united with the Spirit for the Spirit longs to have a life with us forever.

         Paul, at the beginning of this eighth chapter of Romans, tells his listeners that there is now no condemnation for those who are united to Christ Jesus. And there rightly should be no judging and no condemnation for the Spirit has set us free from being people who allow sin and death to control them. Paul then goes on to point out how a life where the mind is set on the flesh is so very different then a life where the mind is set on the Spirit because he knows that this church at Rome wants badly to have it both ways. Paul, as much as points to them, and looks them in the eye and says, but, “You however are not controlled by the flesh but by the Spirit if indeed the Spirit lives among you.” This most assuredly had to have convicted those listening to Paul because they knew that they had not been living with one another in a way that witnessed to the Spirit of holiness. If the Spirit was working in them then there would have been life and peace, the blessed outcome of those who served one another as priests to God.

         Today, as we continue in this eighth chapter, Paul continues to come against these works of the flesh found in this church at Rome. Paul begins by asking just is it that we owe a debt to? Do we really owe anything to the fear, anxiety or worry that drive our lives? Obviously not! You see, if you live under the control of death then the outcome can be only death. Paul states that if you live according to the flesh your future, most certainly is death. Yet, all is not lost because Paul also holds out some hope because he also tells us that if by the Spirit you hand over to death the works of the body then you will live. Now, this is a rather odd saying, I mean just what is Paul referring to when he says to allow the Spirit to hand the works of our flesh over to death? Well, if you think about handing something over to death it isn’t a great leap to think about the sacrifices laid upon the altar for there was an animal, alive in his flesh, being handed over to death. So, I believe, here again, Paul is speaking to our lives in the Spirit in terms of being part of a priesthood, people whose work is the bringing forth of life and peace, as Paul alluded to earlier. The Spirit leads us to be his priesthood because through him we offer up the works of our flesh, those actions that arise out of our fear, anxiety and worry, as a sacrifice to God. This is to say to God that we are no longer going to allow our life to be ruled by the power of death. 

         If the Spirit then is moving in us to sacrifice all that we might do that arises out of our fear, anxiety or worry, then we must wonder just how the Spirit is going to do this work in us. We get a hint at this answer when Paul goes on to speak of those led by the Spirit of God. Here we pause to consider, just how does our God lead us? God’s leading is a tugging on us, much like Paul speaks of in the fifth chapter of 2 Corinthians. There he states that it is the love of Christ which compels him. The word, “compel” here means that the love of God causes us to take a firm grasp of Christ. When we know that it is this love of God which causes us to take hold of Christ then it is not difficult to understand the Spirit’s leading happens through the love of God. In the first few verses of the fifth chapter of this letter to Romans, we learn that it is the Spirit who pours the love of God out upon our world. This strange love of God is called agape.This is a love which always seeks the best for others no matter what the cost. This is the love that we learn in the Old Testament is always known as being the faithful, steadfast love of God, the love that loves and never stops no matter what.This is the love that flows through the Spirit as he pours himself out upon the world. The Spirit then is the living presence of the holy love of God. Just as we say that this love compels us, takes hold of us, so too when Paul goes on to say that the Spirit helps us in our weakness, the help that is described there is that the Spirit is vigorously grabbing hold of us as we are desperately taking hold of the Spirit. Those who have been so taken hold of by the Spirit, by this living presence of the love of God, these we are told are the sons of God. This use of the word, “son”, is used as one who stands in line for the Father’s inheritance. When we know that our Father desires to share his future with us, why, as Paul asks us, would we want to go back and find ourselves under the spirit of slavery, being at the mercy of our fears, our anxieties and worry’s? No, we don’t want to go back to a life where death calls the shots because now we stand to receive a future with God. 

         So, as Paul continues, he teaches us that it is this living presence of the holy love of God, this Holy Spirit is the very Spirit which marks us out as being a member of the family God. Through this living presence of God’s holy love which has taken hold of us, we cry out Abba, Father. Now, what is interesting is that here Paul uses two different words for the word, “Father”. The first is “Abba”, the Jewish word for Father, and the second which is in the original Greek, “Pater”. Here I believe that Paul is speaking of a different place where the Jewish and Gentile believers gathered. Instead of the table where they ate together, he now writes of being around the Lord’s Table, gathered in worship, saying together the prayer of Jesus, the “Our Father”, or as the Jewish believers would say, “Our Abba”, and the Greek speaking believers would say, “Our Pater”. This prayer centers around the command that the Father’s will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. We know God as our Father when we know him as the one whose will we surrender ourselves to doing. And the Spirit leads us to do the will of our Father because his holy love, his faithful, steadfast love which compelled Jesus to offer up his life for us, this same love causes us to offer up ourselves in service to our Heavenly Father. His love causes us to entrust our lives wholly over to his care having the peace that extends beyond our death because we know that there is an inheritance waiting for us.

         Now, this good news, that we have an eternal inheritance, a hope for us beyond the grave, is tempered by Paul who says, that yes, we do have this hope that we will share in a future with Christ, yet this is only ours if we are willing to suffer with him. Only as we are willing to join him in his sufferings now, will we  be glorified with him in eternity. We have to wonder why it is that we must suffer, why is it that when we are led by the Spirit we will be those who inevitably experience suffering? The answer to this is that the holy love of God, this faithful, steadfast love, this is a love that in every moment, can do nothing but love, loving on those who will return such love with love yet it is also a love which offers love when it is met with contempt and opposition. The holy love of God then can not help but be a suffering love as it is the very love witnessed upon the cross. Yet if such a love can be given and offered even to the end of life, then this is the victory of love over death, for if even in suffering a life does not let go of love, the power of death can be said to be truly defeated. This victory of God’s holy love over the power of death is what is known as glory. If we follow in the way of our Father, the way of suffering love, then, yes, we can know ourselves as being the very children of God. As Paul points out, if we live and love as children who mimic our Heavenly Father, then we absolutely will be his heirs as well.

         As Paul ponders on the glory that is to come, it is easy to see that just the thought of the coming glory overwhelms his thoughts. Paul thinks of how creation waits, searching the horizon, longing to catch a glimpse of those who have won the victory of love over death. To understand what Paul is getting at here we must first realize that as we are told in the twenty-fifth verse of the third chapter, that because of the righteousness of God, he has passed over the former sins until the coming of Jesus. This meant that because sin was rampant over all of creation, the very purpose for creation was put on hold. This is what Paul meant when he says that creation was “subject to futility”. Now, that the children of God are being born, at last creation can once again fulfill its purpose, as we hear of it in the second chapter of the prophet Habakkuk, “for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” This worldwide presence of glory happens as the children of God  take into their hands God’s creation and offer this creation back to God as actions of holy love which are victorious over the powers of death. This glorious hope God is bringing about is why we are told that creation is groaning and suffering because it longs to be fully set free from the power of death, this bondage to decay. Not only is creation groaning, but the Spirit is groaning and those who are led by the Spirit, they too, we are told, join in this hearts cry for life to come forth out of death . Paul, at the beginning of the fifth chapter of 2 Corinthians, helps us understand what this groaning is when he writes, that he groans because he yearns for all that is subject to death to be at last swallowed up by life. This groaning then is a hearts cry for life’s victory over death. Much like Jesus groaned when he called Lazarus out of the tomb, so too we groan, our heart, united with God and his creation, longing for a life of holy love to come and swallow up death forever. We long to at last have physical bodies whose very breath and life is the Holy Spirit, his love effortlessly moving us in ways that bring honor and glory to God with no thoughts whatsoever about fear, anxiety or worry. This is what we are to desire, to long for, to thirst and hunger for this righteousness to come here on earth just as it is in heaven. This longing, this groaning that rises as a sigh from our hearts, this is what is to focus our minds upon the ways of the Spirit. Without this grand vision of glory washing over all of creation like the waters of the sea, those who follow Jesus will become obsessed with all that may divide us instead of longing for the glory that we cry out to God to bring forth at last.

         You see, the reason that this church had focused their minds on doing the works of the flesh, judging and condemning others is that they no longer had a heart which longed to be swallowed up in life, the life of the living presence of the holy love of God, the very life lived in the Spirit of God. This being swallowed up in life, this is our hope, this is what we are waiting eagerly to experience, at least we should be, for this is our salvation. Yes, we cannot see such a world right now, but this is exactly why it is our hope, something beyond our sight which must be known by faith. This faith that we have, that one day the knowledge of glory of God will cover all of God’s creation like the waters cover the sea, this can only be ours through prayer. Paul, at last, comes back to that time of prayer that he hinted at earlier, where he spoke of this church saying, “Abba, Pater”. As Paul knows of the people of this church at Rome, they come to this time of prayer as weak people, people for whom this victorious life of holy love seems so impossible. But as they pray, they find that the Holy Spirit finds them right where they are at, and he reaches into their life from beyond them. In that moment, the holy love of God pours out from heaven into their hearts as the heart of God cries out, with a longing that words simply cannot express. There in that moment, this is when we encounter the God who searches hearts. It seems that here Paul is quoting from the fourth-fourth Psalm, where in the twentieth verse, the writer of the Psalm asks, “If we have forgotten the name of our God or if we have spread out our hands to a strange god; shall not God search these things out? For he knows the secrets of our heart.” God searches our hearts to see if we remember his name, his unchanging character, that he is a God of faithful, steadfast love. In our weakness, we do forget, we forget this holy love of God which should be guiding our thoughts and actions. But praise be to the Spirit, the living presence of the holy love of God, who reaches in to our lives and there, in the Spirit, our hearts are filled with holy love, and we are transformed into saints, holy people, because of God’s holy love. Through the Spirit we become people who are no longer weak, but fully able to do the will of the Father that we cry out to. So, when these people of Rome came away from this time of prayer, at last their hearts cry was to see, by faith, the victory of the holy love which now lived within them. So, it is in our times of prayer, this is when we encounter the Spirit, and our faith in the victory of God’s love is restored. We rise from our prayer ready to live out this victory, to cry out that here there truly will be no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So, we must keep on praying, and we must invite the Spirit to be with us, to fill us with his love. This is the way we can stay close to Jesus, today and everyday! Amen!