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Pentecost III July 3, 2011 Romans 7: 15-25a It is difficult for me to listen to the vitriol in state and national politics and the studied effort to not hear each other at any cost. The polarization in public conversation these days is very troubling. It is difficult to hear so much self-righteousness by all the players. I wonder if, when they go home at night, they ever find themselves thinking the way Paul did in today’s lesson from Romans. The good I would do is not what I do…but the very thing I would not do is what I end up doing. The late New York senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said the wrangling in the senate and in the political sphere as a whole had taught him that we really don’t have a material or political crisis in America. What we do have is a spiritual crisis. Somehow the people of America need to get hold of that. Moynihan, a devout Catholic, had his finger on something as he was concerned that, as a country, we were in danger of losing our soul. Several months ago I shared another quote with you from Martin Marty’s journal, Context. We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, rather we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Paul describes for us....a deep....deep spiritual struggle that embraces every part of life. He had based his life on a way of seeing things. He was a Pharisee and a man who lived under the Law of the Hebrew Scriptures. His life was based on a set of assumptions, a mind set that was important in how he lived his life. Most of the people who surrounded him had accepted the same mind set. They were clear about what was acceptable and what was to be rejected. They were so clear that they were self-righteous about it and if you did not see things the way they saw things it meant you were wrong. The problem is, rather than it bringing peace, understanding, happiness and wholeness to life, Paul was left with a sense of futility and frustration. In Romans 7 Paul describes his life before he was embraced by the Gospel of Christ. His pre-conversion life from all outward appearance was a successful life. He was a respected leader in the Jewish Community, a Roman citizen, a faithfully obedient Pharisee. Paul had a clear vision of the right thing he needed to be doing. But he was still haunted by the idea that no matter how hard he tried, something was still not quite right, which meant he could not enjoy life. He was caught up in a cycle of despair and judgment which he describes in today's text as a war within himself. I believe we can identify with Paul. Most of us, if not all, are familiar with a sense of discontent with the way things are. We have a sense of what ought to be.....for sure. Once in a while we get a glimpse of the way things ought to be. These past months we have heard of the awful ravages of floods and tornadoes in many parts of the nation. The accompanying despair and pain have been a daily diet in the news. Along with the tragedies of lost lives and homes we have also heard of self-less giving on the part of thousands of others to assist people they don't know, with time and energy and with money. There is a wonderful sense of doing the right thing and with it a celebration of the very best in our human spirit. We have a glimpse of reality that is far different than the weekly staccato of in your face messages that are punctuated by the daily litany of tragedy and pain that come to us in the early morning newspaper and evening news broadcast. The problem is the spirit of selflessness for another person in the midst of disaster isn't likely to become the way we do things all the time. We tend to return to another way of living which we may describe as more practical if not more real in a world where sin abounds. The way Paul describes it, we wrap ourselves in another reality, the good which we would like to do is not what we end up doing. But at least we have had a glimpse of what God intends through Jesus. The way Jesus says it in Matthew is that we have accepted as wise and intelligent.....the very best of our human creation that keeps us from seeing the hidden secrets of life in Jesus. Yet, we find ourselves with this yearning for the life that Jesus offers. For Paul and for Matthew there is only one way to break through to that life and that is to hear the gospel; to receive the Gospel as our reality; to be embraced by it fully in all that we do. For them the Gospel isn't one value among many, one faith among many or one philosophy among many. It is the source of life and spirit - to be lived out in every moment of life. Author Walt Wangerin had occasion to reflect on questions like these. He writes of battles he and his wife Thanne had in their early years of marriage. There was a real liturgy to their quarrels. - he would ask what is wrong....she would be quiet - he would give a very professional disgusted sigh - then touch her...she would push him away - she would then let him know what was wrong - he would put on his coat and take off for several hours of walking in St. Louis to let her worry about him while he pouted. Then one night the liturgy took its full course. Wangerin threw on his coat and took off, slamming the door. But the coat was stuck in the door and he had forgotten his key. He was stuck in the door with several options. He could slip out of the coat and walk in the cold but why; Thanne wouldn't even be aware of his predicament and there was little profit in that. He could ring the bell. After ten minutes of shivering he rang the bell and she came down the stairs and pulled open the door. Thanne came unglued, laughter rolled from her and she had to hold herself against his shoulder to remain standing. Now Wangerin reflects; it was divine intervention, a gift from God to see himself as he was, a gift to forgive...to live gospel. He could do the right thing, but he heard another voice and did the very thing he did not want to do and tore away, down the street, in a bitter huff. He marvels that she continued to love him anyway. We have glimpses and more than that, we have an entire embrace of Christ to set us free to live gospel lives. We are encouraged to discover our Baptisms to see what God has provided for us when we were set aside to live in his name. Jesus has wrapped us in an entirely new reality where he is present saying put it on, put on this identity where he invites us to lift our burdens and to be gentle and humble in heart. He invites us to a wholeness that this world cannot give but which it so desperately seeks. In a world and a land that is in the midst of a spiritual crisis Jesus invites us to do the right thing and put on Christ. Amen. Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, Minnesota |
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