July 13, 2008 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Isaiah 55: 10-11 + Psalm 65 + Romans 8:18-23 + Matthew 13: 1-23

“Man who began in a cave behind a windbreak, will end in the diseased soaked ruins of a slum.”  says H.G. Wells. Not so says Paul to the Romans. “We are saved by hope.” The one blazing truth that lit life for Paul was the tremendous fact that the human situation is not a hopeless one. Paul picks up the words of Genesis 3:17, “Cursed be the ground because of you.” God says to Adam after the sin. All of creation is soiled and ruined. Paul reflects upon the human condition and the state of the world as we can do any morning or any evening with CNN or the local news: disaster after disaster, murder, violence, abuse, theft, suffering innocent people, power abused, greed, and hatred day after day. In the face of that, Paul sees God’s redeeming power, and the end of it all is hope. For Paul, and for those open to his words, life was not a weary, defeated waiting. It was rather, a throbbing, vivid expectation.

Those who live in the Spirit do not live only in that world, but they must endure a troubling tension in their lives: on one hand, they live in and by the Spirit. On the other, they live in a world that has not yet been set free from the ravages of sin. So, they live in Christ. They not only see that world, but they look beyond it to God. They not only see the consequences of sin, but they also see the power of god’s mercy and love.

There is a divine plan, and Paul understands it. He writes to the Jewish Community at Rome and appeals to their imagination with ideas they understand from their tradition. He speaks to them of a filial privilege. He speaks to us today of our privilege as sons and daughters of God. For the Jews of his time, it stirs memories of Abraham and the inheritance he and Abraham’s descendents were promised. For us this inheritance comes through Baptism and the power of that Spirit we have received. Sons and Daughters, Children of God we have an inheritance to come, and we live in expectation of that gift.

Paul points to the mystery, the wonder of Christ as the pattern and plan of God for creation. Glory is the goal, a goal achieved by those who survive, endure, and are victorious through suffering. This “glory” Paul speaks of is nothing less than arriving at a likeness to God. We shall be deathless like God when we have risen like Christ in the resurrection. This is the glory that awaits us. We shall be conformed to the full glory of the risen Lord.

This is what we long for. This groaning, this frustration, comes from the inability to fulfill one’s intended purpose. This is what creation groans for: the public manifestation of what we shall be. But it shall not come to pass until that day of resurrection, and it shall not be so for those who have not lived in the Spirit with their eyes fixed upon the goal, and their hearts longing and aching to be conformed to Christ so as to share with him the inheritance promised to us all.

Paul speaks to us as well as to the Romans about how and why we live in this world as it is, soiled, broken, sad, lonely, and sinful. He reminds us today that living in the Spirit will allow us to live surrounded by evil and not become evil; to be surrounded by sin and not become sinful; to be surrounded by violence and not become violent, to see suffering and not cause suffering. This is what it means to be in this world and not of this world. In as much as we can do this, we conform ourselves to Christ who was in this world, but not of this world. This is our part in God’s plan and as much as we remain faithful and hopeful, spirit filled and life-filled, we shall advance God’s plan, as the first fruits of that Spirit which has been sown in us, the rich soil as we begin to hear and understand this Word of God. This world was not created to be that miserable slum H.G. Wells described; but by human sinfulness he can certainly describe it that way. Paul sees God’s plan to restore creation with us in it to it’s first and original beauty as a reflection of the Divine Glory. The work of God has begun in Christ Jesus, and by the power of His Spirit in us, it will come to pass.

July 6, 2008 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Zechariah 9:9-10 + Psalm 145 + Romans 8:1-13 + Matthew 11:25-30

With this Sunday we begin to hear one of the most important chapters in the New Testament: the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. Five consecutive weeks will allow us to explore how Christian Spirituality draws one into “Life in the Spirit.” As I said last weekend on the Feast of Peter and Paul, the Holy Father has declared this to be the year of Paul, and he has called us to deepen our knowledge, refresh our spirituality, and enjoy the wisdom of Paul. Some have said that the Eastern and Orthodox churches are the church of John; that the Western Roman Church is the church of Peter, and that the Protestant churches are the church of Paul. While stereotypes ought to always make us uncomfortable and suspicious; this one at least gives us reason to wonder if there might be some tiny element that gives reason for such a sweeping idea. Celebrating and living through a year of Paul ought to challenge that idea for us who assemble week after week and hear Paul proclaimed more often than any other New Testament writer. So it is to Paul’s Roman Epistle that I turn your attention today and in the four weeks to come.

Paul is not writing to a church he has visited or founded, but to a church he hopes to visit in the future. He is not writing to correct or address some difficulty in a local church; but to lay a foundation for their lives in Christ and his future ministry among them. What we get is the most systematic treatment of spiritual life in all the New Testament. Fear and threats are not his tools for motivating obedience and holiness of life, but rather gratitude for what God has done and for what God will do is uppermost in his mind.

In this eighth chapter, the word “Spirit” occurs 18 times. If that doesn’t tell you what the point is, nothing will. You have just heard what may well be the most powerful, most important, and most comforting yet challenging words in the whole bible: “Brothers and Sisters, You are in the Spirit!” In several other epistles, he says: “Do not quench the Spirit!” But look at us……. is there enough evidence of that Spirit to confirm the truth of what Paul says? The Spirit that Paul speaks of nurtures a spirituality that is the consequence of an invasion, not an imitation. We are not called to be imitations of the saints because the implication of an imitation is that it is a fake! We are called to be real to be Spirit filled and Spirit living. The Spirit as Paul sees it invades us. It takes us over and lifts us out of the ordinary into the heavenly world. That Spirit transcends the mundane and gives us a way of looking at this world and it’s challenges and limitations with an eye to the future.

What does it mean to be a child of God? That’s the issue Paul raises in the letter to the Romans. For a Pauline Christian, Jesus Christ is an event. While he has some interest in the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth, his focus is what happened to us because of Jesus Christ. Three things he suggests: We have knowledge of God

We know an appropriate way to live. We know God’s will for the future of the world. When Paul contrasts the law and the spirit, what he teaches, and reveals is that only the Spirit can redeem and save. The law cannot do this. The Law cannot defeat sin, it can only detect it. Just keeping rules does not redeem and save. It takes more. It takes a life in the Spirit.

Paul speaks of obligation that springs from privilege. We are children of God. We are in the Spirit. This is privilege. It is the privilege of believers, the privilege of faith. That Spirit leads us still today. It is not a spirit that drags us, but induces, entices, perhaps even seduces us to seek the things that are above, to value only that which gives life, not pleasure. The flesh, Paul says, is death – it is separation from God. The Spirit on the other hand is Life. Those who live in the Spirit live with the mind of God. If we understand Paul correctly, we do not need to receive the Spirit; we need to respond to the Spirit. We must be free to let that Spirit lead us with trust, faith, and obedience. The Spirit that dwells within us is the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead.

We all face two problems here: the problem of sin and the problem of righteousness. Our problem with sin is that we do it. Our problem with righteousness is that we do not and cannot. God solved the first problem with Calvary. Now in Romans chapter eight, we discover how to solve the second problem: Live in the Spirit as Children of God.