“We have a problem here.” That phrase, in one form or another, runs through much of human history. We have a problem here. You know it, if you remember 1995, as almost what astronaut John Swigert said from Apollo 13. “Houston, we’ve had a problem here.” Changed a little and immortalized by the film “Apollo 13” to, “Houston, we have a problem here” , it has been used as a tag line for countless difficult situations.
A scientist, worried about how our children do not measure up in math and science, wrote a stinging article, “America, we have a problem.” So an educator, thinking about why colleges are not doing their job, wrote an essay, “Harvard, we have a problem.” A computer guru, worrying about those video games so beloved of our children, titled his thoughts, “Sony, we have a problem.” But my personal favorite is a report handed to the Defense Department, “Halliburton, we still have a problem.” I say amen to that.
But last week, speaking of problems, I insisted that God is not a problem to be solved. God is a mystery with whom we are to live. I argued that God is not an equation to be worked out in mathematical precision; God is personal, one with whom we connect. And so last week we began thinking about basic things. We began an exploration I am calling “Prime Numbers” because, just as in mathematics, there are some things that are irreducible, so also in our Christian faith there are certain truths that are basic to everything else. Without our being on the same page about God the Creator and Christ and the Holy Spirit there isn’t much we can do together. But with an understanding of these things, we can build together toward what we are called to be.
And so, last week I asked you first to thank God. I asked you to place at the core of your being a grateful heart toward a God who has accomplished much through you, who has given you the gift of a diverse community, and who will give you victory. We said that the first thing we must do is to thank God and experience Him in His fullness.
But, Gaithersburg, we have a problem. We have a problem because you and I do not maintain grateful hearts, we do not continue in close relationship with the Father. We have a problem because we are frail, fatally flawed, and, most of all, because we turn our backs on the one who loves us most. We have a problem. Call it alienation, call it distance, call it rebellion, our issue is that we set ourselves over against our creator, and everything that we do is therefore out of kilter. Everything, unless somebody can fix it, is out of sorts. Gaithersburg – America – World – we have a problem here.
The Roman letter is chock full of theological vocabulary. The passage we are reading today is a good example. Words like reconciliation and justification, salvation, sin, and wrath, leap out at us. Maybe I can sharpen it up for you. Let me just take two words that are each repeated three times in this passage, and use these two words as a framework on which to proclaim the next prime number … after first thank God, second. A second chance in Christ.
The two key words are “while” and “boast”. “While” and “boast”. Each time these two words appear there is a deepening understanding of the problem we have; but there is also a heightened sense of the joy we can feel, for God has dealt with our problem. And the name of God’s answer to our profound human dilemma is Jesus Christ. Let’s find our key words, “while” and “boast”.
I
One way to describe our problem is to say that we are weak. One way to picture the human dilemma is to admit that we do not have the strength to do what we know we ought to do. Who will dispute that all of us, at one time or another, discover that we are weak? So Paul’s first “while” is “While we were weak ….”
Weaknesses. There are a thousand others, but I will confess to a weakness for sweet foods – pie and ice cream and pudding and all the rest. My wife and I recently traveled to Austria, and all during the flight over I fantasized about the fabled delights of the Viennese coffeehouses – Linzertorte and Sachertorte and all the rest. I even practiced a key German phrase so that I would be ready when it was time to order: “mit Schlag.” “Mit Schlag” means, “with whipped cream.” I knew that my bulging waistline suggested that I should say, “Nein” and not “Ja” to this delight, but I wanted it. I just plain wanted it. And got it, enduring disapproving glances from my wife (although, somehow, her fork kept creeping over toward my goodies for “just a bite.”). I did not resist; and after a while, I no longer even wanted to resist. Why? Because, in a word, I am weak.
And so are we all. In one fashion or another, around one issue or another, we are weak. We seem unable to resist temptation. Give us the opportunity to take something that does not belong to us, and many of us will grab it and never look back. Give us the chance to malign someone’s name, and we will gossip until the sun sets. Merely knowing what is right does not empower us to do what is right. Paul is on target; we are weak.
But listen, “while we were weak, at the right time Christ …” The most astonishing truth in all of human history is that at the right time, at the fullness of time, God embodied Himself into one unique life, and gave us one to whom we can look for an example. While we were weak, at the right time Christ … and, if you follow Paul’s logic, that right-time Christ makes us boast, makes us rejoice, in the hope of glory.
How many times has your weakness been shored up just by knowing who Jesus is and by knowing what He taught? How many times have you kept your mouth shut and turned off the anger just by knowing what our Christ would want? It is possible to resist weakness; at the right time, if you know Jesus, He gives you the right words to say and the right things to do. If you know Christ, and take Him seriously, you get a second chance in Christ.
“While we were weak … at the right time Christ … we boast [we rejoice] in the hope of glory”
II
But saying that we are weak doesn’t fully get at our problem. Our problem is deeper than mere weakness. Our issue is more profound than, “Oh, I don’t always get it right”. Let me take you, as Paul does, to a deeper level. Another “while”. “While we were yet sinners …”.
Sinners! What images does that word conjure in your mind? Jailbirds? Thieves and murderers? Drunkards and ladies-of-the-evening? Yes, but more. In another place Paul cries out, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” All have sinned. What part of “all” leaves you or me out? All have sinned.
We could spend the entire morning on this theme of sin. It is inexhaustible, because it penetrates to the heart of our humanness. But let me focus on only thing for a moment – that sin brings consequences. Sin is not something you do in isolation, nor is being a sinner something that affects no one else. Sin brings with it consequences. If I take your stuff, your purse takes the consequences. If I slander your name, you feel the consequences. Even if my sin is nothing more than polluting my own body, there are consequences for those who love me and care about me. Sin always carries with it consequences.
And yet the good news for us is that in Jesus Christ even the consequences, real though they are, can be redeemed. Even the outgrowth of our sin can be turned into something positive. So here is Paul’s second use of the word, “boast” – “we boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.” What an equation that is! May I boil it down for you? “While we were yet sinners …”, doing those things that carry consequences … we can rejoice in our sufferings … for Christ Jesus gives us a second chance, and gives us the power to turn sin and suffering into joy and victory! A second chance, in Christ.
I had gone to a meeting of the deacons at another church to provide some training. Many were new deacons and therefore did now know each other well, and so the deacon presiding announced that we would do some introductions. I was expecting the usual name, rank, and serial number sort of identification, and so was not prepared for what happened next. The deacon presiding over this exercise said, “I’ll model for you what I mean” and proceeded not only to give his name and his profession, but also to state that a few years back he had gone through a divorce and that his only son was in full-scale rebellion against him. Well, that set a tone that was reflected in all that followed. The very next person introduced himself, gave his name, spoke of his work, named his wife and his two children, and then said, “I also have another daughter by a previous relationship”. I was stunned. And then the next deacon spoke up; he not only gave his name and profession, he not only spoke of his wife and his children, he also identified his parents and his grandmother, part of this same church, and then told us, “I too have a daughter from a previous relationship.”
The rest of the deacons in that room were more, let us say, conventional in their introductions, for which I was grateful, as I am not sure I could have dealt with too many more revelations. But I came away that night thinking, “How many churches would allow this to happen? How many churches truly understand that when Jesus Christ enters your life, He gives you a second chance?” Old things are passed away and all things are become new! The consequences of these men’s sin remain – I found out that they are both paying child support and dealing with a whole range of issues because of those indiscretions – the consequences remain, but they have learned. They have grown from these experiences. And Christ the redeemer is taking the pain they have caused and is building it into character and hope and ministry!
“While we were yet sinners … we boast in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope” All because even though we sin, there is a second chance in Christ.
III
So, how far have we come here? We have a problem, right? At one level, the problem is that we are weak. “While we were weak …”. At that level, Christ gives us a second chance by coming along side us at the right time, teaching us, so that we can do all things through the Christ who strengthens us.
But at another level, the issue is not just weakness, but that old rebellion issue called sin. “While we were yet sinners ….”. At that level, that deeper level, Christ gives us a second chance as He turns the consequences of our sin into something positive for the Kingdom.
But, brothers and sisters, stay tuned. Stay with me. For there is yet the deepest level of all. There is yet the most awesome estrangement of all. We have a problem. And our problem is that we have declared ourselves to be the enemies of God! Not just blundering weaklings and not just rebellious upstarts, but, way down deep, we have made ourselves into the very enemies of our Creator. Paul lays it out for us in no uncertain terms, “While we were enemies …”
Enemies! What a harsh word! Do you have any enemies? Is there anybody that would love to see you fail, someone who wants you to lose your job or fall victim to some crime? Probably not. Most of us do not have to live in that environment. So then, enemies of God? Do you know anyone who is hostile to God? Likely no one here thinks of himself as God’s enemy, and maybe you cannot think of anyone who does.
And yet this is at the very core of our fallen nature. This is what that ancient story is getting at when it presents Adam and Eve wanting to be in the place of God, taking their destinies into their own hands. The story in Genesis is crying out to us that I am Adam, you are Eve, we are those who put ourselves on the thrones of our lives and act as though our Creator did not count! We want to go our own way and pretend that we made ourselves. We are, at our heart’s core, hostile to God, for God represents authority, and we want autonomy. We want independence, but God expects to be God. Paul is right; “enemies” of God is not too strong a word.
And so if you have an enemy, what do you do? How do you treat an enemy? I have been watching some of Ken Burns’ wonderful documentary on the Second World War. Grizzled veterans speak about what it felt like to take another man’s life. They said that when you are in a war zone, you either kill or be killed. You steel yourself to forget that the man in the wrong uniform is a human being with loved ones, just as you are, and you dispatch him. That’s what we do with enemies.
That’s what WE do with enemies. But the glory of the Gospel is that God has another way. God has another strategy. God’s answer to our hostility is this ringing declaration: “Christ died for the ungodly … God proves His love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us … while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.” And so, in the last analysis, when all is said and done, we “boast”, we “rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
Today, whatever you have done, wherever you have been, yes, you have a problem. We have a problem. Our problem is weakness, or it is overt sin, or it is down-deep hostility toward God. We have a problem.
But in Christ Jesus, into whom the love that will not let us go is poured, there is a second chance. In Christ Jesus, you can come to rejoice in hope; you can find joy even in the consequences of your sin; you can find peace with God. All of that is available if you will receive Him as your Lord; all of that is available if you will let Christ Jesus take charge and make you new. He is the Lord of the second chance.
We have a problem. But rejoice! For we have in Christ a second chance.
