9th Sunday after Pentecost [Pr. 10] July 13, 2008 “Series A”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, you sent your Son, Jesus the Christ, to reveal your will for our lives and to redeem us from sin and death. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds to receive your living Word, and empower us to walk in its redeeming light, that we might resist all that would hinder us from being faithful disciples of your crucified and risen Son. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
I have chosen as my text for this morning the first of our second lesson, from Paul’s letter to the Romans. Paul writes: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death… so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” End quote.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” It is amazing to me, now many times I have heard these words of Paul, or similar expressions of the Gospel message of forgiveness and freedom from sin and death, cited out of context. An in most cases, it has given rise to the notion that it doesn’t matter how we live our lives, or what we do, God forgives us and accepts us – just as we are.
For example, I once had a former parishioner of mine call me to make an appointment to see me to discuss, what he described as a serious issue. I readily made the appointment to see him. He was a long-time member of the congregation, who rarely missed a Sunday at worship, and I was curious to know what might be troubling this person of faith.
When we met, we exchanged some pleasantries with each other, which I felt calmed the tension. And then I asked him what he wanted to discuss with me. “Pastor,” he said, “I want to make a private confession, and receive God’s forgiveness.”
Well, as a young Lutheran pastor, this excited me. After all, there aren’t too many Lutherans that even realize that private confession is still a rite maintained by the Lutheran church, for the purpose of easing one’s consciousness and providing a means of processing one’s feelings of guilt over something they have done which continues to trouble them.
So, I dusted off my occasional services book, and turned to the order for private confession. When we got to the part where the parishioner shares the sins for which they wish absolution, this person, who was a life-long member of the church said, “Pastor, I want God and you to forgive me, for I am going to go home and take my life. I have not been happy since my wife died, and with your blessing, I can join her.”
At this point, I leaned back in my chair, looked at this elderly man of faith with the sincerity of his plea in his eyes, and shook my head from side to side. “I can’t do this,” I said to him, thinking that if I granted him absolution, he would immediately go home and commit suicide. And when he asked “Why couldn’t grant him absolution,” we wound up in an hourly discussion about the meaning of repentance, of turning away from sin toward embracing the grace of God in Jesus the Christ, as the foundation of forgiveness.
This may be an extreme example of what it means to take this message of Paul out of context, but it is no different than what I have heard stated by persons over the years, which seems to be becoming more prevalent in our current culture. It is the idea that it really doesn’t matter what we do, because God forgives us anyway.
This, to me, turns Paul’s expression of the Gospel upside down. To think that the grace of God, which sets us free from sin and death, gives us a license to do as we please, and to satisfy the hungers of the flesh for the numerous pleasures of this world, doesn’t choke out our faith, is a denial of what Jesus tells us in our Gospel lesson for this morning.
Quite frankly, I am concerned about the popularity that individualism has achieved in our present day culture, which has only increased the temptation to believe that our actions matter only to ourselves, and do not effect our relationship we have with our community in which we live, and more importantly, our relationship with God.
Quite frankly, I have become frightened for our teenagers, living with this individualistic attitude in our society. I have heard too often, with the same sincere look in their eyes as did my parishioner of years ago who wanted to commit suicide, that it doesn’t matter what they plan to do, if God will forgive them. It doesn’t matter if they have sex with whom and whenever they please, or do whatever else they want, because God will forgive them anyway. God forgives everybody, for everything. That is what they have come to believe.
At least, we might take some comfort in the idea that our youth believe that God will forgive them anyway, because it does indicate that they have learned that what they would like to do, is not pleasing with God. But what has not been grasped by our youth and a lot of Christians over the years, is that God not only forgives the sins for which we repent, God, through his Holy Spirit, also gives us the courage and strength to turn from our sins and to walk in newness of life.
This is the context in which Paul’s message must be understood. Listen again to Paul’s message: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death… So that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.”
In other words, according to Paul, we are redeemed from sin and death, and set free from the law, not to do as we please, but to strive to live our lives according to the will of God that we have received through Jesus, who, not only gave his life for our redemption, but also gave us an example of what it means to live in relationship with God.
Paul is telling us, that although the temptations of this world are strong, and the lures of the flesh would lead us into sin, God does not abandon those who have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ. The Spirit of Christ is ever present to us, to inform us, to lead us, and to empower us to turn from sin and live in the new life we have been promised by Christ’s death and resurrection.
Personally, I have witnessed this transforming power of the grace of God to turn persons from a life of sin, to a life lived in the transforming power of God’s Spirit. I have seen God’s Spirit at work in bringing healing to our own family, through the Spirit’s ability to bring about true repentance and change of life.
I have also seen God’s Spirit at work in helping teens turn from their acceptance of a sexually promiscuous lifestyle, to embrace what we now call, “secondary virginity,” and watched these persons grow in faith and take responsibility for their lives in a much more mature fashion. I have seen God’s Spirit at work, in sustaining persons who have turned from dependency on drugs and alcohol, grow to embrace the freedom of the grace of God, in a way that truly set them free to live life anew.
There have been a number of ways in which I have seen the grace of God
empower persons to receive forgiveness, and embrace the new life that Christ offers. None was a more powerful witness to the grace of God at work in the life of his disciples, than the day I watched that man of faith, who wanted to commit suicide, walk out of my office, turning from sin, and living out his natural life with dignity as a member of Christ’s church.
It is my hope that we all might learn this message from Paul, that the grace of God, through the power of God’s Spirit, not only forgives our repentant sins, but also offers us the power to amend our lives and live as disciples of Christ. Amen.
