Dearest e-votees-
This week's epistle text addresses the struggles we have to use the freedoms we have in Christ well.
The freedoms we have in this country and that were won on the cross came with an excruciating cost. How we use those freedoms can deeply honor that price or cheapen them.
Peace,
Karl
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[Paul writing:] 15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17 But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Romans 7:15-20, NRSV
God calls us in the circumstance we are. We don't need to rise up to God on our own power (as if we could). God comes to us. That is what Jesus' incarnation is all about. The shepherd leaves the 99 and goes to the sheep. It is not about the sheep coming to its senses and returning to the flock. Even when we get close to that in scripture (son returning after squandering his share of dad's estate) it is the God figure (the father) who runs and makes things right. God always comes to us. That is good news. Let's not sully it by trying to add our meager efforts.
In response we are invited, with God's help, to move away from the sin that entangles us (and even dwells in us) into the place where God would rather have us be. But, as Paul says, this is excruciating. It takes a cross to deal with sin. The call on us is to take up our crosses and follow after Jesus. Perhaps that is some of the mysterious participating in the sufferings of Christ that Paul talks about in his letters.
As we gather with family and friends in worship and around patriotic displays in the days ahead may we all be mindful of the crosses that others have borne in order to secure our freedom. May we all be mindful that we are also called to take up our cross. As we have an abundance of choices as to what to do with our freedom may we, as God empowers us, follow after our Lord Jesus and seek to be like our master and teacher.
God, we are sinners without a prayer save what Jesus did. Help us abide in that freedom. Dwell in us and stir us to do that which is pleasing to you. Amen.
This week's epistle text addresses the struggles we have to use the freedoms we have in Christ well.
The freedoms we have in this country and that were won on the cross came with an excruciating cost. How we use those freedoms can deeply honor that price or cheapen them.
Peace,
Karl
------------
[Paul writing:] 15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17 But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.
God calls us in the circumstance we are. We don't need to rise up to God on our own power (as if we could). God comes to us. That is what Jesus' incarnation is all about. The shepherd leaves the 99 and goes to the sheep. It is not about the sheep coming to its senses and returning to the flock. Even when we get close to that in scripture (son returning after squandering his share of dad's estate) it is the God figure (the father) who runs and makes things right. God always comes to us. That is good news. Let's not sully it by trying to add our meager efforts.
In response we are invited, with God's help, to move away from the sin that entangles us (and even dwells in us) into the place where God would rather have us be. But, as Paul says, this is excruciating. It takes a cross to deal with sin. The call on us is to take up our crosses and follow after Jesus. Perhaps that is some of the mysterious participating in the sufferings of Christ that Paul talks about in his letters.
As we gather with family and friends in worship and around patriotic displays in the days ahead may we all be mindful of the crosses that others have borne in order to secure our freedom. May we all be mindful that we are also called to take up our cross. As we have an abundance of choices as to what to do with our freedom may we, as God empowers us, follow after our Lord Jesus and seek to be like our master and teacher.
God, we are sinners without a prayer save what Jesus did. Help us abide in that freedom. Dwell in us and stir us to do that which is pleasing to you. Amen.
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