“The Frustrating Reality of Our Sin-Stained Spirituality”
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Lord [Amen.]
“Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fear within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”
(Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO.
570:3)
Epistle
Reading...................................................................
Romans 7:14-25a (esp. 14-20)
14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under
sin. 15I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want,
but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree
with the law, that it is good. 17So now it is no longer I who do it, but
sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me,
that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not
the ability to carry it out. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the
evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not
want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Prologue: [ Yesterday / This past Friday ] we celebrated the
238th birthday of our nation. On July 4, 1776, representatives of what were
then 13 American colonies of Great Britain signed a document declaring their
independence and thereby created the United States of America. (By the way,
it’s interesting to note that the term Declaration of Independence is not
contained in that document.) Its famous second sentence states, “We hold
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It’s truly a joyful
and wonderful blessing to be the “land of the free and the home of the
brave.” Sadly, however, we continue to experience moral decay and ethical
decline. That moral decay and ethical decline is especially noticeable
through three obvious realities. First is the culture of death that the
legalized horrendous murder of unborn babies, growing number of suicides,
and increasing quantity of murders make so very evident. Second is the
allowance of our freedoms to be systematically eroded and stolen away. And
third is the much grief, sadness, and sorrow that cover our nation and are
sweeping away happiness. It’s truly a very frustrating situation!
That frustration that we experience in our national setting is
something akin to what we also experience individually and collectively as
God’s dearly-loved children. You see, God gave us a clear definition of His
holy will in the Ten Commandments that tell us how to live lives that please
Him. Our new identity as little Christs that He gave us in our Baptism
includes a desire to live according to His holy will. And yet we daily
transgress His holy will even as we admitted a few minutes ago when we
declared: “I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and
iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your
temporal and eternal punishment.” (Lutheran Service Book. Page 184.) That
tension between desiring to do God’s holy will and at the same time
enjoyably transgressing it makes us acutely realize …
“The Frustrating Reality of Our Sin-Stained Spirituality.”
Well, here we are already four weeks into the non-festival portion
of the church year. It’s that long season between Pentecost and Advent when
the paraments on the altar, pulpit, and lectern as well as Pastor Marks’ and
my stoles are green most of the time. That color symbolizes growth, life,
and vitality. It’s what the Holy Spirit desires to be happening in our
individual spiritual lives and the Church as the gathering of Believers. It’s
based on and motivated by what Jesus did for us that we once again
celebrated and reviewed during the festival portion of the church year that
included the Christmas and Easter seasons. Simply stated, what Jesus did
for us was to resolve …
I. The Crippling Illness That Afflicts Everyone. (21-24)
21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at
hand. 22For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23but I see in
my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me
captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I
am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
There it is! There’s that frustration that plagues all of us,
even as it plagued Saint Paul. It’s that struggle between knowing and
desiring to do God’s holy will … but failing to do it or doing the opposite
of it. It’s the ongoing frustration of even when we attempt to obey God’s
holy will we still sin, of recognizing the power that sin still holds over
us. It’s the frustrating realization that even while our regenerated nature
rejoices in God’s truth, our fallen nature continues to rebel against that
truth; that even though our inner being delights in God’s Word, sin still
exercises power or control over us.
It’s that spiritual illness of sin that we inherited from our
ancestors beginning with our original parents, Adam and Eve that has totally
corrupted our whole human nature. Consequently, it “A. has brought guilt
and condemnation to all people; B. has left everyone without true fear and
love of God, that is, spiritually blind, dead, and enemies of God; [and] C.
causes everyone to commit all kinds of actual sins.” (Luther’s Small
Catechism with Explanation. Copyright © 1986, 1991 Concordia Publishing
House, St. Louis, MO. Page 99.) It’s that spiritual illness that manifests
itself in actual sins of disobeying God’s holy will by failing to think,
desire, say, and do what He wants us to think, desire, say, and do as well
as thinking, desiring, saying, and doing what He wants us to avoid thinking,
desiring, saying, and doing. And, ultimately, it’s the disastrous
realization that we deserve nothing but God’s temporal anger and eternal
damnation separated forever from Him in the unquenchable fires of hell.
The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther explained it this way: “The law
of the mind says: Hope, trust, doubt not, fear not; God lives, He reigns,
the angels are watching over you. But I hear a different law in my members,
which says: All is lost. Your cause is spoiled. You are ruined. This is
the law of the members: the flesh is unbelieving, insists on despairing, and
cannot believe and promise itself that it will be freed from trouble.” (What
Luther Says: An Anthology; Volume I: Absolution-Giving. Compiled by Ewald
M. Pless. Copyright © 1959 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO. Page
13.) In his Commentary on Romans Doctor Luther stated: “That is to say, the
evil desires war against the good desires. So there are two active laws …
that struggle in man for life and death.” (Martin Luther in Commentary on
the Epistle to the Romans. Copyright © 1954 by Zondervan Publishing House
and reprinted in 1976 by Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI as Commentary
on Romans. Page 114.)
That was the ongoing struggle in Saint Paul’s life and Martin
Luther’s life, and it’s our struggle as well. In his agonizing search for
the solution to his dreadful dilemma as plainly indicated by his probing
exclamation and question “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from
this body of death?”, the Holy Spirit revealed to Saint Paul …
II. The Soothing Salve That Can
Heal Everyone. (25a)
25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
In a strongly emphatic declaration of gratitude, Saint Paul
revealed the solution to our sin-problem. It’s none other than “the
forgiveness of sin earned by Christ’s perfect sacrifice.” (Armin J. Panning
in Romans. Copyright © 2000 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO.
Page 122.) It’s the fact that “the blood of Jesus [God’s] Son cleanses us
from all sin.” (1 John 1:7 ESV) That Jesus Christ is the One, whose
followers Saint Paul had helped to exterminate. Nevertheless, that same
Jesus Christ recruited Saint Paul to be His Gospel-missionary. The very
forgiveness of sins that Jesus Christ had gained with His holy life,
innocent suffering, and inhumane crucifixion death on Calvary’s cross, is
what healed Saint Paul’s sin-sick soul and ravaged spirit. Our Savior’s
subsequent resurrection from the dead validated all His atonement activity
as good, right, and salutary for Saint Paul, … for you, … and for me. Saint
Paul echoed this brief thanksgiving statement here when he exclaimed to the
Corinthians: “‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your
victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the
power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor 15:54-58 ESV)
Immanuel Himself led His hearers then and us today to that
wonderful well of Good-News when He compassionately said in today’s Gospel
Reading: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly
in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light.” (St Matt 11:28-30 ESV) From Christ’s merciful and
gracious invitation we learn that “Here there are two parts. The ‘labor’
and the burden signify the contrition, anxiety, and terrors of sin and
death. To ‘come to’ Christ is to believe that sins are forgiven for Christ’s
sake. When we believe, our hearts are brought to life by the Holy Spirit
through Christ’s Word. Here, therefore, are these two chief parts:
contrition and faith” (The Lutheran Study Bible. Engelbrecht, E. A., Gen.
Ed. Copyright © 2009 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO. Page
1603.)
In fact, He brought us to Himself in Holy Baptism and continues to
bring us to Himself in the reading and hearing of His Holy Word, the
soothing declaration of Holy Absolution, and the sacred sacrament of Holy
Communion. He does so through those means of grace because they contain and
communicate to us His treasures of forgiveness of sins, salvation, and
eternal life. He does so in fulfillment of the divine Messianic promises in
today’s Old Testament Reading: “I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and
the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he
shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and
from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the
blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the
waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I
declare that I will restore to you double.” (Zech 9:10-12 ESV) And, He does
so in affirmative answer to our heartfelt yearnings in today’s Collect: “Be
our strength and support amid the wearisome changes of this world, and at
life’s end grant us Your promised rest and the full joys of Your salvation …
.”
In conclusion, therefore, the Reverend Doctor Dale Meyer, former
Lutheran Hour speaker and present president of Concordia Seminary in Saint
Louis, recently wrote the following about today’s Epistle Reading: “Heart
and mind on Jesus brings freedom, although a different kind of freedom than
Americans think about these days.
“In Romans 7 Paul teaches about Law and Gospel with an illustration
from marriage, which I’ll amplify. Imagine that a good, moral woman is
married to a difficult and demanding husband. Try as she does, she can’t
satisfy him and is unhappy. Leave him, cheat? No, she honors the marriage
vows. In time the demanding husband dies. Now she meets and marries
another man, but this marriage is the opposite of the first. He’s patient,
forgiving, and always full of hope and love.
“One part of the Bible is God’s Law, demanding what you do and not do.
What it asks is fine, but like the wife, we can’t meet all the demands. The
Law is good; sin is our problem. The best part of the Bible is freeing, the
Gospel of unconditional love in Jesus Christ. We can’t meet the demands of
the Law because of sin, but baptismal life weds us to a new bridegroom,
Jesus Christ, who daily offers forgiveness, hope and love. Romans 7 is
thoughtful reading … and deeply, personally freeing.” (“Meyer Minute.” July
1, 2014.)
His illustration helps us to further realize …
“The Frustrating Reality of Our Sin-Stained Spirituality.”
The Reverend Doctor Steve Stutz, a transformational life coach and
founder of Forward Path Coaching, recently stated: “In November 1520, Martin
Luther wrote, ‘A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.’ What a
great statement of the balance we are called to have! As we celebrate the
freedom of our country this weekend and the emphasis on independence, we
also keep in mind our requirement for interdependence, to love and serve one
another.” (“July 4th Email Greeting.” July 3, 2014.)
So, let’s honestly admit in our own personal lives and with a
repentant attitude …
I. The Crippling Illness That Afflicts Everyone. (21-24) That
sin-sickness certainly can send us into a tailspin of despair that leads to
eternal death … forever separation from our Creator-God in the gruesome pits
of hell. However, thanks be to God that His Son, Jesus Christ, provided for
us …
II. The Soothing Salve That Can Heal Everyone. (25a) That salve (from
which, incidentally, we get the word “salvation”) is the blood that our
Savior shed on Calvary’s cross … the very same blood that He gives us in,
with, and under the consecrated wine of Holy Communion. After all, “under
the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding
of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” (Heb 9:22 ESV)
So, let’s be reassured and comforted by the words of today’s
Introit: “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the
shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.’ Because you have made the Lord your dwelling
place—the Most High, who is my refuge—no evil shall be allowed to befall
you, no plague come near your tent.” (Ps 91:1-2, 9-10 ESV) And let’s make
today’s Gradual be our Spirit-inspired response of honor and praise: “Oh,
the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable
are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For from him and through
him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Rom 11:33,
36 ESV)
God grant it all for the sake of Jesus Christ, His humble Son, our
holy Savior. [Amen.]
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
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