For Sunday July 6, 2008

Romans 8:1-11
So Paul, at the end of Romans 7, has just finished his "I don't do what I want to do, but the evil I don't want to do - this is what I do. What a creep I am!" speech. And he says that the only way he (we) is (are) saved from such wretchedness is because of Jesus and what he has done for us on the cross. But how? That's what this week's passage from Romans 8 is about.
The "how" is to live in the Spirit of God. It's all about making the best choice, Paul tells us.
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. (vs 5)
The problem for many of us, is that we still choose to go back to our old life (the flesh) and live in it. What an absurd picture, really: Living in freedom from the old dead life we had, we instead choose to crawl back into a dead body, a carcass, and muck around in it, doing things that slowly drain the Spirit out of us and kill our spirit as well. Why do we do such foolish things? Maybe it is just that we would rather stick with the "known," as bad as it is, than the wonderful "unknown" of the Spirit life. We see real life-images of that all the time. The criminal who offends so he can go back to the knowns of prison rather than live in the unknowns of freedom. The addict who goes back to the horrible known of drugs rather than live in the terrifying but wonderful unknown of sobriety and responsibility. The woman who lives in the miserable known of an abusive relationship rather than leave into an unknown future. Those choices look so clear to those on the outside, and we say, "Are you nuts? Leave! Get a new life!" But in some way, we are no different when we go back to the things we did before we knew Christ.
Paul encourages us to get out of that dead carcass once and for all, and leave it behind. Then live in the unpredictable, confusing, frightening yet wonderful life of the Spirit.

For Sunday, March 9 - A Vision of Re-Creation

Romans 8:6-11 (Ezekiel 37:1-14 too)
One of the themes God seems to be hammering away at for me is this concept of recreation. Not as in gas guzzling "recreational vehicle," but as in RE-Creation. Something being re created. (Which by the way, is the idea behind the concept of recreation...times of recreation are supposed to re-create us). The idea that's been bouncing around in my cranium is that God is constantly performing a do-over of creation. If it is true that humanity, and indeed the entire cosmos, went terrible wrong just after being created (initially perfect and good) - as the result of humankind's rebellion from God, then the work of God involves re-creating everything as it was meant to be. That's what Romans 8 says,
The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
The Bible stories are, among other things, about returning creation to the way the world was meant to be before the Fall. Freedom, forgiveness, redemption, grace - all of these are about God creating all over again. Resurrection is re-creation.
So when God, in Ezekiel 37, gives this tremendous vision of the Valley of Dry Bones growing new tendons and new flesh and rising up as a vast army, it isn't just about those bones becoming the living dead. It's about re-creation of Israel, and of humanity.
The question then becomes, how is God creating all over again today? What is he re-creating? How are you and I involved? We're very in tune to the "groaning" of the fallen creation, but how in tune are we to the birth of new things? To our part in this birth through the power of Jesus' resurrection? Check out this week's question to the right, above, and chime in with your thoughts!
- Curtis