MORNING MESSAGE: Dr Joyce Bellous
Genesis 4: 1-14.
Romans 7: 14-25a.
1 Corin. 4:1-4.
Sisters and brothers, what is this Christian life we’ve taken on? What are emotions you associate with your faith? What words help you describe what it means to follow Jesus? What images come to mind that depict what it means to be Christian? What actions do you take that confirm faith most vividly for you?
Our story begins in Eden. The conversation God has with Cain is a flashpoint. Before Cain kills Abel, God intervenes. Read Genesis 4:2b-14 aloud.
- Cain is in conflict. He’s torn internally. He covets the blessing God gave Abel. He’s full of anger. He’s internally conflicted but he doesn’t see it. God comes to Cain in kindness when he observes Cain’s anger and offers him a way out. Cain doesn’t take the opportunity. Cain, what have you done?
- I recall a time God asked me that question. The kids were little. They needed socks. I went to several stores and purchased socks, but they turned out to have holes by the end of the first month. I was mad. I went back to the Bay and brought all the socks back, explaining the problem to the saleslady. Did you buy all these socks here, she asked. Yes, I lied. You understand why I did it, don’t you. Small kids. No time. Certainly, there was no money.
- Monday morning as I was settling into a devotional time, I slid down the wall to sit on the floor (I was a sixties’ child), and heard, Joyce, what have you done? In that moment, I was convicted and forgiven, simultaneously—a strange mix of feelings. In Bonnie Doon Baptist church here in Edmonton, where I grew up, I learned to make amends. It’s one thing to be forgiven. The companion to forgiveness is making amends. I thought about the socks. Next Monday morning I took the socks back to the Bay. I recall standing by a clothing rack, hiding, as I watched the saleslady who was standing by the cash register. The same lady. No one else was in that area of the store. Thank you, God. Finally, I walked over and told her I lied. I gave her the money back. Her response was instructive. She said she knew I’d lied. She expressed frustration at being lied to by customers all the time but never being able to call them on it. She said, “I wish more customers were like you.” The irony hit us both at the same time. A small smile passed over each face.
What’s the difference between Cain, what have you done? And Joyce, what have you done? The difference is Jesus. The difference is the New Testament. The difference is salvation. The difference is the discipline of following Jesus. And Apostle Paul. A difference maker. His life is an expression of the radical difference Jesus makes. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Read aloud Romans 7:14-25a. Cain was internally conflicted, but he didn’t see it. He had access to intimacy with God. Last week Ipe wondered what Eden was like before the Fall. We have an intimation here. God converses with Cain face to face, despite his anger. Cain, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you. You must master it. Cain does not. But losing the land and being bereft of God’s presence are two things Cain can’t bear. And the fear of being left outside Eden! Apostle Paul was internally conflicted. He saw his internal conflict. Paul, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you. But you must master it. Paul: but I can’t. I can’t master it. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from his body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul identified his internal conflict and took faith into a new era. As German philosopher Hannah Arendt observed, Romans 7 contains Paul’s I can’tness principle. He knew his limits. He knew Christ’s strength.
Apostle Paul learned to tell the truth. He wasn’t an easy person when we first meet him. He persecuted early Christians. He stood by and held coats as people stoned Stephen—that magnificent Jesus follower—who was filled with the Holy Spirit, as we read in Acts chapter 7. Paul was fiery. He had strong opinions. He acted on them. He was brilliant. But now his brilliance is infused by the Holy Spirit—Christ in you the hope of glory. Jesus changed Paul from inside out. What happened? Paul saw the truth. He told God the truth. He told himself the truth. He told Christian brothers and sisters the truth. He told Truth to the whole world. Telling the truth begins as we fall on our knees before the Cross and accept forgiveness and salvation. I’m so grateful God told me I’m a sinner. None of you have any idea of how hard it would be to live with me, if I wasn’t sure sin is part of the human condition—a sinner saved by grace. Well, maybe one of you might have some idea.
As I meditate on Romans 7 an image informs my reading. Perhaps you’ve felt the joy of perching on a large warm rock to watch birds swoop and soar over a lake. As you watch, one bird suddenly dives, descends into its depths, separates its stillness to get food, then breaks the surface of the lake, nourishment captured, to soar heavenward. In Romans 7, Paul swoops and soars. He dives into his own soul. He sees himself honestly. He trusts Jesus completely. He soars heavenward. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Romans is a watershed book. Paul depicts the human condition in a way no one had done before. He’s God’s chosen communicator of the heavenly message of what the Holy Spirit is doing through Christ Jesus. He doesn’t quote Jesus so much as Paul lives Jesus’s words. He’s shaped by inner Presence—Christ in you the hope of glory. This reality is open to everyone.
Paul is unreservedly, passionately committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In chapter 1:16-17, he says: I’m not ashamed of the gospel, because it’s the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Christianity is not just true, it’s beautiful. It’s what we need.
What is Paul communicating by declaring “Therefore there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus?” As we try to understand the statement, we look to Hebrew origins for a continuous thread of explanation. King David was God’s beloved, yet there was Bathsheba. David’s lament over his disastrous action against Uriah is recorded in Psalm 32. David acknowledges his sin, and knows that God loves him. In Psalms attributed to him, David speaks of three conditions in which sin shadows him: there are instances when he’s entirely guilty, situations in which he’s completely blameless, and events that distress him because he’s not sure of his part in the troubles. Like David, Paul swoops down into his innermost being and finds the pattern of sin there. He identifies sin in himself, even though he’s a follower of Jesus. The thread that explains the human condition is grasped in Eden, woven through Leviticus, and the tapestry is completed in the New Testament.
The book of Leviticus offers something new in human history—the relationality of sin: If anyone sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden, they are guilty. When they become aware of their sin, they must bring a sin offering and present it before the Tent of Meeting i.e., publicly. Lev 4:13-14. What helps us become aware of how we hurt others? In Rom 7:7, Paul addresses the idea that the law opens us up to sin. God knows we must learn what sin is and why it destroys community. Sin is a two-way street. We must learn to communicate with those who sin against us and learn the practices of freedom that accompany knowing and loving God as we accept our own tendency to sin.
In Matt 18, Jesus picks up the explanatory thread of the sin concept and shifts from Israelite culture to the church. Jesus says: “If your brother or sister sins against you, go and show them their fault, just between the two of you, privately. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen take one or two others along, so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If they refuse to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector, who are still your neighbors. The possibility of reconciliation begins when we say ouch, you’re hurting me. The relationship principle in Romans 18:12 is a comfort to me. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Over a lifetime Jesus’s followers learn what this means. Jesus elaborates the Levitical pattern but continues his emphasis on God’s generosity.
French philosopher Simone Weil said the church (and we could add family) “is the country which God has given us to love. He has willed that it should be difficult but possible to love it.” What effort does it take to love others? To Weil, it’s like effort that brings the soul to salvation. It’s an effort of looking and listening. Those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. The model for looking and listening is the love God shows us. It’s not how strong you are, but how you look and listen to people around you, to see and hear how your actions affect others and how their actions impact you. The quality of our relationships depends on understanding what Paul reveals in Romans 7.
Recall that Jesus conversed with Peter as he offered to wash his feet at the Last Supper. Peter protests. You shall never wash my feet, Lord. Jesus replies, Unless I wash you, you have no part with me. Not just my feet then, my hands and my head. Jesus replies, those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. John 13:7-10
French philosopher Paul Ricoeur expressed his gratitude for a truth he recognized in himself. “It is easier than one thinks to hate oneself. Grace means forgetting oneself. But if all pride were dead in us, the grace of graces would be to love oneself humbly, as one would love any one of the suffering members of Jesus Christ.” (Ricoeur, 1992)
Read 1 Corin. 4:1-4. What would you experience in Christ if you cared only a little if others judge you; if you didn’t judge yourself; if your conscience was clear but you stayed open to the fact you may have hurt someone, so you’re not innocent, and remain willing to repair the damage; and if each day, you basked in the generosity of God? Are you free to dive deeply into your innermost being and face what you find there, yet break the surface of those deep waters to soar with the eagles? Are there obstacles to your deep dive and free flight? Is there something you need to hear God say to you? Read aloud prayers of Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, pages 43 and 13.
Even so, Come Lord Jesus.
