NOTE: I am putting my weekly sermons on the church website. It will be on for two weeks (usually posted on Friday) and then placed in the Archives area by date. You can download in a matter of seconds.
Let me know what you think. The church Email is: slumc@direcway.com, Phone: 480.895.8766
Sunday, July 3, 2005
“The Sin Within”
Some questions for you. Not important questions, but questions nonetheless:
Why do snooze buttons only give you nine more minutes of sleep, instead of the 10 that you need?
Why can’t you tickle yourself?
Those big clocks in the parlor — why do we call them “grandfather clocks?”
It’s unlikely that these questions have crossed your mind, but they’ve crossed someone’s mind. The editors at Mental_Floss, a trivia magazine, have even included them in an article called “The 25 most important questions in the history of the universe” (November-December 2004).
Tongue firmly planted in cheek.
These questions and more — like “Why does Hawaii have Interstate highways”? — are adult versions of the riddles we used to ask as kids.
How do rabbits travel? By hareplane.
What did the sock say to the foot? You’re putting me on.
What do whales like to chew? Blubber gum.
Questions intrigue us, even if they’re trivial or humorous in a
Here’s a mystery that matters, a riddle that rocks: Why do we do what we don’t want to do, and — the corollary question — why don’t we do the good that we want to do?
The answer to Paul’s question has to begin with sin. In Paul’s experience, sin is more than a bad deed, evil action or wrong decision.
It’s a power, a principle, a propensity, a predilection — (more? Oh yeah, proclivity, penchant and predisposition) — that pervades his inner self, and dwells deep within him like a V-chip programming his every move. As New Testament scholar Paul Meyer says, it’s the worm at the core of the apple. It’s sin with a capital S. The action (sin), “What I do,” is the outcome of the state of Sin within him. It’s the poisoned fruit of the tree.
Paul’s got bad DNA; he’s been baptized in a corrupted gene pool. Augustine calls it “original sin,” and Calvin and others call it “total depravity.” It’s a problem that corrupts his relationship with God and neighbor. This predisposition causes him to do the things he hates, it prevents him from doing what is right, and it causes him to do evil. “Now if I do what I do not want,” he concludes, “it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me” (v. 20).
We can certainly relate to Paul’s inner struggle. Sin is what
The ancient Socrates, who argued that the unexamined life is not worth living, proposed that no one chooses evil or chooses to act in ignorance. We pursue what is good, but fail to achieve it because of ignorance, or we lack the knowledge as to how to obtain what is good, or how to do what is right.
Aristotle, the intellectual grandchild of Socrates, and pupil of Plato, scoffed at the notion. Simple observation of human behavior, he said, tells us that an individual might know what is best, right and true, yet still do what’s bad, wrong and false. Moreover, if evil is never done deliberately or voluntarily, then evil is an involuntary act and no one can properly be held responsible for the evil that is done.
Our own life and times show us that Socrates got it wrong, and that Aristotle and the apostle got it right. We could cite Bill Clinton’s own assessment of his behavior. Then there are the Tonya Hardings of the world. The Pete Roses. And the millions of people who persist in destructive behaviors and who are afflicted by addiction.
So with Paul, we agree: “I do not do the good I want, but
Even worse, our best intentions are often thwarted by our sinfulness. Sin would seem to play a corrupting role in every deed we do. We do a good deed, and hope we’ll be rewarded for it. We work hard, and end up becoming workaholics. We make a sacrifice for someone else, and feel selfish pride about our selfless act.
The evidence of Sin is everywhere. The schoolroom and the boardroom, the home and the office, in business and politics, in communities and nations.
Glittering prosperity cheek-to-jowl with appalling poverty. Greedy goons raiding the pension plans in the offices of corporate America. Conflict and bloodshed all over the planet, children suffering from malnutrition when the world has the resources to feed everyone.
You know the drill. Sin. It’s all over. Not to say that everything we do is completely sinful, but that every dimension of our life — personal, community, national, global — is tainted by Sin.
So where does this leave us? What — or who — will get us out of this mess? Paul puts it this way: “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (7:24). “Thanks be to God,” he continues, “though Jesus Christ our Lord!” (7:25). The only antidote to total depravity is total grace, a grace that comes to us through our faith in Jesus Christ.
Paul sees this as a rescue.
This perspective is typical of those who see themselves as caught in an event, situation or crisis that is now beyond their control.
Stories have emerged in the aftermath of the tsunami of people who — if left to their own devices—would have perished. They are alive today because of an intervening agency — someone passing by, search-and-rescue teams, friends or relatives.
The Pennsylvania coal mine disaster of a few years ago. Some of those who were rescued called it a miracle. They were doomed — without help from beyond themselves.
Baby Jessica — the story that captured the headlines over 25 years ago.
And on this Independence Day weekend, the hit movie of a few years ago of the same name details the rescue or salvation of the world from alien space invaders.
Rescue. That’s what Paul — what we — are looking for.
Good intentions won’t rescue us.
More education, more money, more discipline, more time, more second chances. None of this will rescue us.
Jesus Christ is our Rescuer. Costly for him, because he died in the “rescue” process. But that’s what makes it grace. Grace is not for sale. Grace is a gift. Once one recognizes and accepts that gift, the rescue process will work.
That’s why Paul’s startling discovery as he ponders the riddle before him is, that through Jesus Christ the rescue, is not only in process, but has already taken place.
It’s our business now to live as though it were true.
That is to say, there’s no point staying in the coal mine
No point clinging to an old resentment. No point refusing to forgive. No point cheating, lusting, fighting, carping, harping, stealing, lying — any of these things. It’s not who we are!
Does this mean we become perfect? Not quite. We’re forgiven, not flawless. And Paul knows that there is always a war going on between the flesh and the spirit.
But the riddle is solved. Why do I do the bad I don’t want to do, and don’t do the good I do want to do? Because of the power of Sin that is activated when I “serve” the “flesh.”
But when I remember who I am, and when I serve “the law of the mind,” then I know what it means to be “rescued” and to live the way God wants me to.
On the night he was betrayed, Jesus took the cup and the bread…
Let me know what you think. The church Email is: slumc@direcway.com, Phone: 480.895.8766