Do the Right Thing --- Sermon for Pentecost 6A-Proper 9A (Romans 7)
Next Sunday, Dan will begin a series of sermons from the Book of Romans that starts in chapter 8. The first verse of Romans 8 declares that “there is, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” Now that’s good news!
Now, before we can hear the good news, we need to hear the bad news. I get to deliver the bad news. So, once again I get to set the stage for Dan to deliver the good news, even if I chose this passage!
I think Paul’s words in Romans 7 might resonate with many of us because it offers a rather realistic picture of human life. That’s because it speaks of the kinds of inner conflicts that we all face in life. You see, Paul wants to do the right thing, but he can’t seem to follow through. Why this is true, could be rooted in anxiety or a failure to recognize our own limits? We can even know what’s expected of us, and still fall short.
I don’t know about you, but I can commiserate with Paul. You see, forty years ago today, Cheryl and I got married. While I promised to do the right thing when it came to our life together, I’ve not always followed through. Just ask Cheryl! But perhaps that’s the way it is in life.
When Paul wrote this letter to the church in Rome, he wrote to a community he’d never visited. He knew some of the people, but you might say that this letter is Paul’s attempt to introduce the Roman congregation to his basic theology. Paul has been spending a bit of time in the letter describing the relationship of the gospel of Jesus to Jewish law. Earlier in the letter, he made it clear that whether we’re Jews or Gentiles, no one is righteous (Rom. 3:9-10). However, despite the reality of our unrighteousness, all is not lost. The question is, how do we live faithfully before God? Paul continues that conversation here in Romans 7. He wants his readers to know that God gave the people of God the law so that they might know how to live together as God’s people. After all, how are you going to do the right thing, if you don’t know what that might entail? Therefore, we have the Law of the Lord, which the Psalmist declares is perfect. Unfortunately, as Paul reminds us, while the Law of the Lord might be perfect (Ps. 19:7), it lacks a mechanism that can help us keep the Law.
The Hebrew Bible contains quite a few rules and regulations. In fact, there are more than six hundred laws. Then there’s the abridged version of the Law, which we know as the Ten Commandments. While this list might be briefer, I expect most of us struggle with at least a few of them, especially the one that talks about covetousness. Even if we downsize the number to two, even the command to love God with our entire being and love our neighbors as we love ourselves isn’t that easy to keep.
God’s commandments might be clear and they might enlighten the eyes. Yes, they might be true and righteous; they might even be “more to be desired than gold,” but that doesn’t make them any easier to keep (Ps. 19:8-10).
So why is it that we find it so difficult to do the right thing? Is it the Law’s fault? That can’t be true. So, what’s the problem? Once again, as Paul reminds us, the problem is sin. Sin is not just breaking the rules, though it can involve rule-breaking. It goes much deeper than that.
Theologians have spilled a lot of ink down through the centuries trying to define how sin works. Some people believe that our propensity to sin is genetic. We’re born this way. There are others who believe that it’s more like a very contagious virus that infects everyone it touches. Some people call this systemic sin. As for me, I lean in this direction.
If we think of sin being a virus that infects the systems we inhabit, then sin has an insidious power that gets in the way of doing the right thing. So, should we give in to sin and just get rid of the Law? Paul won’t go that far. He knows the Law doesn’t give us the power to fulfill its obligations, but it does serve as a diagnostic tool. Because it’s a diagnostic tool, we can discover where and when and how sin infects our lives, including our relationships with one another, with the world around us, and ultimately with God. While it’s not a cure, it can help us move toward a treatment for the disease. Long after Paul wrote his letter to the Romans, St. Augustine told a story from his own life in his Confessions that illustrates the problem at hand. According to this story, which is one of my favorites, Augustine and a group of friends came upon a pear tree full of fruit. They decided to cart off a load of the fruit, not because they were hungry but because it was there. This is what he wrote about this escapade:
There was a pear-tree near our vineyard, loaded with fruit that was attractive neither to look at nor to taste. Late one night a band of ruffians, myself included, went off to shake down the fruit and carry it away for we had continued our games out of doors until well after dark. As was our pernicious habit. We took away an enormous quantity of pears, not to eat them ourselves, but simply to throw them to the pigs. Perhaps we ate some of them, but our real pleasure consisted in doing something that was forbidden. [Confessions, 2:4, (Penguin Books, 1961), p. 47].
Augustine tells us that he knew the difference between right and wrong, but doing the wrong thing was too enticing to avoid! Does Augustine’s experience resonate with anyone?
Augustine seems to understand what Paul meant when he confessed: “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24). Both Augustine and Paul realized that the appropriate treatment for this sickness could be found in Jesus. As I’m sure Dan will point out next Sunday, the proper treatment for this disease called sin is found in God’s grace revealed to us in Jesus. Grace is the first step in a treatment program that can help us live into God’s purposes. We might not experience a cure right away, but we can find healing in God’s grace, such that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1).
While the Law serves as a diagnostic tool, and grace brings healing, that doesn’t let us off the hook. The Law points us in the right direction, while the Holy Spirit helps us move along the path the Law sets before us. In other words, the Law is aspirational. The Christian life involves living into those aspirations.
Since we’re just a few days past the Fourth of July holiday, which celebrates the birth of the United States with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it might be worth remembering that the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence were also aspirational. Even today we’ve not fully lived into the “self-evident truths,” that we’ve all been created equal and “endowed by [our] Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” It’s worth remembering also that Thomas Jefferson and the other signers of this Declaration didn’t fully comprehend the meaning of these words. That’s because they interpreted the word “men” to include only white men with property. It took a very long time for this nation to more fully embody the promise of the declaration. I think it’s safe to say that we’ve still not reached perfection. We still struggle to do the right thing when it comes to our neighbors near and far.
So we come back to the premise of Romans 7. There’s a virus running rampant in our midst. Sin is, as Ron Allen and Clark Williamson put it, “a power in which individuals, groups, and nations can become ensnared, like fish caught in a net” (Preaching the Letters, p. 73). Unfortunately, we all get caught n the net at some point in our lives. Until we recognize this fact, it’s difficult to find healing so we can begin doing the right thing, even if imperfectly.
While grace might not prevent us from falling prey to sin, it can take hold of our lives and begin the process of transformation. Later on in Romans, Paul writes: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).
So, as we ponder our own sinfulness and give thanks for God’s grace that brings healing to our lives, we can pray with Reinhold Niebuhr:
Save us, O Lord, from our sins and our anxieties, and grant us so sure a hold upon your grace that the peace which passeth understanding may keep our hearts, and we be enabled to walk serenely through the tumults and trials of these days, redeeming the time because the days are evil. [Reinhold Niebuhr: Major Works on Religion and Politics (pp. 865-866). Kindle Edition].
Preached by:
Robert D. Cornwall, Ph.D.
Pulpit Supply
First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)
Troy, Michigan
Pentecost 6A/Proper 9A
July 9, 2023
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