For 7/13/2011
In Romans 7 Paul laid out a dilemma, that we want to do what is right but something in us causes us to fall short. He ends by saying, “He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.” Today’s scripture builds on that idea.
Paul uses strong words and images to make his points reflecting both his passion and as a way to penetrate into our thinking. Remember as a Pharisee he is an expert on the real world of living by the letter of the law, knowing it, knowing it’s interpretation, knowing how to apply it to all facets of life.
1-2With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
3-4God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that. The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.
· Paul speaks to us about the solution to the dilemma of living as spiritual people. What must we do to avoid that ‘low-lying black cloud”? Do the words “Christ’s being-here-for-us” have meaning for you?
· Paul speaks of a new power; for review what was the old power? What is the imagery used to illustrate the freedom Christ and the Spirit of Life bring? Can you think of any examples of this “new power” “clearing the air” in your experience?
· What are we freed from and what practical meaning does it have for you? Do you feel that your faith has ever freed you from anything? Are there things that you would like to be freed from?
· What important about the way in which God dealt with humanities’ problem? What does sending Jesus say about God’s approach to dealing with the human condition? How do you feel about that fact?
· We have not overcome the “disordered mess of struggling humanity” as a whole? Why is this? What is keeping God’s good intentions from becoming a reality? Can we be part of the solution – how?
· Is the “deep healing” of the problems of the human condition complex? How do we “embrace what the Spirit is doing in us”? What has to happen in order for this to occur?
Paul with more words on God’s intentions for us:
9-11But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!
· The first idea is for God to take up “residence in your life”. Have you ever had anyone do this for you? What was it like, what role did that person take, did it change your behavior? What meaning does Paul intend in these words for our understanding of what a faith life is like?
· What is it clear doesn’t change, if God is in residence does the pull of sin go away? What is different then? What does “experiencing life on God’s terms” mean to you? Whose terms are we experiencing it on if we don’t do this? Practically what difference does God’s presence make when we face the challenges of life? Would we deal with others or handle issues differently?
· The last section speaks to a new life with God’s presence. When you think about Jesus’ resurrection what are the implications of God “bringing you alive to himself”? Have you ever experienced something that made a real difference in your life? Something that changed the way in which you comprehend things, priorities, or sense of your abilities or skills? Can our faith change us in this way?
· How about God living and breathing in us? How does that imagery strike you? Does it come with any reservations? What is the promise for us with that new life within us?
· Paul wrote about this change in many different ways. One was in the letter to the Galatians:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
This seems like good news to me.
Closing Litany (from Psalm 139)
LORD, you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Next Week’s Scriptures: Genesis 28:10-19a, Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24, Romans 8:12-25, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
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