I never figured out how to deal with this text nor found a rhythm for the sermon. It was a less than stellar day from the pulpit!
"sIn" Romans 7: 7-25; August 27, 2017; SAPC, Denton
Romans 7: 7-13: What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived 10 and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.
13 Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. 15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17 But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.
Introduction: Paul at his most challenging and complicated, but also Paul at his best.
I say He works through the categories of law and sin. Trying to find a way to uphold the Psalmists affirmation in Psalm 119 that we “delight in the law” (Psalm 119), while also acknowledging the sinfulness followers of Christ see in themselves and in the world.
Paul gives a resounding “no” to the question, “Is the law
sin?” and Paul clearly lays blame on sin that “seized the
opportunity,” not the law, which he still argues is holy and
good (7:12).
Paul also explores the categories of flesh and spiritual.
What does Paul mean by the word “flesh?” clearly, he uses
flesh in contrast to spiritual.
And then he ties law and sin to these categories.
It’s complicated.
But, we also hear Paul at his best because of his speaking of
sin in ways that connect to us and in his clear affirmation of
God who rescues us from sin.
Here are just a few reflections on sin that may help in
understanding Paul’s commentary on sin.
Move 1: As we hear Paul’s discussion of sin, think in
global, not just personal terms.
a. For example, when Paul uses the word “I,” he is being more expansive than just describing his own internal struggles.
1. Some scholars argue that “I” refers to Israel according to the flesh, or Israel “in Adam.”
2. Others argue the “I” refers to all Christians.
3. I would suggest we hear Paul as using a “both, and” approach.
4. that is, when Paul writes “I,” he is speaking globally to the human condition, but Paul also recognizes that sin is an issue he deals with personally in his own life.
b. Paul also views sin in a global sense.
1. I suspect when most of us hear the word sin we think of individual acts of sinning (actually, when most of think of sin I bet we think of individual acts others do - but that’s another sermon!).
2. Paul has in mind sin as a power that is at work in our world. Not just an individual act.
3. Does that concept of sense as a power beyond our own self absolve us from responsibility for our sinful acts? Not at all, if we remember that in 5:12 Paul said that the individual has bought into the matrix of Sin by participating in it (http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=963; Walter F. Taylor, Jr., Ernest W. and Edith S. Ogram Professor of New Testament Studies, Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, OH)
When we read Paul’s comments about sin, we need to think in global terms and in personal terms.
Move 2: Reflect for a few minutes about what sin is.
a. NT scholar Paul Minear suggests that for the Apostle Paull, sin is about an “idolatrous distortion of our proper relationship with God, this turning from God-centeredness to self-centeredness” (Feasting the Word: Year A, Volume 3, Harold Masback, 209; the writer is building off of Paul Minear’s work in his book the Obedience of Faith: the Purpose of Paul in the Epistle to the Romans, 106-7)
1. On Wednesday afternoons during my 7th grade year, I joined with the rest of the confirmands here at St. Andrew in confirmation class.
2. Each week began with a quiz over what we had learned the first week.
3. There was a lot of pressure because the class was taught y Dr. McCoy, the Sr. minister (When I was a 7th grader the Sr. minister at St. Andrew seemed like a bigger deal than he does these days!)
4. I confess to not remembering clearly much of what transpired in confirmation class.
5. but i do remember the illustration Dr. McCoy used for sin. Sin is best described when we spell it with a little “s” as the first letter; little “n” as the second letter; and big I in the middle.
4. Why because sin is when we make ourselves more important than anything else.
c. We see this understanding of sin in the biblical texts beyond Paul’s letter to the Romans.
1. Adam and Eve — choosing their desire to taste of the apple; their desire to know what God knows; instead of obeying God’s command.
2. Or we remember Psalm 51, the words uttered by King david when the prophet Nathan has confronted him about his sinful relationship with Bathsheba and sinful act toward Bathsheba’s husband Uriah.
3. King David whose sin has caused the death of Urriah exclaims, “against you, you alone have I sinned.”
4. David recognizing that giving in to his own desires leads to broken relationship with Urriah, creates a distorted relationship with Bathsheba, and also a broken relationship with God.
Sin is when when ‘I” becomes more important than anything else.
Move 3: Paul describes the struggle we have with sin.
a. When we push through Paul’s complicated categories, we see a struggle, a very human struggle we know to well as we try and turn away from sin.
1. We are no longer captive to sin, but we still find ourselves engaged in sinfulness.
2. Read an author who was describing a scene played out by his granddaughter, who was learning how to talk and has a wonderful way of lengthening the word "no."
Recently I caught her sitting in front of an electrical outlet. "Nooo," she said to herself. "Nooo, ... nooo"--and then she reached her hand toward the outlet. Grandpa was there to say another kind of "no"! She knew she shouldn't touch the outlet, but she was ready to do it--and so are we with all the "outlets" that lead to broken relationships and ultimately to death.
b. Paul suggests that believer’s struggle results from citizenship in two worlds – this world and the next.
1. We struggle with the issues and difficulties of this world, even as we lay claim to the world of the Spirit, of
God’s love and righteous action and of new creation.
2. All week as I kept reading through and reflecting on Paul’s comments of sin, i could not get the image Lisa
shared with us last week that is found in Martin Luther’s humorous note that he agreed with Paul that the old Adam had
drowned in the waters of baptism, but that the 'the old Adam is a pretty good swimmer.'— old Adam
3. All week I had images of Adam, of us, swimming upstream against the flowing grace of God so that
we could claim some of that sin.
4. stroke after stroke - not that we don’t like idea of being swept away from our sinfulness, but
sometimes it’s hard to give up our old ways.
5. Or, I had this image of standing on the banks of the river, rescued by the grace of God, and before
I know it sin has come along and pushed me back in.
6. the struggle we face as we try to lay claim to the freedom that God offers us with our tendencies to
give in to sin.
Move 4: which leads to my final point - Paul’s conversation about sin leads to an affirmation of God’s grace.
a. Paul boldly declares that God overcomes sin.
1. paul asks, “who will rescue from this body of death?”
2. His next words are words of thanks to God for Jesus Christ.
3. In Christ, God has broken sin’s hold on us.
4. In Christ, God has invited us to new life.
5. In Christ, God offers us forgiveness of our sins and calls us to the path of repentance.
6. Paul may know the struggle of dealing with sin, but he also knows the God who has overcome sin in Christ Jesus.
b. Eugene Peterson in his book Leap over a Wall discusses how in Psalm 51 there are only four names for sin, but the biblical text is full of examples of God’s grace.
He writes that this is because sin is boring, it is all reruns. In other words, it’s the same old story of seeing self as more important than God.
What is fresh and new are the varied ways in which god's grace is seen.
1. God’s grace that Adam and Eve discovered when their expelled from the Garden of Eden for their action only to discover that God’s provides clothing for them. Gave in response to their sinfulness.
2. God’s grace that goes to the extreme in the death of Christ on the cross.
Conclusion: Paul’s words about sin may be difficult to make clear; my words may not be clear;
But God’s intentions are clear - freeing us from sin in the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus; extending grace for us as we struggle to live into that gift. Amen.
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