Made Holy: Romans 7

Romans 7:15-25a

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 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. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 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. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 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.

Dear Ones, grace and peace to you from God our parent and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Have you ever seen the movie, “The Princess Bride?” I was 12 years old when it came out, and like many in my generation, I consider it a classic. There’s a character in the film named, Vizzini. He considers himself an intellectual genius and has a knack for laying out long, dizzyingly convoluted logical arguments, interrupted occasionally with the exclamation, “Inconceivable!” While spending the last several weeks grappling with Paul’s letter to the Romans, I’ve begun to see Paul as a little Vizzini-like. His logic can be confusing and dizzying, but when he reaches a conclusion, it is truly inconceivable!

We pick things up tonight with Paul continuing the argument we talked about two weeks ago. He’s moved on to the nature of sin, and some of his language concerns me. At first glance, it seems that Paul has a very negative view of bodies, something I find true in some of his other writings. He uses phrases like:

• “nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh”
• “making me captive to the law of sin that dwells within my members”
• “who will rescue me from this body of death?”
• “with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin”

Yet, God calls creation very good when humans enter the story. Yet, in the person of Jesus, God becomes flesh. Inconceivable!

In case these words of Paul’s hit you the way they do me, let’s take a pause. Take a deep breath; let it fill your body. That is the breath of God, the Spirit of God, filling you and blessing your body. Now, filled with that breath, hear these words from our own Pastor Meta’s blessing for “Looking in the Mirror”:

Hi there.
Look gently and remember:
God’s heart broke
For the very first time
When Adam and Eve hid
Their naked bodies
Away in shame.
I am not to be hidden.
God is looking for me
And aches to see
This flesh unabashed.
So loved, so very good.
I am dust and stars!
The world’s joy and despair
Tangle me wild and holy,
And all I know is I am not nearly done
Being beautiful.

With that life-giving reminder, let’s carefully return to Paul. I’m not going to defend his language. It’s difficult, and, frankly, I’m not certain of all of his intended meaning. However, I’d like to look at the bigger picture, remembering that this is only a small section of a much longer exposition of the nature of sin, grace, law, and the Gospel of Jesus.

What if Paul is speaking in metaphor? What if he’s referring to larger bodies comprised of many individuals? What if when he says I, he means the Jewish people, or followers of Christ, or all of humanity? The reality he’s getting at is that we’re physically rooted in this world. Sin is also a thing of this world. Collectively, we are all mired in the reality of sin; it’s inescapable.

On the other hand, God’s law is of God, of the Spiritual realm, and it’s meant to be the bones of God’s vision of shalom. It’s a picture that God paints, rooted in the life-giving dreams and hopes that continuously birth creation. It’s a picture meant to spark our imaginations and to invite us into a shared, embodied experience of the hopes and dreams of God here and now.

Even our understanding of God’s law is tainted by sin, however, so we, collectively, tend to see law as restrictive instead of expansive and inclusive. We make it a game of keeping score, checking boxes as we follow the rules. We compare ourselves to others and judge one another. Things like fear, insecurity and scarcity thinking all start to cloud our vision, and we lose track of God’s vision altogether. Paul even suggests that without God’s law we wouldn’t know what sin is in the first place.

That’s how pervasive this thing we call sin really is. It impacts all of humanity. It’s an unavoidable reality. No matter your religion, your ethnicity or skin color, the language you speak or the culture you embrace, no matter your gender or sexual identity, sin entangles you and starts to color your thinking and actions.

In other words, sin is a pandemic. But there’s good news… There’s an antidote – a vaccine. There’s always been one. Inconceivable! For us, that antidote is embodied by Jesus, the one who became flesh, the one who stands beside you, looking into the mirror and says, “you are a beautiful, beloved child of God.” You are made to live into the inconceivably beautiful image of shalom God hopes and dreams for all people.

God wraps us with grace and love and holds us close, even when our response is to throw a tantrum, beating on God’s chest. God becomes flesh and dwells among us not to condemn human flesh and our bodies, but to condemn sin and to embrace humankind.

In God’s grace-filled embrace, we are freed to see the many pandemics sin brings about in this world. Held close to God’s chest, our eyes are opened to see systemic racism, white privilege and white supremacy, poverty, and discrimination and inequity of any kind as the sin that they are. Sin that must be condemned, even as it attempts to convince us to condemn ourselves and one another. We are heirs of all that belongs to Jesus. We are bound up in his life, death and resurrection, so we have the power to name sin, to condemn it, to die to it and our way of being in it, and to rise to new life in Christ.

We are given the power to embody Jesus in this world, demonstrating God’s vision of shalom in the flesh. That vision includes owning all of the ways we as individuals and collective bodies have been and ARE complicit in sinful systems that demean others, that oppress others, or that condemn others, standing in direct opposition to the image painted by God’s law of love. That vision includes condemning and dismantling systems that benefit people who look like me while oppressing people who don’t.

Friends, we are doing a lot of collective mirror gazing these days. It’s important but difficult work taking stock of where we’ve come from, what systems we’re mired in, what harm we’ve done, and what repentance and reparations lie ahead. It’s Godly work. It’s part of living into the vision of shalom painted by God’s law of love and enfleshed by Jesus. It’s not lonely work, though. It’s work we are called to do together, as one body of Christ, in solidarity with all humankind. We will stumble and make mistakes as we continue in this work, and God’s grace will enter in over and over, wrapping us in God’s love anew.

Whenever you look into the mirror, whether on your own or as part of a collective body, know that Jesus is there beside you, reminding you:

“You are dust and stars! The world’s joy and despair tangle you wild and holy, and you are not nearly done being beautiful.” Jesus continues, “Do you see that brown-skinned person over there? How bout the person over there who prefers they and them as pronouns? How about the countless diverse folks surrounding you on all sides? They’re not nearly done being beautiful, either. Their stories are tangled up with yours and yours with theirs. I hope you’ll take the time to share those stories with each other. I hope you’ll be beautiful together, that you’ll become one body together, celebrating each of your unique and holy stories. That, dear one, is my story.”

Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus our Lord! Amen.