into the unknown-Chris

Come gather round people

Wherever you roam

And admit that the waters around you have grown

And accept it that soon

You’ll be drenched to the bone

If your time to you is worth savin’

Then you better start swimmin’

Or you’ll sink like a stone

For the times they are a changin’.

I am convinced Paul would have liked that song. For he was a person that had experienced a great change in his life—a change that had happened and was still happening when he wrote his letter to the Romans.

 I have three quick observations about the verses we heard from him this morning. One, they are an important and fascinating look at an early Christian convert’s experience of following Christ. Two, this text is a piece of scripture that acts as a kind of mirror for us—we read it and we say, yeah, that is me—I can relate to that. And three, Paul repeats himself a few times in this text because he wants us to hear his message—for he is in many ways describing the fundamental religious experience.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his classic book “the call of discipleship” wrote, “It is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him”. This quote points out the backstory of Romans 7—in fact the backstory of everything in Paul’s letters. Paul, prior to his conversion or call, was a Pharisaic Jew. That was the religion he had been raised in. and that means he had been taught to have a strong commitment or attachment to the law—in many ways the law and Paul were inseparable—just like we are inseparable from or attached to many of things we have been taught or raised to believe. And then he was converted—he was called by Christ.  In his letter to the Philippians, he describes this radical change…”I was circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”. He regards everything as loss because of the value of knowing Christ—this is another way of saying he has been called away from the his old life, his old self, he has been called way from the known, called by Christ into a new life, which is always the unknown. Now recall Bonhoeffer’s quote, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him. Paul had been called away from one way of being in and knowing the world to another—he was called from Pharisaism to life in Christ. In romans 7 he shows us that this was not always easy or simple—he is telling us what we know from our own experience—real change or transformation can involve struggle and must be renewed every day. These verses are not the personal confession of a man who is somehow immature in his faith, it is an honest description of a person called by Christ—of a person called away from his nets—called away from his old self—called away from the things and the way of life he had previously known.

Our text today demands a closer look, so I am going to go through these verses, if you like you can open your bibles to Romans chapter 7 verse 15. In verse 15 Paul says he doesn’t understand his own actions. “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate”. I have read several contemporary psychologists who really appreciate this statement of Paul’s, for by exposing his own inability to do what he really wants to do, he exposes a basic truth of the human condition. So much of what motivates our behavior is unconscious—it is the result of very early conditioning experiences and our responses to them. Don’t we see this play out in our individual lives and by extension, our communities? Let’s say I know there is a change I need to make involving some behavior of mine—the way I eat, the way I drink, the way I’m a slave to my bank account, or maybe even the way I do church—and let’s say for a while I actually pull it off—through God’s grace I am able to keep off the cookies, the booze, the old habitual road—but then I am tempted to go back to my old behavior pattern—I find myself staring at a bottle, hanging out in the bakery at Wegmans, or rejecting outright a new way relating to God—I have gone back to the law—the law of the known, the law of me that was written years ago. That is what Paul is describing here—even after his conversion he still found the ceremonial law a backsliding temptation—but here is the problem for Paul, he now knows since his experience of the risen Christ that his old way of doing things will not bring salvation—but he goes back to it anyway—just like all of us –he finds the familiar, the known—the law of me, of the old self—very difficult to resist. And we have to remember that what our text calls the law can stand for all our conditioning. The Hebrew word Torah simply means “teaching” or “instruction”. Anything that is taught to us or conditioned into us is by definition the known—it is of the past.  This teaching or instruction was inseparable from Paul’s old self—it was an integral part of his conditioning. It was what he knew. Life in Christ however was not something he was taught—he tells us that much in Galatians. “For I want you to know brothers and sisters that the gospel that is proclaimed by me is not of human origin. For I did not receive it from a human source nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ”. The Gospel is really something revealed to us by God, not taught to us the way a technical skill might be. In fact our reading from Matthew today supports this, the wise and the intelligent certainly knew the law but the mysteries of God are hidden from them. Laws inform; the Gospel transforms.

Verses 16 and 17: “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”. He can see the usefulness of the law—in fact he enjoyed it when he was a Pharisee—but, since his call,—following the law inevitably leads to sin—to going back to his old self, a relatively self-centered way of doing things, cut off from God. Why was it a relatively self-centered way? Because it did not call him out of self and into Life in Christ—it did not reconcile him to the divine. He sees that now that he has directly encountered a radically new life in Christ. Isn’t that often true of ourselves? We may, after we experience a new way of being—a new consciousness, be able to look back and see the usefulness of maybe even a bad habit—we might see that it worked for us at the time. I know a recovering alcoholic who said that he now realizes that if he hadn’t drank at a certain time in his life he would have committed suicide—but to drink now would certainly lead to spiritual death. And for other old habits, like maybe the way we do church or reject new ways of relating to God—this is also true. We might look back and say, yes, the old way worked then and it was and is good—but it isn’t working now. Modern western Christians have been saying since the days of Bonhoeffer something has to change about church—but the church keeps on in the old way—out of habit—out of the law of the old self.  Here I want to be clear—it is not really “the church” that needs to change—in some sense there is no “church”—there is only us—we ourselves as individuals and communities that need follow the Christ into a radically new, unknown way of being . In my opinion, this is not, fundamentally, about institutional leaders changing, this is not about tearing down tradition, not about pop music in the sanctuary, not about being entertained, not about church shopping or getting what we want—this is about each of us being radically open to the Spirit, maybe through adding a meditation practice, a prayer practice, or participation in a small group to what we are already doing. In short, it is about each of us being willing to do what our scriptures call “picking up your cross daily”. Christ is eternally calling us away from our nets—and many of us, at least in the contemporary west, seem to be standing on the shoreline with our net in our hands. And if this keeps us subject to the law of our old selves and afraid to change—then it surely keeps us in what Paul calls sin or what we might call self-centered fear.

Verses 18--20, “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.” Whoa. Unfortunately, this has been misunderstood and used to demonize the flesh. Paul tells us he can decide to do what is right, but he can’t actually carry it out. I can relate. I can say yes, I am going to go in a new direction, do a new thing, be a new guy—but usually my actions tell a different story—the same old story. Paul is again talking about ceremonial law or teaching --and that is his old self, the old familiar way of doing things. It is easier to go back that old way—but he now recognizes that to follow the old way—to live the self-centered life he lived before he was called by Christ into the unknown is to be in sin. This is so true for so many—the old familiar way often uses fear or insecurity to call us back…sin can stand for that old relatively self-centered way we know—the old way that has been conditioned into us. It is not that any of these teachings or learned behaviors are in and of themselves bad or sinful—it is rather sin or self-centeredness that is the real problem—that is what cuts us off from the unknown or God. That is what causes us to hold onto to our nets and refuse the call of Christ.

Verse 21 “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand”. Of course it does. Because when “I”, the old self that is all my old conditioning, is in the driver’s seat—I tend to act out of that self-centeredness—and I usually do not recognize it—in fact I often think I’m pretty righteous. Isn’t that the nature of sin? To obtain flattering remarks, power, or position for itself? To be the powerful one who decides good and evil. The problem is sin never sees its own sinfulness…only God reveals true sin to us—and God calls sin what we often call good, in particular our own self-righteousness. That is why when I or my ego wants to do good evil lies close at hand.

Verses 22-25 “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”. Paul is here really summing up the human condition. He has had the experience of being called by Christ—he knows that he is intimately connected to the divine within. But he also knows that as a human individual he struggles with self-centeredness. He sees it in his members, in the action of his body—in his appetites, in his cravings, he recognizes his own self centeredness. As many of us know our appetites, our addictions, can get out of control. We can be addicted to just about anything—drugs, alcohol, our own way of thinking especially. Our culture encourages this, has made it a way of life and it leads self-centeredness. Americans are consistently shown to be some of the loneliest people on earth even while surrounded with all their stuff and ideas. Isn’t that because our appetites and cravings so often make relationship a process of isolation with each person out for their own gratification. We often love people as long as they can satisfy us, as long as they agree with us. That is the law of sin or estrangement dwelling in or members. But I don’t think we see that until we encounter the great unknown in Christ, when we have something to contrast the old way with. Once we feel the call of Christ to leave our nets we then become aware of or conscious of our own condition---in other words, we see ourselves more clearly. And we become aware that it is only by venturing into the unknown with Christ that we can leave the old creation we know and experience the great unknown, the new creation.

I will close with this…Paul felt it—and I think we feel it too…The Christ is standing on the shoreline and he is calling us…come gather round people where ever you roam…for the times they are a changin’.

Amen.