The Spirit of Life -- Where Jesus' Life Meets Ours

Today is Pentecost (fifty days after Passover/Easter) the feast of Weeks. Acts 2 stamps it forever as the day of the coming of the Holy Spirit, the new beginning, the "power from on high" that Jesus promised. Jesus' new resurrection life, so startling to his disciples, now began to invade their own lives as the Spirit of God became part of them. Jesus was not calling people to be generally 'more spiritual.' He poured out God's own Spirit, new life, new power, that brought Jesus' work to fulfillment and changed everything.

The New Testament is filled with this. Luke tells the story in Acts. John describes Jesus anticipating the coming of the Paraclete/Advocate. Paul focuses on the Spirit in Rom 8. The Spirit is the presence of the one God, given to us, continuing God's work in Jesus.

Losing the War of a Divided Mind

In Rom 7, Paul deals with the deep problem of humans in relation to our sin and brokenness. It is not that we did some offense and God is angry with us. It is that we are divided against ourselves, self-destructive, at war within, enslaved by our own destructive desires. God's wrath is against that destruction of his creation by sin and it hits us by 'letting us go' to follow our 'flesh' and receive the consequences of our choices. It's humanity's story.

God's Law, seen is scripture, itself becomes divided. We can recognize its goodness and take delight in it, but our 'flesh' (limited, self-centered mind) weakens it and paradoxically uses it to stir rebellion in us. We find ourselves as our own enemy, the law that promised life now being used in/by us to produce death. Self-trapped, we can't break free. Wretched!

A New Power, Life in a New Space

But "Wretched" is not the end of the story. Paul sets beside it the Gospel: Nothing can stand as a condemnation against those in Messiah Jesus! The only hope was to change the basic structure of life that led to the wretchedness. That change has happened! Paul step by step lays out the events, starting with the most immediate, personal change, and then looking back and wider to view the vast, deep change that God has brought about.

The immediate reality is the work of God's Spirit in our life (8:2). This is not a change of feeling or an elevated experience, but the reality of God working in our life, as objective as the crucifixion of Jesus. That Spirit is God's continuing creation of life and it takes on the task of fulfilling the promise of Life that God always intended and expressed even in the Law.

But that life has a very specific "location" that we could not have imagined before. It is

"in Messiah Jesus," who is both God and us. We share in his life, his grace, all that he accomplished by his death and resurrection. A spacious place, to hold the whole world.

The reason this can happen (8:3) is that in Jesus God has done what we could not before imagine. In 'his own Son' -- the Son who is the one God's own self -- he came in flesh just like ours. But rather than be enslaved by sin, he dealt with sin. He experienced our life caught in limitation and vast desire. As sin massed around him and condemned him to the tortured death of crucifixion, he condemned not the people, but sin itself. Sin, pain, brokenness, rebellion -- these are the intruders in God's creation. The people, even as sinners, are God's beloved creatures. We trust and live "in him" by "his Spirit."

This also begins new experiences for us. We learn what God has done and begin to think in new ways. Our minds are opened to the vastly expanded world of beauty, power, and love that is the life of the Spirit. Our trust in that love of God leads us into real peace.

Who are We in the Story We're in?

We want to be heroes in our own story. We like victory. But sometimes it's not so simple. Oliver Hazard Perry's naval victory over the British on Lake Erie, 1813: "We have met the enemy and he is ours!" Echoed in a Pogo cartoon of 1971 (2nd Earth day, Vietnam war): "We have met the enemy and he is us." Paul's analysis of the human situation is closer to Pogo than Perry. But also more complex than either. God steps into that complexity.

This text poses challenging questions. It starts from us "released from the law" to live "in the new way of the Spirit." That raises serious questions about the whole story of scripture and the Law of Moses. What are you saying? Is God's Law sin!? If it's good, did it bring about evil, even death? Paul writes to a community of Jewish and Gentile believers, but only the Jews in their identity share as he does in Israel's story and in the Law/Torah.

Paul tells three stories in one: (1) Humanity seen in the first chapters of Genesis. (2) Israel and the Law/Torah at Sinai. (3) Every person ("I") living without God's Messiah and Holy Spirit. God has always been dealing the brokenness and alienation of all humanity, but he did it through Abraham, Israel ... the Messiah. When Paul uses "I" he is not sharing his own personal struggles, but describing every person's weakness and brokenness, a state that becomes clear, however, only through the work of the Law in relation to our sin.

The two great scripture stories share a pattern: A fundamentally good warning command is given (about the tree of knowledge; about no other gods), but the command becomes the starting point for temptation, transgression, alienation, death. Both Eve and Adam and Israel share the same human weakness -- flesh. So does everyone individually -- "I." The only hope (Rm 8) is for God to intervene, give his own life for us, his own Spirit to us.

Desiring, Coveting, Lusting, Delighting

To prepare us for that answer, Paul leads us on a journey through the Law/Torah, using not an obscure regulation but one of the Ten Commandments: "You shall not desire/covet" (epithumein). He chooses one that strikes at the heart of so many of our problems. Not obviously wrong, like murder. Desire, lust, greed, coveting, wanting -- our society couldn't work without it. He keeps it broadly applicable. The Torah calls for a discipline of the heart that we find impossible. The prohibition itself adds a tang to the desire.

But the law is good (spiritual, promising life), and we can see the good, so why don't we just do it? The Law is like that "tree of knowledge." It marks a boundary but also identifies a vulnerability. We are weak, limited in time and space, all too easily deluded -- we're flesh. We're also complex, with many parts that can be in conflict with each other.

Sin -- our deep brokenness, self-centerness, "dwelling in us" -- shows its evil (like the serpent) by using our delight in the good to foment war within us and take us prisoners for death. It makes us a mystery to ourselves. It works using the best and worst in us. The story of Israel and the Law shows that we by ourselves have no strength to oppose ourselves.

Who will Deliver Us?

Paul's lament looks toward what he will say next. Something new must be added to our human situation if there's going to be hope: Jesus Messiah Lord. The Spirit of God!

Matthew 1:16

... and Jacob was the father of Joseph,

the husband of Mary,

of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Christ.

Luke 1:27

The virgin's name was Mary. The angel came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!"

Luke 1:35

The angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High

will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy--the Son of God.

Luke 1:38

And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word."

Luke 1:41

Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women,

and blessed is the fruit of your womb!

Luke 1:46

And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has l

ooked on the humble estate of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed;

Luke 1:52

And Mary said, "The Lord has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;

He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers,

to Abraham and to his offspring forever."

Luke 2:6

While they were there, the time came for Mary to give birth.

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and

laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Luke 2:19

Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

Luke 2:25

Guided by the Spirit, Simeon took the child in his arms, blessed them, and said to his mother Mary,

"This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel,

and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed--

and a sword will pierce your own soul too."

Matthew 2:10

When the Wise Men saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.

And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him.

Luke 2:41

When Jesus was twelve years old, they went went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover.

When the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem.

After three days of searching his parents found him in the temple, sitting among the religious teachers.

His mother, Mary, said to him, "Son, why have you treated us so? Your father and I have been searching

for you in great distress." He said to them, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be

in my Father's house?" And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.

Luke 2:51

His mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

John 2:1

There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. When the wine ran out, Mary, the mother of Jesus said to him,

"They have no wine." Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does this have to do with me?

My hour has not yet come." Mary then said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."

Mark 6:2

And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished,

saying, "Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him?

How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?

Luke 18:20

And Jesus said to the man, "You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, Do not murder,

Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and your mother."

Matthew 12:46

While he was still speaking to the people, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him.

But he replied, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" And stretching out his hand toward

his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of my Father in

heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

Luke 11:27

A woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to Jesus, "Blessed is the womb that bore you,

and the breasts at which you nursed!" But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear

the word of God and keep it!"

Matthew 10:36

And Jesus said, "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,

and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."

John 19:25

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,

and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby,

he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" Then he said to the disciple,"Behold, your mother!"

And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

Acts 1

After his suffering, Jesus presented himself alive to his apostles by many proofs, appearing

to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. After Jesus was taken up into heaven,

they returned to Jerusalem, to the upper room where they were staying. All of these with one accord

were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women, the brothers of Jesus, and Mary his mother.

Recognizing Life and Death

Paul is leading us readers/believers to reflect on a deep level what has happened to us in the event of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. We might say, 'Nothing happened to me personally. I wasn't there.' Paul responds, 'But you were!' Because of who Jesus is, as both God and us and Israel's Messiah, he calls into himself every person who trusts/ believes in him to share in his death and resurrection/eternal life and in his Spirit.

But its hard to get our minds around this experience. We're still living very ordinary life.

We are like Israel after the Exodus, idealizing Egypt compared with hardships faced in freedom. We romanticize the 'freedom' of the destructive life called 'sin.' Paul asks, 'How was that going?' Ah, shame, death! In Jesus a new freedom really opens because of God's gift of grace. When God gave himself in Jesus, he gave the gift of his own eternal life to all those 'in Messiah Jesus' -- life now, life always. Sin pays out the wage of death -- no hope or meaning. God gives the gift of himself -- Jesus, the Spirit -- his own life forever.

Recognizing A New Chapter in God's Story

But Paul knows that many in Rome (both Gentiles and Jews like himself) think of the law/ Torah as God's great gift of salvation. Paul argues that Scripture itself show a much more ambiguous role. Law defines/clarifies general sin/brokenness as 'transgression,' but does not undo its power as lord in our lives. Law/Torah sets the problem but not the solution.

The Law did the work God intended for it, leading up to the Messiah's death. But that crucifixion and resurrection changed everything, including our relationship to that Law. Paul uses an illustration from Roman/Jewish marriage law -- how death ends a set of binding obligations and opens the freedom for a new relationship. The Messiah's death and our death 'in him' ends one chapter in the story, in which the law made clear just how broken we are, and opens a new chapter, people united with the Messiah in Life. By doing its work, the Law showed the necessity for Jesus and led to this new life.

Recognizing A New Relationship and New Power of Life

Understanding the story of OT scripture and where its sense of expectation leads, however, is only the start. Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection are not only an end but must be the beginning for every believer. We are actively drawn into creating that new direction.

Paul challenges us to think deeply about Jesus, who he is, what his ministry and teaching revealed, how he gave himself, how we as disciples share in him. It is in his very body as one of us that we 'died to the law' and to sin's lordship in order to open a new future, united with him in resurrection, living lives transformed by Jesus, his teaching in action.

Jesus opens a real challenge for our everyday lives and decisions. Don't we really need the Torah? Certainly many Christian moralists through the ages have gone back to the Law to set basic moral guidelines (the Ten Commandments on the wall). But Paul warns that the commands of the law arouse the passions of the sins they define without empowering resistance. Ironically, we end up captive in our brokenness. A new way was needed!

God did what no one could have imagined. He intervened with his own life and death in Jesus, taking on himself our sin, suffering, death, giving new life that we share in his Spirit.

Paul says, don't be lured by the written code defining boundaries. In the Messiah we are invited into his life in the Spirit. Become servants there, trusting his gift of grace!

Laura Hays, on the occasion of Ira Hays tenth birthday bring a message of love, gratitude, and praise for the communion meditation

You're Alive and Free! -- Act that way!

Paul, a Roman citizen raised in a Greek city with a strong identity as a Jew, called as an emissary by Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, but both crucified and the embodiment of God. He watched the Good New of what God has done in Jesus do astonishing things in the lives of both Jews and pagans, but he knows that the transformation is a real challenge. It means new identity, new creation, death and resurrection. Not easy! The change is personal and communal. Easy to ignore, dilute with other beliefs, turn into religion.

We have our own difficulties, living 2000 years later. We live in a flood of information and ideas that we normally let it flow over us like a cloud -- no change, we're barely moist. Paul says this is an event that reveals the world you live in is different than you thought. It's far better, with possibilities you never dreamed. Don't stay in the dark, deluded.

A second problem is the language from the Roman empire. Slaves and obedience. Paul uses it not as a great injustice, but as everyday reality. It's every person's relationship to the emperor/king. He uses it as voluntary choice. It also has OT echoes of Israel's deliverance from Egypt and the "servant of the Lord" in Isaiah. The word usually translated "obey" (hyp-akouein) emphasizes the idea of listening to someone, taking their words and commands seriously to direct life and action. Not thoughtless obedience, but learning/ understanding the new reality, living out of the message that reveals you in that reality. Once you know you have been "brought from death to life," how then do you act?

Law and the Power and Vulnerability of Sin

Paul speaks powerfully of "sin" not just a mistakes we make, faulty judgments. Rather it's like the emperor, king and lord. Sin is the deep brokenness of human beings: selfishness, fear, delusion, pride, injustice, using violence and death to control people, etc. Without God's intervention it was the only regime, the universal enslaving power: "sin reigned in death."

Breaking its power took two-steps. First the law defined the universal brokenness against a standard that marked it as transgression. In some ways sin becomes more powerful and tempting. But second, the law diagnosed sin's power and made it vulnerable. God moved beyond law in Jesus' gift of grace to take on himself our sin and death, create new life of resurrection and heal our lives now by his Spirit. You're "not under law but under grace."

But we're used to our brokenness. It's hard to learn not to make sin king, not to present parts of ourselves to its rule by our fears, addictions, pride, racism, sexual desires, envy, etc. Paul speaks of being handed over to a pattern of teaching, really listening from the heart and being set free. That teaching is Jesus, all that he did and taught and is. God's holy Spirit enters that listening/obedient heart to make us holy, healed, unbroken, alive. Jesus' story becomes ours in all its beauty, love, and power. We're plunged into his eternal life.

Death and the Gift of God's Grace

Death is always hard to deal with. On one level it is simply the end of a body's ability to function, natural, a transition. Even then it's not pretty. It's also the great sign of fear, avoidance, meaninglessness, nihilism, war, violence, destruction, powerlessness, loss, pain. All our sin creates the horror of death, its wages. We choose, present ourselves, enslave ourselves to our own destruction. God's 'wrath' is simply letting our choices go.

But God's whole being calls us back. His love makes it possible for us not to destroy ourselves. He gives himself in Jesus to draw us into his life. In Jesus even we can really choose life.

From What God Does, to What We Do

Paul has announced the Good News of Jesus in marketplaces and synagogues many times. He knows that people often find it hard to grasp the impact of it for their lives. Or they resist its meaning. Thus the questions (6:1,15). OK, sounds like God's done a good job. It's a level I'm not used to dealing with. Why don't I just continue as is and let God do it? In church history, the reformation so emphasized faith over against the works practices of medieval Catholicism, that sometimes any sort of human freedom/action was seen as dangerous. All was predestined. In reaction, some said the Gospel is only human reform.

Paul keeps both God's actions and ours clear, important, and in tension. He has focused on God's action in the biblical narrative climaxing in Jesus. But he knows the transforming power of that Gospel comes in changing lives, creating new communities, new practice. The Gospel in Jesus shows the world is different from how human powers construct it. Life that is not self-deluded should be based on reality -- the all-inclusive reality of God.

Knowing, Connecting, Living

Paul's argument draws out the implications of the reality about us and the world revealed in Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection -- the event announced in the Good News. It's both simple and complex, deep, world-changing. Bridging God and human, past and future. It is a historical fact that happened, but with meaning that must be trusted, believed, made part of a new understanding of self, life, meaning, God. It is both knowledge and faith.

Because of its distinct character, we are linked to the event in a way that goes beyond ordinary knowledge of events. It is an event that draws us in. We are connected to it, participate in it. Baptism is the marker of that. We learn about Jesus, come to trust him and what he did. But we are also plunged into him, share his life, share life with others. Baptism is the distinct practice Jesus gave to mark disciples sharing his divine life (Mt 28:19).

Baptism begins a new knowledge of experience that connects all sides of the Gospel (past, present, future, divine, human) that sets us within that reality to learn its power and life. Paul insists that we think about what we know, draw out its meaning, and live from that. Placing Jesus' death and resurrection (our baptism) at the center of things changes the way the whole world looks, who we are, what we can be and do, where we are going.

The Imperative and the Opening of New Freedom

Paul knows the Gospel can't live as simply an idea. It must and has become action, changed life. Thus Paul move from the meaning of the Gospel to the command of the Gospel (from indicative to imperative). 'Do not let sin reign...' We are not simply affected by the Gospel, we participate actively, creatively in its work. It does not take away our human freedom but broadens it to include possibilities of life that we could never before have.

The imperative means that all is not fixed (predestined). We live out daily choices, create the future with God. But now by God's Spirit, what Jesus did in defeating sin and death can really be lived out in our ordinary lives. But a command can be rejected. I can choose to reject or ignore the 'pattern of teaching' and give myself over to old destructive ways.

Paul uses the well-known reality of slavery/debt slavery to point to how we make destructive choices that then entrap and enslave us. The only real debt we owe is to God who wants our freedom, real goodness, participation in his life. Service to God gives power for real freedom that opens up life in God's grace, life that never ends. If you know it, just do it.

And Death Shall have No Dominion

Paul is unfolding the meaning of what God has done in Jesus -- what happened in his death and resurrection. The event is there. The God of the universe has intervened. For us the challenge is to grasp what he has done and experience its full effect. We understand the event through the great biblical narrative from creation to Abraham, Moses, David... Also our experience of our human situation -- suffering, brokenness, alienation, violence.

Paul has been taking us through Abraham (Israel's story) and Adam (all humanity's story) to help us re-imagine who we (Romans, New Yorkers) are in the light of what God has done.

The picture is not pretty. Humans are not essentially bad, but we are limited, self-centered, weak, broken, trapped. From the first human (anthropos/adam) we choose things that hurt, destroy and enslave us. 'Death reigned' (17). 'Sin reigned in death' (21). Death, not as simply a physical reality, but as a focus of fear, oppression, meaninglessness, control.

Even the Law/Torah plays an ambiguous role. It comes into the midst of human brokenness and marks it out with clear lines. Look at the story in scripture! The law does its job well.

It defines trespass; lays the basis for the prophets' challenge. Still rebellion, exile, Herod ....

In the event of Jesus, God has acted in a way that reaches beyond both Adam and the law. Out of love, in faithfulness to his promises, he has acted in Grace, a free Gift, giving an abundance of Grace, life now, life of the age to come, freedom from the enslaving power of sin and the oppressive fear of death. A new realm/reign is created. The reign of Grace!

How the Events of Jesus Change My Life

Wow! God's done a good job. We're in Egypt (slaves to sin), cheering him on as he brings destruction on the Egyptians. Why not stay here? The irony of Exodus: Israel's desire to return to Egypt. We know our fear, brokenness, and sin. We're not sure how to live in the realm of Grace. Paul says, that's not how it works. You can't stay in slavery and be free.

It's like the Exodus but more so. It's death and resurrection, the profoundest changes we can imagine. God takes my sin and death on himself in Jesus and gives me his own life/Spirit!

When I respond to God's faithfulness in Jesus with my faith/trust (never forced) -- new life, power is created. The sign of that faith that Jesus has given us is baptism, plunging 'into Messiah Jesus'! It is the sign of the astonishing miracle God participates in in my life. It breaks the barrier between God and humanity, between persons, across time, past, present, future. It takes me back into the very event that is the Good News, the death and resurrection of the Messiah Jesus. We express/enact our faith/trust. God brings us into his faithful righteousness. We are in the Messiah, crucified with him, united/planted, dying with him, sin's slavery broken, rising with him, transforming now, living in hope.

Who is this Jesus? Who am I?

Isn't this impossible? I can't be united with another person. And across time?! I wasn't there. It's a common modern cliché that the first Christians knew Jesus as an ordinary man, and that later Constantine made him a god. But we're here at the beginning. Every phrase that Paul uses, articulating this faith and experience of the earliest believers, depends on Jesus' unique place as Messiah, God, and human. As Messiah he unites the whole story of scripture. Only as human can he suffer and die like us. Only as God can he create life, make us part of him, give his Spirit to us. He is the Good News, the abounding Grace.

We're astonished, wooed by his love, learn to trust, are plunged into him, experience his Life.

Out of Death -- Into Life

Today is a focused concentration of all Christian faith. It marks its distinct character. All flows first from events announced as "Good News," Gospel -- actions of God in his world. Thus deeply miraculous! Not in the common idea of a distant god breaking into the orderly laws of nature to do something strange. But the Creator of that wonderful order, who also pervades it, working within it to show a deeper reality than we ordinarily perceive.

Jesus died. The end!? Everyone knew it. The women went to the tomb to mourn the dead prophet they had loved and followed. Not one person expected what then happened! Matthew wants us to sense the miraculous. An angel rolls back the stone to reveal a tomb already empty. Fear, joy. Jesus is there, physically alive. He commissions them. Jesus meets his "brothers" in Galilee. Some doubt. Jesus says the world has changed. The faltering disciples have a great challenge, to call all people to live in this new reality.

In Romans 5, Paul is reflecting on the astonishing new reality both in relation to the story of Israel and the situation of all humanity. God has come among us in Jesus, Israel's Messiah. We were weak, alienated, enemies, but he took our brokenness, enslavement, even our death on himself in Jesus (5:8). Jesus is not God sending someone else to help us; Jesus is the embodiment of God's own love, God's own self, as one of us, making peace for us, saving us from the consequences (wrath) of our own choices, opening real hope for us.

A Solution Bigger than the Problem of Sin

Paul emphasizes that the Bible's story is never just about Israel. The one God is creator of all. Paul reaches back to the story of Adam (Heb. adam = human, Gk. anthropos), prototype of the human situation. The deep problem is not just breaking the law of Moses, but a broken relationship of distrust, alienation from each other and God. The universal experience of suffering, pain, violence, oppression throughout history, and ultimately death is the marker of that alienation. Individuals, families, societies, governments, religions, philosophies, all share in the reign of violence, pain, suffering, and death.

If it were just a problem of us making mistakes, God might say, "That's ok, I'll give you another chance... and another." But Death reigns. Just think how much human fear and treasure goes into the many ways we both impose death and try to stave off death. But we're all involved -- perpetrators of wrong and pain and victims -- and we all die.

Paul sees that God certainly wanted to call us to justice and love, to better deeds and less mutual destruction, but would not stop there. The law helps us see the depth of our problem, but we still have never solved it. We go through periods of better and worse, but we never break the grip of death, of entropy. God intervenes to assert real hope.

The resurrection of Jesus asserts that God doesn't stop with death. He gives us in Jesus the in breaking of a new kind of life, a new level of creation, a life for us that shares his Life.

Reigning in Life

Jesus says "All authority ... has been given to me." But he uses that authority not to force us but to woo us to his love. We become learners, we are plunged (baptized) into God's own life as his children. We receive God's Spirit to empower transformation on every level of life -- in understanding, in moral life, in love, in physical life, in everything.

Paul says we receive this abundant grace, this sharing already in Jesus' resurrection, so that we may "reign in life" in Jesus. Don't just survive. Share in the love and life of God!

A Week of Death and Life - All comes Together

This is Palm Sunday. In a.d. 30 (1,985 years ago), it was just a work day, crowds were pouring into Jerusalem for Passover. Jesus approached the city. Every action of ‘the prophet’ meant something. He begins the week that changed the world. Events happened - ordinary, wonderful, horrific, impossible - irony, paradox, multiple layers of meaning.

The Gospels lead us through the remembered events as they unfolded - signs, expectation, confrontation, teaching, wonder, love, betrayal, conspiracy, cowardice, denial, injustice, oppression, torture, abandonment, execution, grief, death, disappointment, lost hope. The promising life of a young prophet comes to an understandable end. All play roles.

Everyone has reasons for what they do. But flowing through it all is God’s higher/deeper purpose: the intention of God, anticipated in prophecy, filled with new meaning by Jesus. We’re here today because all the intentions and meanings crash together in these events. God’s purpose is active in all of it, but becomes powerfully visible in Jesus’ resurrection.

In Romans 5, Paul looks at these events through the lens of God’s purpose and sees the changed world. What was the center of it all? Betrayal? Suffering? God’s own love for us! We create the pain and alienation all the time. But here God’s love takes it into himself.

The "We" Factor. The Boasting Factor.

Paul sees "we" in relation to God. No outsiders. No blaming others. We: Jews/Gentiles; of every class/gender/ethnic identity/moral standing/power/culture. We are the ones who mess up our lives, alienate ourselves from each other and God, create power structures of violence, war, oppression. We are caught, trapped in our own sin and brokenness.

But even we can’t stop God’s love. God comes for us, but in a way we couldn’t imagine, not appearing like us but really being one of us - Jesus, Messiah, suffering servant, man, God. Jesus gives himself when we were weak, ungodly, sinners, enemies, with no claim on him. This is fundamental. Most religion has always been us humans trying to be good enough (pure, disciplined, ascetic, moral, ritually rigorous, etc.) to win the favor of the gods/god or break free of the human predicament. The Gospel/Faith is the reverse of religion.

God creates the peace/reconciliation between God and us. By faithfully fulfilling his promises in Jesus, who embodies God’s love and "in his blood" on the cross faithfully takes into God’s self our suffering, sin, and death. In spite of our weakness, God honors our freedom. His faithfulness calls us but does not force us to respond in faith/trust to his love in Jesus. We see that we live in a world touched by the amazing grace of God. We freely respond.

Paul spoke of religious boasting being excluded. But now God gives us a new boast: a deep confidence in the hope he creates, that carries us even through suffering, a confidence that God is true as we see his face in Jesus, Messiah, Lord, creator of reconciliation.

The Present Moment - From Past to Future

We always live in a present moment we sense moving from future to past. But Paul wants us to see how that present is wonderfully opened up by what happened in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Past events of Jesus shape our experience of the present, open the future.

What God has done creates a life of reconciliation, a space of Grace where we stand secure. We are given present resources for dealing with our troubles this moment, for suffering to bring not despair but hope because we are also given the future in God’s Holy Spirit. As we trust in him, we share his life and are safe/saved in Jesus’ own resurrection life.

What happened this week? Everything? God’s love acts for us, calling us into his life.