Romans 6:1b-11

Romans 6:1b-11 (NRSV)

Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? ² By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? ³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷ For whoever has died is freed from sin. ⁸ But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰ The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹ So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 

            Romans 6:1b-11 has the theme of baptism, sin, death, life, and being “in Christ.” Paul is facing the harsh reality that human beings find it difficult to change. In fact, they may find it difficult to recognize they need to change. Even when they know they must change for their own good, they will not do so. Paul is being the spiritual healer here, offering the divine prescription for what ails humanity. A person asked Socrates why it was that Alcibiades, who was so rich, so brilliant and so able a public official and general, who had traveled so much, and seen so much of the world, was nevertheless such an unhappy man. Socrates replied, “Because wherever he goes Alcibiades takes himself with him.” Such is the plight of each of us. We carry the prison of our past with us wherever we go. We can turn our fight against evil and for good into an evil, as Nel Noddings in Women and Evil points out, “We do evil in the name of some overriding good, usually, paradoxically, the conquest of evil.” W. H. Auden said it well in his poem, Epilogue to The Age of Anxiety:

 

We would rather be ruined than changed,

We would rather die in dread

Than climb the cross of the moment

And let our illusions die.[1]

 

Change does require a moment or event in our lives that stands out from the rest. We need to recognize the power of the self-destructive forces in our lives. A song written by Nicholas Orain Lowe and sung by Johnny Cash sums up the problem we face. The title is, "The Beast In Me."

 

The beast in me

 Is caged by frail and fragile bars

 Restless by day

 And by night rants and rages at the stars

 God help the beast in me

 

 The beast in me

 Has had to learn to live with pain

 And how to shelter from the rain

 And in the twinkling of an eye

 Might have to be restrained

 God help the beast in me

 

 Sometimes it tries to kid me

 That it's just a teddy bear

 And even somehow manage to vanish in the air

 And that is when I must beware

 Of the beast in me that everybody knows

 They've seen him out dressed in my clothes

 Patently unclear

 If it's New York or New Year

 God help the beast in me

 

 The beast in me 

 

Shall we name the beast? We might call it sin. Can we name the event or moment needed in order for change to begin? We might call it conversion.

               In Romans 6:1b-11, Paul begins his discussion of the difference Christ can make in our lives. It will take an event, a moment, in which we separate ourselves from what we are now to what our destiny is in Christ. Obviously, the coming of Christ as the promise of the eschatological destiny of humanity is not fully a reality in the present. Humanity still wrestles with the reality of Adam. Sin and death are realities in Adam (5:12ff). Humanity continues to make the decision Adam did in turning away from God and therefore the source of its life. Adam has become our prison. Humanity is in bondage to sin. The sin of Adam finds a reflection in the sin of each human being. However, participation in eschatological life is a reality for those in Christ. God takes sin seriously, which we can see in the cross. God remains committed to humanity in divine love, which the cross also shows. Christ offers humanity a new possibility.  Christ holds before us the possibility of reconstituting humanity toward eschatological life. Baptism is a sign of the moment or event in our lives that signals our needed transformation. Faith and grace that we find together in baptism unites the believer with Christ. Humanity naturally unites to Adam, but must make a choice to unite with Christ. The believer participates in the fate and destiny of Christ. Participating in the death of Christ releases one from the destiny of humanity in Adam, while participating in the resurrection of Christ unites one with the redeemed and reconciled life of the risen Christ. In this sense, the death of Christ is an expiatory offering, transferring our sin to the innocent Jesus. We have no way to make amends with God for our rebellion. The death of Christ is the offering provided by God that set aside the Old Testament sacrificial system.[2] This fact reminds us of the deep connection between Christian theology and its Jewish context. Humanity cannot liberate itself from sin and death, but union with Christ shifts the focus from our efforts to the power of the risen Christ at work in us. Yet, our today is a life of tension between the pattern set by Adam of turning from God and the pattern set by Christ of turning toward God. Truly, the more graphically we see the depths of human sin, we see the heights to which grace lifts us. Of course, the point of this grace is to liberate us from sin and death. Faith and grace do not lead us to indifference regarding the plight of humanity or the battle each of us face. Far from surrendering to Adam, sin, and death, we look forward with faith to our hoped for transformation because of participation in Christ. The humility of faith will lead to a life devoted to love and virtue. Will and rationality continue to orient us toward Adam, but faith and grace orient us toward Christ and life. Death and life become metaphors for the human struggle. In the cross of Christ, humanity died to sin. Our corporate identity in Adam leads to sin, but our corporate identity in the cross of Christ liberates us from it. Humanity is now the tension between Adam and Christ. Paul can become quite literal here, as baptism into the death of Christ is burial with him, while we unite with the risen Christ so that the course of our lives is now in the context of the newness of resurrected and eschatological life. Christ is a sign of the end or destiny of humanity, while humanity is still on the way. The heart of the ethical reflection of Paul is that the future glory of resurrection life impels one to live in the present in a way that is consistent with and worthy of that future reality. The power of resurrection pressures itself into my existence of sin and death and moves me toward newness of life. Baptism reminds us of who we are. We naturally orient our lives toward Adam, but baptism focuses us upon what we can be through union with Christ. While our present is so little conformed to Christ, we live with the hope of resurrection.[3] Jesus represents humanity in the possibility contained in their death. The Father already links our death to the death of the Son. Yes, his death has an expiatory character. Paul is also discussing the universal vicarious significance of the death of Christ. His death was truly for others. Theologically, this means his death stretches beyond the immediate circle of the friends of Jesus and extends to humanity past, present, and future. His death is for all. Yet, this also means humanity already links to the resurrected life in the resurrection of the Son.[4] We can see the anthropological position of humanity as closed in upon itself in sin and death, while humanity is also open to the world in a way that points toward its fulfillment beyond death.[5] The Christian life becomes a process of dying with Christ and experiencing resurrected life with Christ. Baptism anticipates the whole course of human life. Baptism is a sign that the believer no longer belongs to self, but rather belongs to God. This passage is an important witness to the idea that baptism occurs once in our lives. Baptism is present throughout our lives. The moment or event lasts a lifetime. The destiny of our lives is that our new identity in Christ will transform us throughout the course of our lives. As important as the moment or event is for us, it must be a moment that has a continuing transforming influence throughout our lives.  Such change of human life is not easy, and thus the metaphors of death, crucifixion, and resurrection are significant. The well-known tension we find in Paul between Already and Not Yet is present in this passage. Even crucifixion takes time. The death of Adam in us takes time. United with the death and resurrection of Christ, the transition remains incomplete. We await the fullness of faith, hope, and love in the promise of resurrection.

---

[1]  --W.H. Auden, "Epilogue" to The Age  of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclog (Princeton University Press, 2011), 105. 

[2] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume II, 412.

[3] Romans, 196-97.

[4] Systematic Theology Volume II, 350, 427.

[5] Pannenberg, Jesus God and Man, 262.

II Samuel 11:26-12:13a

II Samuel 11:26 – 12:13a

²⁶ When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him. ²⁷ When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son.

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord, ¹ and the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. ² The rich man had very many flocks and herds; ³ but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meager fare, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. ⁴ Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared that for the guest who had come to him.” ⁵ Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; ⁶ he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”

⁷ Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul; ⁸ I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more. ⁹ Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. ¹⁰ Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, for you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. ¹¹ Thus says the Lord: I will raise up trouble against you from within your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this very sun. ¹² For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.” ¹³ David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”  

Year B

July 31-August 6

August 2, 2015

Title: Sin and Redemption

Cross~Wind 

Going deeper

II Samuel 11:1-12:15a is the story of the adultery of David with Bathsheba. The story of David’s adulterous affair with Bathsheba, and the subsequent murder of her husband Uriah, is one of the Bible’s most famous and compelling narratives. In the end, Uriah, the foreigner, keeps himself holier according to Israelite law than does the Israelite king, but it is eventually that very holiness that gets him killed. David then develops a plan that will result in the death of Uriah. Uriah returns to the battlefield, unwittingly serving as the bearer of his own death warrant. Here again, the theme of action and inaction returns in that David effectively murders Uriah without having to lift a finger of his own to accomplish it. He murders Uriah, using Joab as his executioner, and sacrificing other innocent soldiers in the process (11:14-24). When Joab complains that more of his men than Uriah died making sure Uriah would be killed in battle, David even cynically tells Joab not to worry about it because "the sword devours now one and now another" (11:25). We must David off the hook. David owns this sin.  

II Samuel 11:26 – 12:13a

²⁶ When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him. ²⁷ When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. [The reader knows, however, that all of this loss of life is not simply a case of "collateral damage." It is purely and directly David's own doing. David then marries Bathsheba.]  

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord, ¹ and the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. ² The rich man had very many flocks and herds; ³ but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meager fare, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. ⁴ Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared that for the guest who had come to him.” ⁵ Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; ⁶ he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.” [David was angry at the parable Nathan tells of a rich man who stole the dearest lamb of a poor man. Nathan uses a useful type of juridical ploy for occasions when the perpetrator of a crime is also the reigning monarch, for one can find other fictive legal cases in ancient Near Eastern literature. Two very similar examples appear in II Samuel 14 and in the Egyptian tale of the Contendings of Horus and Seth. In II Samuel 14, Joab hires the “wise woman of Tekoa” to present a fictive legal case before David in order to convince him to bring Absalom back to court. His response was fitting for a king. It shows a sense of justice.]

⁷ Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul; ⁸ I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more. ⁹ Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. ¹⁰ Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, for you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. ¹¹ Thus says the Lord: I will raise up trouble against you from within your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this very sun. ¹² For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.” [Thus, Nathan pointed to David as the culprit. The Lord has made him king, yet, he has despised the commandment of the Lord and done evil in the sight of the Lord. Barth will point out the sin of David is that, having arrived at the summit of his life, he has forgotten the Lord whom made him king and brought him to this height.^[1]] ¹³ David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” [To his credit, David confesses his sin. One could argue that in the background of this story is the luxury to which David is now accustomed. While his soldiers are fighting, David is living a slothful life that leads to these terrible actions that break a covenant with God and the people of God. In the context of the biblical tradition regarding David, he is now closer to Saul, and in fact, one could argue that he has done worse than Saul was. This shows that the choice or election of God comes from grace and not from the moral strength of David. In one sense, this story is strange, for the context is the exploits of David after he became king. It has an intrusive element. It becomes an occasion for sin entering through sloth.^[2]] 

Introduction

A member of Cross~Wind UMC gave me an article with the title, “Does Anyone Believe in Sin Anymore?” It refers to the idea of updating the traditional “seven deadly sins,” namely, pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, and sloth. They derive from Pope Gregory in the 500s AD. The article refers to Bishop Gianfranco Girotti as thinking of modern behaviors that can adversely affect people, such as drug abuse, pollution, contributing to the widening divide between rich and poor, excessive wealth, and creating poverty. He refers to the Ten Commandments, but also, one offends God by wrecking the environment, carrying out morally debatable experiments, and so on. The article refers to Mahatma Ghandi drawing up a list of the seven blunders of the world, for the seven deadly social sins, of wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, science without humanity, knowledge without character, politics without principle, commerce without morality, and worship without sacrifice. Arun, his grandson, added number eight, rights without responsibilities.

            A 2008 survey (http://www.greymatterresearch.com/index_files/Sin.htm) of Americans listed several possibilities and asked whether they considered them sins. 

The behaviors a majority of all Americans describe as sinful are: 

· Adultery  81

· Racism  74%

· Using “hard” drugs such as cocaine, heroine, meth, LSD, etc.  65%

· Not saying anything if a cashier gives you too much change back  63%

· Having an abortion  56%

· Homosexual activity or sex  52%

· Not reporting some income on your tax returns  52% 

A number of other behaviors are considered sinful by a significant portion of all Americans, although not a majority.  These are:

· Reading or watching pornography  50%

· Gossip  47%

· Swearing  46%

· Sex before marriage  45,

· Homosexual thoughts  44%

· Sexual thoughts about someone you are not married to  43%

· Doing things as a consumer that harm the environment  41%

· Smoking marijuana  41%

· Getting drunk  41%

· Not taking proper care of your body  35% 

Then there are behaviors that fewer than one-third of all Americans see as sinful: 

· Gambling  30%

· Telling a “little white lie” to avoid hurting someone’s feelings  29%

· Using tobacco  23%

· Not attending church or religious worship services on a regular basis  18%

· Playing the lottery  18%

· Watching an R-rated movie  18%

· Being significantly overweight  17%

· Not giving 10% of your income to a church or charity  16%

· Drinking any alcohol  14%

· Working on Sunday/the Sabbath  14%

· Spanking your child when he/she misbehaves  7%

· Making a lot of money  4%

· Dancing  4% 

            I wonder, however, if the problem is not failure to believe in sin, but failure to envision the possibility of redemption.

            It gratifies me that so many Americans think of racism as a sin. For the percentage to be that high, regardless of political affiliation, racism is sinful.

            Parker Rice and Levi Pettit were members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the University of Oklahoma. The video of their racist sing-a-long gained much press in the early part of 2015. Eventually, the President of the school expelled them, he shut down the fraternity, and the fraternity itself would go through a nationwide examination. Given the circumstances, all of this may well be the best path of action. I do not know the individuals involved, so I am not passing on evaluation of their actions.

            However, I find it striking that Isaac Hill, the president of the Black Student Association at the University told Megyn Kelly that people should forgive the students. His counsel was to fight hate with the power love. Cal Thomas, columnist, was quite right to suggest that the goal of actions by fellow students and especially by the university should have been redemption. Redemption is a harder path to travel, but the destination is to change the thinking of the students.

            We saw this pattern by the church in South Carolina that a horrific murder within its walls. Yet, the members urged forgiveness. As a result, instead of rioting in the street, we saw unified action by the citizens and politicians.

In her article, "The Power of Forgiveness: Why Revenge Doesn't Work," Dr. Judith Orloff writes: "...revenge reduces you to your worst self, puts you on the same level with those spiteful people we claim to abhor."

Now, let us step back and consider a larger issue.

Yes, America has its faults and sins. They flow from its history of connection to Europe. Most of us can list them. Slavery and treatment of the Native American would rate high on the list. Critics will implicate Christianity and white people in these sins.

Such imperfections are there. No one can erase it from the history.

What would redemption look like?

Maybe you would have preachers throughout the country, known as abolitionists, encourage America to abolish slavery. Maybe you would fight a war at great cost in human lives to remove it, and maybe you would work tirelessly for another 100 years to remove racism from any form of respectability. An avowed racist could not receive a majority anywhere in this country.

Yet, the path of revenge will lead to your worst self. You might become like the people you hate. It might lead to riots and violence in the streets, destroying the businesses your community needs to make progress. It might lead to harming relationships with the police, the people you need to protect you from those in the community who wish harm.

Many Americans are quick to label almost anything a “sin,” even if they do not use the word. For some people, the only path to redemption is to agree with them. 

Application

            We need to have conversation about sin, recognizing that sin has many dimensions to it. It may show itself as rebellion. It may also show itself as missing the mark. In essence, we are having that conversation within the church and in culture, even when we do not use the word.

            According to author Theodore Zeldin, such conversations have the power to change our lives. In his book called Conversation^[3] he says that “real conversation catches fire” and changes people. It involves more than sending or receiving information, and it requires that we talk in such a way that we are willing to be changed by the conversation. Zeldin believes that real conversation is at the very root of creativity, and it is even better than laws in helping to change our mind-sets.

            That is what the prophet Nathan discovered. If he had simply delivered God’s anti-adultery law to David, the prophet might have been thrown out on his ear. In a little conversation about a rich man, a poor man and a lamb, Nathan helped David to change both his mind-set and his life.

            “Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits,” observes Theodore Zeldin. “When minds meet, they do not just exchange facts: They transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, engage in new trains of thought. “Conversation doesn’t just reshuffle the cards,” he concludes: “It creates new cards.”

            So, what are the new cards we create when we engage in honest, faithful, nonjudgmental conversation with one another?

            To answer this, let us leave Nathan the prophet and go to Jesus.

            New cards?  

            There is the card of love rather than indifference.

Jesus once had a conversation with a lawyer who knew all about the law of God, and he felt that he was well on his way to eternal life by maintaining the proper boundaries between men and women, priests and Israelites, Jews and Samaritans. The gospel of Luke tells us that the lawyer wants to justify himself and his religious practices, and so he says to Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29). Jesus tells him the story of the Good Samaritan.  

            The card of forgiveness rather than resentment.

How often should I forgive, one wondered, as many as seven times? No, said Jesus, “seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:21-22). 

            The card of righteousness, not self-righteousness.

“Who is righteous?” asked others. It is not the people you might expect, replied Jesus. The righteous are the tax collectors — not the Pharisees — who beat their breasts and confess their sins, trusting in God instead of in themselves (Luke 18:9-14). 

            The card of justice rather than despair.

Should we not just throw in the towel, since there is so much that causes us to lose heart? No, said Jesus, be like the persistent widow who keeps bringing her case to the unjust judge. Justice will come, Jesus promised, so keep on praying to God (Luke 18:1-8). 

            And — to return to David — the card of humility rather than arrogance.

The story of David’s confession and repentance is well-known.  

Conclusion

Left to themselves, people tend to fall into sin — discriminating against others, failing to forgive, showing self-righteousness and giving up. Some of us have walked where David walked in his hour of disobedience.

            The time has come for us to take a stand against sin, as Nathan did. When we make such a move, we will find that the key to a successful intervention is being objective without being callous, being judgmental without being condemning and caring without sentimentality.

With a power given from God, shout "No!" to those who promise you the whole world if you worship them.  Turn instead to the new life of power - love, joy, peace, patience and all the fruits of the Spirit.  In the name of God who knows us, Christ our model, and the Holy Spirit who sustains us.  Amen.

---

[1] (Barth 2004, 1932-67) II.2 [35.2] 381.

[2] (Barth 2004, 1932-67), II.2 [35.2] 381-4 and IV.2 [65.2] 464-7.

[3] (New York: Hidden Spring Books, 2000),