Looking Ahead to July 5, 2020

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Romans 7:15-25
• Matthew 11:27-30

The Sermon Title is Why Do I keep Doing That?

Early Thoughts: The devil made me do it? Force of habit? Can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Or maybe we really don't want to change?

Paul believes, and wants his readers to believe, that becoming a follower of Christ opens us up to be transformed. Paul is realistic enough to know that this transformation is not an instant thing. Paul knows that there is a part of us that leads us to do the things we know we should not. In fact Paul give this part of us a great deal of power. Later theologians, from Augustine onward, will talk about Original Sin as a condition that afflicts all of humanity. Calvin and those who follow him will talk about Total Depravity as a condition that is at the root of our human nature.

I am ambivalent on Original Sin and Total Depravity. Ambivalent because I also remember an original blessing, that humanity is created in the image of God and called Good. I would like to (and many days do) believe that we are capable of doing the Good that we want to do and avoiding the Bad we do not want to do.

But at the same time I have to admit that Paul hits a nerve here. We all have those times when we do the things we hate, and do not do the things we want to do. For Paul this is part of his argument of Law over Grace (and tends to lead into a problematic argument about flesh over spirit). I am not going to get into that right now. But for Paul the life of following Christ is about being received and saved through grace and transformed. And for me, in that transformation is where we are able to make different choices.

Still it is hard. We humans are creatures of habit and routine. Often we may benefit from those things we do that we know we really shouldn't. And so to make different choices, to allow ourselves to be transformed and make different choices, may come at a cost. Or maybe the habit and routine is so ingrained that is has become automatic, something we don't think about or even realize we are doing. Allowing ourselves to be transformed to act differently takes intention and effort and energy.

But here is the promise of Grace. We are not trying to transform ourselves. We are not asked to transform ourselves. We are invited to open ourselves up and let God transform us. Sometimes God may transform our hearts and thoughts and actions will flow from that. Sometimes God asks us to act as if we have been transformed and as new habits re formed our hearts and minds are changed. God is at work transforming us as individuals and as communities -- if we will let God do it. That is what happens when we take on the yoke of Christ.

And just maybe the burden will be lighter and the task easier than we fear.

--Gord