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Romans – Body vs Soul

Romans 8:1-11

July 10, 2005

1. You remember, I hope, that all the chapter and verse markings in the Bible are artificial – Paul did not write his words as a book, with careful attention to the best way to end one chapter and begin another. Not at all! He wrote it as a letter, which is why we call it Paul’s letter to the Romans. MANY years after Paul wrote – 1200 to 1500 years, to be somewhat less than exact – several churchy types began to tinker with markings that would make it easier to find a certain part of the Bible. One particular man by the name of Robertus Stephanus divided the Bible into chapters and verses, and printed it. Since then, almost every Bible follows his system – which was not well thought-out. The story goes that he did this work while he was riding from one town to another. The year was 1555, so you know that he was not riding in a plane, or a car, or a train, or even a carriage. He was riding a horse. With pen in one hand and Bible in the other. The supposition is that every time the horse’s hooves hit the ground, his pen hit a place on the page and walla! Another chapter, another verse. Some of the divisions make sense, others don’t.

2. All this prologue is to say that, even though the lectionary tells us to begin today with Chapter 8, verse 1, Paul would be a-Paul-ed! He did not intend for there to be a break at this point. He began his thought process several pages back by reminding his readers that God’s grace is what saves them from their sin. God’s grace was shown first by the Law of Moses, but that didn’t work as well as God intended. The Law of Moses, with all its 613 parts, cannot save them; only God’s grace. And God’s grace was most recently (in Paul’s time) exhibited that grace through Jesus. Then he asks the next logical question, a bit tongue in cheek-ish, wondering if they should engage in more sin so they can experience more grace. The answer, of course, is "I don’t think so!" And that leads him into a couple of pages on the difficulty of trying to live a sinless life, since all of us have this horrible tendency to do what we should not do, and not do what we should do. That was the puzzle we worked last week. Is there any hope for us? We stopped reading this part of his letter to the Roman Christians with the words "Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" And off he goes, beginning with what we call the last part of the 27^th verse of the 7^th chapter, continuing through the first third of Chapter 8.

3. Remember that Paul was from Tarsus, which was heavily influenced by Greek culture. The Greek people had a way of dividing everything into two categories, and if something wasn’t in one of those categories, then it was in the other. Either/or, not both/and. Black or white. Earth or heaven. Darkness or light. Flesh or spirit. And they had a way of interpreting these dichotomies as good or bad. So black and darkness and earth and body/flesh all got interpreted as BAD, and white and light and heaven and spirit were interpreted as GOOD. That led to the thought that Jesus could not have been human, because if he were human, he would have a body of flesh and flesh is in the "bad" category. The Church finally got around to saying there is more to the world than these two opposites, and dismissed as heresy any notion that Jesus could not have been fully human. God created dark AND light AND heaven AND earth AND body AND spirit – and said it was ALL good. So please do not get sucked into the old gnostic heresy that leads to hating everything about our bodies and our life on earth because they are opposite from spirit and heaven and therefore must be evil. It’s just not true, so do not let yourself be influenced by it.

4. DO, however, be influenced by the caution revealed in these words. Paul urges us to pay attention to what is happening to our lives, lest we get out of balance and sin takes over. It’s a bit like the little triangle just outside the east doors of the church that is not covered by grass or asphalt or concrete. It’s called, informally, the Friendship Garden, although there is no sign designating it as such. From time to time through the years, it has been lovingly tended. People have spent time and

energy keeping it looking good. But when no one prunes the bushes and waters the trees and flowers, the weeds begin to take over. As it is now, a couple of the bushes reach out and attack those who walk down the sidewalk. The Friendship Garden is no longer a beautiful sight to behold. Someone recently asked me if they could start working in it, taking care of it, and I said "You go, guys!" Hopefully it won’t be long before it looks good again.

5. Those who have decided to follow Jesus tend to spend a lot of time "pulling the weeds" of their lives. They know that if they do not tend to the garden of their minds, plant fruitful or just plain beautiful seedlings, in no time at all their lives will be taken over "weeds" – or sin, as Paul might say. In just a minute we’re going to participate in the baptism of someone who actually decided to follow Jesus some time ago, and now he wants to make it official. In baptism, we participate in Jesus’ death and resurrection. We die to what separates us from God, and receive the waters of news life in Christ. Baptism points us forward to that same Christ who will fulfillGod’s purpose in God’s promised future.

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