A Sermon Inspired by Romans 8:12-25
Sermon 2 in “Nothing Shall Separate Us” Sermon Series
About a year ago, the new album “Own It” by Christian singer
Francesca Battistelli starting making it into my regularly repeated music playlists
while I would drive to different meetings or drive to visit church members at
their homes or in the hospital. I would sing about breaking up with fear and
choosing courage in faith. I would sing that God’s love is as good as it gets
in life, so I would choose to trust Him even in the storms of life. But, there
was this one song that even as I sang along made me wonder really about the
nature of our life as children of God. The song is called “Royalty,” and, as I
prayed over this morning’s Scripture and my sermon, this song came to mind once
again.
Read these lyrics:
“No
longer orphans, now sons and daughters
Worthy
and wanted, we belong
We are,
we are, we are
Crowned in dignity
We are,
we are, we are
Heirs to majesty
We’re
made for victory
We’re
given authority
To reign
like kings and queens
We’re royalty”
Even though I love the intention behind Francesca’s words,
there was just something that didn’t quite sit right with me about the royalty language.
I mean, history is full of examples of kings and queens who misused their power
and abused the responsibility entrusted to them for their own pleasure or
personal gain. When told that her French subjects had no bread to eat, Queen
Marie Antoinette responded callously, “Let them eat cake,” and the French
revolution and uprising against the monarchy was sparked. King Henry VIII of England
changed the religion of his whole country so that he could divorce his first wife
to marry another woman. Even King Herod of Israel, in a desperate attempt to
hold onto his power, ordered that thousands of Jewish infants and toddlers be slaughtered
so that he might kill the baby who had been born to grow up and be the King of
the Jews. Certainly, we aren’t made to be kings and queens of God who live like
that. Our adoption as God’s children and our freedom in Christ must be for
something different!
Paul writes that we are God’s heirs, along with Christ, so that
we will suffer and be glorified just as Christ suffered and was glorified. I
think we get into trouble when we want to skip past the suffer part and get
straight to the glory part, straight to being kings and queens in God’s kingdom
without learning how to be suffering servants like Christ. But, of course, it’s
natural to want to skip past suffering. But that’s just not the life of
discipleship. That’s not life in the Spirit of God.
As we read about our new found freedom in Christ and our
promised inheritance as the children of God, we would do good to remember the
life, ministry, death, and resurrection of the one in whose suffering and glory
we share.
Jesus was born to an unwed teenage mother. I imagine, as he
grew up in Nazareth, there where whispers all around as he walked in the marketplace,
“You see Jesus…he’s Mary son. No one know who his real father is, but it sure
isn’t Joseph.”
Because of King Herod’s murderous plot, Jesus’ family was
forced to flee and seek refuge in Egypt for several years until it was safe to
come back to their homeland.
At his baptism, Jesus was proclaimed to be God’s son, yet he
was immediately driven by the Spirit of God into the desert to fast and pray
for forty days and be tempted by Satan.
The same Jesus who was marked as God’s son by the Spirit at
baptism cried out “Abba, Father” in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying for deliverance
from the pain and death he was about to experience.
As he died on the cross, a centurion, the Roman solider
carrying out the state-sanctioned execution, looked at the suffering Christ and
remarked, “Surely, this man was God’s son!”
And, proving his faithfulness endures forever, God raised Jesus
from the dead through the power of a father’s love for his son.
As the adopted children of God, we are called to see Jesus
whenever and wherever there are suffering people in this world.
We see Jesus in the face of teenage mothers.
We see Jesus in the weary eyes of refugees fleeing their
war-torn homes to seek safety in our country only to be separated from their
children and locked in cages.
We see Jesus in the bone-tiredness of those living in
wilderness moments of life, when all they need is a little food and water and
help.
We see Jesus in those who feel like there is no hope left in
life and who wonder if the only way out of their suffering is to end it all.
We see Jesus in our brothers and sisters in prison,
especially those who the state has condemned to die, including the three men
executed by the federal government in the past seven days.
In Daniel, who maintained his innocence and wrongful
conviction even up to the last moment before his execution by lethal injection
and whose family was not allowed to be present with him as he died.
In Wesley, who was 68-years old, severely brain-damaged and mentally
ill, suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
In Dustin, who converted to Christianity during his time in
prison, who recognized and repented for the crimes he committed, who was seeking
to live a redeemed life through Christ in prison caring with kindness for
guards and fellow inmates.
We so often want to skip past the ugliness of suffering and
get straight to the resurrection and glory parts of our inheritance as God’s
children. But, if we follow a Savior who overcame sin and pain and death, we
can’t look past the sin and pain and death happening in the world around us. We
can’t look past even the sin and pain and death we find in us.
Last week, we talked about the power of sin in our lives. That
sometimes, even when we want to do the right thing, we just can’t seem to do
it. We discovered that the antidote for our sin-soaked lives is the rain of God’s
grace, the floodwaters of baptism that drown out the power of sin. By the Spirit
at work in our lives and the grace of Jesus Christ, we can actually be set free
from sin to live as disciples of Jesus. Paul calls this our glorious freedom as
the children of God.
Freedom is a concept I think we struggle understanding as
Christians, especially as Christians living in America. We claim freedom for
all sorts of things. The Bill of Rights names freedoms that should be protected
for citizens of the US—the freedom to speak our minds, the freedom to practice
the religious of our choice, the freedom to bear arms, the freedom to own property,
the freedom to vote. These can all be good freedoms, and I believe they are
rightly protected as essential freedoms in our nation.
But these are not the sorts of freedoms Paul has in mind when
he writes about the glorious freedom of the children of God. Let’s go back to
where we started reading this morning, at verse 12: “So then, brothers and sisters,
we have an obligation.” Obligation is not the word that comes to my mind when I
imagine freedom, at least not in the ways we talk about freedom as Americans.
So often, when we talk about freedom in the US, it’s usually a
freedom based on our own personal desire – “I’m free to do as I please.” Or it’s
an excuse for our decisions and actions – “Hey! It’s a free country, right?”
But, when it comes to freedom in Christ, Paul is making a
different argument. Through the forgiveness we have received by Jesus’
sacrifice on the cross, we are free to choose to live lives shaped by obedience
to the Spirit of God, just as Jesus did. In fact, we are free to choose
suffering, to give up our American concept of freedom as self-determination, and
for the glory of God to make choices that benefit our neighbor, rather than to fulfill
our selfish desires.
Friends, if the posts I have seen on social media in the past
three months truly reflect the hearts and minds of Tennesseans, then we are in
trouble! I’ve read all sorts of posts that talk about personal freedom during
this pandemic…the freedom to NOT wear a mask, the freedom to gather for worship
even if it isn’t safe, the freedom to do as you please because “Hey, it’s a
free country!”
That may be true, but you, child of God, you have been
adopted by the Spirit into a different type of freedom.
You have been adopted into a freedom that puts on a mask whenever
you step into public places and remembers these words of Scripture: “But in
humility, consider others as more important than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3)
You have been adopted into a freedom that honors another
person’s worry or fear that causes them to not come to in-person worship and
treats them with love rather than contempt because you remember these words from
Scripture: “Watch out or else this freedom of yours might be a problem for
those who are weak.” (1st Corinthians 8:9)
You have been adopted into a freedom that chooses to stay
home and to follow whatever other measures public health officials and medical
experts recommend to slow the spread of this novel coronavirus as you remember
these words of Scripture: “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one
command: love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14).
Y’all, when we refuse to make these sacrifices to help end
this pandemic, our human sin and selfishness is on display for the world to
see. The CDC director Robert Redfield said just this past week that if everyone
in the US wore a mask, the coronavirus pandemic could be under control within
four to eight weeks.
Church, if we want to show the world our love for God and our
love for neighbor, THE TIME IS NOW! We need to embrace these sacrifices and lead
by example. I’m already proud to share that members of our return task team
have set us up for success in returning to church under the safest circumstances
possible. And members of our church have shared with me that our neighbors are
noticing, and some plan to visit our worship service when they feel comfortable
because of how seriously and thoughtfully we are handling the pandemic. Wow!
This is how we love our neighbors.
I’m proud that we, as a church, are taking on a huge endeavor
to support our teachers and our students by donating cleaning supplies and school
supplies, to save teachers a little of what they would spend out of their own
pockets to buy what the school and some families can’t afford to provide. What
a witness to show our commitment to
build the kingdom of God in our community!
By the Spirit of Christ living in us, we are free to choose to
live cross-shaped lives.
A cross-shaped life chooses good for the sake of the other
rather than for the sake of the self.
A cross-shaped life lay down its own freedom in order to
offer freely the good news of the Gospel.
A cross-shaped life remembers that the coming glory of God’s
kingdom will outshine the present suffering of our lives and creation so we can
endure with hope and we can wait with patience.
Even creation is waiting for us, children of God, to usher in
God’s kingdom through our cross-shaped living.
This is the hope of our inheritance, friends: the God who was
faithful to raise Christ to life again after he was obedient to death by the
cross, that same God will be faithful to us and will glorify us.
So may we use our freedom in Christ to submit ourselves to
obedience in the Spirit and choose to live a cross-shaped life full of the love
for God and for neighbor.
May it be so, and may it be soon.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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