Proper 9 / Pentecost 7 / OT 14
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
-- Romans 7:22-23
It is important to remember that Paul focused on the corporate nature of the faith. Sometimes by speaking about faith only from the perspective of the individual, we miss some of what Paul was saying. For example, by simply altering the pronouns of the passage above, we see how what Paul was saying, using himself as an example, applies to the church community. "For [the church] delights in the law of God in [her] inmost self, but [she] sees in [her] members another law at war with the law of [her] mind and making [her] captive to the law of sin which dwells in [her members]." Reading it that way, does it not remind you of some of the tension between the faith we proclaim as a church and the reality we experience far too often? We want desperately to believe that the way of life that Jesus proclaimed in the gospels expresses who we are as a church. We get angry when people point out the contradictions between what we proclaim and the behavior of our members. Sometimes we are even willing to violate Jesus' commandment of forgiving another member in the name of defending the standards of the church for ourselves. It is difficult for us to be as honest about our church as Paul was about himself.
The result is that we seem to be at war with ourselves. Individuals and whole groups seem to be at war with the gospel that we accept with our minds. Our inability to acknowledge this makes us captive to the law of sin that dwells within us as members of the church. When an individual refuses to acknowledge his or her sin but rather rationalizes and excuses his or her behavior, he or she cannot be healed. Perhaps a major factor in the inability of the churches to be at peace with each other is seen in this same truth. "Wretched [church] that we are! Who will rescue [us] from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with [our] mind [we are] a slave to the law of God, but with [our] flesh [we] are a slave to the law of sin."
-- Romans 7:22-23
It is important to remember that Paul focused on the corporate nature of the faith. Sometimes by speaking about faith only from the perspective of the individual, we miss some of what Paul was saying. For example, by simply altering the pronouns of the passage above, we see how what Paul was saying, using himself as an example, applies to the church community. "For [the church] delights in the law of God in [her] inmost self, but [she] sees in [her] members another law at war with the law of [her] mind and making [her] captive to the law of sin which dwells in [her members]." Reading it that way, does it not remind you of some of the tension between the faith we proclaim as a church and the reality we experience far too often? We want desperately to believe that the way of life that Jesus proclaimed in the gospels expresses who we are as a church. We get angry when people point out the contradictions between what we proclaim and the behavior of our members. Sometimes we are even willing to violate Jesus' commandment of forgiving another member in the name of defending the standards of the church for ourselves. It is difficult for us to be as honest about our church as Paul was about himself.
The result is that we seem to be at war with ourselves. Individuals and whole groups seem to be at war with the gospel that we accept with our minds. Our inability to acknowledge this makes us captive to the law of sin that dwells within us as members of the church. When an individual refuses to acknowledge his or her sin but rather rationalizes and excuses his or her behavior, he or she cannot be healed. Perhaps a major factor in the inability of the churches to be at peace with each other is seen in this same truth. "Wretched [church] that we are! Who will rescue [us] from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with [our] mind [we are] a slave to the law of God, but with [our] flesh [we] are a slave to the law of sin."
