But I Still Sin!
Sermon
I've heard many powerful testimonies by people who had been caught in some awful life which had such a tight grip on them that were unable to shake free, until they gave their lives to Jesus. Like St Paul, from an amazing moment of conversion, their lives completely changed and they suddenly found they no longer needed to swamp themselves in drugs or alcohol or promiscuity, or whatever.
They're brilliant stories, and I usually come away with a feeling of reverent admiration, but also frustration. Frustration because a high percentage of us never have those sorts of problems in the first place and live a much more humdrum existence in which the high life really doesn't feature. Many of us quietly get on with living our ordinary lives in the best way we can, trying to be neighbourly and to help other people out, and avoiding the worst excesses of sin. So we're mostly ordinary people without a background of crime.
This means that it can be much more difficult for us to look back on our lives and show a sudden and complete change from a terrible, criminal life to one of Christian goodness. Many ordinary people have always had lives which approximate to Christian goodness to some extent, so the contrast with a new life is much less apparent.
But it goes even further than that. "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body," says St Paul in today's reading from Romans. And he follows it up by saying, "For sin shall not be your master .....You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness .... For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
My problem is that I still sin! I continue to sin, and I've noticed that the more I try to be godly, the more aware I become of how far I fall short. That's not to say that I shoplift or steal or take drugs or do anything else that might be considered criminal or anti-social. I don't. But then, like most of you, I never have.
If Jesus Christ died to set me free from sin, how come I continue to sin? And if the wages of sin is death, then it would seem that I'm not alone, for the one thing we all have in common on this planet is that we all die. Have we been conned? Did Jesus Christ really take away our sin, or not? And if he did, why do we continue to sin? Or do we somehow fail to take advantage of Jesus Christ's gift of himself on the cross?
It probably doesn't help that the word "sin" means different things to different people, and probably meant something entirely different again to St Paul and the people of his day. There is a large variety of words in the Old Testament which refer to sin and which have a variety of meanings, such as missing the mark, failing to achieve a goal, aggression, breach of covenant, non-action, deviation, folly, and so on. The New Testament takes this background of the idea of sin, and adds some new elements. In the New Testament sin is sometimes seen as a single act, sometimes as a state or condition and sometimes as power. The idea of Jesus as the conqueror of sin appears in almost every book of the New Testament. In the Old Testament only God can deliver people from sin. In the New Testament God actually does deliver people from sin.
The old Jewish idea was that there were Jews and sinners, i.e. everyone else, but Paul refuses to accept this idea. He says that everyone has sinned, and he treats sin not simply as a state or condition, but as THE human condition, and a powerful condition at that. The power of sin lies in the fact that we're so often unable to do what is right even when we want to, because we lack the resources within. We're tempted by our own desires, and more often than not, we give into them. Anyone who has ever tried to lose weight will know exactly what I mean!
What Jesus has done is to give us the inner resources to withstand our own desires, and he's done this through his death on the cross. In that whole episode of the crucifixion, Jesus held firm against all his "natural" human desires. When faced with a situation which is scary and which looks certain to lead to pain, most of us duck out in one way or another. For instance, we may compromise our integrity just a touch, by saying something we don't really believe deep down, or by agreeing with someone just to get them off our backs. Jesus didn't do that. He faced every kind of pain, emotional, mental, physical and spiritual, and still stood his ground. He went forward into pain rather than evading it or avoiding it, and he even allowed himself to physically die rather than compromise his integrity in the tiniest degree. Because he was able to do that, the inevitable result was resurrection and an amazing new life. So although he died, he rose to a brilliant, transformed, radiant life which we can barely even begin to imagine.
That action on the cross opened the way for all of us to follow. With his strength within us, he made it possible for us to stand firm in every situation. And moreover, whenever we manage to stand firm in the face of fear and danger and pain, whether physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, we too experience resurrection and new life. Things begin to change for us.
But this doesn't happen all at once. It's not a question of one day I'm a sinner and the next I'm a Christian and standing firm in the face of every kind of pain. It's more a question of process. Once I become a Christian, I gradually learn to trust the God within - my basic instincts - and I'm gradually able to stand firm against first this temptation, then that one. And each time I do stand firm, I experience another little bit of resurrection, another little bit of new life, another little bit of growth towards God. Gradually my personal fears are overcome. Gradually I become more holy, more like Jesus. And of course, each of us has a different path to take, for each of us has different personal fears.
Some may fear standing up for themselves before the boss. Some may fear a violent relationship and so allow themselves to be victimised. Some may fear the loss of a spouse or a close relationship, and so refuse to tell the exact truth. Some may have physical terrors, and go out of their way to avoid them - such as fear of flying. Some may long to be slender, but be unable to resist the comfort that food brings. Some may fear who they really are deep inside, and so develop a kind of holy mask which hides their inner being.
All of these things and many others you can think of for yourselves, come under the heading of sin, because they are the human condition. That's what we're all like. And you'll have noticed that all of these things are more about pain and the avoidance of pain than they are about guilt. Sin hurts. It hurts us because it denies us the opportunity to become the wonderful, brilliant people we were always intended to be, and keeps us turned in upon ourselves, miserable, unable to do what we want to do.
But Jesus overcame sin for us, and all we have to do to become brilliant, wonderful people, is to follow his lead and face the fear, remembering that nothing is going to happen overnight because it's a process, and nothing is going to be pain-free. Following Jesus is a painful business, but with his help, can be achieved. And once you begin the process of growing, you'd be surprised how exciting it is. And every time we manage to grow a little, we're beginning to experience a little more eternal life, so that after our physical death, we're well on the way to appreciating to the full that amazing new life God offers us. Sadly, the reverse of that is also true; that those who don't grow at all in this life may find themselves unable to appreciate the amazing new life that God offers, and so at their physical death, may simply die.
St Paul put it like this: "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
It's up to each one of us. We can choose, if we wish, to say "no" to sin, "no" to fear, and take hold of that gift for ourselves.
They're brilliant stories, and I usually come away with a feeling of reverent admiration, but also frustration. Frustration because a high percentage of us never have those sorts of problems in the first place and live a much more humdrum existence in which the high life really doesn't feature. Many of us quietly get on with living our ordinary lives in the best way we can, trying to be neighbourly and to help other people out, and avoiding the worst excesses of sin. So we're mostly ordinary people without a background of crime.
This means that it can be much more difficult for us to look back on our lives and show a sudden and complete change from a terrible, criminal life to one of Christian goodness. Many ordinary people have always had lives which approximate to Christian goodness to some extent, so the contrast with a new life is much less apparent.
But it goes even further than that. "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body," says St Paul in today's reading from Romans. And he follows it up by saying, "For sin shall not be your master .....You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness .... For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
My problem is that I still sin! I continue to sin, and I've noticed that the more I try to be godly, the more aware I become of how far I fall short. That's not to say that I shoplift or steal or take drugs or do anything else that might be considered criminal or anti-social. I don't. But then, like most of you, I never have.
If Jesus Christ died to set me free from sin, how come I continue to sin? And if the wages of sin is death, then it would seem that I'm not alone, for the one thing we all have in common on this planet is that we all die. Have we been conned? Did Jesus Christ really take away our sin, or not? And if he did, why do we continue to sin? Or do we somehow fail to take advantage of Jesus Christ's gift of himself on the cross?
It probably doesn't help that the word "sin" means different things to different people, and probably meant something entirely different again to St Paul and the people of his day. There is a large variety of words in the Old Testament which refer to sin and which have a variety of meanings, such as missing the mark, failing to achieve a goal, aggression, breach of covenant, non-action, deviation, folly, and so on. The New Testament takes this background of the idea of sin, and adds some new elements. In the New Testament sin is sometimes seen as a single act, sometimes as a state or condition and sometimes as power. The idea of Jesus as the conqueror of sin appears in almost every book of the New Testament. In the Old Testament only God can deliver people from sin. In the New Testament God actually does deliver people from sin.
The old Jewish idea was that there were Jews and sinners, i.e. everyone else, but Paul refuses to accept this idea. He says that everyone has sinned, and he treats sin not simply as a state or condition, but as THE human condition, and a powerful condition at that. The power of sin lies in the fact that we're so often unable to do what is right even when we want to, because we lack the resources within. We're tempted by our own desires, and more often than not, we give into them. Anyone who has ever tried to lose weight will know exactly what I mean!
What Jesus has done is to give us the inner resources to withstand our own desires, and he's done this through his death on the cross. In that whole episode of the crucifixion, Jesus held firm against all his "natural" human desires. When faced with a situation which is scary and which looks certain to lead to pain, most of us duck out in one way or another. For instance, we may compromise our integrity just a touch, by saying something we don't really believe deep down, or by agreeing with someone just to get them off our backs. Jesus didn't do that. He faced every kind of pain, emotional, mental, physical and spiritual, and still stood his ground. He went forward into pain rather than evading it or avoiding it, and he even allowed himself to physically die rather than compromise his integrity in the tiniest degree. Because he was able to do that, the inevitable result was resurrection and an amazing new life. So although he died, he rose to a brilliant, transformed, radiant life which we can barely even begin to imagine.
That action on the cross opened the way for all of us to follow. With his strength within us, he made it possible for us to stand firm in every situation. And moreover, whenever we manage to stand firm in the face of fear and danger and pain, whether physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, we too experience resurrection and new life. Things begin to change for us.
But this doesn't happen all at once. It's not a question of one day I'm a sinner and the next I'm a Christian and standing firm in the face of every kind of pain. It's more a question of process. Once I become a Christian, I gradually learn to trust the God within - my basic instincts - and I'm gradually able to stand firm against first this temptation, then that one. And each time I do stand firm, I experience another little bit of resurrection, another little bit of new life, another little bit of growth towards God. Gradually my personal fears are overcome. Gradually I become more holy, more like Jesus. And of course, each of us has a different path to take, for each of us has different personal fears.
Some may fear standing up for themselves before the boss. Some may fear a violent relationship and so allow themselves to be victimised. Some may fear the loss of a spouse or a close relationship, and so refuse to tell the exact truth. Some may have physical terrors, and go out of their way to avoid them - such as fear of flying. Some may long to be slender, but be unable to resist the comfort that food brings. Some may fear who they really are deep inside, and so develop a kind of holy mask which hides their inner being.
All of these things and many others you can think of for yourselves, come under the heading of sin, because they are the human condition. That's what we're all like. And you'll have noticed that all of these things are more about pain and the avoidance of pain than they are about guilt. Sin hurts. It hurts us because it denies us the opportunity to become the wonderful, brilliant people we were always intended to be, and keeps us turned in upon ourselves, miserable, unable to do what we want to do.
But Jesus overcame sin for us, and all we have to do to become brilliant, wonderful people, is to follow his lead and face the fear, remembering that nothing is going to happen overnight because it's a process, and nothing is going to be pain-free. Following Jesus is a painful business, but with his help, can be achieved. And once you begin the process of growing, you'd be surprised how exciting it is. And every time we manage to grow a little, we're beginning to experience a little more eternal life, so that after our physical death, we're well on the way to appreciating to the full that amazing new life God offers us. Sadly, the reverse of that is also true; that those who don't grow at all in this life may find themselves unable to appreciate the amazing new life that God offers, and so at their physical death, may simply die.
St Paul put it like this: "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
It's up to each one of us. We can choose, if we wish, to say "no" to sin, "no" to fear, and take hold of that gift for ourselves.
