Introduction
Ever since I was a child I have enjoyed reading books or seeing films that deal with the cosmic battle between Good and Evil. I first read the Tolkein's Lord of the Rings when I was 11 and saw Star Wars at about the same time. There is something in these works which speak of a more universal theme that we all recognise - however faintly. Nowadays a whole new generation has been introduced to this theme through the film of the Lord of the Rings, through new episodes in the Star Wars series, through our friend Buffy and her vampires as well as through some of the storylines in Star Trek.
Paul on Good and Evil
When I became a committed Christian in my teens I was interested to see that this theme of the struggle between good and evil was at the centre of the Christian way of looking at the world. In our reading today from Paul's great letter to the Roman Church we see him play out this theme.
Paul contrasts those who live, as he puts it, according to the flesh and those who live according to the Spirit. To "live according to the flesh", for Paul, is about looking at things from the point of view of the world. It is about having a mind which is focused on rebellion from God. Human nature is vulnerable to temptation and sin. Paul sees that humanity, time and time again gives in to evil because it is in rebellion to God. Christians, Paul says, live "in the spirit", or from God's point of view.
The battle between good and evil then is not between Gandalf and Sauron, or between Luke Skywalker and the Emperor and Darth Vader, but between living according to the values and temptations of the world or living according to the values of the Realm of God.
How Do We Live According to the Spirit?
There is an all
pervasive myth in our country about what it is to be a Christian. People, even
some Christians, seem to mistake being a Christian with being nice. They confuse
living according to God's values and middle class morals! We wonder what it is
to live according to the Spirit and end up thinking it is about doing good
things. This approach misses something, and the thing it misses is the Christian
idea of salvation.
Paul says: "The mind of the sinful is death, but the mind
controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God.
It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so."
What Paul means is that, before we come to know Jesus, we cannot obey the dictates of God's law, because our minds are fixed on the values and ideas of the world - values which, ultimately, lead to death. We are saved, or liberated from these values and this destiny through Jesus.
MCC teaches that we are saved from "loneliness, degradation and despair" though the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. Humanity without God is fundamentally lonely. It has nothing to look forward to and very little hope of making sense of the world. We were created in order to worship and glorify God - if we don't know God we will never fulfil the purpose for which we were made. Living without God and according to the values of the world means we experience degradation - we stumble around in the gloom trying to make moral decisions, trying to make sense of our lives and failing. We see the result of this with scientific claims around cloned babies, bombs that can kill and maim, disputes over power, land and oil. All this is about the degradation of humanity and it leads to despair.
Paul, however, knows and teaches the answer to this loneliness, degradation and despair. God did not abandon us when humanity was in rebellion but, instead, saved us.
Atonement
The theological word for being saved from this loneliness, degradation and despair is "atonement" and means, literally "at-one-ment". It is a word designed to show that the result of Jesus death on the cross was being made one with God. The theologians puzzle over how the death of Jesus on the cross actually means we can be made one with God. Some go to great lengths to try to explain it, others say that Christianity, and Christian theology, is not a puzzle to be solved but a mystery to be experienced. This view is certainly my own. What Christians do agree on, however, is that in order to receive the forgiveness that God offers us, we have to do certain things. In order to align ourselves to the forces of good in the universe, we have to take certain steps.
First, we have to recognise that we are fallen, that without God we are in rebellion and can never know our true purpose.
Second, we have to recognise that we cannot help ourselves out of this mess. Just as an addict is not able to free herself from her addictions, so a human is not able to free himself from the sin that keeps him doing evil.
Third, we recognise that on the cross, Jesus took all our guilt, all our shame, all our addictions away.
Fourth, we ask God into our lives, to forgive us, to heal us and to lead us.
Fifth, and this is the most difficult bit, we pledge ourselves to be a faithful disciple of Jesus - following his life and ministry, and making his message known to our generation.
Discipleship
Paul starts the passage we heard today with the assertion that the "upright find life through faith". Faith is about trusting completely. I have faith, or trust, that Ian loves me, and faith, or trust, that our relationship can take whatever is thrown at it. I have faith, or trust, in the call God gave me to work as a minister in MCC. I have faith, or trust, that God exists and loves me and wants the best for me.
By faith, or by trust, we live as disciples of Jesus. By faith we live aligning ourselves to the cause of good in the universe, and turning our backs on the evil that is present in our world. This is most dramatically symbolised in the baptism service - those who were here a few months ago when we baptised Andy, heard him say that he turned to Jesus and away from evil.
* When we live by
faith we trust that Jesus has the answers.
* When we live by faith we trust
that there is a purpose to our lives and that, through prayer and discernment,
we can discover it.
* When we live by faith we know that nothing can separate
us from God's love.
* When we live by faith we know that, in the end, all
shall be well for us.
Hope
Paul ends his passage with a great hymn of hope. He asserts that nothing can separate us from the love of God made known in Jesus. If I were to put this into modern language I might write:
What then, shall we say in response to those who laugh at our faith and put us down? If God is for us, who can be against? God who did not spare Jesus? Who will bring any charge or complaint against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies, what right have the fundamentalists to condemn? Who is it, then, that condemns? Jesus, who died - more than that- who was raised to life? Who shall separate us from the love of Jesus?
Shall trouble, or hardship, or illness, or persecution from those who think they know God? Shall the commercial scene with all its false values separate us from Jesus? Shall waspish queens who cannot see past their own pain? No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, not the fundamentalists, nor the scene, neither angels or demons, neither the present nor the uncertain future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus our Lord.
Prayer
Loving
God,
Help us to live by faith.
Help us to trust in you - for our present,
especially when things seem difficult, for our future, especially when the world
seems to want to rush headlong into war.
Help us to trust in you when others
try to separate us from you; help us to keep strong when fundamentalists tell us
we can't be your followers, help us to respond with good humour when people from
our community tell us we can't be your followers, and help us when we,
ourselves, doubt this.
Help us as we seek to grow and live as your
disciples,
Now and always,
Amen.
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.