"Spirit Led
"
Strengthening the core through the Spirit
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Text: Romans 8:1-17
A few weeks ago, I went into an electronics store to purchase a rather small item. When I told the clerk which product I had chosen, out of the blue he presented me with a sheet of paper listing various warranty options.
Option number one was to pay small additional amount for an extended three-year warranty. If the item broke during that period, I would have to pay a small amount to have the item fixed. Option two was to buy an outlandishly expensive warranty - about a third of the cost of the product itself, I might add. This would give me full coverage for three years, with no deductible. Option three, and one that was highly discouraged, was not buying any warranty at all -simply hoping the thing lasts beyond the three months for which it is automatically covered, and that they never see me again!
I thought about this for a moment, and not being rude, I said to the clerk, “You told me I was buying a very, very good product, and that it was extremely reliable and well-made. Why is it that you are trying to sell me a warranty for this thing that is probably going to destruct after three months? Is this not an indictment of the quality of the product itself”
Well, the poor clerk went bright red.
“No one has ever asked me that before,” he said. He looked down, almost shaken.
I couldn't help but think how we are given all these options in life: take this box; take that box; get this warranty; get this particular item. Very often, it becomes confusing. Who knows if I made the right decision? I took option number three and didn't buy a warranty. Knowing my luck, the item will probably last three months and two days!
I often wonder why everything is pushed at us in this way. We live with a plethora of options, and we are never quite sure which ones to choose. I think the same thing applies to religion, and most people's understanding of God and his guidance. We have all these options. I am not talking now about different religions, I am talking about an attitude toward God and faith in its entirety. In our society, I think the average person feels there are two option boxes and they need to tick off one or the other.
The first option is to not believe a higher power exists. If there is a higher power, it has no dealing with humanity whatsoever. Under option one, you basically live your life according to your own desires, do your own thing and live a life of self-interest. You worship the god of pleasure and whatever makes you feel good. If you do good things for someone else, then you had better hope you are going to receive accolades or a reward for doing it. Whatever you do, avoid people who are particularly religious, because staying away from them can actually make you feel a whole lot better about living according to your own desires. The Apostle Paul, in the Book of Romans, called this “living by the flesh.”
The second option means believing that there is a higher power that has given us a series of laws and rules that enable us to live our lives. There are boundaries, and if we live within them, then we will earn God's blessing and love. I like to term those who follow option two the “über-righteous.” Basically, they worship a God they fear, who makes them feel better knowing they have lived within these guidelines. It all rests on their shoulders as to whether they are in good standing with God. Most of all - whatever you do - stay away from people who have picked option number one, because they will lead you astray!
That, I believe, is what the Apostle Paul calls, “those who live according to the law.” The problem with both those who tick off option one and those who tick off option two, according to Paul, is that they live in a state of bondage and tyranny. They are not as free as they think they are.
For example, those who choose option one are in bondage to the law of sin and death. Like Voltaire said of the English, “They think they are free, but everywhere they are in chains.” So it is for those who live “according to the flesh.” Their minds are driven by impulses and desires that do not always produce good, but rather follow lust, greed, envy and pride. They are constrained by the desire to impress others either with their goodness or with what they have accumulated, and they feel a need to demonstrate this power over one another. Those who live “according to the flesh” are not free at all: They are in chains to their own flesh, sin and human nature.
Those who tick off option two are also in bondage. Paul called them “in bondage to the law.” By the law, he didn't mean the Torah of the Old Testament, per se. He meant legalism: The desire to impress God by your own works; to show that you are living inside the lines, following the law and doing the right thing. Paul often suggested that such a life leads to self-righteousness and self-justification, where in order to feel you have pleased God, you have to give a list of all the laws you have obeyed and all the things that you have done.
Paul said at one point, “Hey, of all such people who follow this option, I was perhaps the greatest, but I still lived in tyranny; I still lived under a spirit of condemnation and fear that I wasn't living up to the law and appeasing God.”
To Paul, both options involve bondage.
Paul saw a third option, which came alive in the church during the Reformation in the 16th century. The likes of Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and Knox realized that the religion of their day was one of legalism. The general population lived “according to the flesh,” just as in the Rome of Paul's day people lived according to their own desires and worshipped their own gods, either in a Greek or Roman form. Likewise, the religion of Paul's day, which stressed extreme dedication and diligence in following religious rituals and leaders was also manifesting itself in the church in the 16th century. People lived more in fear of God than love of God; more in fear of the law and religious leaders than in the freedom and the hope of the Christian faith. They lived according to what Romans, Chapter 8 calls, “the cathedral of the Old Testament.” For the Apostle Paul, the third option is life in the Spirit - being Spirit-led - which alters radically the understanding of how we follow God.
Bob Mumford, who was a minister in Toronto, Prince Edward Island and elsewhere, told a story about his trip to Italy. He visited a port that was very dangerous and hard for ships to enter because you could easily crash on the rocks. They solved this problem by placing three lights along the coast as you entered the harbour. Once a ship's captain found that all three were lined up, he could follow that path and get safely into the port.
I think the Reformers understood that one of those lights was missing in the church. The first light is the normal circumstances of life and the second is the word of God, but there is the third light: The Spirit of the living God who guides us in this life. Paul said those who are led by the Spirit of God are no longer under the law, for they are no longer constrained by the power of the flesh. Options one and two become almost irrelevant in the light of living in the Spirit.
It is not as if this path is a middle way between the other two; it is like a highway that goes over both of them. It is God's will and intention that his people live according to the power of the Spirit. Paul puts it this way: “For those who live by the spirit of God, they become (and I love this phrase) the children of God.”
And so I ask myself, what does this life in the freedom of the Spirit really look like? What is it that we need people to grasp as the true meaning and power of faithful living?
There is a wonderful book, The Slow and Certain Light, by Elisabeth Elliott. In it, she talks about living on the east side of the Andes. Backpackers and trekkers often came to her house before ascending into the mountains. Many people came asking her for a map or compass - one group asked for both - so they could walk through the Andes safely. She talked to them and tried to befriend them but they dismissed her, stressing that all they needed was the map and the compass and they would find their way through the Andes.
Elliott wrote:
Off they went, with just a map and a compass in one of the most dangerous terrains on earth. Often, our relationship with God is just like those people: We come, we ask for a map and a compass and that is all. We don't ask enough from God. That is all we think we need. If only they had asked me one more question, I could have made their lives so much better. If only these people who were trekking through the mountains had said to me, ”˜Will you come with us and be our guide?' I would have ensured they got there safely. Well, I worried about them with just a map and a compass.
It is like that with the law. The law is a map and a compass. But if that is all there is, then we are missing the greatest gift; we are missing a guide to go with us. We are missing the Spirit of the living God. Martin Luther said, “You can have all your religion, all your power, all your wonderful sacraments, all the robes, all the outward trappings of religion, but if you do not have the Word of God, and with the Word of God the power of the Spirit, you have nothing!”
In his treatise on Christian freedom, he wrote, “It is precisely having that guide in life that makes all the difference. You walk with God.” And he is right!
What does living by the Spirit look like? John Calvin, another great Reformer said, “The first thing it looks like is that there is now no longer condemnation for us.” We are not condemned if we stray from one minor part of the law. Therefore, there is no continuous fear of having somehow moved outside the lines. Nor is there, and this is significant, the power of sin and death over us. No longer do we live in fear of God; we live under the banner of God's grace. No longer do we wonder if every move we make is within the lines; we acknowledge that by the power and grace of Jesus Christ and his Spirit we are free from fear, bondage and tyranny. No longer are we constrained by the power of desire or need to please; instead, we are enveloped in the grace and love of God.
Nowhere is this clearer than when Paul says, “When we walk and are led by the Spirit of God, we are adopted as the children of God.” This is not just a God of legalism; this is a God who we call Abba - father. This is a God with whom we now have a living, vibrant relationship. In The Institutes, Calvin goes so far as to write, “But it is right to observe that the working of the Spirit is various, but that which the Lord favours, his elect, his children, causes us to be separated from himself in freedom.”
A few days ago, I was following a student driver. You could tell young woman was a student by the way her hands gripped the steering wheel and the look of fear and terror on her face. I was getting a little aggravated with her and wanted to honk my horn to get her out of the way, but I realized this would terrorize her. So I was a gentleman and drove around her very gently. I did, however, accelerate and blow dust in the windshield. But I thought about her for a moment, and recalled the first time I drove, and the first time my father lent me his car.
I remembered how wonderful it was when my father handed me the keys and said, “Son, here is the car. You are now on your own.” What a feeling! Remember that first drive? Well, as I drove down the road, all that flashed through my mind was that the manual said that car could go from 0 to 60 mph in seven seconds and had a top speed of a 112 mph. I though, “I am alone in the car and am going to find out if this is true!”
As I drove down the road thinking, “I am free now, no one is watching to make sure I am doing it right, I can do what I want,” suddenly something came over me: This isn't my car; it's my father's car. My father was gracious and kind enough to let me have it, he trusted me enough to let me drive it on my own. So I drove it gently. It was full of gas. I went to Fredericton, New Brunswick and back - a lovely hour's drive - didn't break any speed records, came up the driveway and handed the keys to my father who was looking a wee bit anxious. I thought about this afterwards. Do you know why I drove this car so gently? It was because, of all the people in the world, the person I loved and respected most was my father.
I think that is what Paul is getting at in the Book of Romans. When we love the Father, when we love God, the Holy Spirit confirms within us that truth. And with that truth, we don't need the law. We have the Spirit, and we have a living relationship. We have weekly Pilates classes here in the atrium. I learned recently that Joseph Pilates developed his system for strengthening the body during World War II with people who had injured their arms and legs. He wanted to create a body that was strong in its core. He said, “If your core is strong, then all the limbs will come into place.” He strengthened the core so that everything else could fall into line. That is how I view the role of the Spirit.
If we are filled with the Spirit, then our core is strong. Our relationship with God is strong. We don't need option one, because option one just weakens us and leads to sin and death. We don't need option two with its hyper-religiosity, because that brings its own guilt and bondage. What we have is option three: The Spirit of God. The Spirit of freedom, the Spirit of strength, the Spirit of grace, the Spirit of power that cries out Abba father, through his Son, Jesus Christ. May we all choose the right option for our lives! Amen.