A Sermon Preached on July 6 2104, the Fourth Sunday after
Pentecost, at St. Augustine's, Wiesbaden
Zechariah 9:9-12, Romans 7:15-25a, Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30, Psalm 145
Last week we heard all
about St. Paul’s view of freedom as the choice between slavery to Sin and slavery
to God. But this week it sounds as if even that choice for good is impossible: “I
do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” (Romans 7:19) Apart from offering a tongue
twister almost as difficult as “Peter Piper picks a peck of pickled pepper” or “Fischers
Fritz fischt frische Fische,” what is Paul going on about?
The conflict between
reason and will on the one hand, and actual performance on the other was a big
topic of discussion for Greco-Roman philosophers and poets. They were convinced
that people were reasonable and rational, that it was possible to identify the
best moral and ethical course of action in any case: both for the individual and
society. And today secular humanists think the same. In his book The God Delusion the atheist writer Richard
Dawkins identifies what he calls “moral universals,” that is a consensus about
what is considered right and wrong, which is of course in his opinion entirely
independent of any deity: “The manifest phenomenon of moral (Zeitgeist) progression is
more than enough to undermine the claim that we need God in order to be good,
or to decide what is good.”[1]
But if this is the
case, philosophers asked both in Paul’s day and today, why do people still go
on doing what is wrong and what is bad for themselves and for others? Where does
this moral incapability come from? A lot of progress seems simply to have extended
both the range and ability of humans to do evil to one another and to God’s
creation!
For Paul the reason is sin:
“It is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.” (7:17) This is the source of all that is opposed to
God, the sin that in the Genesis story of the fall of humanity caused Adam and
Eve to rebel and to put themselves and their interests over God’s. This doctrine
of Original Sin, the idea that we are all broken and have an inner tendency to
sin, to do wrong, has by the way been described as the only Christian doctrine
that can be proven empirically, that is by observation and experience! Looking
at history there is definitely some truth in that statement.
But if sin is the
cause, though obviously not one Professor Dawkins would agree with, what is the
solution? In what sounds like the agonizing cry of one weighed down by the burden
of sin, yet still passionately desiring a right relationship with God, Paul asks:
“Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue
me from this body of death” or better doomed body? (7:24) “God through Jesus
Christ our Lord” (7:25) is his answer. Only God can and wants to rescue us from sin and death.
God has always been trying to restore the broken relationship between God and humanity,
first through God’s Covenant with Israel and their calling to act as a visible witness
to the whole world to God’s love and faithfulness and now, in the fullness of
time, through the gift of God’s Son. ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and
are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest,” Jesus says in today’s
Gospel reading, (Matthew 11:28) and there is no heavier burden than sin and its
effects. God is salvation is what the name Jesus literally means.
It is because Hannah’s
parents trust in this promise, as we or our parents did
at our Baptism, that we
are celebrating her Christening here today. On her behlaf her parents and godparents will
promise to renounce Satan and all that rebels against God, to renounce the sin that
draws us from God, and instead to turn to, to trust in and to follow Jesus
Christ.
But wait, you say, or I
do for you. Surely what Paul says, that we can will
what is right, but cannot
do it, applies here too. We can’t just desire to do what is right and assume
that we will be able to keep all these promises. No we can’t. Nor are Christians
necessarily always better persons. Over the past months I have come to know you
all as good Christians, and yet there will be things you have done and said
over the last 18 months that you regret and wish you hadn’t done.
The difference is that Christians
know about sin and sinfulness and we know
that we cannot save ourselves. We
know that we need God’s help: That’s why the response to all the key promises
in the service of Baptism is not just “I will,” but “I will, with God’s help.” God’s
help is always available if we ask for it, in prayer, when we study God’s word
in Scripture, or through the strength and guidance of God’s Spirit within us.
What also helps us do
the good that we know we should do, and that we want to do, is one another. All
our vows and promises as Christians are public vows, whether the promises of
Baptism and Confirmation, Ordination, or marriage vows. We are supposed to
support one another, to advise and even to criticize one another, but gently
and in love, if it is needed. That’s what is meant when I ask you all later
whether you who witness these vows will do all in your power to support Hannah
in her life in Christ. Christianity is a collective religion: we worship, learn,
and grow together, not alone.
Finally we are called
to grow through practice in a virtuous cycle. One of the first questions asked
of the parents and godparents is: “Will you by your prayers and witness help
this child to grow into the full stature of Christ? In Jesus’ words, when
we become Christians we agree to take his yoke upon us and to learn from him. Though
when he says that his yoke is easy, and his burden light, that is only true in
one sense. It is quantitatively easier than the long list of extra commands and
rules of the Pharisees of his day, because his command is short and centered on
the essentials: Love God and love your neighbor. But qualitatively it is much
more difficult, as the demands of love are virtually inexhaustible.
The Baptismal Covenant
we will recite together in a moment gives us a list of
practical ways in which
we take Christ’s yoke upon us and by which we can practice doing the good that
we want to do, with God’s help:
-
Proclaiming by word and example the Good
News of God in Christ.
-
Seeking and serving Christ in all
persons.
-
Striving for justice and peace among all
people.
And in the project to help
finance the bicycle ambulances for Malawi that we are presenting today you have
a very practical opportunity to practice putting these covenant values into
effect by helping to match the outreach budget funding with a personal donation.
As we now dedicate
Hannah to her new life in Christ let us rededicate
ourselves to that same new life.
It offers God’s help in overcoming sin and following Christ’s example, as well
as God’s forgiveness when we fall short and do not manage to live up to that
example. For which we say, in Paul’s words, “Thanks be to God through Jesus
Christ our Lord.”
Amen
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