Sermon: “Who will rescue me . . . ?”

Text: Romans 7:15-25a

14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

July 6, 2008

Story for Children’s Moment.  This spring Beatrice Biira was graduated from Connecticut College.  As columnist Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times tells her story,[1] while she was growing up in Uganda, the odds were not initially in her favor.  Although she wanted an education desperately, her family could not afford it.  Thus, instead of going to school, she remained at home to do work around the house.  She did not even know how to read.  It was then that Beatrice’s world began to change.  A group of children in the Community Church of Niantic, Connecticut, wanted to do something good with their Sunday school collections.  Working through Heifer International, a group that helps poor farmers internationally, these children donated enough money so that a few goats could be purchased for the village in which Beatrice lived.  Her family received one goat. 

Before long, the goat had twins and began producing milk.  When the baby goats no longer needed the milk, Beatrice’s family had nutritious milk for the first time.  Soon, they had a surplus, which they sold to others.  Gradually, the cash accumulated—enough that her parents could send Beatrice to school.  She quickly rose to the top of her class.  Beatrice continued to succeed academically, winning scholarships to the best girls’ high school in Uganda, to a preparatory school in Massachusetts, and finally to Connecticut College.  Employees and affiliates of Heifer International were so impressed with Beatrice and her story that they paid her living expenses while she was in the United States.  Beatrice plans to continue her schooling at the Clinton School of Public Service in Arkansas, after which she will return to Uganda to help others succeed. 

As Nicholas Kristof wrote, “The challenges of global poverty are vast and complex, far beyond anyone’s power to resolve, and buying a farm animal for a poor family won’t solve them.  But Beatrice’s giddy happiness these days is still a reminder that each of us does have the power to make a difference—to transform a girl’s life with something as simple and cheap as a little goat.”

Scripture introduction.  Many of us will recognize our second passage, in which Paul expresses to the Roman churches the conflict between what he wanted to do and what he actually did.  In Paul’s famous words, “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”  For centuries interpreters have struggled with this passage.  Some have understood it as Paul describing his life before he became a follower of Jesus.  If so, he would be saying that before he became a Christian he wanted to comply with the Jewish law but was never able to do it.  And after he was confronted by the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, that is, after his conversion, the gospel relieved him of having to comply with the Jewish law.  The problem with this view is that Paul clearly continues to think that the Jewish law is good.  Moreover, he writes in other places—Philippians, for example[2]—that no one surpassed him in complying with the Jewish law.  Thus, this interpretation does not square with what Paul himself tells us.

Another interpretation—one that has won wide acceptance in Lutheran and Calvinist traditions—is that Paul is describing his inner turmoil after he became a Christian.  We all are familiar with knowing what we should do, but not having the courage actually to do it.  For Calvinists and Lutherans and many others, this is simply part of the paradox of our being saved from sin yet also remaining to some degree under sin’s influence.  As one of my teachers has said, “No matter how much we may try to do good, sin rises to the occasion and messes things up.”

While I was on my recent retreat (for which I thank you very much), I discovered an entirely new interpretation of this passage.  Robert Jewett[3] argues that in Romans Paul was showing how what Paul wanted to do—follow every tiny point of the law and make others do the same—led him to persecute Christians and thereby to oppose the will of God, exactly what he did not want to do.  When he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul realized that Jesus represented God’s good will toward us, even more than the law could.  An excessive focus on the rules of the law had led Paul to the sin of pride.  After he met Jesus, Paul was humbled.  Because this interpretation understands Paul to be writing about his pre-Christian life, it is not nearly so pessimistic as the Lutherans and Calvinists about whether we Christians can do the good that we want to do.

Sermon.  You all know how much I love to wrestle with interpretations of scripture.  The joy of studying the Bible is that no matter how deep one may go, it is always possible to go deeper.  But let’s not go so deep today.  Let’s be very practical as we think about this passage.  To follow the first possible interpretation, maybe Paul did mean that it is hard to comply with every jot and tittle of the biblical law.  But the practical person responds that it is possible nevertheless to comply with much of what the Bible requires.  We need only remember that the law does not bring salvation, which comes only by the grace of God, received by us through Christian faith.  Or maybe Paul was describing the paradox of Christian life—that often our reach exceeds our grasp and that sin has a way of creeping into our best efforts.  The practical person replies, “Yes, but we must continue reaching; and whatever we grasp, Christ will magnify it, just as he multiplied the loaves and fishes offered by a little boy, just as he can magnify a goat from half-way round the world.”  Or to take the third interpretation, maybe Paul was simply describing how badly he had gotten it wrong when he allowed himself to become proud of his own efforts and to look down on others.  In that case, Paul has the highest hopes that with God’s help we are able to do good things.  As he said, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”[4]

As a church, we have tried to do good things.  We, too, have contributed to Heifer International and to similar organizations.  Probably we will never know the good that God has done with our gifts, but we can imagine there have been many Beatrices—perhaps not as well-publicized, but just as important.  Next Saturday, our youth will be leaving for a mission trip to Lexington, Kentucky.  They will live in a dormitory maintained by Maxwell Street Presbyterian Church and will work at projects that the church’s coordinators already have identified.  Some of the work will be local in Lexington, and some will be in the nearby mountains of Kentucky.  None of us today can say how God will use this simple trip; but we are confident that God will work through our efforts.  As a congregation who has supported our trip financially and through your prayers and encouragement, you, too, are a part of this mission trip.  Please continue to pray for us as we go, that we might be faithful and effective witnesses for Jesus, showing him to be alive and real to those who need him. 

For almost forty years, this congregation has been trying and succeeding at doing good through the John Chironna pre-school.  In an earlier sermon, I shared with you our own Beatrice story about the recently graduated medical doctor who told us she never would have made it without the head start and encouragement she received in our school.  Now we find ourselves at a crossroads for that program.  Our beloved and long-term teacher, Mrs. Gayle Wilson, is retiring.  And what will be our response?  Many of our faithful helpers may be tired of the constant effort.  They have been at this service for many years.  Now would be an easy time to give up.  On the other hand, there are children who need us; maybe we can quickly find a teacher who will follow the strong example set by Gayle Wilson.  I’m pleased to say that the search already has begun. 

It’s even possible that God has led us to this crossroads in order that we may consider expanding our ministry to young children.  Could we imagine more students in our pre-school?   Could we imagine longer hours of operation so that our pre-school would double as a day-care facility?  Could we imagine taking younger children in such a day-care program?  Could we attempt an integration of children of our own families with those from more challenging economic circumstances?  Folks, none of this would be easy.  And I’m not pushing for any of it.  But I do think it is important actually to make decisions consciously, rather than making them by not even considering there is a decision to be made.  Sometimes God puts things in front of us, and we must decide how to respond.  And I would be failing you if I did not point out that there will never be a better time to consider these options.[5]  We are on the threshold of a capital campaign and a building campaign.  If the building needs to be designed with an expanded mission to children in mind, that can be done more easily now than will ever be possible in the future. 

Is it just my imagination, or is God putting several opportunities in front of us?  You have heard from Alan Harder this morning about the need for more volunteers in the Interlink program.  Time this morning does not permit a description of the proposal the deacons will be taking to the session this week about how our congregation might participate in flood relief.  Depending on what this congregation and your leadership decide, there may be new challenges ahead for the pre-school program.  And then there are the building and capital campaign efforts.

For several years we have been praying and wondering aloud what missions God might call us to here in downtown Terre Haute.  Maybe I should have preached this morning from the Genesis 24 text that Scott read.  You remember how Abraham’s servant went off to find a wife for Isaac.  He prayed that God would show him clearly which was the right young woman.  And God did; Rebekah was the one who responded with hospitality.  Maybe these opened doors are God’s answers to our prayers.  As they say, “be careful what you pray for.”  Any of these initiatives will require more volunteers and more funding.  So how our church answers these opportunities necessarily involves choices for each of us.  These choices will get very personal—like how we use our money and how we use our time.  But that’s what being a disciple of Jesus is about. 

Two hundred and thirty-two years ago a group of ordinary but courageous men gathered around a table in a hot and humid colonial Philadelphia to agree upon the final wording of a declaration of independence.  For themselves, for their families, for their neighbors, and for their respective colonies, the choice they were making was personal.  It surely involved how they used their money and their time.  Indeed, by voting for and signing the declaration, they were risking their very lives.  What they did was not perfect, but it was good.  God blessed their efforts, and we are the beneficiaries.  No generation gets a free pass.  Each generation is called to sacrifice in order to achieve good things.

Now we are to be gathered around another Table.  As we hear the familiar words and do the familiar things, we know that Christ is present with us, healing us, encouraging us, and strengthening us for service.  So we can say with Paul, “Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Jesus rescues us by giving us a purpose, by calling us to mission, by calling us to do good things as a sign of his coming kingdom.