“The Spirit of Life”

Romans 8:1-17

May 30, 2004

Today we celebrate one of the most overlooked days in the Christian year – Pentecost – the day when the church of God was constituted, the day when the Spirit of God fell upon the disciples like the rush of a mighty wind, and filled them with power from on high. On the day of Pentecost, the promises of Jesus were fulfilled, the Advocate had come, the eternal presence of the living Christ had descended from above, and a fearful band of followers, who had once remained hidden behind closed doors, poured out into the streets of Jerusalem to give testimony about God’s living Word, Jesus Christ.

Twenty centuries removed from that day, we still celebrate this monumental event in the lives of the faithful, for it is that same Spirit, who has always been at work from the beginning of time, continues to be the agent by which Christ is made present to the community of faith, and the means by which all God’s people are empowered to be God’s prophets to boldly go and proclaim the eternal presence of the resurrected and living Lord. However, the day of Pentecost, is more than just about the day when the disciples received the Holy Spirit and were given the ability to speak in other languages; Pentecost is about God’s direct initiative in the lives of the faithful in a most profound way.

For the Apostle Paul, the Spirit given to the disciples was more than just a companion sent to walk with the faithful in their journey, or an aid to comfort the disciples in times of trouble and need. For Paul, the Spirit was the direct indwelling of God’s self in Jesus Christ into the lives of the faithful, the internal saving act by which God’s people are transformed, redeemed, and united with Christ by God’s own righteousness. On the day of Pentecost, God acted again in human history, and did for God’s people what they could not do for themselves by giving them freedom through the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ.

We live in a society and world that has as one of its mottos “do it yourself.” We have do it yourself check out lines, do it yourself gas pumps, do it yourself buffets, all because we have that streak of independence in us that wants to go about things on our own. There is something about being independent that is important for people, in the way in which we want to succeed at something or do something without the intervention or help of others.

As a parent, I have the joy of having the experience of my girls telling me in no uncertain terms, “Daddy, I want to do it by myself.” Independence is part of growing up. It’s part of the maturing process. It’s the part of parenting that really puts parenting skills to the test. Independence is all well and good when your child wants to do things like get dressed by themselves, or brush their teeth by themselves, or figure out homework by themselves. In doing things on their own, they are gaining confidence in their abilities, learning how to care for themselves, and developing new skills from their mistakes. But complete independence is another issue all together, especially when your three year old wants to pour her own class of chocolate milk from a gallon jug all by herself. Complete independence not only sets us on the course of over confidence, but sometimes can cause quite a mess of things, especially when it involves chocolate milk.

For Paul, humanity’s desire to be completely independent from God left things in an awful mess, much more than what a roll of paper towels could clean up. The law, which was given to God’s people to keep them in relationship with God and dependent upon God, became the means to an end for a people who wanted to do things by themselves, who wanted to be completely independent. The law became the focal point of faithfulness rather than God. The law became the way in which people judged themselves and each other as good or bad. The law became the means by which the people could have a “do it yourself” religion and make themselves righteous before God.

Even today, the law of God are seen as the standards of right living for the truly pious, as the enabling agent by which God at best saves us and at worst loves us, or as the focal point of faith and devotion. For Paul, this was not a problem with the law, but with humanity. It was humanity’s desire for complete independence from God that gave them the over-confidence in their own ability to save themselves, and in the end weakened the purpose of the law making both it and the people captive to the sins of the flesh. What is the sin of the flesh, it is the way of living that pursues rebellion and idolatry. It is the way of living in which one’s entire perspective is turned in on himself or herself, in which the person becomes the center of everything. As one commentator put it, “Life in the flesh is essentially life carried on under the lordship of the sinful self. It is a life of self-idolatry.” (Paul Achtemeier, Interpretation: Romans, p. 132) It is the life of self-idolatry that seeks to “do it yourself” when it comes to salvation, that seeks to live independent and apart from God, and that thinks one is not in utterly dependent upon God’s grace for everlasting life. For Paul, it was very clear. To set one’s mind on the flesh is death, but to set one’s mind on the Spirit is life. Where we are weak, God is strong. What we are unable to do for ourselves, God has done for us through the life, death, resurrection and Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of the only one who brings life.

Pentecost is the day when God did for humanity what humanity could not do for themselves. On Pentecost, God completely altered and changed the inner life of the believer. God did what the law could not do, so that the law might be fulfilled in us, not as the means to salvation, but as the way in which we obediently live in response the grace of God and in the salvation we have through Jesus Christ.

Paul proclaims to the Roman Christians he is writing to that they are already in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in them. On Pentecost, God put within them the living and eternal presence of the Spirit of life and fully bound them in Jesus Christ. It is the Spirit of life that overcomes the power of sin and death in the lives of the believer, and gives the believer a new way in which to live life in the way in which it was meant to be lived in, in the freedom from the enslaving power of self-idolatry, in the freedom from having to save ourselves, in the freedom to live a life wholly for God and for one another.

The freedom we have in the Spirit of life is the divine proclamation that through the power of God we have been bound to our Creator and given a new relationship as God’s children. The Spirit of life is the divine assurance that we are in Christ and Christ is in, and that our future is bound up in him in such a way that we too have a claim upon the kingdom of God as heirs and inheritors with Christ. The Spirit of life is God’s divine promise that when we die, God will give life to our mortal bodies through the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.

What God did on Pentecost was nothing short of divine grace, a grace that gave the disciples a new way to live, a new way to think about life of faithfulness, a new way to think about God’s direct intervention in their lives. No wonder they went out to proclaim the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. No wonder they were changed from a group of fearful followers into loving servants and faithful witnesses of his Gospel. By setting their mind on Spirit, and putting God first of everything, they were given the confidence to become the church, and a faith that was free to grow in the loving relationship in which God had intended all along.

On this Memorial Day weekend, as we give thanks to all those who willingly and selflessly gave their lives for all of us, let us on this day of Pentecost give thanks and praise to the one who gave us the freedom which surpasses all other freedoms, to the Lord our God who sent his son as one of us, so that through him we may become the righteousness of God.

As we come to the table, let us be reminded that this is not just an act of memorializing what Christ did for us, but that through the bread and cup we might once again be filled with the Spirit of the living Christ, so that through his Spirit we may know the riches of God’s grace, the abundance of God’s love, and our complete dependence upon the divine, Holy Spirit of life for our very salvation. Amen.