Flesh and blood

Romans 8:6-11

Oh, the old “flesh-Spirit” dichotomy! Everything here in our material existence is bad; everything in God’s being is good. Abandon all hope, ye who are human, for you are already lost!

But that is kind of like telling the St. Louis Billikens they have no chance as the NCAA basketball tournament gets underway because their rivals from just a bit north have already got the thing locked in the bag--the Billikens (one of the great mascot names in all sports) should already concede the tournament to Indiana, Ohio State, or Michigan State. They are flesh, and those teams deities on the hardcourt. 

Well, this is Paul’s point.

We give up before we start because we assume faith, righteousness, and holiness are beyond us. We are weak. We are frail. We are injury prone. We are born to mistakes. “Oh, Lord, who can be saved?”

Paul stops us. He stops us cold. “Peace, be still,” he says. “You are with Christ.”

The core of our faith is that it is not about us--what we can do, what we can say, how high we can soar--it is about God and God’s love that lifts us further than we ever imagined being. It is about God who lifts us on wings as eagles, as Isaiah sang. As we enter the redeeming grace of Christ, we find that all of the things that hinder us fall away, or simply become irrelevant or unimportant as we walk with Christ into each new day.

But how does it work?

Go back to the basketball tournament. The games have to be played. That is the wonder and beauty of the thing. No one knows for sure how it will turn out--oh, I know there will be some grandmother in Arkansas who enters a bracket pool and wins with a perfect sheet while knowing that basketballs are kind of round and that players tend to be taller than husband Earl who stands 5-4 on a good day. The Billikens are not about to concede a thing. They are going to play. They will play hard. They may well find themselves in the championship because they kept playing hard. 

So, too, with life--it must be lived. No outcomes are determined until we experience them. Christ calls us to meet them with love. When we encounter another human being, meet them in love. In such a meeting, great things can happen. Love allows us to stop and consider the other person fully before we say or do anything. That keeps us from one of the easiest and most prevalent mistakes--quick action without thought. That protection carries over into larger consequences. Acting and speaking in love means that we consider that there will be consequences, so we can consider how those consequences communicate or hinder love. 

For instance, Starbucks provides the elixir of thought for me--caffeine in 16 oz. cups. One morning, they were training a new barista who treated the cash register as if it were a crouching tiger. The line stacked up. I just wanted a simple cup of coffee--you turn, take a cup, place cup at spigot of coffee urn, pour, give to customer. This task was proving to be rocket science. As the line grew, the poor child got a look of panic in her eyes which, of course, slowed her down even more. Now--do I rant and rave at her, her manager, and anyone else who will hear my offended wants aired? Or do I smile gently, tell her, “Thank you,” when said coffee actually does arrive in my hand, and take my seat? 

Love makes the decision easy. Life in the Spirit is not that difficult or complicated after all.

Keep playing.