Sinful Hearts

Zechariah 9: 9-12
Romans 7: 15-2

The NT passage we read today reads like a teenager’s mind. There’s indecision, confusion and personal angst. The truth is that when it comes to sin, all of us experience what feels like a hormonal imbalance which is depicted so accurately in this passage. We struggle, we fight ourselves and we fight the people around us. There is a war being raged inside each of us and according to this passage, although we want God to win, if we are completely honest it is sin that holds the upper hand.

So what do we do about this? The writer of Romans is Paul. He writes quite a bit of the NT and here he is freely admitting that sin holds the upper hand in his body and mind even though he struggles to free himself. Paul was a Jewish man who once persecuted Christians before being converted. Some people think he was a Jewish rabbi because from his letters we can tell he was extremely learned. If anyone knew about God and Jesus Christ it is definitely Paul who was the only one to have seen the Risen and Ascended Jesus, but Paul admits that the law of sin holds him captive even as he tries to follow God’s law.

We too, work hard to follow the laws of God. We teach our children not to steal or curse in God’s name, to believe in only one God, to honor their father and mother and to not be jealous of what others have. Some of us even try to follow the laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy by eating kosher foods, eating fish on Fridays but not shellfish, and not mixing synthetic fibers. But eventually, we all slip up in following the letter of the law.

It’s hard work, trying to be good all the time. We’re constantly thinking of what Jesus would do in this situation or thinking about God shaking his head when we say things like curse words or petty and sarcastic comments about people. Sometimes all that hard work and then failing to actually be a good person 24/7 can burn us out. We become disheartened, and disillusioned. We make excuses for why we say Gosh darnit or we stop noticing we said it at all. We explain away our petty comments about people by saying that person really IS a jerk that no one likes and you’re just telling it as it is. Sometimes we can even explain away worse things like stealing and adultery.

For example, in today’s economy everyone is concerned about the deficit and the government’s excessive spending. We see Fox News and CNN telling us that Molly Housewife knows that if you make a hundred bucks a month then spending two hundred and fifty is not going to work. Then the next thing we see is the wars America is involved in and how much they cost to fund. Not only are we tired of our children, husbands and wives sacrificing their lives for a war we don’t understand anymore, but we’re tired of not having money to give our children and grandchildren better education, after school programs and health care not to mention better roads and open parks.

So, when something like the situation in Libya happens, no one wants to make it our fight. We have two wars already and a deficit that’s climbing. We have social injustice here in the U.S. let Libya fight its own war. This weekend we celebrate the Independence day. We celebrate a group of people, our ancestors, who were willing to break away from a government and a leader that was treating them unfairly. That was suppressing what they considered their God-given rights. Freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. There was lot of countries that were against the colonies fighting England because England was the head honcho. They were the superpower and they promised retribution to many if America continued.

Christians are called to fight injustice. Not when it is easy or convenient or inexpensive. We understand the arguments people make against the US helping Libya, we understand the frustration Americans feel with our government and our own social injustices, but we also know that rarely does the chance to make a difference happen on our own time table. Maybe all we are supposed to do to help Libya is pray for those people that have been abused and oppressed. Maybe our job is a lot more than that. It’s a fight we have to figure out - an internal one inside our hearts to do what we know is right and what we feel is easier.

That is what Romans and St. Paul are speaking of. That internal struggle we all face to do what we know is right and fighting the desires we have of doing what is easier. It’s easier to walk away from injustice. It’s easier to ignore our sins. But what Paul tells us is that when we ignore our sinfulness, when we stop fighting that inner battle, sin has won and we are lost. So then we get back to the exhaustion of a constant fight. The exhaustion of two wars a decade long and another on the horizon. We want to duck and cover. We want to hide and pretend we do not see any of it so that we can concentrate on ourselves.

Paul tells us that is not going to work. At least, not for long. We’re concentrating on the law, we’re concentrating on the black and the white. The truth is not found in the law, the life of a person, of a society is not black and white. Instead, Paul tells us, “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” There is where the truth lies, not in the law but with God.

When we look at the world through the lens of the law, we can justify many things as well as condemn ourselves for our sins. But when we look through the lens of Jesus Christ, the world is a different place. There is a kaleidoscope of colors and each situation has a different shape and feel to it. Each person means something different to Jesus.

In Italy, there is a company that looks at the world in black and white. Italy has been a patriarchal society for a long time and it has created an imbalance of power between men and women. This is an industrialized, 21st century country that treats its women like second class citizens. So the company in Italy that sees women as second class workers and providers, decided when they were having financial difficulties to lay off all of the women workers and none of the men. They said, "We are firing the women so they can stay at home and look after the children. In any case, what they bring in is a second income."

This is the danger of only seeing in black and white. These women are not secondary. They are not a lower class to the men. But because it has always been that way and because it suits this company’s purpose to see them that way, they keep the injustice alive and well because it is easier. We too, do this in our own lives because we try to look at the world through the eyes of the law. We look at our lives in terms of sinful and good.

Jesus takes all of that away. In Jesus there is no sin, there is only good. With eyes turned toward God our hearts will soon follow. With hearts that follow Jesus, our actions will be Godly actions. Are you seeing how this works? The internal struggles will cease. The wars we fight inside of ourselves, the wars we fight as a country and as a society will cease. With Jesus as our leader we forget about petty things like what a person wears, what side of the tracks they grew up on, and even gender.

With Jesus in our hearts, we will not struggle against injustice because injustice will be no more. I know it sound idealistic, but if just once we make this change, if just one of us stands up and says no more – it really will make a difference. We saw it when a group of people in Boston decided to throw English tea into the water and said no more taxation without representation. We saw it when a group of people said no more slavery and then no more segregation. We saw it when a group of people in Egypt said no more to an unjust dictator and now more people and more countries are realizing they can change the world by standing up for what is right. With Jesus Christ, all things are possible.

Amen.