"Sinner To Saint"

A sermon by The Rev. Keenan Kelsey
Noe Valley Ministry, Presbyterian Church (USA)
February 13, 2005

Romans 5:12-19

¹² Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned— ¹³ sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. ¹⁴ Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come. ¹⁵ But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. ¹⁶ And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgement following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. ¹⁷ If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. ¹⁹ For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many...

What was I thinking? Right about now, I am wondering, whose great idea was this to preach Paul? Yea, yea, I know it was mine, but when I read the lectionary passage from Romans, I thought, what have I gotten into? There must easier inroads to the Apostle Paul!

But, here we are. Joining with Paul on the Lenten Road. And scratching our heads at this first convoluted encounter.

Here it is in a nutshell. This is the way Eugene Petersen in The Message translates verses 18 and 19: “Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.”

I actually don’t think we need to dig much farther than that! Paul builds on the Genesis story of Sin’s entry into the world through Adam. The advent of law only gave us a measuring stick to see how badly we had sinned. Judgment followed the first sin of Adam and brought consequence and condemnation. But in Jesus, there was the advent of grace and righteousness. All humanity is under sin from Adam, all humanity is under grace from Christ.

Beyond that, frankly, Paul’s own reasoning becomes so complex, you begin to ask whether the point Paul is after is worth the trouble of explaining it!

Still – you’ve got to hand it to Paul. He was gutsy! He was once a zealous Pharisee and active persecutor of Christ followers, this short man of flash and fire, this Jewish wise-guy with wit and charm, pride and humility, enormous self-confidence as well as fear and trembling. Suddenly he was an equally zealous evangelist and active believer in Christ. Paul became Jesus’ most influential spokesperson, and the first official theologian.

Along with the mantle of missionary, a self designation to single-handedly bring the Gospel to Gentiles, he also took on the very first shot of centuries of efforts to create a comprehensive theological explanation for Christianity. His own under girding was set out in the in very first chapter of his letter to Rome. He wrote, “I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, the one who is righteous will live by faith.”

For Paul, there is God’s righteousness, culminating in Christ, and human unrighteousness. So -- Paul begins with human unrighteousness – that is, sin!

What IS clear from this passage is that sin and grace are not merely alternative choices. Paul does not describe a created order in which God lays before individual human beings a choice between sin and its consequences and grace and its consequences. For Paul, sin and grace are alike in that each is a power and each is ushered in by a single event: Adam’s choice, and Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. The two powers, however, are not to be regarded as equals, for the power of grace is immeasurably greater and more extensive than even the power of sin.

The personifications in Paul’s statements that sin CAME into the world and death CAME through sin, are not merely poetic understandings of sin and death that enliven the letter. Rather they reflect Paul’s understandings of sin and death as real powers that have invaded human existence from creation.

In trying to wrestle with this, I’m going to invite you not to get too hung up on the Adam part. For the ancients, the Genesis story we heard earlier was less about setting blame for sin, or even to explain the origins of sin, but more about a way of reflecting the human condition and doing so within the context of community, of a tribal people where the action of one always affects the actions and well-being of others. The Genesis story grew out of the deep and fertile imagination of allegory as a people tried to understand their own realties.

Instead, I invite us to focus on the fact that Paul preaches the universality of Sin. From time memorial, the most honest among us acknowledge in Paul’s own words, "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate .... I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do" (Romans 7:15, 18-19).

What do you think sin is? Marcus Borg makes a good case for using other words for Sin, to expand its meaning and application. What are some definitions or words you would use – let me hear some...

According to our scriptures disobedient would be a good definition. For Augustine, it is hubris, pride or self-centeredness. Paul Tillich says estrangement, or separation from that to which we belong. Calvin that called sin "contempt for God." Barth discusses sin as a breakdown in a relationship, whether it be between us and God, [our fault, not God's] or in relationship with our neighbors. At least one of our Confessions labels sin as idolatry.

I really like the definition of sin in The Kite Runner, the book from our Wednesday discussion group. The father instructs his son:” There is only one sin, only one and that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. When you kill a man you steal a life. You steal his wife’s right to a husband; rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.”

One of my friends said sin happens whenever you hurt someone else, including yourself. Carl used to call it missing the mark, or not measuring up. The Bible has other images for sin---we are bound, in exile, in bondage, we hunger and thirst, we have closed hearts, we are lost.

Reading Paul has led me to create my own theology of sin. I have this idea, this concept or vision, that we are created as a complete person, enabled with God, coupled with god. We come into the word, and then God lets us go, sends us off, to do God’s work in the world. We are meant to be ever turning back to God in thanksgiving and praise and joy, ever turning to God for inspiration and guidance and companioning. God’s hands remain open and waiting for our entire lives. Jesus came to put real hands where God’s are, to bring God’s open hands even closer to humankind. And out of that fully human fully divine experience, Jesus brought us the absolute promise, guarantee of continuing love and acceptance, mercy and grace.

Whatever your understanding, this passage and all the readings for today would have us face the stark truth that we are sinners. Until we do, we deceive ourselves, we place ourselves in a condition in which we cannot know forgiveness, healing, or restoration.

Paul is saying, there is no solution for sin. There is only forgiveness. Grace, we cannot escape, but we can repent -- repent, to turn back to God, to continually fall into the embrace of Jesus I think that too often we misread this call to repent. The Biblical meaning of repent is not primarily contrition, but resolve . The Greek roots of the word combine to translate go beyond the mind you have. Go beyond the mind you have been given and have acquired Go beyond the mind shaped by culture to the mind you have in Christ.

A friend of mine, an ordained minister who is not currently serving, as asked to co- preside at the Ash Wednesday service at the church she attends. She was honored – and she totally rearranged her day to accommodate – she changed appointments and got up at 6 to get to the gym before the morning service. About an hour before the service, she got a phone call from the church secretary – Oh my dear the pastor is so sorry, there has been a mix-up because the pastor’s wife expected to impose the ashes, so she will be co-presiding, not you. My friend was annoyed. She wondered if this was payback for speaking out at a recent congregational meeting. She went to the service but pointedly avoided the senior pastor – she even made it a point to take communion from the pastor’s wife. She carried resentment for days. She recently told me, I don’t know what was wrong. My heart just closed. What I want to be able to do is to graciously say how wonderful for the two of you to serve together, to embrace the day, and not to interject personal agenda into an otherwise holy experience. I blew it. Why was my heart so closed?

It’s not a big sin. Not earth-shattering. But it made my friend feel bad. It shut her off from living in a gracious and generous way. And she felt small, she felt like she had faced the dark, and forgotten to turn toward God.

Most of us here are not the big ticket sinners, the ones who kill and cheat and steal, who wage war and create poverty and hunger – But we are the daily sinners who hurt others and hurt ourselves, who are thieves of good will and good name, who forget to turn toward God, toward the light, toward life and love and generosity and kindness.

Honestly, I don’t think God is ultimately concerned about our sin.

God is concerned about our honesty in facing God, in confessing, in looking for the light. I think that overcoming sin has much less to do with meeting High standards than with accepting in humility, my own humanity , both the possibilities and the limit; then accepting and The generosity of God, and then living out of that oneness with humility and gratitude. This is an accepting of "Jesus" that goes far beyond merely affirming a statement of belief.

In what God has done for us in Jesus we find a new life, a forgiveness, a new power to face temptations as he did and overcome them, another chance to bring out that image of God and tend the garden as God wants; and, yes, even though we sometimes still stumble and fall, still choose our own will over God's, even though we still abuse our power and freedom, there is a restoring, renewing forgiveness now in Christ which gives us hope and keeps us going.

The bottom line seems to be, it starts with sin, but it’s all about Grace -- the influence of the Divine upon the heart and its reflection in the life. So however you define or understand or grasp the concept of sin, Jesus accomplishes the reconciliation between us and God -- which ultimately can't be done by anything we do, but by God’s grace alone.

May it be so.