Sunday Sermon: We Have So Much to Anticipate
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Trinity Sunday
Text: Romans 8:12-17
No doubt you’ve been able to feel the excitement that’s in the air as people begin moving out of the season of COVID into one that resembles something we’re more accustomed to. Oh, I know that we haven’t made it entirely out of the woods yet with respect to the coronavirus. We still have some ways to go before younger folk can be vaccinated, but still the number of new cases has gone down to the point where mandates have been lifted and restrictions have been eased and people have started once again to make plans for a long overdue vacation.
As you can see this morning, some from among our number have already headed out. But it won’t be long before you and I will be doing the same. And if you’re like I am, you’ve already begun anticipating that time. You’ve already become looking forward to that season of rest and relaxation.
Having something to look forward to is the primary ingredient in the recipe of hope. That’s not to say that we should be so focused on tomorrow that we ignore the possibilities of the present. But it is to say that unless you have something that excites you about what lies ahead, you’ll most likely be so discouraged today that you wouldn’t be able to take advantage of present possibilities if they slapped you in the face. Hope is a wonderful balm that lifts our spirits for today simply because we are certain that in due time we will experience something that will be so much better than what we know now, especially if what we know now is something we wish we didn’t know.
That’s the inspiration the Apostle Paul was offering the church in the eighth chapter of his letter to the church at Rome. The eighth chapter of Romans is a part of Paul’s epistle where he lays out his theology of justification by faith, which is the ability to stand before God sinners that we are, sinners who deserve death, not life, sinners who have been completely forgiven of their transgressions and released from their constraints not by what they have done or earned but because of what God has done for them in sending Jesus to die for their sins and on the third day to be raised again to life.
In this eighth chapter, Paul speaks specifically to the “obligation” we have as believers to live in accordance with the leadership of the Holy Spirit. That may seem like an unusual word for Paul to use in a letter that is steeped in grace, simply because grace and obligation sound like diametrically opposed concepts. Paul’s point, however, is that our obligation to follow the Spirit’s lead is not something we do in order to be saved; it is rather something we do because we have been saved. Our obligation to follow the Spirit stems from our gratitude over how God the Father has sent Jesus His Son into this world to make possible our salvation. Hence Paul says in the fourteenth verse: “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.”
Now, a bit of interpretation is important here, particularly as Paul’s teaching points his readers back to the Exodus story in the Old Testament. In fact, Exodus overtones are overlaid throughout this passage before us this morning. As you probably know, the Old Testament was first written in the Hebrew language. But during the time of Alexander the Great in the fourth century before Christ, as Alexander conquered the world, Greek influence spread with it, and the Old Testament was then translated into the Greek language. That translation became the dominant one among the Jewish people because of how they had spread out into the world, and thus came to be the Bible of the first Christians. Remember, the New Testament was being written at the time of Paul. Therefore, the Bible used by Christians was the Greek translation of the Old Testament.
This fact is significant because of how the word that Paul uses for how Christians are to be “led by the Spirit of God” is the same word used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament book of Exodus to describe the experience of God’s people as they were released from their bondage in Egypt (much as we as Christians have been released from our bondage to sin by the cross) and directed through the wilderness to a land of promise, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land that would enable them to dwell safely and securely.
Perhaps now you can better appreciate the promise of a more hopeful tomorrow that Paul offers his readers, with a bit of a nod to the Roman culture they were a part of. “The Spirit you received,” says Paul, speaking of course of the Holy Spirit, which comes from God the Father and Jesus the Son, “does not make you slaves (think Exodus) so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.” Adoption in Roman times was a status conferred in some undeserved way whereby one gained all the rights and privileges of belonging to a new family, which included the cancellation of all past debts. However, with those undeserved privileges carried the expectation or, better I should say, obligation of allegiance to the new family.
See now how all these pieces come together to complete the puzzle. Paul was writing to Christians in Rome who were surrounded by those who on the surface appeared better set for the days ahead than they. On the one hand they had ethnic Romans who had these rights and privileges as citizens of the Empire. And on the other hand, they had ethnic Jews who could lean on the promises God had made with their ancestor Abraham. What then did Christians have to lean on? “The Spirit you received has brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. And if we are God’s children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, so that we might share in his sufferings so that we might also share in his glory.” What Paul is promising is the assurance of a most favorable future, one that can stabilize all believers in the face of the most unfavorable present.
Do you have that assurance in your life today? Do you find comfort and strength in the promise of a God who has given all of Himself – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – so that in return we might give all of ourselves in return for the promise of a glad tomorrow?
All around us are people who have for all intents and purposes mortgaged their tomorrows for the sake of a deceptive today. In their efforts to attain security by their own accomplishments, they have, as I once heard someone say of himself, “plenty to live on, even somebody to live with, but nothing to live for.” You don’t have to be like that. You’re a child of God, led by the Spirit. You have everything to live for…today, tomorrow, and into eternity, if you will only stay focused on the good future that God has for you to know and which the Spirit is seeking you into.
I noticed something the other day as I drove into work that you probably noticed a long time ago. I noticed that so many of the vans and SUVs people are driving today illustrate a search for something “more.” There are “Explorers” and “Expeditions.” There are “Odysseys” and “Pilots.” There are “Discoverys” and “Escalades” and “Land Cruisers” and “Trail Blazers” and I could go on and on. Do you see a trend here? People want access to something that can help them get to a better place than they are today. And I get it. Even on a Memorial Day weekend, it’s always best to define our futures by our dreams and not our memories, by our hopes and not our fears.”
So, if you must remember something on this holiday weekend that will take you into a better future, remember that you are a child of God, an heir of God and a co-heir with Christ. Remember that you have an obligation to live according to the Spirit, not yourself, because of how our Triune God gave all of Himself for you and your salvation. Now, if that doesn’t get you excited about your tomorrow, and for that matter your today, I honestly don’t know what will.