Last October a gormless lorry driver mistakenly pumped hundreds of liters of petrol into tanks meant for diesel, costing stranded motorists thousands of pounds.
Let me translate that English into English: A boneheaded trucker pumped hundreds of gallons of gas into diesel tanks, costing broken-down drivers big bucks.
This happened in a place called Kingswinford in the English Midlands. It didn’t take long to spot the problem: Cars quickly conked out along nearby roads and angry owners hiked back to the station to complain.
I’m no mechanic but it seems clear enough that you can’t run an engine on the wrong kind of fuel. That appears to be Paul’s theme in this passage as he sets up a contrast between “flesh” and “Spirit.” It is important to recognize that Paul does not mean to oppose the big, bad body with the good, sweet soul in some sort of Gnostic cage-match. He writes instead of how we walk, of our mindset, of what we are in and what is in us. Before he’s done Paul will promise that Christ’s indwelling Spirit offers “life to your mortal bodies.” Instead of condemning bodies he speaks of contrasting powers – or fuels – which drive both body and soul.
The problem in Kingswinford was not that people had cars and should, instead, have learned to commute by astral projection like so many Hindu swamis; the problem was that they tried to run their cars on the wrong stuff. The problem with people is not that we have bodies – God invented them and they come in handy for telling one another apart; the problem is that the Lord creates our whole self, body and soul, to run on God’s Spirit and we have instead sucked up what the world falsely offers as superior fuel.
So we break down: Our lives sputter and cough and endanger ourselves and others. The good news is that Christ comes to set things right, to fill us with the fuel for which God designed us. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” the passage begins, and it ends with a reference to “His Spirit who dwells in you.”
Fill ‘Er Up!
Doug
Collect
Righteous God, You sent Your Son to take on sinful flesh that through His death sin might die. Grant us grace to walk according to the Spirit that we might please You, the Father who raised the Son and gives us life through the indwelling of the Spirit, one God now and forever, Amen.
Benediction
Because the Spirit of God indwells you,
You have escaped the flesh.
Because the Spirit of Christ indwells you,
Your have life in the spirit though your body is dead.
Because the Spirit of the Father who raised the Son indwells you,
You have life even in your mortal bodies.
In the name of the Father,
And of the Son,
And of the Holy Spirit,
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment