Christ, Our Freedom

Devotional Reflection, Wednesday, June 29, 2022

Proper 8, the week of the sixth Sunday after Pentecost

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:

22For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

You will find the full text of today’s epistle reading at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 973)

AM Psalm 119:145-176; PM Psalm 128, 129, 130

Num. 22:41-23:12; Rom. 7:13-25; Matt. 21:33-46

David’s Reflections

" . . .the line separating Good and Evil passes, not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties, but through every human heart and through all human hearts. . . ."*  So observed Alexander Solzhenitsyn about what he learned prior to his conversion in a Siberian labor camp.

Paul came to a more profound understanding of the pervasive presence of evil in the human soul after his awakening to Christ.  Prior to his encounter with Jesus (shared briefly in 2 Corinthians 4, Galatians 1, Philippians 3), Paul was a Pharisee devoted to the study and teaching of Old Testament Law (especially in Genesis-Deuteronomy).  He gives no hint in any of his writings that he had a great struggle with conscience before becoming a Christian (Again, see Galatians 1 and Philippians 3).

However, after becoming a believer, with Christ not Law now at the center of his existence, Paul made a shocking discovery.  He looked back on his life as a Pharisee and reframed it as a life enslaved to the power of evil.  In Romans 7, he offers us a graphic portrayal of life apart from the freedom Christ brings.

The dilemma came for Paul precisely because he was religious, because he valued the Law and the good it demanded.  That good Law provoked and awakened in him another dynamic that conflicted with all his best intentions and values—the dynamic of resident evil.  That evil felt so foreign to his conscience and his religious intentions that he spoke of it as an independent and different self alive within him—“ it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.” (verse 20 above)  He now saw that prior to Christ he had no way to break free of sin’s power.

What a shock!  If you have recently made a first-time Christian commitment or renewed yours after a period of wandering, you may reflect back on your prior experience and see it in an even darker light than you had previously imagined.  Only in the light of the freedom Christ gives us can we fully appreciate the limited and caught nature of our experience prior to that freedom.

And, it can be the life lived most free of dark moral evil that profoundly lacks freedom.  Paul lived a life of scrupulous attention to religious duty prior to his experience of Jesus.  What was lacking in that life,  however, was freedom at the center, freedom to love God and others with a disinterested detachment from how that would advance his standing with God. Self elevation can be pervasive in a life lived with religious intent.

Our full deliverance happens in the end at the resurrection.  The sacramental and symbolic anchors of that deliverance continue to be our baptism and the weekly experience of Christ in the bread and wine of Holy Eucharist.  We can never lapse back to life as it was before Christ.  We have crossed over and can never return.  Only if our vital connection with Jesus gets covered over with apathy and neglect can our experience in any way resemble  Paul’s description in this reading.    We are not sold into slavery under sin.  We have resources in Christ, the sacraments, Holy Scripture, and the Christian community to continue breaking free from sin’s power.

Until the resurrection, God simply will persist in seeking greater deliverance and freedom for us.  God will not relent in the face of our struggles and failures.  The Spirit will continue to push back the powers of evil that seek to smother and entangle and give us breathing room and a growing measure of freedom.

* Alexander Solzhenitsyn, cited by Malcolm Muggeridge, "Human and Divine Rights," in At the Edge of Hope, ed. Howard Butt  (New York:  Seabury, 1978) 62.

Collect of the Day, Proper 8, the sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP, 230)

A Collect for Grace

Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100)

Guidance into the Future

O God, who has made us creatures of time, so that every tomorrow is unknown country, and every decision a venture in faith.  Grant us, frail children of the day, who are yet blind to the future,  to move toward it in the sure confidence of your love, from which neither life nor death can ever separate us.  Amen.

(Reinhold Niebuhr, cited by Elizabeth R. Geitz, Calling Clergy:  A Spiritual and Practical Guide Through the Search Process (New York:  Church Publishing, 2007), p. xii.)

In the Order of Worship for Evening

Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers, creator of the changes of day and night, giving rest to the weary, renewing the strength of those who are spent, bestowing upon us occasions of song in the evening. As you have protected us in the day that is past, so be with us in the coming night; keep us from every sin, every evil, and every fear; for you are our light and salvation, and the strength of

our life. To you be glory for endless ages. Amen.  (BCP, 113)

A Collect for Mission

Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen. (BCP, 101)

Daily Office Epistle, Romans 7:13-25

13Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

14 For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. 15I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

Daily Offices in the Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer