ENSLAVED TO FEAR (24 OF 49)
Scripture: Romans 8:1, Romans 8:11-17
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Enslaved to Fear (24 of 49)
Lectionary, Year B, Trinity Sunday
Christopher B. Harbin
Romans 8:1,11-17
Fear has been perhaps the greatest of manipulators throughout history. Politicians have wielded fear to rally nations to war over fears of immigrants, cultural change, economic crisis blamed on a minority, an ideology, an attack on faith, and some imagined enemy threat. The church has wielded fear regarding heresy, the fraying of cultural norms, and protection against divine condemnation. Media outlets have used fear to sell stories and gain attention. We know that if we harness the power of fear people will leave rational thought aside and rush to follow those claiming to have a solution. Then the gospel tells us not to fear. Do we bother to listen? How can we?
Paul's epistle to the Romans begins by telling us no one is righteous. None deserve grace and acceptance. We are all failed creatures who can never hope to attain God's standards. We hear that part of his argument loud and clear. We readily embrace what seems to be a message of wholesale condemnation for all of humanity, especially those outside the church. We allow the fear of being condemned and cast aside to blind us to the rest of what Paul has to say. He is not telling us that we are condemnable by any legal standards just to relegate us to God's garbage bin. He moves beyond the message of God being justified in condemning us to a message that God has intervened in grace.
Too many of us have difficulty moving past Paul's first argument for never having understood it in the first place. Paul does not tell us that God condemns everyone. He does not say God desires to condemn humanity. He simply says that God has every right to condemn everyone. Based on the quality and character of our actions, we are condemnable. If that were the whole of the story, there would simply be no hope for us. Our fear would be justified and there would be no good news. Yet Paul did not finish his argument with t ...
Lectionary, Year B, Trinity Sunday
Christopher B. Harbin
Romans 8:1,11-17
Fear has been perhaps the greatest of manipulators throughout history. Politicians have wielded fear to rally nations to war over fears of immigrants, cultural change, economic crisis blamed on a minority, an ideology, an attack on faith, and some imagined enemy threat. The church has wielded fear regarding heresy, the fraying of cultural norms, and protection against divine condemnation. Media outlets have used fear to sell stories and gain attention. We know that if we harness the power of fear people will leave rational thought aside and rush to follow those claiming to have a solution. Then the gospel tells us not to fear. Do we bother to listen? How can we?
Paul's epistle to the Romans begins by telling us no one is righteous. None deserve grace and acceptance. We are all failed creatures who can never hope to attain God's standards. We hear that part of his argument loud and clear. We readily embrace what seems to be a message of wholesale condemnation for all of humanity, especially those outside the church. We allow the fear of being condemned and cast aside to blind us to the rest of what Paul has to say. He is not telling us that we are condemnable by any legal standards just to relegate us to God's garbage bin. He moves beyond the message of God being justified in condemning us to a message that God has intervened in grace.
Too many of us have difficulty moving past Paul's first argument for never having understood it in the first place. Paul does not tell us that God condemns everyone. He does not say God desires to condemn humanity. He simply says that God has every right to condemn everyone. Based on the quality and character of our actions, we are condemnable. If that were the whole of the story, there would simply be no hope for us. Our fear would be justified and there would be no good news. Yet Paul did not finish his argument with t ...
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