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Paul, what big R's you have. First, R is for "raised." God "raised Jesus from the dead." So big is that raising of the dead Jesus that it carries all the way over to our raising, too. "He who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies" as well. But who is this "he" who does all that raising, first Jesus and then us? It is not enough to answer merely "God" or even merely "the Father." For that might suggest that the raising all happens by some omnipotent wave of a wand from on high, some remote control by a distant deity. No, the Raiser from the dead (Paul says it twice) is "the Spirit of God [who] dwells in you."
It is "the Spirit of Christ" who comes alive right in our walking corpses here and now and every day revives us, all quite bodily. The daily Crossings we make from death to life, from despair to hope, from wanting to quit to getting back up: do we make those Crossings alone? By no means. This is a God who breathes life into us not from afar but from right within us, never shrinking from touching our decay and feeling our death. |
"mindset" can fit in something so "small" as a catechism.
david heyen O is for Ouch....For the Pentecost Spirit brings not only life but death. And that can hurt. Vv. 12-17 So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh -- for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ -- if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. |
| Then there is the big old Pauline R, "righteousness." "The Spirit is life because of righteousness." You are alive, truly alive, only because you are righteous, Christ being in you. Why else is it that "the body is dead" in the first place? "Because of sin," says Paul. Isn't that why people drag and why they sigh, "I feel just plain dead?" But you have a right to feel good -- yes, even feel good -- "if Christ is in you." For then you are good. For what is his is ours. We "belong to Christ," Paul reminds us, because we "have Christ's Spirit." Right "in our mortal bodies" we do, even "though the body is dead because of sin." |
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The once tall, majestic building has long since fallen into disuse and ruin, and it is now being reduced to cinders by dynamite. That building is/was you and I. What are the forces which have propped us up until now, make us look upright when really we're not? Is it the false power of the negative and of self-pity, fixated on the "condemnations" we suffer? Paul here reminds us that there is an alternative: the power of the Holy Spirit. That's dynamite. For at the same time that this Builder Spirit creates us as new children trusting in the loving Father, the selfsame Spirit in the same breath is a drastic demolisher toppling our old selves addicted to death and negativism. |
| Once you begin setting your mind on the things of the Spirit your mind races to other big Pauline R's: "reveal," "refuge," "receive," "reach out." And you realize how much bigger these all are than that little r which we're so tempted to capitalize: reason. Truth is, "I believe that I cannot believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him by my own reason or strength; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith." Just think, such a big |
Either way, with or without the Spirit, we die. But there is dying and then there is dying. "If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." There is death (period) and there is death (comma) followed by life. The latter is the death-dealing by the Spirit.
To set off the dynamite you light a fuse. With the dynamite of the Spirit, what is it that lights our fuse? Answer: the Word, in season and out of season, not only on Sundays but every day over. Hearing the Word of Christ, both its law and its promise, |