October 22, 2019

In between bands at a recent music festival, the host/sponsor took the stage to try to ignite the crowd. Multiple times and with crescendoing volume, she asked us if we were having fun. When the response was lackluster, she belted out, “You’re in my house here! The only rule in my house is that you GOT TO HAVE FUN!”

The host was just doing her job, but she made me want to leave, despite the good music, weather, food, drink and company. Rarely do people like to be told what to do and how to feel. Often, a command will produce the opposite result. For instance, does being told to relax actually result in relaxation? Once you notice this dynamic, it is startling to realize how much everybody likes to tell everybody else what to do!

This is how the Law of God works. God’s Law is holy and righteous, but it does not produce the fruit of holiness and righteousness in us. Instead, the scripture tells us that it produces sin and death. The Apostle Paul says, “If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in my all kinds of covetousness…. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.” (Romans 7:7-10)

Thankfully, our Christian faith is not ultimately about what we are to do. Rather, it is about what Jesus Christ has already done for us on the cross.  “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do….” (Romans 8:3)Amen!“We thank you, heavenly Father, that you have delivered us from the dominion of sin and death and brought us into the kingdom of your Son; and we pray that, as by his death he has recalled us to life, so by his love he may raise us to eternal joys; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.” (Saturday in Easter Week– BCP p. 224)