Sam Bush, “Big Whoop! Who Cares?”
Here’s a question for you: what makes you tick? What is the chief engine of your life? I’m not talking about coffee. I’m talking about your deepest motivations. Maybe you’re chasing a dream: a job that you want or a relationship or some sense of having arrived. Maybe it’s the approval of others or your reputation. Maybe it’s an appetite for more, be it money or status. Or maybe the urgency of life with all of its demands of work and family and chores and errands is what keeps you ticking.
The things that make us tick - the driving force behind our behavior - is what the Apostle Paul is addressing in today’s passage from Romans. Paul is distinguishing between two ways of life: the life of the flesh and the life in the Spirit. He says, “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” What does he mean?
Well, when he says “the flesh,” he does not mean the physical body. He is talking about self-reliance, life apart from God. The flesh is out of sync with God in that we do not work the way we were intended to work. And a broken clock cannot fix itself, can it? We may try to realign ourselves to God’s time, but we’re always off.
The journalist James Parker’s personal phrase for self-regulation is buzz management. “The thing about buzz management,” he writes, “is that you’re always getting it wrong. You overexcite yourself; you frazzle yourself; you’re bored, and then you’re anxious, and then you’re tired. There’s some kink in the wiring that you’re always trying to straighten out. A tricky relationship to alcohol, a tricky relationship to work, a tricky relationship to relationships. I’m 53, and my exercise regimen — push-ups, pull-ups, jumping rope — is basically a means of helping me digest the consequences of my personality.” What are the consequences of your personality? And where is there hope in this spiraling life of the flesh?
Thankfully, Paul presents something far better, a new life that Christians are free to enjoy as a result of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Suddenly, the low-lying black cloud that was the life of the flesh has been dispelled by the supernatural breath of the Spirit, the living God. And what is the modus operandi of life in the Spirit? “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” What does that mean?
Well, it doesn’t mean Jesus says, “You go your way, I’ll go mine.” Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. He is the sun by which we set our watches. And he knows perfectly well how desynchronized we are. We start every church service by putting that on the table: “Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.” He looks at our sin square in the eye – our envy, our fear, our bitterness, our rage, our insatiable appetite for status or sex or security – and he is not surprised or embarrassed by it, nor does he sugarcoat it.
He is like my friend’s therapist. At a recent counseling session, my friend was explaining how her insecurities were the driving force of her work ethic. “I don’t want people to think I’m stupid or lazy,” she admitted, expecting her therapist to affirm her as smart and hardworking. But, instead, her therapist said, “Well, you are stupid and lazy. Why do you care what people think?” Rather than side-step the truth or dress it up in false affirmation, Jesus sees us in the clear light of day. He knows what we’ve done. He knows who we are. But there is no need to defend or explain yourself because he does not condemn. He’s not angry. He’s not even disappointed. Why? Because he has already dealt with it: Paul says, “For God has done what the law could not do: by sending his own Son to deal with sin.” If it’s already been dealt with, what does it matter?
I’ll tell you a story that involves our rector, Paul Walker who is on vacation (considering that he’s not here I feel like we can talk about him). Some of you may remember we used to run a music venue around the corner called The Garage. Sometimes, after concerts, a group of us would film videos of the bands. One Saturday night, after-hours, we shot a video in the church office. One time, one of the cameramen wanted to get a better angle of the lead singer so he stood on one of our antique couches. Now, this particular cameraman was “large-framed.” And the frame of this couch was designed when people were generally smaller. So, when he stood on the couch, you could hear its spine snap like a toothpick. After the video shoot, I went home that night and rehearsed the speech I would give Paul Walker the next morning. “Church property had been damaged. I was responsible. I am so sorry. This won’t happen again.” You know, just the lamest apology.
I get to church early to meet Paul before anyone else arrives. And Paul is a gracious man so I expect to be forgiven. But he’s also my boss which probably entails some real-world consequences. I expect him to say, “Well, Sam, I’m glad you told me. I forgive you, of course, but actions do have consequences and you won’t be able to film these videos in the church office anymore.” But do you know what he actually said? Without skipping a beat, he says four words: “Big whoop! Who cares?!”
It felt like a conversion experience. That’s when the grace of God got personal. And how do you think I responded? Do you think I said, “Great, we’ll see if we can break some more furniture!” No, that incident was fifteen years ago and I still haven’t left this place! Because once you get a taste of mercy and forgiveness you will lose your taste for deservedness and payback. The world lives by the flesh. It keeps people ticking through willpower and discipline and correction and it turns them into the walking dead. The flesh is in the business of preserving antique couches. Protect them at all costs! But when the couch breaks (and the couch will break) you are either furious with rage or crushed with guilt. Either way is death.
God presents another way: life by the Spirit. Where life by the flesh fixes your gaze on yourself and what you have done, life by the Spirit lifts your attention to the Cross, to what God has done for you. Where life according to the flesh brings either shame or rebellion, life by the Spirit sparks true obedience, not out of obligation but out of love. And because Jesus has defeated sin and death, it is an engine that is inexhaustible. As the Apostle Paul writes, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.”
Your justification, the thing that makes you presentable to God, is not a long slog of moral improvement. It’s not a process. It’s a verdict. And the verdict is “Not guilty.” No condemnation. Jesus looks at all of your faults and mistakes and regrets and says, “Big whoop, who cares?” only because he cared so much that he died that your sin would be dealt with once and for all. He was condemned so that you would not be condemned. He was killed so that you might live. If there is anything that will make you tick in this life, it’s that.
Amen.
