“What do we talk about when we talk about the Flesh and the Spirit?” A Sermon on Romans 8:1-11

Hello Metro, it is always a pleasure to bring God's word to you, especially as we continue to engage in a series talking about the truths and redefining truths that we hear in the Bible.

Romans 8:1-11 (First Nations Translation)

1 So now, no one can use our tribal law to decide the guilt of the ones who have trusted in Creator Sets Free (Jesus) the Chosen One! 2 For the Chosen One, Creator Sets Free (Jesus), has brought the new law of the Spirit’s life to release us from the death sentence of our tribal law, given because of our bad hearts and broken ways. 3 That law did not have the power to set us free, because of our broken humanity. Creator found a way by sending his Son, in the likeness of broken and weak human beings, to bear the weight of our broken ways in his own human body and set us free from our guilt and shame.

4 Now our tribal law can never have the say over the ones who walk in the new ways of the Spirit, and not in the old ways of our broken humanity. 5 The ones who walk in these broken ways are still thinking like weak human beings, but the ones who walk in step with the Spirit are thinking like true human beings. 6 If we set our minds on the broken desires of our bodies, we will see only death. But if we look to the power of the Spirit, we will have life and walk the road of peace. 7 For the thoughts of our weak human minds are against the ways of the Great Spirit. These thoughts will not and cannot surrender to Creator’s law. 8 The ones who follow only their broken desires are not able to please the Great Spirit.

9 But if Creator’s Spirit lives in you, then the desires of your broken human ways cannot overpower you. Remember, the ones who belong to the Chosen One have his Spirit. 10 So then, if the Chosen One lives in you, even though your broken human desires doom your bodies to death, the Spirit gives you life because of Creator’s power to restore you back to his right ways. 11 If the same Spirit that brought Creator Sets Free (Jesus) the Chosen One back from the dead lives in you, then that same Spirit will also bring your death-doomed bodies back to life again.

The scripture that we just read from Romans 8 is one of the most popular scriptures that we hear when talking about romans. It is popular for many reasons, it features the most robust description of what the power of the spirit is, it is a trinitarian scripture that features the spirit of God and the spirit of Jesus and the Holy Spirit in different phrasings throughout the chapter, and of course it features this contrast between the Flesh and the spirit.

The concept of the flesh and the spirit is one that gets talked about a lot in Christianity. For a variety of reasons. So, let us engage in that and the question, in our first communal question.

What images/words come to mind when you hear the word “Flesh”? Especially when used in a biblical context?

It is interesting to me that the main way in which we have always understood the idea of flesh, or the idea behind this specific text, is as a very individualistic, sinful idea. Idea. One of the reasons why I wanted to talk about this text is because I want to help us read the fine what this flesh means, what Paul was really referring to when saying flesh in Romans 8. For all the biblical nerds out there, the word flesh is an immensely popular word, but we know that it does not mean here the actual physical body which Christianity tends to interpret as that, not what Paul is talking about. Here is as you see in the first nation's translation which I really loved, is really broken humanity, or is best defined as:

“‘Flesh’ did not simply refer to "body", Flesh primarily meant being oriented in the world without reference to God—in contrast to Spirit, which meant being oriented to God. Flesh not being oriented towards God.”

Flesh here for Paul actually refers to as, we see throughout this translation, a mindset. Flesh here really refers to a mindset that is opposed to the divine mindset, to the mindset of God.

Now that is interesting, because what Paul is talking about is about the fact that we must be of one mind, that we must be of a mind that is oriented towards the things of God, which means really towards the things that are good.

Paul gets granular here, Paul says straightforwardly that our life becomes that towards which we are oriented. Which is something that you have heard many people say. So not orienting ourselves towards the things not of God, if that is the flesh, then that is having a focus that is not divine. That might be doing things seeking gratitude and praise instead of simply helping, it might mean doing things not out of an abundance of love but rather out of a desire for a reward. That when we seek to do justice, we want to be rewarded for the justice that we do. That is orienting away from the way that goddess oriented. The works of the flesh, as laid out here in Romans, are really about the motives that drive us, are we thinking individualistic or are we thinking communally as Christ did?

The spirit instead drives us towards community. Even if you look at the text when you look at verse 9, for example, for six specifically says allow the spirit to make home in you, the Greek word that says reside or live in means make a home in you, which is a really beautiful image. If we orient ourselves towards God, we allow God to be within us, to shape who we are and what we do, and that is evidenced by how we are in the world, how we treat others in the world.

The other passage today that we could have preached from was an exceedingly popular passage in Matthew "the parable of the Sower."

The parable of the sower is, of course, the title of one of the best works of English literature by Octavia Butler. The book is titled from the parable, which talks about a sower, a farmer, who was spreading seeds across the field, and some seeds fell in good soil, some seeds fell in bad soil, and the seed that fell in good soil grew and the seed in bad soil did not grow or grow well. This is an oversimplification, there is a lot more that that text talks about. But one of the interesting things about the parable of the sower, the parable, not the book, is that ⅔ of the seeds land in not good soil, and the seeds in the good soil had different results.

Now when we hear parables, and I am not reading all of it here, I just paraphrased it, it is always interesting to see who we are in the parable, are we the sower, are we the seed, or we the soil? I think the connection to Romans is that whether we are the sower, the seed, or the soil, it is our orientation towards God that allows that soil to be fertile, that seed to grow, or the sower to spread soil in the right place. What I am saying overall, Metro, is that our orientation towards God is really but brings forth God's kin-dom, it is really the work of the spirit in us.

And I say us because one of the other aspects that is often forgotten about scripture, is that scripture is meant to be communal. Paul’s letter to the Romans When we often hear this text, talking about flesh and spirit, we often think of it as individual. We hear the text I was talking to us as if you, Josue, are in the flesh then you are not in God, or conversely that if you are in the spirit then you are of God. And while that is somewhat useful, especially if you want to focus on personal piety, that has a lot of limits and has often been the tool used by dominant culture to tell you to not enjoy life because anything that is enjoyed by the body is the flesh and not of God. But that is just a lie. Our second question:

Where is it that the Spirit dwells? Is it in each of the hearers individually or is it in the community?

What might be the relationship between the way the Spirit dwells in the community and in the individual?

Since Paul is addressing a community trying to learn how to live together again as Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus, such a reference might remind them to think about how God is with the whole, even across ethnic lines.

Here is something that is helpful for us about this text, especially imagining if this text is read community and not individual. If we can see that God is calling all of us together, not only me and it is in my individual, but that my salvation is linked to the community to which I belong, that changes the scripture for us. Now the scripture becomes richer because what it is saying is that if you are all in the spirit, then you are of God, and what does that do? That helps me as an individual who may be struggling with a private sin or having a tougher time, just knowing that I am part of a community that is oriented towards God moves me in the direction of God and orients me towards God. Too often we have heard this text preach individually, but there is a communal aspect here. We all help one another be oriented towards God.

Reminds me of a quote by James Baldwin. Now some of you know, and as you can see because of my hand, I experienced a minor accident on my bike this past Tuesday, where I fell off my bike after hours of reading. James Baldwin, mainly because I was just thinking and distracted while bike riding which is not smart to do, and this is the payment for that distraction, hopefully it will heal well. Heal well. Let us read.

“Salvation is not flight from the wrath of God; it is accepting and reciprocating the love of God. Salvation is not separation. It is the beginning of union with all that is or has been or will ever be… It is to be reaffirmed every day and every hour. There is absolutely no salvation without love... Salvation does not divide. Salvation connects, so that one sees oneself in others and others in oneself.”

James Baldwin talks about salvation and something that is communal, something that is not on the individual, but that is enacted by the entire community because of love, that unites and does not divide us. People who haven't read Baldwin, or have not really dealt deeply into scripture, see that as a very heretical statement, but one of the things that the spirit generates is a community that provides that salvation for us, “The spirit is more than just a pledge of our belonging, it generates a community that is abundant and living and life-giving” and that is what Paul is talking about here is that if I individually are not in the Spirit because I am part of a community that's geared towards the spirit than I am in God's spirit and I am oriented towards God and not oriented towards things that are not of this world or broken humanity or the flesh.

To conclude, Metro, it is particularly important for us to really redefine what we think. When we think of these words, flesh, and spirit. Flesh is not that your body is bad and that your desires in the body are bad, or that you should not enjoy life, as the scripture has sometimes been taken to me. No, it means that as we live our lives, we need them to be informed by God's spirit so that they can be oriented to God. And how do we do that? Simply, allow God's spirit to dwell within you, within me, within all of us, be connected to a community where God is dwelling, and yes, you can practice prayer methods, contemplative prayers you know I always evolve for, but the main idea is not to be disconnected. The moment that we are disconnected, alone, is when it is easier for us to be oriented towards the things that are not of God.

And that is the truth, allow the Spirit of God to make a home in you, be part of a community that is oriented towards God, and you too will be ori