A New Desire

Fifth Sunday of Lent

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Romans 8:6-11

Ezekiel’s vision of a valley of dry bones is a weird one.  Ezekiel, wandering around, kicking bones that clack and rattle, is commanded to speak to the bones.  He is to tell them to prepare to be clothed in sinew, tendon, muscle and skin, and then to command God’s breath enter them and bring them to life.

That vision was a sign for Ezekiel and for us that God can reverse the powerful forces of death and destruction.  The life of God is always more powerful than the forces of death.  God brings deadly situations to life by breathing into them the new life of the Spirit.

 

God worked life in the midst of death for Israel – by giving a child to way-past-their-prime Abraham and Sarah; by delivering Israel from slavery in Egypt; and again by gathering them from exile in foreign lands and settling them back in their homeland. 

Today, I want to direct your attention to the new life that God has begun within you right now.  That new life in us is called the Holy Spirit.

READING

There are only two more weeks of Lent before our Easter celebration.  I hope it’s been a good and meaningful time for you.  Some of you have chosen to observe the season by giving something up: meat, or soft drinks and coffee, or TV, or restaurants.  So that’s one way to approach Lent: make a personal sacrifice that can bring your life a little closer to the gospel story of Jesus’ approach towards suffering and death. 

Another way we often approach Lent is as a season of preparation – we’re preparing for Easter. 

But today’s reading suggests yet another way that we can experience a meaningful season of Lent.  This can be a season of self-discovery.  This can be a time where we explore some untended parts of ourselves.  We all have depths and levels to our lives that go overlooked for long periods of time.  We occasionally forget quite cherished parts of who we are.  We block access to some things that bring us life.  We push down and strive to forget some things.  We nail shut doors to some regions of our lives because we’ve been hurt or wounded, or we’ve experienced failure. 

So if you want a way to capitalize on these last couple weeks of Lent, I want to invite you into a time of self-discovery.  I’ll try to get us started with that by exploring this text today.

Paul teaches that there are only two ways to live.  He labels these two ways “flesh” and “Spirit.”  The NRSV translates his word “flesh” as “sinful nature,” and you might guess why.  We tend to use the word “flesh” to refer to our bodies, to physical life in general.  And that’s not what Paul meant.  He meant that everyone lives their lives in the grip of some powerful force.  Your life is in the grip of either a force called “the sinful nature” OR the force called “Spirit.”

So when Paul teaches that there are only two ways to live, he means that your life will be given its shape by one of two powerful forces.  But he also means that these large, powerful forces will bend your life in a particular direction.  So life can only be lived in one of two directions – towards death or towards life and peace.  While there are countless ways to live our lives, there are not countless outcomes to a life.  There is only a mind controlled by sin which leads to death, and a mind controlled by the Spirit which leads to life and peace.

Let’s look at the negative side of Paul’s picture first.  How does a life in the grip of the power of sin lead to death?  Paul gives us two specific characteristics of the life lived in the direction of death:

1.  A life in the grip of sin is hostile to God and and God’s law (v. 7).  The sinful mind does not recognize God as our truest friend, but instead as an enemy.  The sinful mind does not receive God’s love and wisdom as the path toward the most satisfying life.  Rather, it bristles and hisses when God’s love comes near, assuming that God wants to diminish our joy and fulfillment.

    2.  A life in the grip of sin cannot please God (v. 8).  The person living in a way controlled by sin does many things that appear perfectly good and healthy.  In many ways, the person controlled by sin has a life indistinguishable from a spiritual person.  And yet this life lacks gratitude, failing to acknowledge God as the giver of all gifts.  This life lacks humility, constantly comparing and competing against others, instead of seeing all others as God’s equally loved children.  This life lacks peace, always worried about performing, achieving, succeeding.

But here’s the good news of our reading today: that’s not you!  That’s maybe who you used to be.  But that’s not you anymore.  If you belong to Jesus Christ, then you have been given the Spirit.  You are living in the Spirit.  Your “mind” is controlled by the Spirit.  God’s Spirit is now the controlling, directing power of your life.

Your life, lived under the control of the Spirit, moves in the direction of life and peace (v. 6).  It is characterized by friendship with God and it delights in God’s law (v. 7).  It is a life that pleases God in its ordinariness, its gratitude, humility and peace (v. 8).

This means that we live by a new desire.  If Christ is in you, then God has given Christ’s Spirit to be the inward energy and the controlling desire of your life. 

I’m not trying to convince you to do anything different.  I’m simply declaring that God has already shifted the basic force of your life by giving you the Spirit.  And I’m inviting you to find that new life and peace within yourself.  To locate and live by that new desire. 

So often, preachers do what parents, teachers, bosses and coaches often do.  We tell people to “try harder.”  Things aren’t working?  Try harder.  But that message would be a mistake as a response to our reading today.  In this text, God does not invite us to try harder.  We are not urged to “try” at all.  We are invited, instead, to relax.  Relax down into the wonderful news that you have already received God’s Spirit.  You are a person with a new desire.  Yours is a mind controlled by God’s Spirit.