Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Creation Waits With Eagerness; Romans 8:15-23

 

Rev. George Miller

May 28, 2023

Romans 8:15-23

 

Today we come to the end of our time spent with Paul and the Roman Church.  We do so with a powerful passage.

 

In today’s reading, Paul gives us so much to think about-

 

We are NOT captives to sin, so STOP being slaves to fear.

 

We ARE adopted by Big Papa to be God’s Beloved Children; chosen inheritors of Big Papa’s paradise.

 

Creation IS waiting with eagerness for US to actively claim who we are, so Creation can stop groaning.

 

Creation has been enslaved and will obtain the same freedoms we receive in Christ.

 

We might ask- how has Creation been groaning?  How are the plants, animals and elements enslaved?  What does the land, sea and air have to do with the grace of Jesus Christ?

 

Everything.

 

The Bible has always made clear how Creation is attached to the people and how the people have always been attached to the land.

 

Which means- as we sin, err, and make tragic mistakes, Creation suffers, groans and moans, so…

 

…as we become justified, saved, and made right with God, Creation oohs, ahhs, and experiences relief.

 

Think about it.  Genesis 4:1-16.  Cain is angry that God prefers Abel’s offering of BBQ over his offering of salad, so he plans to kill his brother.

 

God speaks to Cain- “You don’t have to do this.  You don’t have to allow sin to harm your brother.”

 

But Cain lures his brother into a field and murders him.  The ground swallows Abel’s blood, becomes polluted, unable to grow crops. 

 

God says to Cain “What have you done?  Can’t you hear it- your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.”

 

As a result Cain is cursed from having a fruitful experience with the soil.  No matter how much he farms, he’s unable to produce healthy crops.

 

Cain isn’t the only brother who allows his emotions to get in the way of Creation’s innocence.

 

Genesis 37: 12-36.  The sons of Jacob gets upset that Joseph has a fancy-shmancy new coat, so they conspire to harm him.

 

They strip Joseph of his father’s gift, throw him into a well, sell him into slavery, then kill a goat to use its blood to deceive their Daddy.

 

Once again, Creation suffers for the injustice of humanity.

 

Finally, Acts 1:15-20.  Judas betrays Jesus, buys land with the money, then commits suicide, spilling his insides upon the soil.

 

The place becomes known as the Field of Blood, a desolate location where no one can live.

 

Again and again we see how the earth suffers because we don’t know how to interact with one another.  The plagues of Egypt, the crops destroyed during the Exile.

 

Think of today.  The fields of the Ukraine under rubble.  The Red Tide in the Gulf of Mexico. The citrus that’s spoiling as it waits to be picked.   

 

All ways that Creation groans, waits, suffers and hopes that the glory of God will make itself known.

 

And how that glory is made known due in part to us, how we act, and we live.

 

Do we continue to relive the Cain and Abel narrative, killing our brother because we are jealous of their blessing?

 

Do we continue to attack, silence, and sell out our siblings because they have dreams and dress themselves up in bright colors?

 

Do we get so mad at our kin that we betray them for a few bucks, calling the authorities upon them so they can be publicly humiliated?

 

Notice that in Genesis 4, Genesis 37, Acts 1 it is not just an innocent person who suffers, it is not just the land who suffers, but it is also the jealous, the angry, and the betrayers who suffer as well.

 

Paul tells us today- it does not have to be this way. We do not have to be enslaved to sin.  We don’t have to live a life of constant fear.  Not does the earth always have to suffer.

 

Because in Christ we have been adopted by God.  Because of Christ we are set free from sins hold upon us.  Because of Christ we are inheritors of Heaven.

 

Because of Christ, we can now choose to do what is right, what is good, so that not only do we exceed and find relief, but so do our sisters, so do our brothers, and so does the earth.

 

For as we embrace the gifts of grace, the gifts of grace also greet the ground, the water, the air.

 

And all of us, man, woman, plant, animal, element, experience the New Life found in Christ.

 

For that, let us say “Amen.”

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