Mtr Kelli Joyce

Dear Friends in Christ,

I've been reading through Paul's letter to the Romans in my own personal study of the Bible recently, so I was delighted to see that one of today's readings is the second half of Romans 7. I love this passage, because in it Paul articulates so clearly what I experience in my own life.

"I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. ..I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ..with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin."

The point here is not that our brains our good and the rest of our bodies is somehow wicked, but rather that there is a disconnect between what we are able to want and what we are able to live out. I find myself so frustrated when I know what the right thing to do is in a given situation, and even actively want to do it, but don't actually manage it. I want to have discipline, and spend my days in ways that are healthy and productive and joy-bringing, but far too often I find myself and the end of a day wondering where it went, and why I didn't do the things I most wished to do. Worse is when I find myself doing wrong that I actively want to avoid - I want to be an honest person, and yet, there are times when I'll find myself having said something deceptive without a first thought, much less a second thought. "Who will rescue me from this body that belongs to death?" indeed.

The answer, of course, is Jesus of Nazareth. He has fulfilled the law, he has freed us from the absolute bondage to sin and death in which we once lived, and he has given us the gift of the Spirit - a Spirit who makes the body of each member of Christ's Body into a holy temple. In Romans 8, Paul will speak of this tension we live in: we are no longer slaves to sin or to death-dealing desires, but we are not yet fully free from their influence either. We are groaning with labor pains, he says, as we await the liberation of all creation from death and decay, and the liberation of our bodies and our actions from the power of sin.

I'll leave you with a prayer from Enriching Our Worship. This is the prayer of confession that my wife and I included in our wedding liturgy, and I find it moving because it acknowledges the depth of sin's hold on us, and the surpassing depth of Christ's power to free and to forgive.

"God of all mercy,
we confess that we have sinned against you,
opposing your will in our lives.
We have denied your goodness in each other,
in ourselves, and in the world you have created.
We repent of the evil that enslaves us,
the evil we have done,
and the evil done on our behalf.
Forgive, restore, and strengthen us
through our Savior Jesus Christ,
that we may abide in your love
and serve only your will. Amen."

In peace,
Mtr Kelli