Covidiots and sinners

 

This Reflection was produced for Sunday 12th July 2020. It looks at Romans 8: 1 - 11

I wonder what you’ve made of the photographs and TV footage of the vast crowds on the beach at Bournemouth or crowds gathered outside pubs? I have to say these images made me cross. Like many of you, we’ve had to “shield” over these last 3 months. It’s not been too bad, but it has certainly been frustrating at times. Nevertheless, we’ve done it to protect our own health and also in consideration of the NHS and other people.

No doubt those people on the beach in Bournemouth or gathered in pubs all feel justified in what they’ve done. No doubt some of them have been stuck at home for weeks. No doubt their children have been driving them to distraction. No doubt there are all manner of reasons why people felt they could do what they do, including testing their eyesight! But they’ve “sinned” haven’t they?

When I looked at the Bible passages for this Sunday, I was immediately drawn to Romans 8: 1 – 11, In particular verses 6 and 6 which, in the Contemporary English Version read:

⁵ People who are ruled by their desires think only of themselves. Everyone who is ruled by the Holy Spirit thinks about spiritual things. ⁶ If our minds are ruled by our desires, we will die. But if our minds are ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace. Romans 8: 5 – 6 CEV

Oh yes I thought, those words of Paul entitle me to write a stinging rebuke of a sermon to those “Covidiots” on Bournemouth beach or in pubs. (Covidiots is a phrase coined to describe the behaviour of those who appear to be unconcerned with the risk of catching Covid 19.)

But then I thought “Wait a minute. Which one of us at some point in our lives has not behaved in a way when we’ve thought only of ourselves as opposed to others? Which one of us at some point in our lives has sinned we have sinned against God or against our neighbour in thought and word and deed, through negligence, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault?” (If you feel you haven’t, I suspect you’re suffering from severe headaches as your halo is too tight!) And it’s quite possible that amongst those hundreds of thousands of people there were some Christians.

We’ve all sinned. It might not be majorly, but we all have sinned. And we know that God hates sin. And by rights, we should be punished for that sin. We should be condemned. But Paul reminds us

“… there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” Romans 8:1 NIV

The key part of that verse are those three words “in Christ Jesus”. There is no condemnation from sin for those who are in Christ Jesus.

What does that little phrase “in Christ Jesus” mean?

To be in Christ Jesus is to be part of something far larger than oneself. As David M. Greenham puts it in the Feasting on the Word Bible commentary for this passage

“To be in Christ Jesus is to encounter a power astronomically greater than the sum of all the will power you have ever mustered, added to all the physical power you have ever exerted, added to all the clout you’ve ever had”.

To be in Christ Jesus, is to be swept up by the power of the Holy Spirit and to be free from the things of the flesh that bind us. In other words, to be in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit means the the things of the world, “the flesh” has no control over us. To be in Christ Jesus means we see things from Christ’s perspective not the world’s perspective.

This is good news. But it is difficult to believe. Yet it is not impossible to believe. To believe we are in Christ means that we have reoriented our lives toward a power greater than ourselves. A power greater than any in the world. (And that, Paul reminds us, is the power of death. Even that power has no control over us if we are in Christ Jesus.)

The Spirit we have in Christ Jesus can do so much more than we are able to do. On our own we are not able to get it all done; so much is left undone. By this tiny phrase “in Christ Jesus” Paul shows us we are not constrained by our own limitations or shortcomings or failings. We are not even condemned for our cruelties, our hurtful ways or our hateful actions. There is no condemnation for our sins. We are forgiven. In Christ Jesus we are free.

That is not to say we can sin without impunity. Paul reminds us that

“… those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” Romans 8:5

We are frail people. Even when we are in the Spirit we will sometimes sin in some shape or form. But we have the assurance of forgiveness if we seek it and if we are in Christ Jesus.

In 1973 a gang of bank robbers held up the Kreditbanken in Stockholm, Sweden. The police interrupted their heist, but the bank robbers proceeded to hold several bank employees hostage for six long days. When at last they were rescued these kidnap victims, who had been terrorized and abused by their captors, stunned the authorities by demonstrating considerable emotional attachment to their victimizers. Swedish criminologist Nils Bejrot termed what had happened as Stockholm syndrome.

Since 1973 Stockholm Syndrome - a captive showing loyalty and concern for the captor — has been repeated and recognised thousands of times. Including in domestic abuse cases. The captives get their own identity so wrapped up in that of their captors that no matter how bad their reality, it seems better than facing the fear of an unknown, undefined future.

One of the dominant sicknesses facing our world today is a kind of cultural "Stockholm Syndrome," blindly defending and claiming as good for ourselves the very things that keep us captive. Whether it is not caring for our neighbour, lying, cheating, or whatever.

It is only recognition of being held captive by sin and the need to be freed from sin by Christ Jesus that can help us. Whether we’re Covidiots, or sinners, or both!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.