Romans 8:1-11

Pentecost + 4 - Year A

Romans 8:1-11

If everything that has come into being has done so through Jesus, aka. Christ, logos, how can there be any condemnation?

A spirit of life sets us free from condemning to death or being incapacitated by condemnation.

Any number of obsessions might delay arriving at behaving as though a spirit of life were important to us. These obsessions won't condemn us, just slow us down. They show up in all manner of legalisms, of cutting one another off, of focusing on the unimportant, of pleasing self through an artificial consistency.

In a recently concluded church trial we found that those trying to condemn had to reduce a life orientation to one physical part of the body - the genitalia. This lack of life spirit does not condemn them for attempting to condemn, but does slow down a whole process of G*D re-wrapping creation about G*D. Where once G*D condemned an archetypal Adam and Eve, slowing creation down, G*D is raising all creatures and creation back to life. Some are still stuck on condemnation, G*D’s and their’s, but since Christ is in all, all will be raised.

This is a good time to do a refrigerator chart. On a simple sheet of paper draw a line down the paper to provide two columns - a condemnation column and a raising from the dead column. Periodically jot down the number of times you thought, said, or acted in a manner characterized by one of these columns since your last review. After a couple of days, see if there is a pattern. Do your bio-rhythms affect the chart, the quality of your sleep, the healthiness of your diet, the meditation discipline you follow, the people you spend time with, etc. While the goal is to join a spirit of life in raising new life, the usual pattern is to gently move in that direction, with a step backward every now and then, but generally moving forward. Don’t give up.