Romans 8:12-25

Pentecost + 5 - Year A

Romans 8:12-25

Paul seems to have forgotten the parable of wheat and tares. Somehow he sees what he thinks is a way to separate spirit from flesh. Such utopian attempts have long been made in every religious tradition.

It was laborious to separate the cotton from the seed until a gin (engine) was invented for that purpose. Paul seems to think he has invented an equivalent to separate the spirit from the flesh, the wheat from the weed. The Spirit of G*D calls to the spirit of you and perhaps me. In this call only our spirit responds. Pretty neat.

There is still something, though, that reminds Paul (some “thorn”?) that he was still waiting for some adoption of his weedy parts that would redeem them. And so, finally, Paul’s wheatie Grace and weedy Law was going fall back upon hope rather than some technologically neat theology that G*D could and would only be praised by spirit.

Even creedal repetition of “Abba! Father!” is grounded in hope rather than guarantee of this being an “Open Sesame” mantra. And so we continue to labor and groan with wheat and weed and self and other and new creation and hope and, and, and.