A Cycle – 13^th Sunday in Ordinary Time 26

Rom. 6:3-4,8-11

The apostle Paul has always fascinated me.  Hi adamant denial of Christ as the promised messiah and his involvement with the Jewish authorities as they attempted to prevent the spread of Christianity.  All of us know his story, for it is a keystone in the spread of not only Christianity to the gentiles.  It is also a story reminding us how God never gives up on us no matter how far we wander away from embracing Christ as Lord and Savior. 

His letter to the Romans is a master’s thesis on why Christ is exactly who He claimed to be. It is also a wakeup call to all of us as we struggle with how to live our lives in this world and yet remain faithful believers in our salvation.  It is a theme he knew so well because that was his life before his encounter with Christ.  Paul constantly reminds us we seek a compromise between embracing Christ and while remaining attached to what the world offers.  Paul said“…we hold to a form of religion while denying the power of it” (2Tim. 3:5). He wants us to avoid the mistake he made.  To awake us to believe and as his faith in Christ was awakened. Advising us to live in the “newness of the life” Christ has given us by His death and resurrection.  

It is ours but we must claim it, embrace it, and reject all other means of growing in holiness.  It begins with us examining how our belief in Christ is impacting our lives.  Remember, John in his epistle told us what he had written he did so that “…we would believe in His name and by believing have eternal life” (1Jn. 5:13.  Can it be that simple” Just by believing in the name of Jesus.  Just by believing He paid the penalty of our sins by His death on the cross.  Just by trusting in the promise of God who said He would forgive and forget our sin (Jer.31:34).  Does our believing hold the key to growing in holiness?

If you do not think what we believe does not impact how we live our faith daily, then you are mistaken. Paul did not believe and persecuted the Christians.  The apostles believed when Jesus told them to go out two by two and heal the sick, cast our demons and proclaim the good news.  The scriptures tell us those same disciples believed but were confused about His resurrection. Why does belief depend on how present Christ is to us?  It is a rhetorical question that should make us think about how our relationship with Christ impacts our belief in His promises.

 At a minimum how deeply we believe needs to be examined.  How deeply we believe impacts our ability or willingness to begin our journey into the heart of God.  We believe or we would not be here, giving thanks to Christ.  That faith can be a great faith impacting us as it did Paul after his encounter with Christ. Or it could be a faith that drives us like it did Nicodemus seeking an answer to what it mans to be born again.  Or it could be the faith of Mary who failed to understand but submitted to the will of God even as it meant she could be stoned to death.  Christ said if we had the faith the size of a mustard seed, we could move mountains.  I would suggest that each of us has more than mustard sized faith.

Yet we continue to struggle with the simplest of all possible shortcomings impacting our ability to believe.  Are we doing enough to be acceptable to God?  A shortcoming inherent in all humanity that creates a huge obstacle our being able to tap into the power of the cross. It motivates us to live a do it yourself faith dependent on our ability to discipline ourselves.  God’s plan was for Christ death to be the catalyst for us to desire more than just forgiveness of our sin. It was to create within us a desire for the more God desires us to experience.  The power of the Holy Spirit transforming each of us int powerful witnesses because we know we share in the glory of the cross.  We become new creations in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit changing our hearts. 

God unlike Elisha knew what we needed and He has provided us with Christ and the Holy Spirit to change us.  Today He reminds us how much we need to have a faith that believes. A faith that relies on the promises of God, the sacrifice if Jesus and the transforming power of the Spirit to guide us as we become bold witnesses of God’s grace.