I am convinced that we are standing at the divergence of the destiny of the Christian church, as we have known it.  Our society is in the midst of a spiritual quest or spiritual awakening, and it is not finding satisfactory answers.  A recent article in The Christian Century, a theologically progressive magazine, was entitled “Let’s talk about sex.”  A professor at a Roman Catholic college who offered a course on Dating and Friendship wrote that the students attending indicated that when they first came on campus, it was a thing of honor to wake up in the morning with Mr. Wonderful or Miss Knock-out in bed with you on Monday morning.  It didn’t matter that it might be the last time that you saw him or her.  There would be another weekend party and another opportunity for “hook-up” sex.  The pressure to participate in this life style was great even though the official policy of the Catholic college advocated abstinence and prohibited distribution of any kind of birth control on campus. 

But then the author says, the students soon felt the emptiness of the relationships and created their own newspaper to talk about the disconnect between the institutional policy and the practice of the students.  They wanted to integrate their dating life and their faith.  The class became a catalyst for examining their behavior AND their belief system.  What initially appeared to be freedom to them soon became empty dreams.

This passage in Romans challenges us to examine our own lifestyle to  see  how   it  reflects  our  values.   We have an opportunity to make a difference not only in our own lives, but in our communities as well.  The answers that many in our society and many of us are pursuing are not yielding the promise of freedom that we had hoped.  And the typical institutional church is not answering the spiritual questions that are being posed.  -   Are we? 

We in the mainline tradition have unfortunately been guilty of offering “cheap grace”.  Dietrick Bonhoffer, over fifty years ago, warned that cheap grace is the deadly enemy of the church.  It is a wondrous gift to celebrate grace.  It is freeing to move away from the guilt-ridden manifestation of Christianity.  However, in the focus on guilt-free religion, we have also induced a responsibility-free faith.  Mainline Christianity has become focused on what I can get out of it, or “what has it done for me lately?” mentality.  Cheap grace is grace offered with generous hands, without asking questions or setting limits.  Grace without a price, it doesn’t cost anything.  The bottom line is that it is grace without discipleship.  That certainly is not what Jesus experienced or what Jesus offered his followers.  They were not called disciples only because he wanted them to learn some intellectual material.  He repeatedly instructed them and all his followers about how they should live. 

This Romans’ passage lays out two diverse ways of pursuing freedom.  One is to give yourself to “whatever.”  To let yourself be given to what will gratify and satisfy you!  It is to put yourself in the center of the universe with the thought that all was created for you and your pleasure.  The second way of pursuing freedom is to  see  yourself  as  being  used,  being  the medium through which God can accomplish God’s purposes in the world.         

If the truth were told, most of us are like the students who thought that freedom to get meant freedom to be fully alive.  That which is appealing and satisfying certainly is that which is life-giving, right?!  It may not have been sex, maybe it was popularity, maybe it was being the brightest in the class, or maybe it was not “wasting your time in school” and instead began making the big buck!  Each of us has sought freedom in all the wrong places. 

In fact, freedom is illusionary.  Are we ever totally free?  Romans challenges the idea that we are independent, free of any thing.  We like to think that we are.  “Nobody is going to tell me what to do!”  “I am going to objectively look at the facts and determine for myself what I will do or who I will vote for.”  I have been heard to make such claims of independence and assert my freedom.   But am I?  Just take the Myers Briggs Test or some other personality test, and one quickly sees how much has been determined by your personality type!  I was shocked!  Here the independent one, who wasn’t just following in the steps of my family – wasn’t as independent or free as I thought.  Other factors have been determinative in my decision making, quite unknown to me.

Our task is to become more aware of what forces are influencing who and what we are.  There are life-giving forces and life-robbing forces.  And we become agents of those entities.  “What’s in your wallet?” has become a slogan for one of the credit card companies.  It might be a good question for us.  What card-carrying power is in your wallet?  Are we intentional about what direction we want our lives to go?  Oh, I know there probably is no one here this morning that is focused intentionally on being a power for evil and destruction.  Most of us, if not all of us, are committed to be builders and not destroyers. 

The Christian is primarily and fundamentally designed to express the life of the indwelling Lord.  Verse thirteen of this chapter says: “present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness.”  When we take on the name of Christ, we acknowledge a newness about ourselves.  We become aware of new forces within us.

Imagine, if you will, the life of a caterpillar creeping ever so slowly across the ground.  Very vulnerable to all the moving forces around it.  After some time it has escaped the hazards and finds a safe place to form a cocoon.  A short period later the cocoon opens and out flies this beautiful butterfly – flitting from one flower to the next.  If it had the power to become self-aware, I would think it would die of fright or amazement!  But it has become something very different than it had been.  Its purpose for existence is new and life producing.  And, of course, its beauty is often one that catches our attention. 

Can we learn from the butterfly?  Do we see that we can not become a caterpillar again?  That freedom is not what we thought it to be.  In fact, to be free is to know what force or entity we belong to.  To know that we are resurrection people (the butterfly in some circles is a resurrection symbol) is to readjust our focus for being.  We discover that values are determined by what force we give ourselves to.  

      Resurrection people do not tolerate violence in our communities.  Violence against women, violence to children, violence on our  streets, or in the streets of Iraq and Afghanistan.

      Resurrection people do not accept the 10,000 plus homicides each year that occurs in our cities.

      Resurrection people do not accept the deterioration of the family and family life that is occurring in our society.

      Resurrection people may think twice about the use of abortion as simply a birth control procedure because a pregnancy is inconvenient.

      Resurrection people do not condone sexual intercourse by uncommitted partners wanting an evening of entertainment. 

And the list goes on….

The list may contain different items for different people, but the point is that resurrection people are people who value grace and the reality of the resurrection.  They choose to be instruments or mediums of righteousness.  They know sin exists and know its reality in their own lives.  But they have a new focus and choose to claim resurrection power that enables them to be a source of life-giving in their sphere of existence.  Just as the butterflies in their movement may not be aware that they bring new life to flowers and plants, we bring new life by simply being true to who we are created to be. 

One of the benefits of being a pastor is the privilege of hearing people’s stories.  I delight in any occasion that allows us to share our pilgrimage or our journey.  It is a gift to hear someone say that because of Mt. Auburn’s existence they have come to know Jesus.  Or to see the face of one describing the overpowering feeling of acceptance when they walked into this building.  There is a culture here that gives us permission to be who we are and not have to think exactly like the next person.  I suspect not all of you agreed with my characterization of resurrection people.  That is OK, and because I said it, it does not make it the culture here.  But it does reflect the culture of tolerance for varying opinions.  And that tolerance is life giving. 

But in our love of tolerance let us continue the struggle of not advocating cheap grace.  Let us have the courage to be disciples of Jesus Christ.  May we be God’s medium to bring about the fullness of life Jesus seeks to teach us.