Reading 1 Rom 8:1-11
Brothers and sisters:
Now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has freed you from the law of sin and death.
For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do,
this God has done:
by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
so that the righteous decree of the law might be fulfilled in us,
who live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh
are concerned with the things of the flesh,
but those who live according to the spirit
with the things of the spirit.
The concern of the flesh is death,
but the concern of the spirit is life and peace.
For the concern of the flesh is hostility toward God;
it does not submit to the law of God, nor can it;
and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh;
on the contrary, you are in the spirit,
if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But if Christ is in you,
although the body is dead because of sin,
the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
the one who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit that dwells in you.
Gospel Lk 13:1-9
Some people told Jesus about the Galileans
whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.
He said to them in reply,
“Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way
they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?
By no means!
But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!
Or those eighteen people who were killed
when the tower at Siloam fell on them—
do you think they were more guilty
than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?
By no means!
But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!”
And he told them this parable:
“There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard,
and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none,
he said to the gardener,
‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree
but have found none.
So cut it down.
Why should it exhaust the soil?’
He said to him in reply,
‘Sir, leave it for this year also,
and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it;
it may bear fruit in the future.
If not you can cut it down.'”
Paul touched on a lot of vital points in the first reading of today. If I can just try to simplify it.
- Christ bore our condemnation, he made himself our sin offering, he is our substitute, our suffering and sorrows he bore (Isaiah 53:4). Consequently, for all who are in him, there is now no more condemnation.
- To be in Christ is to live according to his Spirit. Only those who live in the Spirit can please God and the end is peace and life. To live under the dominion of the flesh leads to death.
What does it mean to live according to the Spirit and what does it mean to live according to the flesh?
I remember participating in a seminar called Life in the Spirit Seminar, it was definitely an enriching program. It is something I could recommend to anyone. In that seminar, through a series of talks, exercises and prayers we are made to understand what it means to live the new life of grace otherwise called Life in the Spirit.
Through baptism, we receive the Spirit of God and through confirmation, we receive like a revival of that Spirit and a strengthening of the graces of baptism. However, the question is are we walking in that Spirit or according to the flesh?
Life in the Spirit means life directed by the Holy Spirit, it is a new life of grace in which we are attracted to and thrilled by spiritual things. We surrender our wills and desires to the direction and discipline of the Spirit, we bear fruits in the spirit and exhibit a character like that of Christ because we are prompted by the same spirit in Him.
Life according to the flesh is to please ourselves, indulge our bodies, gratify our lusts, satisfy our inclinations. In this kind of life, we are fascinated by and interested in unspiritual things. Here, the flesh dominates the spirit. St Paul says those who are in the flesh cannot please God and the end of this is death.
Galatians 5:19-21 tells us;
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
In today’s gospel, some people came to report a disaster to Jesus, Pilate had just mingled the blood of some Galileans with that of their sacrifices. Jesus used the opportunity to teach his listeners, the massacre by Pilate and the sudden death of those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed are to be understood as warnings to everyone to repent.
As for us, we also hear news of evil all around us, sudden death, plagues, natural disasters, massacres, stabbings, mass shooting, violence, terrorism, man’s inhumanity to man, no one is safe, no one is sure of anything.
A right attitude is to allow these events to prompt us to think more critically about our lives and to repent from living in the flesh. We cannot afford to live carelessly. To die in the flesh is to risk condemnation, to die in the Spirit is to gain eternal life because there will never be condemnation for all those who are in Christ Jesus, those who live according to the Spirit.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Okami on October 26, 2019