The Downtown Presbyterian Church

Sermons

Not Just Not Dead: ALIVE!

Gn 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Rm 5:12-19

Rev. Kenneth M. Locke

February 13, 2005

How long have you lived? Think about it? How long have you lived? Before you answer let me tell you a story.

When I was in college I was in Army ROTC and one spring day we were doing a rappelling demonstration off the side of a building in the center of campus. It was about a three-story building. I was at the top and I was going to glide down the side of the building from two ropes attached to my waist. I was going to go down a few feet and then kick off real hard and free-fall. The man below was going to haul on the ropes and put tension in them and it would stop me.

I started down and went a few feet and kicked off and started free falling. The problem was the man below, his name was Max Easter, I’ll always remember him, Max wasn’t watching. Maybe a pretty girl walked by or something. It was springtime.

But suddenly I’m free falling and nothing’s stopping me and the ground’s coming up in a hurry. At the last moment Max got his concentration back and looked up and jerked on the ropes and stopped me. Boom – stop.

Talk about a rush. It was fantastic. My head was pounding my blood was racing my heart was thumping. I knew right then I wasn’t just not dead, I was alive. I was living!

I’ve had a few other times like that. My wedding, when I was babbling so much my brother said, “Ken, I love you. Shut up.” When I was ordained to the ministry. I felt that visceral, really alive feeling.

So, how long have you lived? Twenty minutes? A half-hour?

Now let me ask you another question. How long have you lived spiritually? How long have you felt God’s presence in your life, heard the angels singing in your prayers, felt the Spirit pounding in your soul? How long have you lived spiritually?

The reality of life is all of us are going to physically die. That is the way of the world. Created beings are finite. And another reality of life is most of us, most of the time, are spiritually dead. And that is not God’s plan for us and it doesn’t have to be that way.

Paul is telling the people in Rome about being alive in Christ and he does it in terms of Adam. (Please note, everyone who thinks Paul hates women, he says nothing about Eve. Certainly Paul was affected by the ancient world’s view of women but he is not blaming Adam’s mistake on Eve and he is not being a misogynist.)

Adam is the first human being in creation and he freely chooses to go against God’s desires. Doing so he realizes he is estranged from God, he is spiritually naked, and he tries to cover himself.

Now for Presbyterians this opens the door to long and dreary conversations about “the fall” and “original sin” and if you really want to have one of those conversations let me know and I’ll be glad to. But for right now let’s just set that conversation aside.

Paul’s point is we are like Adam. We are aware we are estranged from God. We are aware of our spiritual nakedness and like Adam we grab whatever fig leaves we can find. We stop smoking, we lose weight. We buy a new home, we get a new spouse. We get a new job, we get promoted, we make partner, we get a huge bonus. We get a new hobby, we go on vacation, we give it all up for Lent. And as fig leaves go they’re fine. But fig leaves fall apart when we’re searching and desperate and the thrill we got from that last purchase, that last drink, that last work-out, that last presentation, that last concert has worn off.

You know, death isn’t bad if you don’t know you’re dead. But way too often we’re dead and alive enough to know it. You’ve heard me talk about that huge cemetery on the edge of town, the Opry Mills Mall – full of zombies who know they’re dead. They have a pulse but no joy. They experience life but it’s never visceral.

By referring us to Adam Paul is reminding us we are spiritually dead and we know it. Sinning doesn’t satisfy, following the law doesn’t satisfy, our fig leaves are tattered and torn. And we know it.

And then Paul tells us the good news of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the 1^st human in the new creation. Adam was the 1^st in the old creation. Jesus is the 1^st in the new creation. The bad news is like Adam we all die. The good news is in Jesus Christ we can be alive. The good news is in the baptized, resurrected life of Jesus Christ we are not just not dead, we are alive. We are not just not dead, we are living. In Jesus Christ we are not just not wrong, we are right. We are not just not wrong, we are right with God.

This is Paul’s great point – we are spiritually dead, just like Adam was. But in Jesus Christ we are not just not dead, we are spiritually alive, spirit pounding through our souls and choirs singing in our ears and Jesus lighting a fire and living in our hearts alive.

We know we’re dead, but we don’t have to stay that way. Life doesn’t have to be a dreary series of fig leaves with only the occasional moment of blood rushing, spirit pounding living. In Jesus Christ we can really be alive.

We are in the season of Lent and Jesus is marching towards Jerusalem. When he gets there he’s going to find a cross. And his sole purpose is going to be to die on that cross so we can have real, honest, vital, visceral, spiritual living.

Jesus is marching towards Jerusalem. Easter is coming. Know that in the great joy of Easter and Jesus’ resurrection we are not just not dead, we are alive. We are living.

Thanks be to God. Amen.