Sunday Homily - July 12, 2020 - "There is No Condemnation for those in Christ Jesus"

St. Paul Icon

I.

Have you ever used a word so often

 that you started to lose what the word even means? 

Better yet, did that word all of a sudden

 seem to not only lose meaning,

  but did it also begin to sound silly or like a bunch of random sounds?

This is really easy to test out,

 and it gets a good chuckle depending on which word you use.

One of my personal favorites,

 is the word "babble."

Try it! I find it quite fun!

"Babble babble babble babble,

 babble babble babble babble."

Did it work?

 Did you begin to hear the word lose meaning

  and begin to just sound like a bunch of silly sounds

   we make with out mouth?

Babble is already a funny word in English.

 It feels like it has more b's in it

  than the average bee hive,

   and it sounds funny, too.

But what you have just experienced,

 this losing of meaning,

  is what linguists call "semantic satiation."

Basically, you repeat a word so often

 that your brain begins to lose interest!

  Hey, brains have got a big job,

   they don't have time for the same word over and over again.

However, while semantic satiation can be a funny exercise,

 there is another thing that happens when we hear a word used very often

  in our modern language

   that we lose its original meaning

    and the force of its importance in its original context.

We actually get a very important word

 that this has happened to

  in our reading from Holy Scripture this morning.

   And it is the word "condemnation."

II.

The word "condemnation" has taken on an interesting use recently. 

For example, 

 you can do a cursory Google search

  of the news headlines that use the word "condemnation"

   and you will see what we normally mean

    when we think condemnation.

These headlines are simply in the order I saw them:

"Israelis take to the streets to condemn government handling of coronavirus crisis"

Employees Condemn Harassment and Policing At Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Group of Patriot League presidents condemn federal action targeting international students

Pats' Edelman, Steelers' Banner Among NFL Players to Condemn Anti-Semitism After DeSean Jackson's Posts"

[Google Search "condemn" under news headlines]

Notice the theme:

 Someone/something #1 condemns someone/something #2 because of [insert action by #2 here].

But what does condemn mean in this case?

Well, we are using it in the way that we collectively have used it within recent history:

"Condemn: to express complete disapproval of in public; to censure."

 [Google Dictionary: Condemn]

However, this is decidedly NOT what St. Paul is meaning in his major turning point

 in his letter to the Church in Rome. 

III.

Chapter 8 of Romans is the turning point in Paul's argument,

 being built from the moment he opens the letter,

  culminating in the very first sentence of chapter 8:

"There is now therefore NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

 [Romans 8:1]

But, St. Paul isn't talking about being loudly disapproved of in public,

 or getting denounced or censured by other people.

Rather, he is meaning something of a very different magnitude,

 something that an older English word gets at more specifically: 

  and it is the word "damned." 

"Condemned" and "damned" actually come from the same root,

 but the Greek word that St. Paul uses in this first sentence 

  much more closely means "damned."

  

[word study: "katakrima" 

   https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G2631&t=KJV]

Paul isn't talking about censure:

 Paul is talking about ultimate destiny. 

And what the Holy Scriptures are speaking to us this morning

 is that for us who are in Christ Jesus by virtue of our Baptism into Christ,

  there is no damnation for us anymore.

And it is not because of our own actions:

 it is because of the free gift in Jesus Christ. 

That no matter what we have done in our past,

 no matter what outside condemnation or censure we have suffered at the hands of others,

  no matter what other people have denounced about us,

   our destiny doesn't lie in what others think of us:

    it is completely caught up in what Jesus Christ has done for US.

Jesus has destroyed the power of sin and death,

 so that we no longer live to sin,

  but rather live to God through Christ Jesus. 

And that means that we are called to have a very different worldview

 as followers of Jesus:

  which is that, for us and for our point of view,

   nothing and no one is outside of redemption found in Christ.

But this is one of the hardest things for us as well, isn't it?

 It means that no matter our own view of other people,

  not matter how much we personally dislike and abhor other people,

   no matter how distasteful that other's actions can be,

    no one is outside of the possibility of redemption in Christ.

We know our own selves,

 our own inner darkness that no one else knows about,

  those things inside that you know if people knew,

   they would think less of you.

And that means that we have to recognize what we mean by "condemnation"

 in Paul's use. 

We are called to denounce that which is evil,

 in ourselves and others,

  yet we are never called to act as if we know other people's eternal destiny. 

We are called to speak against those things that are objectively against God's Word,

 in ourselves and in others,

  yet we are reminded that there is no damnation for those whom Christ has redeemed.

We are both called to speak on behalf of what we know is right and wrong,

 and yet dwell in the Gospel truth that absolutely no one is outside of salvation.

Because guess what?

 God knows all of those things dark things about you,

  and yet chose to redeem you anyway. 

If God chose to do that for you through his son Jesus Christ,

 you as well are now commanded to do for others,

  just as Jesus did for you.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.