From Dust to Trust

For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5.19, NRSV)

It’s contagious - especially on the campus of a seminary - once someone gets the “creeping crud” as they call it - we all get sick. We know it well in our house, though we’ve been mostly healthy, It’s been a particularly difficult and long winter, and we’re stuck inside a lot of the time — just breathing on each other. Gross! 

But there is sunshine at the end of the dark tunnel. Spring will come — this week the still frozen earth is being washed by the melted precipitation that first hit the ground here in before Thanksgiving Day. The flowers will bloom once again, and the seeds that are dormant in the cold ground will produce new life. There is hope.

On Ash Wednesday last week, we received the mark of ashes on our foreheads and were reminded - all of us, from senior saint to newborn children - that from dust we came, and to dust we will return. In the letter to the Romans (Rom. 5-12-19), St. Paul picks up that theme from Genesis - the first human being made from the dust of the created earth. Of course that story follows with Eve, the serpent, the fruit of the tree, the disobedience, and humanity cast out from the blessed garden of Eden. That story reminds us that we have what Adam and Eve had.   

We’ve caught the sickness of sin.

Whether it was transmitted through genetics or just a part of the world we live in - we’re quite familiar with it. Paul will go on to speak about the good that we would do — but we don’t. The bad things that we don’t want to to do — we do. 

During Lent we are reminded that all of our lives have a beginning and an end. We will all die. Sadly, this is true. Maybe some remember a little more easily that life is fragile. They’ve experienced the loss of friends and family, over the past year, or maybe you have experienced health issues yourself. It’s hard to find new life after a loss.

But there is hope…

We suffer the same as Adam and Eve in the story — we can feel cast out, burdened by life, and estranged from the one who created us.

In the hospice unit at Broward General Hospital, a few summers ago, I meet a man who was dying of cardio-pulmonary disease. We talked a little bit, it was difficult for him. He had a wife - she didn’t come to visit him there. I asked a little bit about God, and he said, oh yes, he believed, but felt that God had abandoned the world. Like the toymaker that had created the top and set it spinning, God just sat back and watched. 

I thought about how lonely that must feel. But maybe I’ve felt that way too at times. That if God were here now, maybe things would be better. Maybe we wouldn’t have to deal with so much suffering, and we’d be truly healed. Maybe I wouldn’t doubt so much, maybe my parents wouldn’t be divorced, maybe by sister would get her life together, maybe my friend’s dad wouldn’t hit him. 

We live with the sickness every day. Many times, we make it worse, instead of better. So we find, though we try, that we can’t save ourselves. Maybe then, we turn to that dusty old book on the shelf. 

We read the promises in scripture: 

“for if the many died through the one man’s trespass much more (much more!) surely have the grace of God and the gift of the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.” (v.16)

God is the God of justice and promises  to deliver us. The promise kept is what Paul calls the “free gift.” It’s not a one to one ratio anymore - one sinned, one saved; Paul says the gift is greater than the trespass! It is a gift greater than the sum of the sin of the world - for every one that has turned from God, that has hurt someone else, failed to help, shied away from serving the neighbor, sought life from things that can only bring death - they are in. 

The gift - which also comes in the form of death — Jesus’ death on the cross, for you, for me - for the world. 

Paul is teaching about the forgiveness of sin through Jesus’ death on the cross — not just for him, and not just for the community at Rome, not just for those who follow the Jewish law, but people from every nation. There is death all around. But, Life is greater. The light outshines the darkness. Death can’t win - even while it may rule in this world, and it may feel like the final word, it is made null and void in the power of life in Christ. Find hope in this: We will die, but you who are in Christ, are truly alive!

This is the kingdom of God - the many made righteous through the cross - the light that scatters darkness and the victory over evil.

On this cross hangs hope - this Jesus died so that ALL would be made right - that you would be reconciled to God, not on account of anything you have done, but because of who God IS. Because we’ve still got the symptoms - just like we’re still coughing and sneezing, we’re still sinners surrounded by sin in us and all around us - yet, God calls us something else - righteous. We didn’t do that - that comes only from God - called righteous - made righteous in the forgiveness in the cross of Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

In the weeks to come, when you see that new flower blooming, and the brown grass turning green, and the sun break through the clouds, I hope and pray that you remember the ashes. Remember the shape they made on your forehead last week. Remember the cross — and the promise that the one who brought you up from the dust is the one who promises life from death, and makes you righteous, in the name of Jesus Christ.