Proper 7A
Epistle: Justification by Faith
June 2005

For the last several weeks the epistles have been from Romans. And these epistles deal with a key teaching in Christianity, “Justification by Faith”, or, how we are saved. Or, if that’s a little too right-wing-protestant for you, how humanity’s evolution is fulfilled in the presence of the infinite summation of the universe. Saint Paul is explaining how finding union with God is not a matter of keeping all the manifold rules, but rather by “putting on Christ.” He has pointed out during the last few weeks in his epistle that while we were yet sinners, Christ, that perfect human expression of God, died that we might find union with God; that we might be made righteous when we are not righteous. Saint Paul says that by putting on Christ we avoid the “wrath of God.”

Now, if you listen to the preachers on the airwaves and hear “the wrath of God” you kind of get the impression, like I did as a child, that God the Father is kind of “perpetually pissed off.” But this is not what Saint Paul is calling the “wrath of God.” The “wrath of God” is, rather, an impersonal statement of God’s wholly “otherness.” Think of it like this: God is so holy, so good, so perfect, and so beautiful, that for unholy, ungood, unbeautiful human beings to see him face to face would be terrifying. There is real truth in the statement, “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom”, not because God is a mean old man, but because he is so “other” than us. We cannot expect God to be less perfect, less holy or less just, so that we can find union with him. But, in Christ we can approach the presence of God not because we do anything, but because Jesus did.

In the past, I have explained it this way: the wrath of God, God’s wholly otherness, can be compared to a stone wall. We human beings are driving a car 120 miles per hour straight toward that stone wall. We cannot expect the wall to move, we cannot expect it will turn itself into foam rubber. We and the wall, when we meet, will not find it a pleasant experience. But then, at the moment of impact, the enormous airbag deploys and we are saved. Jesus is the airbag in this example. We can only approach that perfect wall with the airbag between us and the wall.

There is another story, a true one that illustrates justification by faith or “putting on Jesus.” It was told by one of the most conservative priests in the Episcopal Church, David Anderson, and I hold that if David and I can agree about justification then we ought to be able to disagree about issues that are not “core doctrine.” When Fr. Anderson was a young priest, he had a parish in rural Montana where there was much sheep ranching. It was new to him and he visited a large sheep operation during the “lambing season” when the new lambs are born. When this event happens there is always some tragedy. Some ewes, female sheep, die while giving birth, and some lambs are born dead. So it is that you have some lambs without a mother and some mothers without a lamb. Now, you would think you could just put surviving lambs with surviving mothers and solve the problem, but you can’t. The surviving mothers remember the scent, the smell, of their newborns and will not accept a lamb not her own.

So it was that Fr. Anderson saw a shocking sight that first time he visited a sheep ranch. He saw a whole mound of little bloody lambs’ bodies. The little stillborns had been skinned and the carcasses left. He was a bit shocked. He thought that he could see how the wool must be needed, but did they need it so much that they had to skin the stillborn lambs? Then it was explained to him by the ranchers: the surviving mothers of the still born lambs were clearly marked as were the bodies of the stillborn themselves. Then, when the stillborns had been skinned, a surviving lamb whose mother had died had that skin put over him and then presented to the surviving mother. The mother lamb recognized the scent of the skin as her own lamb and accepted the orphaned one. Then, after a few days, the skin of the dead lamb could be removed and the orphaned lamb had an adoptive mother to feed him. What happens here is that for the surviving, motherless lamb to find his salvation in the new mother, he has to put on the identity of another. And that’s what happens in justification by faith. We put on the identity of Jesus and we are made righteous in the sight of our heavenly mother/Father/God. It is precisely what Paul says in his letter to the Romans, “For just by Adam’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by Adam’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” To approach God, imperfect humans must “put on” Christ in order that God can look on us, and we can look on Him.

When all is said and done, God in Christ makes it possible for us to find union with Him. And this is good news. I think we know deep down that we just get perfect all by ourselves. As much as we try, as much as there is a possibility for us to be Godlike, it needs a catalyst. It needs help. Our evolution as humanity depends on that perfect human expression of God who fulfilled evolution by raising humanity into God, Jesus Christ. We don’t have to worry if we get enough points on the test to pass. Jesus already passed it. All we must do is try to take the test of life and trust in Jesus. So, we come today to this altar, to receive Jesus as Savior; to take into ourselves his body and blood, his risen and ascended life so that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us. Amen.