Picture, if you will, two cities. The first one is on its way down. It has long
ago lost its former splendor. Its
streets are full of potholes. Its once
stately manors are barely holding together. Its currency has fallen to drastic
deflation. In the air there is the
stench of pollution. Businesses are
failing one by one. It is a city living
on the edge.
Many of its
citizens are still living as if it were still a thriving town. The nearly
worthless money is earned and spent with great pleasure. The
aristocracy still tries to maintain the appearance of success. The mayor still touts the city’s
virtues. The board of tourism works hard to make it
look like the place to be. The
buildings, which should be condemned, are painted and plastered. We might call its citizens delusional. We might say that they are out of touch with
reality.
Just a little
way down the highway is another town. Its
lawns are perfectly manicured. Its smooth streets are lined with one beautiful
home after another. There is no poverty
here. Everything is on the gold standard
because gold is the currency. In this
city, everyone is regarded as family. In
fact, every new resident is taken to city hall where the mayor personally
adopts them into his family. The mayor makes sure that their every need is met.
This second
city is bursting at its seams. Its walls cannot contain it. Soon it will engulf the first city. It will
raze the run down structures of the first city, and from their foundations,
rebuild them as a piece of itself. The
two cities will merge, and the first, dying city will be resurrected more
glorious that it has ever been before. This
simple parable, in many ways describes what Paul is talking about in today’s
epistle reading. We are given two ways
of living: these too ways he calls
“living according to the flesh,” and “living by the Spirit.” One way
leads to death, and the other leads to life.
*What does
Paul mean when he talks about the flesh?
Are my skin, organs, bones and
muscles evil? When I pinch my skin, am I
pinching something sinful? What does he
mean by living according to the Spirit: does he mean that we are to, in some
way, escape matter and live on some ethereal plain?
When Paul talks about the flesh, he is not saying that
the flesh is evil per se. Chrysostom says,
“Paul is not speaking here about the nature of the flesh… for in many ways we
are indebted to that. We have to give it
food, warmth, rest, medicine clothing, and a thousand other things.” [1] Instead, what Paul is talking about is living
in present age, which we experience mostly through our senses, as if it were
all that there was. “The world is out of joint,” N. T. Wright
warns us in Surprised By hope. [2] Our way of life is not to be one that seeks
the maximum comfort, prestige and enjoyment in this life. To do so is to embrace death.
Instead, we are to live with the Holy Spirit as our guide.
To live by the Spirit is to have our
life oriented to the will of the Spirit in the same way that a compass needle
always points north. To live in the
Spirit is to live on this side of Easter. It is to live in the Kingdom of God
