"Much Obliged"

As we continue to experience the Word of the Lord together, Let us Pray. Guide us, O God, by your Word and Spirit, that in your light we may see light. Send out your light and your truth, O God, and let them lead us. Amen.

Hear now The Word of the Lord as it comes to us in Romans. Listen.

Romans 8.12-17.

¹²So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh – ¹³for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. ¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ – if in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

The Word of the Lord…Thanks be to God.

I don’t use the phrase, “Much Obliged” as much as I’d like to. To me, you need to be in an authentic cowboy hat, with a good thick mustache, push up the brim of said cowboy hat with your finger, to then be able to pull off, “Much Obliged.”

The word obligation does not have a good connotation for most folks. We live in a society that values the freedom to be able to do whatever it wants, and where people want to do what they want to do, not what they have to do. And obligation is usually tacked on to something that one has to do, and usually means something that one does not necessarily want to do. Of course, that’s not the connotation I think of when I think of the cowboy hat, and the cowboy who says, and means, “Much Obliged.” That carries a sense of thankfulness, and a desire to pay someone back for their kindness.

The Greek word used here is ofeiletai which is the same word used in Matthew chapter 6, forgive us our ofeilemata (debts) as we forgive the ofeiletais (debtors) of us. This word carries the sense of debt and obligation. We are debtors, but not of the flesh. We are obligated, but not to the flesh. Instead we are indebted and obligated to God. Especially when we consider all that God has done for us, that God has freed us from our obligations to sin and death, and instead freed us to obligations to God. Which is the important part, for Paul. It is something good to be freed from something, but it is better to be freed to something. Think back to when you were 15 and were counting the days until you turned 16. You were about to be free to something, free to drive. I don’t know about you, but I was excited. I practiced parallel parking, called the DMV to ask if I could go a day early since my 16^th birthday was on a Tuesday and they were only open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I didn’t think that was fair, so I called to ask if I could come in on Monday.

They opened at 3.00 on Wednesday afternoon, and we met them in the parking lot. Somehow there was already a line when the place opened. I guess that fixed in the universe’s code is that there is always a line at the DMV. The drive home with my new license was a drive of anticipation. And when I dropped my dad off at home, and met my friends, without having to have a licensed driver over 18 with us, that was the drive of the liberated. I was free from having to have supervision, but what I felt most was the freedom to be an adult. We were free to, which was the great feeling.

That is what Paul writes here. We are free from sin and death, and free to follow God. It is a changed of indebtedness that carries a “free to” sense to it. We become obligated to something that is good for us, and something that we actually enjoy. It’s a good trade.

Often, when I prepare sermons, I look at the Message translation of the passage, and will find some good stuff there. Sometimes it is so good, I’ll read the passage again from that translation. Today is one of those Sundays. Listen again to Romans as Eugene Peterson translates it in the Message.

So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us – an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!

I love that image, that our life is adventurous way of greeting God with a childlike, “What’s next Pops?” That our obligation is joy. That’s what Paul wants to get across.

I don’t know if this is an accurate story or not. Living in Florida for 5 years, I heard this story a couple of times, and it may have happened. I hope it did.¹

There are pet stores and then there are pet stores. In Florida, it’s not uncommon to find a pet store that carries no dog, nor any cat, nor anything resembling cute or cuddly. In this kind of pet store all the animals are cold blooded, and some are rather large. First thing you often see in a pet store like this is a massive python, 18 feet long at least. Go in a little further to find monitor lizards that are bigger than most dogs, frogs the size of dinner plates, and even an alligator snapping turtle that is so big you presume that it is older than you are, and it probably is.

Because most people don’t even want to know that animals like these exist, the store is never located in the best part of town. So, when the guy who comes in on Christmas Eve is slightly inebriated, the owner, the story went that his name was Tommy, is not surprised. Tommy has seen far worse. The customer explains that he has always wanted a python and has finally figured out how to get it. He’ll give it to his wife as a present for Christmas! Guys, look at me guys. We know better, right?

Our inebriated friend doesn’t want any python, he wants a big one. He selects one over ten feet long, cause that’s how much he loves his wife. He figures that since snakes like to hide in tight, dark places, he can wrap it up in a box and put it under the Christmas tree, and it will be fine right there. It will stay put, happy and content, until the gift is opened on Christmas morning. The customer has convinced himself that his wife will love it.

That is his plan, but as we all know, plans sometimes have a funny way of working out. He purchases the serpent, wraps it up, goes home and puts the box under the tree with the rest of the presents. Then he goes upstairs and crashes on the bed.

A little before three in the morning, his wife tries to wake him. She thinks she’s heard a crash in the living room. She’s afraid that someone is in the house. Her husband is still crashed and is not easily awakened, so when she hears another sound she decides to check it out for herself. Taking a flashlight, she heads toward the sound. She freezes. Someone is in the house and has knocked the Christmas tree down! As she shines her light on the tree, she notices movement. And then she sees a triangular head with unblinking slits for eyes, and the flickering of a forked tongue.

The head is disturbingly large.

As fate would have it, the heat from the lights on the tree raised the blood temperature of the snake so that it became active. It didn’t wait for Christmas morning.

Back at the pet store, Tommy comes into the store as he does every day, including Christmas, to take care of the animals. He is surprised to see there are so many messages on his answering machine. Listening to them, they are oddly enough all from one man who’s been calling every 15 minutes since 3 a.m., when his wife finally managed to awaken him. There is a lot of yelling in the background.

Surprisingly, his wife didn’t like the present. In fact, she is saying – with a sincere conviction seldom heard – that the marriage is over if he doesn’t return it.

What should Tommy do? A sale is a sale, which the plaque above the register states clearly enough, “All sales are final, no exceptions, this means you.” Frankly, it was nice to have the extra Christmas cash. If the guy doesn’t want the snake, he can give it to a zoo. In fact, as Floridians know, a lot of people choose to let their animals go, near a lake, in a neighborhood, wherever. This usually means sure death for the animal that is let go, but this isn’t Tommy’s problem.

Tommy, however, doesn’t run his store for the money. He is in many ways a boy who never outgrew his snake phase, and his animals are his love. The simple truth, he cares about them too much. And in caring, there is an obligation.

He takes the snake back. What else could he do? The money was a small price to pay to make sure the snake would be safe, and that it would have the chance to go to a home that would really take care of it.

Obligation comes not from a negative indebtedness, but from a positive form of indebtedness, and it comes from our love. In Romans, Paul makes it clear that we are obligated to God out of our love and gratitude for such grace. We satisfy that obligation by following the leading of the Spirit of Christ.

This does mean that if we honor our obligation, our course of action in any given circumstance will be tied to our lives as Christians, the sense of loving indebtedness we feel to Jesus Christ for all that he has done for us, and the freedom of living a life worthy of our Lord. We are free to be shaped by our love of our Savior, not our love of things that harm others, ourselves, or our world.

In a world increasingly marked and motivated by fear, obligation bids us to live as children secure in our heavenly Father’s love. We are freed from having to lash out and take revenge, choosing instead to overcome evil with good. In a society that is increasingly marked by self-centered consumption, obligation calls us to be willing to suffer with Christ, to sacrifice what we have in order to help others.

But make no mistake, this is not just free from, this is free to. For children of God and coheirs of Christ who are led by the Spirit, our obligation is not something carried out begrudgingly or with resentment. It is the expression of our deepest love and truest heart, a clear and unambiguous proclamation to the world of how much we care about God, others, and living life well. May we be free to that kind of indebtedness. Amen.