Grace: Beauty out of ugly things

A sermon for the congregation of St. Saviour, Penticton, Sunday, July 5th, 2026 by the Very Rev. Ken Gray

Did you know that the Bible was written for the benefit of psychotherapists? Probably not; but given St. Paul’s confessional language in Romans chapter 7 such a case can be made. For example:

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh.

Wow; these words are a gateway to confusion, distress, and a little bit of self-loathing thrown in. They represent job security for therapists and for those who help us with addictions, afflictions, and compulsive anxieties. And we proclaim these words in church as Truth. I mean, really, why bother trying to live what we think, or are sometimes told, is “a good life.”

Fans of British comedy will be sad to learn that Penelope Keith died a few days ago. I remember her best as the neighbour to Tom and Barbara who in the BBC sit-com “The Good Life” (Good Neighbours in N. America) were trying to live simply in Surbiton, a suburb of London. Their comic escapades included a few successes and many failed adventures as these two couples tried to live a “good life.” And trust me on this, they certainly did not turn to Paul’s Letter to the Romans, and especially to chapter 7, which continues:

I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Aha! Now we have a scapegoat for our misery: Sin. It really is handy to have sin around because then we have something to blame. Hello sin; you should not have made me do that; so off you go, and take the blame with you please. I know who you are; I last heard about you in the garden — Adam, Eve, and not much clothing as I recall; things didn’t go well from that point onward; remember Cain and Abel; the Tower of Babel; Queen Jezabel. There’s more, but that’s enough gloom for now. Let’s get back to Romans:

I see in my members — take that any way you wish — another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

This last verse deserves an answer, and an answer is only one verse away, though in a different chapter, in the first verse of chapter 8:

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

This is the best news of all from the Book of Romans. What a relief! A psychoanalysis of our text, however, is not how Paul’s longest, and arguably  most important letter was received during the first century. Today, online evangelical sermons and right wing media reduce Paul’s teaching to a definition of individual bad behaviour. They tend to read Romans as a self-help book. Paul’s intent was not to rub his hearers’ faces in the dirt of their faults and failures. He wanted them, and us now, to feel a release from the garbage of life, experience, and welcome the deluge of joy (he calls this Grace) which comes though the message of salvation.

Two Toronto-based scholars, Sylvia Keesmaat and Brian Walsh, help us on our way. In their book, Romans Disarmed, they unpack the meaning of Romans for its original context and for today. They demonstrate how Romans disarms the political, economic, and cultural power of the Roman Empire and how this ancient letter offers hope in today’s crisis-laden world.

So how do Sylvia and Brian accomplish this task? What makes their book different from other commentaries and analysis of the text?

[Continuing from the Introduction, they] move back and forth between the present and the past as they explore themes of home, economic justice, creation care, the violence of the state, sexuality, and Indigenous reconciliation. They show how Romans engages with the lived reality of those who suffer from injustice, both in the first century and in the midst of our own imperial realities.

Their approach is fresh and intriguing. It is both social and individual. It is inextricably connected to the original text. They have found a way for us to enter the world of the text’s first hearers by developing a context relevant and understandable to us today. In an extended re-writing, a Targum (an ancient practice of scriptural re-interpretation to aid contemporary understanding), they create

“Targum Paul,” a slave of Jesus the Messiah, called to a ministry of authority in a world that is suspicious of all authority. Set apart in a world of bland consumerist sameness [have you been to Walmart or Canadian Tire recently?], [an] advocate of nothing less than the gospel of God, the good news of God’s radical kingdom.

This gospel, this kingdom proclamation, is a story with a rich heritage. It was promised by the Hebrew prophets and it is the news of Jesus—the Son of God, the one who embodied truth and reconciliation.

This Jesus is a descendent of the infamous King David but was pronounced to be God’s Son by the explosive power of the Spirit of all that is pure, all that is deeply right, when he rose from the dead. Jesus isn’t the Son of God because he was elected or because he has the most economic power or because he commands great armies. No, he is the Son of God because he defeated the power of death. This is Jesus the Messiah.

Are you getting the picture? Let’s keep going.

This is Jesus whom I dare to call my Master, my Lord, regardless of how politically incorrect that may appear. It is through this Jesus, the messianic Master, that I have met a grace that makes beauty out of ugly things, the deepest of all gifts.

I just love that last line: “Grace, [that] makes beauty out of ugly things.” Wow. Helpful. Artistic. Creative. Surely, that’s what we want to do. This Targum makes me smile. It identifies the struggles, conflicts, corruptions, wars, racisms, homophobia, environmental degradation, and missed opportunities for love I see all around me.

And here’s the best news of all. Despite the ailments of our age, Grace is out there; as the celts would say, above, below, and all around us. Using a liturgical term, Grace is God’s Real Presence in God’s world, a world in which we find our place, ironically, through Grace.

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