Rights and Responsibilities

8 March 2020 – 2^nd Sunday of Lent

Genesis 12:1-4a; Psalm 121; Romans 6:1-8; John 3:1-17

The late John Paul II once said, “Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do as we ought”.  He may have been expressing what St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are beneficial” (1 Cor 6:12).  Having a right to do something does not mean we should – especially if there is no corresponding sense of social responsibility, which is the life of discipleship.

A right to bear arms comes with a corresponding social responsibility to be trained before picking up or carrying a loaded weapon.  A right to free speech comes with a corresponding social responsibility to choose our words carefully in building others up rather than trying to tear them down – even in politics.  A right to the exercise of religion comes with a doctrinal responsibility to understand that religion and what is required of us in the social world.

Being “born again”, as Jesus teaches in John’s Gospel, is much more than a ticket to heaven.  It is the beginning of learning what it means to be a citizen of the Eternal Kingdom in the here-and-now.  It goes much deeper than our shallow concept of “being saved” only for one’s own sake.  It is beginning to develop in such a way as to reflect Christ in everything we say and in everything we do. 

Discipleship is, quite literally, the mindset of Abram who obeyed The Lord’s call even before he knew where he was being led.  It is, figuratively speaking, the death of our old self in our baptism so we may be raised in the being of Christ Jesus – not later.  Right Here.  Right Now.  As Paul wrote, “Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

It is that “newness of life” that gets past too many of us, I think, because we experience that moment of justification, that forgiveness of our past, but we often fail to live into the Life to which we are called.  We mistakenly believe we are somehow entitled with no corresponding social responsibility on our part. 

When that happens, when we are unconcerned by how our selfishness impacts the lives of others, “we are no longer walking in love” (Romans 14:15).  When that happens, the “newness of life” becomes the same old grind, the same old life from which we were once called.  Nothing, it seems, has really changed.

In his second letter, Peter wrote, “His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.  Thus He has given us, through these things, His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust (self-centeredness), and may become participants of the Divine Nature” (self-giving) (2 Peter 1:4).

To “escape” the old life and to “become participants” in the “newness of life” is human action in response to what is offered.  It is living into what is before us by His hand, even if immediately unknown to us.  It means a door has been opened through which we must walk.  But rather than going out, we are being invited in.  We have stepped onto the “porch of prevenient grace” (awareness), have walked into the “door of justifying grace” (accepting), and are being invited into the “house of sanctifying grace” (growing in knowledge, wisdom, faith, and love).  All these things are offered and opened to us, but we must deliberately step in.

For all which is offered to us, Peter continued, “You must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love … Be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble” (2 Peter 1:5-7, 10).

There exists a certain ‘right’, as is written in John’s Gospel: “To all who did receive [Christ], to those who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of [the Most High God]” (John 1:12).  By the teachings of our Shepherd and His apostles, however, that ‘right’ must be claimed AND lived into.  This “right” comes with a corresponding social responsibility.  It cannot be allowed to lay fallow and bear no fruit, and it must never be understood on any level as a point of personal privilege.

This is all much more than many are willing to bear, however, or to even hear.  It’s hard.  It is challenging.  It is incredibly inconvenient to all we have embraced as “normal”.  The idea that we can no longer demand anything but that we must learn and be prepared to give up everything does not mesh with the so-called “American Dream”.   

Growing up in my tiny Roman Catholic parish, I must freely admit I never really understood what it means to be “born again”.  It isn’t that this particular portion of Scripture was never read in Mass or taught in catechism classes; it certainly was.  Claiming Jesus as one’s personal Lord and Savior, however, was not stressed as much as one’s need to claim the Holy Church as one’s spiritual Mother and Jesus as the Shepherd who is leading us – all who are willing to follow – somewhere.  To only believe He is leading us to heaven when we die is being incredibly short-sighted in denying the here-and-now.

The challenge of being “born again”, for me, is that I still struggle with the concept of discipleship.  I struggle with the commandments that interfere with my own choices.  I struggle with the idea that everything I read in Scriptures, while intended to help me to grow personally, has a necessary social component that requires that I “Get over Myself” and realize it’s not about “me” – it is entirely about Him, the One who calls us from slavery to sin and death and into a whole new Life.  Yes, the Life of the Church, the Body of Christ.  But even more. 

Yesterday as I was leaving a store in Pine Bluff (I was killing time while my mom was doing her physical therapy), a man approached me very politely and asked if I could spare some change for a cup of coffee.  My “normal” self’s radar went up and I sensed potential danger.  My “normal” understanding of this world suspected this man only wanted to see what was in my pocket or wallet.  My “normal” suspected it could be dangerous – even in broad daylight surrounded by people.  You may agree with my “normal” as your own, but here is the curse: my “normal” did not even see a human being.

My immediate and very “normal” social impulse was to say “no” and keep moving.  I had spare change that I could have given up, but my “normal” said “no, I don’t”.  Yet my Shepherd, my Savior, my Boss, who may well have been standing there in that person, said, “Lend without expecting to be repaid.  Then your reward from heaven will be truly great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked” (Luke 6:35).

How can I claim to be “born again” if my impulsive default is my old self, my suspicious self, my cynical self?  You see, I was not acting in faith; I was reacting to the only world I really know and believe in.  I did not see Christ in that man; I only saw an inconvenient nuisance. 

The Good News, however, is that I am condemned to that old self only if I choose to be.  The Good News is that Christ Jesus shared in our humanity not only to give us the example to live by but that, by giving so fully of Himself, we may still hope to share one day in His Divinity.  That “one day”, however, begins right here.  Right Now.  It is His to offer, but it is ours to choose and live into so that, through Christ and in Christ, we “may be saved”.  Amen.