The Devil Made Me Buy This Dress

This week during sermon prep time I came across this YouTube clip of an old Flip Wilson sketch.  I was wrestling through a passage of Paul's letter to the Romans and reflecting on the contrast Paul makes between living "according to the flesh" and living with the indwelling of the Spirit.  I had forgotten how funny Flip Wilson was, and how accurately he could sum up our human struggles in 3 minutes.

Everyone's favorite character (from Flip's many personas), Geraldine, describes why she ends up in the predicament Paul describes, saying, ^"15I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate," and " ²¹So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand."  [from Romans 7]

While Geraldine draws a vivid picture of a personified force of evil (the De-vil!), Paul has a more nuanced and complicated understanding of this human struggle to will and DO what we know is right.  To live according to the indwelling of God's Spirit is a life-long process of re-orienting our thinking from an individualistic concern for what is pleasing to "our own flesh"to what is driven by God's desire for us to live in community with regard for all. Materialism, greed, selfishness ... they are all symptoms of a deeper problem, what Paul called living according to the flesh. The antidote Paul prescribes is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  A week ago we filled the sanctuary with red and welcomed the Spirit's presence on Pentecost.  Now to remember that the Spirit came to dwell in our hearts, not just decorate our sanctuaries!