Worship for July 5, 2020: Will the Circle be Unbroken -- a sermon on racial anguish, pandemic, and diconnection

And so Paul figures that if sin is this powerful… that we can know what is good, we can know how to be unified, we can know how to pursue the voice of God instead of our idol worship, we can know we need to sacrifice for love of the enemy… if sin is so powerful that we can know all this and still not choose the righteous path nor even yearn for the righteous path, then we are going to need something stronger than sin, stronger than the human will in order to overcome its power, and that something is actually a someone…Who will rescue us from this body of death? Paul cries  And the only answer he has is the crucified and risen Christ.

There are so many great resources out there that have informed this sermon. I rely heavily on our Bible study class for my Romans insights as well as the following scholarship: NT Wright’s commentary, the Jewish New Testatment, Luke Timonthy Johnson’s tome , The Writings of the New Testament. New research in neuroscience informs my understanding of fear and bias. Here’s a great interview on this relative to the pandemic with Jonathan Capehart and Jonathan Metzl. Keep in mind, this podcast has a center-left bend. Nonetheless, it doesn’t take away from the sociological insights. And Robin Diangelo presents some helpful ideas about knee-jerk reactions to racism conversations in her book White Fragility. None of these resources were not read uncritically with unquestioning acceptance of every idea or chapter. And I am happy to have conversation on them any time.

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Readings 14:35
Sermon 18:58
Prayers 43:00

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