“Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions” (Rom. 6:12).
Bob Dylan must have been channeling St. Paul when he wrote, “You’re gonna have to serve somebody.” That line is part of a chorus from Dylan’s 1979 album Slow Train Coming. “You’re gonna have to serve somebody,” the song writer says. No matter who you are, he goes on to tell us, you’re going to end up in service to someone. “Well it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”
The song is from Dylan’s Christian phase, so St. Paul’s influence can be safely assumed. In our second reading today, Paul sketches out for us a schematic of two different orders, of two different worlds. In the one order, we’re slaves to sin, and must do its bidding; and in the other we’re free from sin and instead serve God. If you serve sin, St. Paul writes, the wages you will receive is death; but if you serve God the free gift you will receive is eternal life in Christ. “Well it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”
When St. Paul talks about sin, it’s almost personified: a force or power that has a life of its own. When he talks about sin exercising or having “dominion” (Rom. 6:12, 14) over us, which he does a couple of times in our reading, he’s using words taken from the political realm: a reigning or ruling power of lordship. The order that sin establishes, however, is not a neutral one: it has the vengeful brass knuckle force of the jackboot or the sickening crack of the nightstick.
That’s what it’s like to “let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies” (Rom. 6:12). When you wake up in the morning, with your bones aching after a beating, you discover you’re in prison, and no longer your own master. Now, you’re in service to sin. It has dominion over you.
It sounds pretty bad, doesn’t it? But I think St. Paul is being realistic and truthful in painting this picture of the force and power of sin. Anyone who’s ever had a hard time forgiving someone knows the power of sin: it gets a grip on you and you can’t get past it. At the same time, it’s easy to fall into destructive patterns that harm others or even harm ourselves, and discover that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves (as the old prayer puts it). Any of us can get stuck and end up agreeing with the Psalmist who says, “I am in prison and cannot get free” (Ps. 88:9).
So that’s the bad news: what’s the good news? As simple as this: there’s another order of things in Christ; another power that is at work. It’s the order of grace: the free gift of God in Jesus Christ that brings freedom and peace. We cannot free ourselves, true enough; but Jesus can free us through his power at work in us. Through Christ, we are handed over not to sin but to the “form of teaching” (Rom. 6:17), as St. Paul says, that leads to sanctification. We are no longer enslaved to sin, but are freed to serve God. Wages are no longer due, but instead a gift is given: grace.
That’s St. Paul’s theme when he talks about grace, which is the power and presence of God at work in us. Grace is a free gift that comes from God. It cannot be demanded or required, but it is available: in the sacraments, first and foremost, but in many other ways as well, because grace is the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit “blows where it wills” (Jo. 3:8), as Jesus says, and is active and present without limitation. “He gives the Spirit without measure” (Jo. 6:34), as it says in the Gospel of John. Grace is the key that unlocks the gate and opens the prison doors, so that we can walk out into the light.
Today, at St. Bede’s Church, we are on the road that leads to freedom. Members of the Church will reaffirm their baptismal vows this morning and reclaim the gift of grace given to them at their baptism. They will receive the laying on of hands with prayer in the sacramental sign of grace received. This is part of the “form of teaching” (Rom. 6:17) that we have received from the apostles.
This morning, we all have the opportunity to reaffirm our own baptismal vows, and to come forward to the altar to receive Christ’s body and blood. These are the means of grace given to us as the sign of Christ’s death and resurrection and of our own inheritance in him. As we will pray today, at the end of our liturgy, “Send us now into the world in peace, and grant us the strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart; through Christ our Lord.” Today, we’ve chosen the One we will serve.