If I were preaching tomorrow (but I am not), I believe that I would lean into the contradiction that St Paul spotlights. That it is not enough to think good thoughts and have good intentions, because sin will swirl us into its dance again and again, seductively selfish while those outside the circle strain to see the centre and the steps.

This metaphor would hardly do, except that Jesus uses it, too, of the world that wants the world to dance to its tune, the world that wants to be your world. Like a whirling circle, the only way to break free is to fall out.

This not to wallow in despair or self-denigration: St Paul, for all his miserable wretch rhetoric, appears to have a mostly intact ego, much of the time. We can celebrate that we are as beloved of God as those whom we have loved the least, despite ourselves. 

And, we find these things to be true, and self-evident, that as good as we pretend or try or believe ourselves to be, we have by design created margins and marginalized other creatures created of God’s affection. That however hard we try to resist, or pretend to resist, the music of the swirl has us tapping our feet. That we have been the ones demanding that God jig to our tune. That we have been exhausting and exhausted. And that the only hope for rest lies elsewhere, with Other-Whom. 

But when we spin out, turn away from the centre, fall out of the swirling, hectic dance, Jesus is waiting out on the margins, waiting among the wallflowers, waiting among the downcast, waiting among the injured, waiting among the lonely, waiting among the reticent, waiting among the rejected, waiting among the curious, waiting with outstretched arms to catch you up into a gentle waltz, a shared step, a loving stance. 

Who will save me from this body of death? Not 250 years of nationhood, nor even 2 millennia of religion; only Jesus. Only Jesus. Only Jesus.

Lectionary selections for July 5, 2026: Year A Proper 9

Extracts from Romans 7:15-25a

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. … 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. 

… Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Extracts from Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Jesus said to the crowd, “To what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,

‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ …

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”