Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The text on which this morning's message is based comes from our Epistle lesson (Romans 7: 15-25) read earlier as part of our confession of sin.

Have you felt really wretched before? Have you felt really wretched this week? Now I don't mean "have you felt physically pained or ill this week?" No, I mean have you felt wretchedly guilty of late, a sense that nothing good lives in you? Paul, the greatest Christian writer and thinker, proclaimer of the Christ's Gospel says so right here about himself (v. 24): "What a wretched man I am."

I began looking at this text from my professional perspective before seminary, before becoming a pastor.

As many of you know, I was a psychologist, trained and experienced as a psychotherapist before attending seminary. Listen in with me as if you were a therapist listening to Paul as your client. How would you describe his life if you heard him say these things? "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful flesh. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. (19) For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-- this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it… I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"

If Paul had come to your office and spoken these words of our text in his therapy with you, what would you have thought? A pretty wretched life? A man in despair? You probably don't need a therapy license to conclude that the man speaking these things today should probably be hospitalized. He is speaking words that leave him completely out-of-control of his own life. He is speaking words that sound, at first glance, to exhibit a great sense of hopelessness. He uses the words "I", "me", or "my" 36 times in 10 verses, and in each case the "I" in the midst of this storm is drowning in guilt.

Now, I don't want you to think that I think Paul was temporarily out-of-touch with reality when he spoke these words of burden, hopelessness and despair. No, these are Apostolic teaching of God's Word about the depth of our human dilemma. Paul spoke similar words elsewhere in his ministry, to the Galatian Christians in chapter 5 & 6: "17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want…. if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted." The Apostle Peter spoke similarly to Christians (His first letter, 2: 11) "Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul."

Young Martin Luther knew Paul's struggle in Romans 7 perhaps better than anyone since Paul. Luther knew God's Word and knew that he was completely incapable of pleasing a Holy God on his own. This led to deep inner struggles of guilt for Luther, especially in his 20's. We who follow his teachings may also be more heavily touched by this struggle than many other Christians. We take Romans 7 literally, it becomes a part of our everyday lives. Garrison Keillor, famous for his Prairie Home Companion and Lake Wobegon stories, often makes fun of us Lutheran Christians for being so guilt-ridden and guilt-motivated. Keillor once said that 'Guilt is like a "pilot-light" for Lutherans', constantly on in a small way, always ready to be ignited into something much bigger. Our Old Adam, our inner sinful flesh is constantly warring against the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, and at times the war may seem to be going badly for the Holy Spirit. Who will rescue us from this struggle? A little boy was out helping his dad with the yard work. Dad asked him to pick up the rocks in a certain area of the yard. Dad looked over and saw him struggling to pull up a huge rock buried in the dirt. The little boy struggled and struggled while Dad kept watching out of the corner of his eye. Finally, the boy gave up and said with great guilt and shame, "I can't do it." Dad asked, "Did you use all of your strength?" The little boy looked hurt and said, "Yes, sir. I used every ounce of strength I have." The father smiled and said, "No you didn't. You didn't ask me to help." The father walked over and used his much superior strength to dislodge and pull up the rock from the dirt.   This is the great truth revealed to us in God's Word. Spiritual strength comes not from within us, but through being yoked with Christ. We are weary and burdened, wretched in our sinful condition. But thanks be to God, Jesus Christ our Lord has come to rescue us (Modified from "Freedom Through The Yoke" by Rev. Billy D. Strayhorn).

In my office I have a cartoon drawing I keep of a man standing on top of a huge iron weight. While standing on top of it he is straining to lift it. The weight is labeled "Our Debt to a Holy God." The man is saying in his exertion "Let me help!" while underneath the weight, lifting it effortlessly is the huge hand of God (cartoon from M. Horton in Putting the Amazing Back into Grace). There is nothing we can do to rescue ourselves from this predicament, but Jesus Christ, true man and true God come from heaven, took upon himself our wretchedness, our debt of sin, on the cross. We can give thanks to God for his great love for us.

There is a wonderful legend concerning the "quiet years" of Jesus, the years prior to his visible ministry that we know nothing about from the Bible. But, given that this is only legend, the story goes that Jesus the carpenter was one of the master yoke-makers in the Nazareth area. People came from miles around for a yoke, hand carved and crafted by Jesus son of Joseph. When customers arrived with their team of oxen Jesus would spend considerable time measuring the team, their height, the width, the space between them, and the size of their shoulders. Within a week, the team would be brought back and he would carefully place the newly formed yoke over the shoulders, watching for rough places, smoothing out the edges and fitting them perfectly to this particular team of oxen. That's the yoke Jesus invites us to take. Do not be misled by the word "easy," for its root word in Greek speaks directly of the tailor-made yokes: they were "well-fitting" and "excellent." The yoke Jesus invites us to take, the yoke that brings rest to weary souls, is one that is made exactly to our lives and hearts. The yoke he invites us to wear fits us well, does not rub us nor cause us to develop sore spirits. Our sinful flesh wants to fight against Jesus' yoke. But his yoke is not a burden for us. It was only a burden for him. Running throughout all scripture from the beginning to the end is the theme that ours is a burden bearing Christ. He is not just a Lord whom we burden, and we do, but a Lord who actually solicits our burdens. (Modified from esermons.com, 2002). He is a Lord who carried our burdens, our griefs, our wretchedness. So, have you felt wretched lately, deeply aware of your own guilt? "Before God we should plead guilty of all sins, even those we are not aware of, as we do in the Lord's Prayer" (Small Catechism). Have you considered your place in life according to the 10 commandments? As Luther questioned in the Small Catechism, have you been disobedient, unfaithful, or lazy? Have you been hot-tempered, rude, or quarrelsome? Have you hurt someone by your words or deeds? Have you stolen, been negligent, wasted anything, or done any harm?" Romans 7 is a hard text to read and be reminded of our wretchedness. But it simply points us to our need, our need fulfilled in Romans 8 which we will be reading from for the next 4 weeks.   There we learn that what we could not do (v. 3) "by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering." Have you focused on your own striving to please God, counting up "I's" and "Me's" in your struggle? If so, turn to Jesus again, today, and everyday of your life. Thanks be to him that he has freed us from this body of death.