The Sinner and Dirty Rifles

When I was a Marine Officer, serving as a Series Commander at Parris Island, the recruits received infantry field training, which included firing blank rounds from the M16 rifle.

A "blank" is a bullet casing that contains gunpowder, but has no projectile. 

And firing blanks causes carbon residue to quickly build up in the barrel, making it difficult to clean.

A major part of the recruits' final inspection was for the series rifles to be clean enough to return to the armory. 

So, every series my drill instructors would make grand plans and spend precious time cleaning rifles, hoping the rifles would pass inspection.  And they never did.  

Always, after every Battalion Commander's inspection, we'd scramble, reschedule training, and spend an afternoon at the armory cleaning weapons.  

Finally, I got smart.  I told the drill instructors to spend a fair amount of time on the rifles, and no more.  Instead they spent time on other aspects of the inspection.   

This worked.  The rifles were still dirty; we still had to schedule extra cleaning.  But we started receiving positive comments on other parts of the inspection.  

I often think of this when I consider tasks and priorities.  

But it just dawned on me that a dirty rifle barrel is just like our old Adam.  

Even though, as Christians, we are born again, given the Spirit in Baptism, and not under condemnation, that dirty sin still clings to us and won't go away, just like carbon in a barrel.  

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Romans 7:15

No amount of my effort or my will can make my sin nature be clean.  In fact, oftentimes, the more I try to be and do better, the more I notice my own sin, the blackness of my heart.  

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.  Romans 7:18-19

Martin Luther correctly states what the apostle Paul is saying here about himself - that our nature is, at the same time, both saint and sinner.   

And by recognizing the sinner, I also recognize and rejoice in the work of Christ, who gives me His righteousness and gives me that other title - saint.

And in recognizing and rejoicing, at some point, I just have to "put up with myself" and not get caught up in something I can't fix, and turn my focus to stuff that needs to get done.  

And that stuff that needs to get done - loving and serving others.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  Mark 12:31

...whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.  Mark 10:43-45