Just because you can, doesn't mean that you should

June 25, 2023 Year A 4th Sunday after Pentecost Romans 6:1-11 Just because you can doesn’t mean that you should Prelude Welcome Call to Worship L: Welcome! This is a time to celebrate and worship God who loves us! P: We are grateful and thankful for all God’s blessings in our lives. L: We gather to remember that Christ gave his life for us. P: We humbly praise God for such a gift! L: Come, friends! Come and worship the God of love and hope. P: Praise be to God at all times and in all places! AMEN. (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Nancy Townley) Opening Prayer Holy God who created all that exists, we praise you. We open our hearts and our spirits this day to your eternal love and forgiving mercy. Be with us as we participate in this worship service. Remind us again that Jesus Christ gave his life that we might fully understand the depth and breadth of your love. In all things and at all times we praise you. AMEN. (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Nancy Townley) Song And Can it be that I Should Gain UMH 363 Children’s Sermon “Hello children of God. What do I have here? It’s kind of hard to tell. These are tortilla chips, well they’re sort of turning into the crumbs of tortilla chips now, but you get the idea. The delicious chips that you could dip in salsa or sour cream or make nachos or have with tacos or something like that. But where did tortilla chips come from? What were they before they became chips? Well, if you said tortillas, you’re absolutely right. Sorry, no product placement here, but prior to becoming a chip, this was just a tortilla. Now, can the chip turn back into a tortilla? No, of course not, because this is soft, this is the before stage, and this is the after. There’s nothing this delicious satisfying chip could do to go back to being a soft little tortilla. Well, that might have been obvious, but here’s one that is a little more exciting. What is this? A pickle, a very delicious pickle. But where do pickles come from? What was that before it became a pickle? Believe it or not, that was once a cucumber, probably a smaller kind of cucumber than this, but yes, mind-blowing though it may seem, the great delicious pickle was once a lowly cucumber. So see, if your mom tells you to eat more vegetables, just throw some pickles on your burger. Not really, vegetables are important, you should have fresh vegetables, very delicious. But what did the cucumber have to go through to become a pickle? Well, it kind of soaked in this juicy stuff for a while with some different spices and seasonings and everything, and over time it became a pickle, kind of like a baptism in a way, but we’ll get to more on that in just a little bit. (Kristin Schmidt) Words of Grace and Peace In Christ, we are welcomed fully and enabled to exchange our fear with faith, our forgetfulness with the reassurance grounded in remembrance, our turning away with the possibility of turning toward our call and life more abundant that we might transform the world and all creation by the power of God’s unconditional and all-encompassing love. With open hands and hearts, let us receive the peace of Christ’s grace and peace. Amen (United Church of Christ Worship Ways, Ann Jefferson) Scripture Romans 6:1-11 Sermon Just because you can doesn’t mean that you should I don’t know I do it to myself every time. I choose to preach from the epistle lesson. It sounds like a really good message, and then when I Start to research for the message, I realize that I am in trouble – There is nothing nice to say about that passage. It doesn’t get much worse than Romans 6 – the subject is sin, death and slavery – where is the grace in that message? – the good news is that grace abounds! Paul also talks about grace, new life and freedom in Christ. Paul’s great message to us today is that God loves us no matter what we do or who we are. That grace us not only what we depend on to live, but it also saves our souls. One of our teenagers got the point (sort of), reminding his mother that God could love him whether he cleaned his room or not. Unfortunately, I cannot report what his mother said in response. But one of our mothers got the point, when she told me she was glad her salvation was not going to depend on whether her refrigerator contained green things that were turning brown, or brown things that were turning green. And one of our fathers got the point ... powerfully so ... .when he said at the door: "Maybe instead of constantly yelling at everybody to tidy up, I ought to tell myself to lighten up." In Romans, chapter 5 talks all about grace through salvation, in chapter 6 Paul teaches us how to use it. Our scripture today starts with a question – should we continue to sin so that grace can abound? In other words does it really matter if we clean our rooms – won’t God still love us? And the answer is absolutely. But just because we can sin and receive grace, that doesn’t mean that we should. It all boils down to baptism – that strange ritual that most of us have experienced in some way. Of all the things Christians do, baptism might be the weirdest –– at least from an outsider perspective. For those born into the Christian tradition, baptism is a wonderful, beautiful moment, a joyful celebration. For those outside the Christian faith, it can seem completely strange, even macabre. Baptism is a “ritual drowning,” a symbolic death that ushers the baptized into a spiritually reborn, renewed life. However we dress this ritual up — whether with lacy baptismal gowns for infants or with lemonade and cookies for older children and adults — it is still a truly strange ceremony. One eight year old, upon being told that baptism meant she was being “buried with Jesus” responded, quite reasonably, “Well! That’s not very nice.” (As told by theologian Claire Watkins in her book Living Baptism [2004] 58) That eight-year old child was absolutely right. That does NOT sound very nice. It sounds nuts. It sounds “weird.” Maybe that’s part of our problem Christians aren’t “weird” enough. We die with Christ so that we can live with a new life with christ. In America, we pride ourselves on our freedom, our freedom to chose our life and make our own decisions. There are a lot of things that we can choose, but we cannot chose death. At some point we are all going to die. Baptism is that moment when we are challenged to face death. We all meet death because death and sin go hand in hand. No matter how devoted to Christianity that we are, we are all sinners. We all need God’s grace – we come here every Sunday in order to search for grace in our lives. Now when Paul speaks of sin, he is not talking about our character flaws, or even the long list of things that we have done wrong. For Paul, sin is a pervasive power, or force that seems to pervade the world and our lives. No matter how holy we are, we all have those human moments. Moments when we live in the moment, and we react without thinking or feeling our faith. We cant escape those moments. I was reading recently about Raynald III, a fourteenth Century duke in what is now Belgium. Raynald was grossly overweight. Captured in a revolt by his younger brother, he was imprisoned in a room that was built around him. The room had no bars on the windows not even a locked door though the door was slightly smaller than normal. Still, because of his size, he could not squeeze through to freedom. He was too large. Still there was hope. All he had to do to be a free man was to go on a diet. His brother even offered to restore his title and wealth as soon as he was able to leave the room. His brother knew Raynald's weakness, though. Each day he had sent to Raynald's room a variety of delicious foods. Instead of growing thinner, Raynald grew fatter. He was a prisoner not of locks or bars or iron gates. He was a prisoner of his own appetite. (1) We all have those habits, those thoughts that can keep us locked into patterns. Some people are slaves to shopping. They cannot pass up a sale, even if they have a house full of things they don't need. Some people are slaves to cholesterol. They have never met a donut or a piece of bacon they didn't like. Some people are slaves to their jobs. They do not like their jobs, but the company is paying them too much for them to quit, so they go to work in golden handcuffs. Some corporations are slaves to greed. Everybody answers to the bottom line. If the bottom line is not high enough, somebody has to go. In the last few years, we have had all kinds of revelations about that, but it's not news to anyone. I have a friend who is a slave to Budweiser. If he doesn't have a drink in his system, his body drives him crazy. He's admitted that he is embarrassed about it, and he ought to be. Two weeks ago, he wrecked another truck. His friends hope it's a wake-up call. The good news is that we get locked into patterns, but humans are the only species that can break those habits and start new habits. We have the ability to reflect on our actions and do something new – all thanks to God’s love for us. We can find new life in Christ in the midst of death. Paul called himself a slave to Christ. In other words, if you have to be attached to something, it may as well be Christ. bout twenty years ago, singer Bob Dylan went through a brief spiritual phase. A lifelong Jew, he got serious about God, even thinking about becoming a Christian. He wrote some new songs, hired a back-up group of gospel singers, and went on tour. One of the songs said, "You gotta serve somebody. You gotta serve somebody. It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody." One night on tour he sang that song and the crowd began to boo. The more he sang, the more they booed. He stopped playing and left the stage. Afterward, one concert-goer said, "I didn't come to hear that kind of bologna. I'm free. I don't serve anybody but myself." Believe me, friends, there is no greater slavery than serving only yourself. Paul says he is a slave of Jesus. He struggles with his own urges, just like anybody else. But he knows in his gut that no good can come from listening only to his own desires. He is bound to a greater purpose than following his nose or listening to his stomach. He belongs to Jesus Christ. That is his identity. That gives him a purpose. Paul’s message to us – is that we all get stuck in our habits. But God didn’t intend for us to live that way into eternity. He wanted us to look for something better. We receive God’s grace so that we can live a righteous life. But we can’t take our righteousness for granted. It is a struggle everyday. Once there was a young man who was seeking true love. He went to the spiritual master and asked, "Wise teacher, I am searching for genuine love. How will I know when I have found it?" The master smiled and said, "I will not tell you the answer, but I will tell you that there are three ingredients to genuine love. Are you willing to search the world to find them?" "Yes," said the young man. And so the young man traveled the world over. He went to the great schools of learning. He talked to the wise masters and mistresses. He fell in love. He was loved. He failed in love. After many years the young man returned to the old master. The old master recognized him immediately and asked what he had found. The young man said, "Alas, I have only found two of the three ingredients of genuine love." "Tell me what you have learned," said the master. "First of all, genuine love is life-giving. When you love and are loved, life itself is richer and more full. And love shared creates new life in children." "That is right," said the master. "Secondly, genuine love is a forever love. It stands the test of time. Genuine love is deepened by the passing of the years." "That is right," said the master. But then the countenance of the young man fell and he said, "That is all I have learned." The master said, "Are you willing to go out again and seek and learn and experience more?" "Oh, no," said the young man. "I am too tired." The old man smiled and said, "You have indeed found all of the ingredients of genuine love. For not only is true love life-giving and forever. Genuine love is very hard work." (3) Dear old Martin Luther, whenever he was depressed and undergoing strong attack from the devil, or sensed his courage and spiritual strength failing, he would lay his hands on his head and say aloud to himself, I am baptized. And so do we, and our identity through baptism becomes a means of grace. I close with this. In the earliest baptismal liturgies, after the person had been baptized, he or she appeared before the bishop. The bishop embraced the new Christian then did something of great significance – the bishop dipped his finger into oil and made the sign of the cross on the Christian’s forehead. This was known as the signation, the signature. The sign of the cross upon a person’s forehead was like a brand to show ownership. As sheep are marked to show ownership, so Christians are marked by baptism to show who owns them and to what flock they belong. By baptism, Christians are branded to show who chose them and who now owns them. Remember your baptism. Maxie Dunnam, MaxieDunnam.com, by Maxie Dunnam During baptisms, we bring the font up front, but usually, it sits amongst us – available for us in those tought times in life to touch the water and remember your baptism. Remember your purpose, remember God’s intention for you. Baptism in intended to be a bridge – between our human life and our spiritual life. For some people Christianity is an adjective – it describes a part of their life. It is what they do or what they strive for but never quite achieve. When we remember our baptism – we are reminded that Christianity is a noun – it is who we are deep to the core. Our actions may not show it – but fundamentally we are a child of God. God loves us and claims us no matter what. Because of that grace – we may sin, but we don’t live there. God called each of out of our personal identity – together to be the body of christ for the world. God needed to raise up a righteous army in charge of healing the world. Healing the world so that all people can live in grace and not sin. But what happens when the righteous are just as sinful as the rest of the world – what happens then. The good news is God has a plan for that. God sent christ to not only be our example, but to be our salvation. Christ leads us into death to new life.We are transformed so that we can transform others. A family once had two little puppies. One of the puppies was a boy and the other was a girl...and for some strange reason wherever the sister went, the brother was on her tail following right behind her. Every morning, as they were let out to play, they would go scampering out the door, down the steps, across the lawn and through a hole in the fence, and always, the brother was following right behind his sister. One day, the family decided to fix that hole in the fence, and the next morning, they let the dogs out to play. As usual, the puppies went out the door, down the steps, across the lawn. As the lead dog approached the fence, she saw that the hole in the fence had been fixed and she quickly turned to the right to avoid hitting the fence. Her brother, however, was not so fortunate; he crashed right into the fence. Later, the family discovered why: he was blind the puppy had been blind since birth. He had simply learned that to get around he had to listen, listen to the sounds of his sister's footsteps, listen to where his sister was going and follow her. (4) There is a blind world outside this door. If we do not think so, all we have to do is to read the headlines in our morning paper. More than anything else people need to see the grace, love and peace of Jesus Christ lived out in human form and that will only happen when we who have been buried with Christ in Christian baptism are resurrected with him to new life. Do not settle for making Christ your whipping boy. Make him the Lord of your life. The world depends upon it. The rest of the world may not go to church every Sunday, they may not be as close to God, they may not know that Christ is their salvation – but they are watching our actions. They are watching to see how grace works in our lives. Why can’t we sin so that grace abounds – because the rest of the world needs to know that they can come out of the world of sin and live in new life in Christ. "Christ rose from the dead and will never die again," writes Paul. "Death no longer has any power over him. He died once for all to end sin's power, but now he lives forever in unbroken fellowship with God. So look upon your old sin nature as dead and unresponsive to sin, and instead be alive to God, alert to him, through Jesus Christ our Lord." (vs. 9-11, The Living Bible) Amen Song It is well with my Soul UMH 377 Prayer God of summer, This world is yours and we live according to your abundance. Wherever we wander during these June days – road trips to the beach, family camping trips, visiting friends and relatives – watch over our travels. May we reach our destinations safely and make our journeys with wonder at the blessings bestowed upon us by your amazing grace. As we kneel in the dirt of our gardens, pulling the unwanted weeds, pruning the untamed overgrowth, may our harvest be plentiful and the smell of soil, air and sun spark joy. You give us enough to share, Holy God. Remind us of those who don’t have enough and our ability to make a difference in their lives. The heat and humidity can be oppressive, God. Perfect weather for those with access to a swimming pool. So, we pray for those without access or excess. We pray for people without cool places of respite and refuge. We pray for those whose lives are threatened by the heat. We pray for the poor and impoverished of this country, as well as around the world. May we find ways to shelter and nurture all your children, Holy God. Hear our thanks and praise for the blessings of this summer. Hear, also, our prayers for those who are struggling. Especially, we pray for Those who – for whatever reason – cannot enjoy the blessings of summer In your mercy, Beloved God, hear the prayers of your people Amen (Presbyterian Outlook, Terri Ott) Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Moment Paul’s letter to the Romans lays out a description of what Christ means for each of us who have been buried with Christ in baptism. Alleluia! We now walk in newness of life, just as Christ was raised up to new life in his resurrection. What a gift! We are alive to God in Christ Jesus. In full-hearted gratitude, then, we offer back to God our time, our talent and our treasure. Joyfully, we bring our financial gifts as one way we of expressing our gratitude. Prayer of Thanksgiving Mighty God, giver of life and all its goodness, thank you for the gifts you pour out for each of us, day by day. Morning by morning, new mercies we see! Please accept this offering as one symbol of our gratitude and our love. Give us insight in how we might best use these gifts to share Good News with those who are fearful and frightened. AMEN (Disciples of Christ, Center for Faith and Giving) Announcements Closing Prayer for Facebook Grant, O Lord, that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts, and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (JOHN HUNTER, SCOTLAND, 19TH CENT., ALT.) Joys and concerns Benediction God, bless us. Jesus, walk with us. Holy Spirit, guide us. As we leave this house of worship may the grace, hope, peace and love of God our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer be with us all, now and always. Amen. (Presbyterian Outlook, Terri Ott) Additional Illustrations If it has not happened to you yet, you can be sure that sooner or later life is going to acquaint you with death. We can decide whether or not we want to go to Australia; we have the option of eating horsemeat or not eating horsemeat; but we do not have the option of meeting death or not meeting death. We will meet it, perhaps have already met it, of this we can be sure. But meeting it does not mean that we automatically have made our peace with it. Meeting it does not mean that we have accepted it, befriended it, integrated its reality into our lives. Young people are listening to a song these days that carries the line, "I'm going to live forever." It's repeated many times in the song and maybe some hear that so often they begin to believe they will never have to die. The Christian faith helps us stand up to death. It looks death in the eye and says, "Death, you have been overrated; your power has been overestimated; your influence has been miscalculated. Some influence you have, but much that people have led us to believe you can do you cannot. You can't squelch my ultimate identity; you can't destroy what is essentially me; you can't kidnap me from God. From you I will not run. Do to me what is yours to do, because you will not be my undoing. Death, where is your victory? Grave, where is your sting?" C.S.S Publishing Co., IN SURE AND CERTAIN HOPE, by Robert Noblett For one thing, the cross of Christ -- the sign of God’s new covenant with us in Jesus Christ -- is invisible. It cannot be seen with the naked eye; it was traced on our foreheads with a “bare” finger, or possibly with water or oil. It could not be seen at all, or not for very long, at best. The “mark” of the cross in baptism is not meant to be visible in the manner that the branding of cattle or other animals is intended so that they might be identified when the visible brand is seen. One of the National Geographic specials on television related the story of a study made of polar bears to learn how they are coping with the infringement of modern culture upon their environment. The hunter/scientists making the study used a helicopter to locate and anesthetize a large polar bear; they shot a “loaded” dart into the animal, waited until the bear was helpless on the snow and ice, and conducted their examination. They measured the bear, checked its teeth, took blood samples, and fitted it with a tracking collar, taking great care to allow for the seasonal weight gain that occurs in these animals during the summer. The last thing they did was spray paint on the animal a large number 25 which was highly visible from the air, as they watched the animal regain its feet and run away. In contrast, the mark of the cross, God’s covenant with us, is invisible and can never be seen with the naked eye. A visitor asked me, on one occasion -- and I suspect that his question often goes unasked by visitors -- “Why does a theological seminary need a baptismal font? It is never used, is it?” My answer was that it really is used for baptisms, on occasion, when children of students and other persons may be baptized. But the fonts need to be there not only so that the liturgical appointments of the chapels will be complete, but to remind worshipers that they have been “marked with the cross of Christ forever,” that they belong to God, and that what happens between the walls of our churches, as well as in the world, is his business. That’s why the font is used by some people every day; many persons (students, staff, faculty, and others) dip their fingers into the water and retrace the sign of the cross on their foreheads, because they remember their baptism into Jesus’ death and his resurrection. The mark of the cross is indelible; it cannot be washed away or removed by time because the very spirit of the risen Lord makes it indelible. The creation has not yet come to an end. The Bible says that God created man on the sixth day and rested, but each of those days was a million years long. That day of rest must have been a short one. Man is not an end but a beginning. We are at the beginning of the second week. We are the children of the Eighth Day.1 "Even so we also should walk in newness of life." "Man is not an end but a beginning." "We are at the beginning of the second week of Creation." Creation is not just something I receive. Creation is something that I do and continue to do in a working fellowship with God. The line of succession could be Abraham, Jesus, and now us. That puts life in a different perspective. What, that is meaningful beyond my personal support and my family upkeep, am I doing creatively in the life of the world? In my neighborhood, at work, in my carpool, through my vocation, in my community - anywhere? Am I helping to heal the hurt of the world? Am I working with God in any project that I recognize to be God’s work? Am I really living yet? lf I stood before God tonight, and he asked me, "Why should I let you into heaven?" what would I answer? I might stammer, "Your grace, your love, your forgiveness!" "But how did you share my love? What did you do for others because of my love for you?" Paul had the overall picture. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice." An invested life, invested under the guidance of God, in healing the hurt of the world! I recall an interesting story about an old snake. He lived in a pasture under a rock. Every morning he left his rock, crawled through a hole just his size in the fence, and hunted for food in the field beyond. One day he caught nothing and was coming home half-starved. Just before he reached his little hole in the fence, a baby rabbit jumped up. Without thinking, the snake snapped out, grabbed the rabbit, and swallowed him. The rabbit worked back in the snake’s body like an orange in a Christmas stocking. He started now, to go on through the hole, but he got only as far as the little rabbit, and there he was stuck. Just then another baby rabbit jumped in front of him on the other side of the fence. Without thinking the snake snapped that one up also (two oranges in the Christmas stocking). There was the snake, bulging with two rabbits - one on either side of the fence. He couldn’t move forward or backward. At this moment the old farmer heard the commotion and came with his pitchfork. As he lifted the fork to kill the snake, the old snake, being a philosopher, looked up and moaned, "Here lie I, the victim of circumstances beyond my control." Perhaps this was true for that moment, but he didn’t have to swallow the first rabbit; he didn’t have to swallow the second rabbit. After that, plainly, the circumstances were definitely beyond his control. How often do we make the same mistake - doing thoughtlessly the thing that condemns us? There is a fascinating story about Emma Calve, French soprano, that turns out much better. She was famous in Brussels, Paris, London and the Metropolitan in New York. While she was in Venice waiting for a letter, there came some crushing news. In despair, she started to leap from the balcony to her death. At that moment, she was stopped by the song of a gondolier. She had a deep urge to sing once more before she died. She hired the boat, and while floating down the canals of Venice, she sang all the songs she knew, her last performance - all the music in her welling up through her intense struggle and sorrow. When she had sung it all, she became aware of the multitude of boats jammed all around her boat, and she was amazed. She hid under a cover as the gondolier rowed her back to her hotel. The next morning there were flowers and a special note: "From Paul and Jeanne, who love each other greatly, to whom you have given an unforgettable night! May the blessing of God be upon you, who are the bearer of the Fire Divine." She lived! She had found her place: "The bearer of Fire Divine." What’s your place in the divine scheme of things? David Cairnes, in The Faith That Rebels, declares: "If Christ were here in the body ... and we all gathered round him, and each of us told him in turn the story of our failures and tragedies and sins, he would say to each of us: ‘What has been wrong with you, and what is wrong with you still, is that as yet you have not enough faith in God.’ "2 It is too true. If we don’t really believe in God, life doesn’t make sense, and we are confused and lost. We do not make an investment of our lives in that which we do not trust. My son Robert G. Tuttle, Jr., tells of a young doctor coming to him for counseling. The doctor opened with this strange declaration: "I’ve got everything I ever wanted. I have a big practice, plenty of money, a beautiful home, a wife I love, and three children. I have the house at the beach, the boat and all that. Why do I want to blow my brains out?" My son looked at him and was inwardly praying for understanding. He answered: "You’ve achieved every goal you ever set for yourself. You’ve lived your life; there’s nothing else to live for. Go ahead and take your life. But there is one thing I want to tell you before you do. "You’ve been living only for yourself and you are bored. If you dared turn your life, your family, your practice of medicine, your money over to God, you would be lifted into a living challenge you could never catch up with. God would put you to work meaningfully, and you can never exhaust God. Life will go on and on in creative mystery and excitement; new life will come to you, your family, your practice, and your world. Do you dare try it?" The doctor really tried it; he gave it all to God, consciously and subconsciously. New life flowed; every new day was fresh and full of expectations. God was rescuing him. His practice had a rich new meaning and effectiveness. God can do this for any of us, if we dare let him. Thomas Wolfe seemed always to be waiting for someone to fling open the door for him, to let the light in. God doesn’t do it all for us. There are always two keys to the strongbox. In love, God flings us out into the world of struggle and darkness, not to pity ourselves. He meets us there. He brings a light. He helps us find ourselves and helps us to help others find themselves. As we help others find themselves, we, too, are found and God is there. This is the "unfound door." This is the "lost lane-end into heaven." Under the realized touch of God, we become workers together with God in building that ultimate world. We are the children of the "eighth day of creation." We are the "bearers of the Fire Divine." Paul calls us to this vision: "Even so, we also should walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4b). What a parable of the dilemma faced by many people every day. There are forces within the human personality that can attain an almost demonic grip on our behavior. We must admire the person who wins a permanent victory over nicotine or alcohol or cocaine or even chocolates. It is not easy. Of course, there are other serious weaknesses of the flesh. Psychologists are now talking about sexual addiction, people who are forced to deal with an enormous drive to abuse the blessed gift of sexuality. Inability or failure to keep this drive under control has broken hearts, families, and lives ever since humanity made its appearance on earth. Two months later, Sir Roger woke up and sensed a compelling inward voice that said, "Go to York." He was not a man given to such voices, but the next day he saddled his horse and set off to York. When he arrived he discovered a large crowd gathered outside the courthouse. On hearing that it was the last day of a murder trial, he entered the courthouse and sat in the public gallery, from where he heard the guilty verdict pronounced. When the accused man was asked if he had anything to say, he replied: "I am innocent. I was more than one hundred miles from the crime on the day it took place. I was in Colchester. Another man and myself heard a clock strike thirteen. If only I could find him, he could vouch for my innocence." Immediately Sir Roger stood up and declared: "Now I know why I was to come to York." He explained who he was and showed the judge his diary which he always carried with him. The accused was declared innocent on the basis of Sir Roger's testimony. As he and Sir Roger walked out of the court, the freed man turned to his benefactor and said, "You are the only man in all the world who could have saved me." (2) Here is God's word for today. You and I are in torment and turmoil because of our estrangement from God, and there is only one man who can help us. That one man is Jesus of Nazareth. He is the only one who can make us truly free. Genuine love is very hard work; so is genuine religion. But we need that. A religion that costs us nothing has no power to lift our lives from the hum-drum to the extraordinary. One of the great stories of literature is that of Jean Valijean in Victor Hugo's novel, Les Miserables. After his parents died, Jean went to live with his sister. After her husband died the responsibility of being the breadwinner fell to Jean, who was 17 at the time. Many times the family went hungry. Jean once broke through a window and stole a loaf of bread when he was out of work and the children were starving. He was arrested, tried, and put in prison. After attempting to escape several times, his sentence was increased. Ultimately, he served a total of 19 years in prison--for stealing a loaf of bread. When he was finally released, he found life outside the prison every bit as cruel as the world he had just left. Everyone rejected him and no one trusted him. He went to visit the bishop at a local church. The bishop invited him in, seated him at the table, which was set with the finest silver and treated him with dignity. He gave him a bed for the night, but Valijean woke in the middle of the night, unable to sleep. He was confused by bishop's kindness. He was tempted to kill his benefactor but then he decided not to. Instead he stole the bishop's silver and left the house. He was caught the next morning by a policeman who brought him back to the bishop's home. When the door was opened the bishop said, "I'm glad you came back. I had intended to give you the candlesticks as well as the silver." Valijean was released. But he left the bishop's house even more confused than before. As he sat thinking about what had happened, a child came by and dropped a coin near him. He reached out and covered the coin, and the child ran away crying. Later, when he realized what he had done, he tried to find the child to return the money, but he couldn't. But from that time on, a gradual transformation began to take place in his life, and Jean Valijean became a respected citizen. He was eventually elected mayor of his village. Then one day he read about an old man who had been captured in a nearby town and was being accused of being the Jean Valijean who had stolen a coin from a child. After a great struggle in Valijean's soul, he surrendered himself to save the innocent man. (2) The story of Jean Valijean is the story of a man who was the object of mercy--the mercy of a kindly bishop--and could not forget it. My friends, you and I are objects of mercy too. It's sometimes hard for us to realize this, because I fear that the cross has become a cliche for many of us. It has become so familiar that we are no longer touched by its central theme--that the One who created us loves us so much that no price is too great to pay for our salvation. Look to your baptism, look to Christ's death in your behalf. But also look to his resurrection--his victory over sin and the grave. In his book, The Gospel For The Person Who Has Everything, William Willimon tells of a young friend, age 4, who was asked on the occasion of his 5th birthday what kind of party he wanted to have. I want everybody to be a king and queen, Clayton said. So, he and his mother went to work, fashioning a score of silver crowns – cardboard and aluminum foil, purple robes – crepe paper, and royal scepters – sticks painted gold. On the day of the party, as the guests arrived, they were each given a royal crown, a robe, and a scepter, and were thus dressed as a king or a queen. It was a royal site - all kings and queens. Everyone had a wonderful time. They ate ice cream and cake, they had a procession up to the top of the block and back again, and then when it was all over, everyone knew it had been a royal, wonderful day. That evening as Clayton’s mom tucked him into bed, she asked him what he wished for when he blew the candles out on the birthday cake. I wished, he said, that everyone, everyone in the whole wide world could be a king and a queen. Not just on my birthday, but everyday. My friend Willimon closed this story by saying, well Clayton, baptism shows that something very much like that happened one day at a place called Calvary. We who were nobodies became somebodies. Those who were no people became God’s people. The wretched of the earth became royalty. Two or three years ago, I saw the death door at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome. Some of you may remember that the great Pope John XXIII, bless his memory, commissioned the eminent artist, Geacoma Manza, to sculpt a new door for that great basilica, and the artist depicted on that door a series of death scenes. There was death by falling, death in war, the martyred death of Peter upside down on the cross, and others. Death by drowning is there, death by water. And I reasoned as I looked at that door, that this was behind the sculptor’s theme – we enter the church by death. Baptism – our acted entrance into the church is by water. So death by water is a challenging and authentic understanding of baptism. The early church even built its baptismal fonts in the shape of tombs to make that meaning graphic. So we cannot underscore the meaning of baptism too much if we’re going to save ourselves from approaching casually that event in a person’s life which is so crucial. Being buried with Christ in baptism – having the sign and the seal of our salvation placed upon us with water and the laying on of hands. What does that mean? -- to walk in newness of life? To answer that, let's look at another question: How Christian are we Christians? How Christian are you? A few years ago, the Christian scholar, Wilfred Cantwell Smith, wrote a book, Questions of Religious Truth. He concludes that book with a chapter bearing the title, "Christian -- Noun or Adjective." Dr. Smith says that if he is asked if he is a Christian, he readily answers, "Yes!" But, if someone asks him if he is Christian, using the adjective, "the situation changes radically." Do you see the difference in the questions? Are you a Christian? Or, are you Christian? In one question, Christian is a noun -- in the other one, an adjective. Do you see the point? Do we use Christian as a noun or as an adjective? If someone asked you if you were a Christian, you would say "Yes," -- but if they didn't put that little article in there (a Christian) -- if they didn't ask if you are a Christian, but rather said "Are you Christian?", using the word as an adjective, you might find that a searching question -- a disquieting one. "One that undermines your complacency." Dr. Smith said, "Indeed, to ponder it is to set all atremble. The noun is comforting, the adjective is demanding." I know what Dr. Smith is talking about, and so do you. I am a Christian, but I know that I do not always act authentically and consistently Christian. So the noun-adjective distinction with that word makes me very uncomfortable. I hope it does you. J. A. Davidson, who inspired this line of thought, says, "We are misled when we think of being a Christian and being Christian as matters of achievement." St. Augustine, one of the most influential thinkers in Christian history, said that "God deals with us, not as we are, but as we are becoming." Martin Luther reflected this insight when many years later he wrote, "The Christian is not in a state of being, but in one of becoming." Christian-ness, then is not a condition but a process." (J. A. Davidson, Perspectives and Prejudices, "Christian: Noun or Adjective", Pulpit-Digest, July August 1983, page 18). So, it is a legitimate question: How Christian am I? How Christian are you? Malcolm Muggeridge is a great English writer who became a Christian later in life than most. He tells the story that he became Christian because of the life, the presence, and the ministry of Mother Teresa. He wrote a book about Mother Teresa entitled Something Beautiful for God. In that book he tells about the time when he first met her and visited with her in Calcutta in the late 1930's. This is what he said, "I walked through the streets of the poverty of that city, poverty beyond belief. I kept walking, experiencing that until I became physically ill. I ran away, I went back to my comfortable hotel room and took a stiff shot of whiskey to expiate the wretchedness of my experience." Later he said he met Mother Teresa, and discovered that she walked the same streets, she went into the same place he was. He said, "The difference -- I ran away, but Mother Teresa crossed the line. She stayed, and healing took place." It always does, doesn't it? -- When we give compassion a chance. Go back to my question, "How Christian are we?" We can give a pretty good answer to that, and an honest answer, if we will look at the degree to which in each of our lives we add flavor to our kindness. And we give compassion a chance. This is what Paul is talking about when he calls us to walk in newness of life. Maxie Dunnam, , by Maxie Dunnam But James Braddock was an honest and courageous man. He took his son and the sausage back to the butcher, his son confessed his crime and they left. And outside the shop, James turns to his son and says, “No matter what, no matter how bad it gets we don’t steal Ever.” (9) It is important for us to hold on to the idea that there are some absolutes in life. It is wrong to steal. It is wrong to kill. It is wrong to commit adultery. There are circumstances that cause us to understand why a person might engage in wrong behavior, but sin is sin and it has consequences. And for us to be at peace in our hearts, our sins must be forgiven. John Vannorsdall tells the story of a young soldier during World War I. Somewhere along the Western Front, with shells bursting, and handsome bodies mangled beyond hope, with grownups wailing like babies, a young man, who is no more than a boy himself, says to a comrade, “We weren’t meant for this.” Commenting on this statement Dr. Richard Lischer writes, “We weren’t meant for this. Post that sentence on all the battlefields and prisons of the world; post it above the urban garbage dumps where humans made in God’s image scavenge for food, post it above homes filled with abuse. Nail it to this whole mass of damnation, which is our world: ‘we weren’t meant for this.’” (10) I hope that each of us will take that as our motto whenever we are tempted to betray our values, “We weren’t meant for this.” We were created in the image of God. We were created for something great and beautiful. It would be sad if we settled for squalid lives when we were created for splendor. would be true, for there are those who trust me; I would be pure, for there are those who care; I would be strong, for there is much to suffer; I would be brave, for there is much to dare. (11) Those words may sound archaic in our present world but it is important to see that young Walter, confronted with a strange culture’s many temptations, knew he “wasn’t created for this.” And neither are we. So, without any intent to create guilt or any desire to condemn, as you leave this room this day, I simply offer up these words of St. Paul for your reflection: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace . . .” And whenever you are tempted to sin, remember these important words, “You weren’t meant for this.” Timothy Radcliffe, a British Dominican priest, has written a beautiful book on the transforming power of baptism. His book Take the Plunge (Bloomsbury: London, 2012) redefines the moment of baptism for Christians, putting it in 21st century terms. The moment of baptism, of a ritualized death, is the end of our purely privatized life. As individual beings we have individual lives. In that individual existence we are born, we live, and we die. Baptism, our willing commitment to participate in something that reaches beyond that biological cycle, extends our individual lives, our personal stories, into something beyond our knowing and knowledge. It morphs our personal story into God’s universal story. The end of our privatized life is the beginning of our Christian life — a life lived as a member of Christ’s body, here on earth and after our earthly existence. In the act of baptism we acknowledge that our individual, earthly existence must inevitably come to an end. But it embraces the beginning of an existence lived wholly in God’s love and in God’s presence. Our “death” in baptism is our first baby step into our life as a disciple, as a person who has a resume that goes beyond the grave. Our baptism is our real natal day, our birth day into eternity. O Lord remember not only the men and women of good will, but all those of ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted on us. Remember the fruits we have bought thanks to this suffering: our comradeship, our loyalty our humility, our courage, our generosity, the greatness of heart that has grown out of all this. And when they come to judgment, let all the fruits we have borne be their forgiveness. (As quoted Duncan B. Forrester, Apocalypse Now? Reflections on Faith in a Time of Terror (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005), 115). ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., Leonard Sweet Sermon, by Leonard Sweet Professional speaker Phillip Wexler notes that the human being is the only creature on earth that is not the prisoner of its programming, but is the master of it. Birds are programmed to fly south in the winter. They don’t suddenly decide that because of the bad economy they had better stay home this year. Beavers build dams. Fish swim in schools. Only humans decide to build a dam or to go back to school. We have the power to decide. That doesn’t mean, of course, that we always make good decisions. Some of you will remember an episode of Seinfeld in which George Costanza is frustrated because every decision he makes turns out to be wrong. Jerry says, “Here’s your chance to do the opposite. If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.” George realizes that Jerry is on to something. If he would act and react completely opposite of his normal actions and reactions, he might have better results. George makes a decision to alter his behavior. “Yes! I will do the opposite!” he declares. It turns out that Jerry was right. Whenever George does the opposite of his normal reactions, the situation always turns out in his favor. (3) You really have to have a perverse view of the world to make such an approach to life work for you, but that is why the comedy on Seinfeld worked. “Congratulations, today’s your day. You’re off to great places. You’re off and away. You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” Those rhythmic words of advice come from the delightful little book by Dr. Seuss titled Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (1) “You’re on your own,” he continues. “And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go.” It’s up to us, says Dr. Seuss. The world is ours and we are free to choose what kind of life we will have. He even provides a warning: “You’ll look up and down streets. Look’em over with care. About some you will say, ‘I don’t choose to go there.’” With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down a not-so-good street.” I wish that were true, don’t you? I wish we only went places our brains told us to go that we always made rational choices. A. Philip Parham tells about a minister who asked a person he was counseling if he had any trouble making decisions. The man answered, “Well, yes and no.” Parham notes that the word intelligence comes from two words inter, meaning “between,” and legere, meaning “to choose.” An intelligent person is one who has learned to choose between good and evil, truth and falsehood, love and hate, gentleness and cruelty, humility and arrogance, and life and death. (2) In other words, “You’ll look up and down streets. Look’em over with care. About some you will say, ‘I don’t choose to go there.’” As one preacher in the Southern U.S says, “God always votes yes, the devil votes no, and your vote decides the election.” When Pompeii was being excavated, they found a woman’s body. Her body had been preserved by the ashes from Mount Vesuvius as it swept over the city. This woman’s feet were turned toward the city gate, toward safety but her face was turned backward. She was looking back toward something that was just beyond her outstretched hands. The archeologists wondered what she was looking for. As they dug, they found a bag of pearls. Maybe she dropped this bag of pearls as she ran for her life. Maybe someone else dropped them, and this lady saw the chance for instant wealth. But, one way or another, with her life on the line, she thought it was worthwhile to stop and pick up some pearls. She turned to pick them up and the volcanic ash swept over her. (4) What a terrible choice. It was a very human thing to do to reach out for the bag of pearls, but it cost her her life. But all of those responses raise an interesting question. Does it mean that we can go on living in dirt and filth forever? Is there nothing to be said for tidy rooms, shiny souls and mold-free refrigerators? Thirty-three years after ordination, I still know precious little about going on to perfection. But I know that it begins by climbing the basement stairs. ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., Collected Sermons, by William A. Ritter He signs this letter to the Romans with the words, "Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ." The word in Greek is doulos. That can be translated "slave." It can be translated as "servant." Then he said, "You know, Paul calls himself a slave. And if you're going to belong to anybody, you ought to belong to Jesus. He is a tough master, but he is more than fair. And if you belong to Jesus, nobody else can have a piece of you." He's right. Paul believes that he has a master. In fact, if you listen to this whole passage from Romans 6, it sounds like Paul believes that everybody has a master. Somebody owns us. Paul is right. Even in a land of freedom and liberty, somebody has shackled us in chains, whether we know it or not. The question is: Who is yanking your chain? He says this because he knows if the only thing he does is what he wants to do, if the only opinion he listens to is his opinion or his friends' opinions, if the only purpose for his life is to cover his tail or save his skin, then he is in a whole lot of trouble. The power of sin is so pervasive that it can take and twist our best impulses into something foul. There are so many kinds of sin that work on us and bind us. It's hard to be free for all of it. The day may come when she'll say, "Mom, do I have to go to church?" We can laugh about that; most of us have said that, some time or another. There are a lot of things in church that seem like forms of imprisonment. Like one parishioner once said to me, "Reverend, how long am I supposed to serve on this committee? It's been 42 years." There are a lot of things in church that seem like slavery. We come here, and pray for forgiveness, and somebody tells us we're forgiven. Then across the aisle we see somebody we'd rather not ever spend any time with. And we pray, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors," and we think, "Oh, I don't want to forgive him. I'm not going to forgive him." But we've said those prayers, and we are bound to those words. There are some things we learn through the church that feel like burdens. We get to know somebody, and discover that they are hurting, and we don't know what to do. We don't know how to help. It would be a lot easier to slip away and ignore them. But we can't do that because we are bound together through Christ, even when we'd rather go our own way. There are some occasions when the church decides it has to do something. A widow with seven kids comes to our neighborhood. She speaks with an accent. We don't know where we're going to put them. We are wondering how much money this is going to cost, and what else this is going to put off the plate. But we know it's the right thing to do, and we are bound to the work of justice and new beginnings. There are a lot of times when it would be easier to do our own thing. To play it safe. To back away. To retreat in comfort. Then we come to church and remember that we are bound to Jesus Christ. Not only that, he has bound himself to us. We are never free from him. The good news, of course, is that in this kind of bondage, there is great freedom.