From Death to Life

Romans 6:1-14

To understand what Paul is saying about Baptism here in Romans 6 we need to step into Paul’s mind and catch a glimpse of his “big picture” of what God did do, is doing, and will do in, through and as Jesus the Christ.  When we get inside his “big picture” one thought that really sticks out is that in, through, and as Jesus Christ God has changed human existence.  Jesus is the new Man, Christ, as opposed to the old Man, Adam.  As the old humanity flowed forth from Adam so now in Jesus Christ there is a new human existence coming forth.  The difference is that the new human is in union with God in Christ through the Holy Spirit and that changes everything.  In Paul’s thinking God is changing humanity from “in Adam” to “in Christ” and at the Resurrection the change will be complete.

The old humanity, which Paul would call “in Adam” and which Paul names after the Bible’s story of Adam being the first human, is diseased.  We are sick in our minds with a disease called Sin that twists our perception of reality to be grossly self-oriented.  It makes us misunderstand God, ourselves, and each other.  We are unable to perceive God as we should and so we put ourselves and other idols into the place of God and in turn we each do not just bad things, but evil things even when we think we are doing good.  This disease of Sin culminates in Death and though death frees us from the misery of Sin we are especially fearful of Death because it ultimately dethrones us as our own gods.

Because God loves us and is deeply wounded to the core with our addiction to Sin God has acted to heal us.  In, through, and as Jesus Christ, God the Son took upon himself - unioned to himself - the Sin-diseased nature and flesh of the old humanity, “Adam”.  In Jesus God and Sin-diseased humanity became one – two natures, one person.  Just as Jesus touched lepers and took their disease upon himself, God took the disease of Sin into himself so that we will be healed.  Jesus then lived the faithful life that we are unable to live though tempted in every way as we are.  He then died the death that is the consequence of sin.  Then God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead with a human body, indeed created matter, that is now healed from sin and that will not die - voila, the first born of new humanity which Paul calls “in Christ”.  In the wake of Easter God has poured the Holy Spirit upon the followers of Jesus, opening our eyes so that we see, experience, and understand the nature of God rightly as he has revealed himself in Jesus as unconditional, self-giving, redeeming, healing Love.  The Holy Spirit is at work in us healing our Sin-diseased nature making us to desire to be more Christ-like, making us to desire to live the faithful life.  Then in the end when the Day comes, God will raise us from the dead as well.  All creation will be healed of the futility it now suffers.

  Baptism fits into this “Big Picture” of Paul’s as the moment a person has for certain passed from the Old Humanity into the New Humanity in Christ Jesus.  Baptism is a mysterious participation in Jesus own death and resurrection with the result that the person baptized is dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.  The person being baptized is in essence being put to death and raised to new life in Christ. 

Understanding Baptism in Paul’s way is probably a bit out there for most us.  Most of us have probably just been taught that Baptism is simply a ritual Christians do to say they and their children are Christians.  And, being Christian is simply a way of living where we clean up our acts and try not to do anything wrong so that we can stay on God’s good side. 

But, that’s not what Paul says Baptism is!

Baptism is incorporation into a new humanity – a new humanity that God brought into being when Jesus was conceived in his mother’s womb by the power of the Holy Spirit and brought to its completion with Jesus’ resurrection in the power of the Holy Spirit.  This new humanity is now at work in us “in Christ” by the presence and work of the Holy Spirit who is in us freeing us from our enslavement to Sin and Death as we go about walking in the Way of Jesus.

Baptism is our participating in the death and resurrection of Jesus.  With respect to that Paul writes, “You must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”  Elsewhere he writes, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:19-20).  For us, this basically means we are dead.  We no longer have claim to ourselves to do what we want to do with the lives we still live.  Rather, we must live as disciples of Jesus in prayerful discernment of what Christ Jesus is doing in and through us in the power of the Holy Spirit.  We cannot seek conformity to the world but rather we must yield to the Spirit’s transformative power at work renewing our aims and ambitions to reflect the new life in Christ.

Today we baptize two babies.  If we are to take Paul seriously, they are dying and rising with Christ.  They belong to him.  There lives will never be their own.  They belong to Jesus Christ who loves them and gave his life for them.  This has profound implications for parenting.  This means that parenting isn’t just parenting.  It’s discipling.  Parenting is discipling.  We must teach these children the ways of Jesus that they may be living witnesses to the new life that is in him.    When they get ideas of whom they want to grow up and be like, we have to point them to Jesus.  We must help them to understand that the Holy Spirit is with them – they are never alone – and that the Holy Spirit is at work in them making them more like Jesus.  We must teach them how to listen for him and sense the Holy Spirit’s moving and prodding.  Most importantly, we have to constantly assure these children that they are beloved children of God and that God loves them as much as he does Jesus, the only-begotten Son. 

Baptism is not simply the first rite of passage in life marking entrance into this world.  Christian parenting is not simply exposing our children to Christian beliefs and ways in hope that they will grow up and one day chose to be a Christian.  Baptism is like citizenship.  My children were born in Canada.  We filled out the paperwork to get them legally recognized as to enjoy the benefits of being Canadian citizens.  We raise them not only to abide by the laws of the land but also to be Canadian.  Likewise, my children were born into a Jesus-following family, into a “new humanity” family, into an “in Christ” family.  We had them baptized in recognition of what they are, of what we are, “new humanity in Christ”.  They, as are we, as is Jesus, are beloved children of God the Father.  They belong to him.  We are entrusted to raise them to abide in Jesus and live according to his commandment that we love as he has loved us and laid down his life for us.  With the help of the Holy Spirit, we raise them to be followers of Jesus who are becoming like Jesus. 
S___, Ch____, K___, D____; your children are “in Christ” and belong to Jesus because you are “in Christ” and belong to Jesus.  Today we acknowledge this reality.  God loves your children as one of his own.  May the Holy Spirit guide you as you raise them up “in Christ”.  We are here to help in any way we can.  Amen.

Body Building

Ephesians 4:1-16

When I was about twelve or thirteen like many boys I took an interest in bodybuilding.  I’m not sure exactly why.  I think, and don’t quote me on this, it was because I had this crazy idea that girls liked a guy with muscles more than a skinny nerd.  It was about this time also that the TV show The Incredible Hulk was on every Friday.  Lou Ferrigno, a two-time Mr. Universe, played The Hulk.  Being a skinny nerd I obviously had nothing better to do on a Friday night than watch The Incredible Hulk (and Aqua Man, Wonder Woman, Treasure Island, Love Boat, and don’t tell anyone but Dallas too – and I don’t remember who shot JR).  Ferrigno got me all inspired to pump some iron. 

My brother had a set of weights that he never used that I coopted.  I bought a couple of books, some bodybuilding magazines, and even got the Charles Atlas program.  There wasn’t going to be anybody kicking sand in my face at the beach.  No way. Uh. Uh.  This chump was going to be a champ.

As you can tell I never got very far with bodybuilding.  It takes more than a well-motivated teen-age boy with dreams pumping away in the basement. There’s more to it and it is something you really shouldn’t do alone.  Bodybuilding isn’t just bulking up your muscles.  It has more to do with proportion, with muscle development that happens evenly all over the body.  There’s nothing more weird looking than somebody with massive arm and chest muscles but skinny little legs. 

To get that properly proportioned body a bodybuilder needs a coach.  A coach has experience, expertise, and a set of eyes.  A coach knows which exercises work best for bulking and which for fine-tuning.  Coaches can tell you which areas of your body need more work.  Coaches give guidance and encouragement.

It also helps to do your bodybuilding at a weight room that has the proper equipment and most importantly people who will help and encourage you.  Bodybuilding is a day after day after day thing that requires a lot of exertion and dedication.  You need friends to keep you motivated coming back.

Well, enough on the sport of bodybuilding. Let me tell you something about Jesus that I bet you didn’t know.  Jesus is into body building.  We are his body and he wants every part of his body built up in perfect proportion to the rest of his body so that the whole body works together to maintain unity in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who is at work in us bonding us together in peace with the Super Glue of mutual, unconditional, sacrificial love.  It may sound a little vain, but Jesus wants a body that matures into looking just like him.  For Jesus to have a body that looks like him we have to focus on what Paul calls maintaining the unity of the Spirit who bonds us in peace.

Let me tell you about that word maintain.  Maintain is a weak word to use there.  The Greek word, tereo, means to keep, to guard, to protect something precious.  It’s like being entrusted to rear up the precious child of another.  You have to keep that child safe and healthy, and teach it the things it needs to know.  It’s not your own child so you can’t be sloppy about it.  You’re commissioned to deliver on the high expectations of the parents who have a high social standing to uphold and that child has got to fit the bill.  That’s a little bit more than just maintaining.

Jesus has placed the Holy Spirit in our midst who glues us together with the love of God forming in us a peace, a unity like no other among people.  This unity is a precious gift that he has commissioned us to rear up.  We must keep it safe and healthy in our midst and let it grow into maturity heeding the Spirit who teaches us the things we need to know to become the people of Jesus who look and act like him in this world. 

Paul says this takes humility and gentleness.  There can be no arrogance or self-exaltation in this gym.  Only gentle encouragement and speaking the truth in love while always considering others before ourselves.  It takes patience and by patience Paul means restraining ourselves from wrath.  We all have our ideas about what “other people deserve”.  We don’t act wrathful to each other, we bear with, endure, longsuffer one another in love encouraging one another to look to the Spirit’s working in us each.  The stiff regimen of learning to follow the Spirit’s inclining us to humility, gentleness, patience, and longsuffering in love is the bodybuilding Jesus wants us to do to grow to maturity in him.

To make sure the body grows proportionately Jesus has also gifted us with leadership, with coaches.  Paul calls them apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.  Apostles are people that God sends to plant churches and to help existing churches grow.  Prophets speak the specific things that God has to say to us.  Evangelists help us to find ways to announce the Good News of the Lordship of Jesus Christ to the community around us.  Pastors are shepherds who make sure the flock is safe, watered, and fed.  Teachers teach.

Paul tells us that God has given the church leadership to equip the saints, the people in the pew, for ministry and to build the body up.  It is not the work of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to do the ministry for the people in the pew, but rather to equip them.  This is an important point.  You are the body builders.  Timothy and I are the coaches.  We are not the ministers.  You are the ministers.  We are here to equip you to do the ministry. 

Can you imagine a gym full of bodybuilders who never exercise, but all the while they sit watching the coach exercise for them?  The bodybuilders stay wimpy while the coach dies of exhaustion.  Imagine what Jesus’ body would look like if the leaders/coaches of the church do the ministering for the people.  Jesus is the head.  The leadership becomes this enormously muscular neck while the body below is too weak and skinny to get out of the pew.  Actually, that’s the way the minister’s salary package looks in most church budgets.  That should tell us something.

We are the body of Christ.  Jesus is our head and he’s into body building.  The Holy Spirit is at work in us each and us together so that we each in our individual ministries and we together in church ministries grow up and mature into looking like Jesus.  We are a new humanity, people indwelt with the Spirit of God, that actively loves as God loves.  We are hulking on Jesus.  I am so encouraged that a discipleship group got off the ground here this week.  When this congregation figuratively looks at itself in the mirror a year from now due to this discipling you will be a stronger, healthier, better proportioned body in the image of Christ.  Amen.

Conquer the World

1 John 5:1-8, John 15:9-17

I think I’m getting old.  I pledged allegiance to Jesus back when I was 19 and that was over thirty years ago now.  That’s a long time and it went fast.  I look back on those days with nostalgia and nostalgia is the number one clue that you’ve lived longer than you’ve got left to live.  It also might be a symptom of some sort of weird mental disorder to say that I am nostalgic about the 80’s particularly with respect to my walk with Christ.  Those were the early days when things were new for me with respect to him.  I had suddenly begun to know that God is really involved in my life and not just a distant judge.  I had discovered Jesus lives and “What a friend we have in Jesus.”  I began to experience that the Holy Spirit was with me and in me working to heal me and assuring me that God loves me, that all things are in God’s hands, and that I need not fear the life that lies ahead of me. 

TV preachers were big back in the 80’s and I watched my share of them.  A good many of them talked about something called “victorious living”.  They said Jesus won the victory for us and all we got to do is by faith live that victory and we will have a victorious life and making a donation to their ministry was a good place to start.  By victory they meant becoming financially successful and free of worry.  In the 80’s there was a lot of that "faux-preaching" going around.

Their way of victorious living was basically a positive thinking spin on the ideas taught by the first great atheist philosopher, Ludwig Feuerbach.  Feuerbach said two things: one, that God is just a made up image of our best selves that we project out there and idolize; and two, we are what we eat.  Victorious living preachers just said imagine the successful life you want and go for it and God will make it happen and don’t think negative thoughts because if you think defeat you’ll only receive defeat.  Incidentally, the Greek word for victory is “nike” – Just do it.

So, victorious living according to the TV preachers went like this.  God will give you the best life you can imagine filled with blessing and joy.  Thinking negatively will keep you living in defeat.  So, keep hoping for what you want and praise God in everything.  Get your eyes off of the circumstances and fix them on Jesus the Author of your joy.  When setbacks happen don’t accept them as defeat just keep praying, immersing yourself in the Scriptures, and living the Christian life of service and God will bring you the victory.

On the surface there is some good pastoral advice hidden in there.  Faithful living is victorious living.  Fill your life with hope and praise and prayer and devotion and service.  I say “Amen” to that.  But don’t do it just to get the successful life you’ve always dreamed of – a life of success is not the victory Jesus won when he was crucified and died for us and the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit raised him from the dead victorious over it.  John is not telling us here to be faithfully devout so that God will make us successful.  Success and a suffering free life is not what John meant when he wrote that the victory that conquers the world is our faith and that whoever believes that Jesus is the Son of God conquers the world.  Bear with me a bit and I will take you down a rabbit hole.

Sometimes the last thing a person says is the most important thing they say.  Looking at First John, the very last thing John just up and out of the blue says is “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.”  What idols were people worshipping that John would be concerned about?  You’ll need a little historical background.  John likely wrote this letter from the city of Ephesus, which is in western Turkey.  He wrote it at the end of the first century very close to the time he would have been arrested and imprisoned on the island of Patmos when and from where he wrote the Book of Revelation.  One of John’s major underlying themes in Revelation is encouragement for Christians in western Turkey to keep their confession of Jesus being Lord in the face of persecution.  In Revelation those who “conquer” and “overcome” are those who remain faithful in their confession of Christ in the face of persecution even to the point martyrdom.

The Romans were persecuting the followers of Jesus at that time because we were refusing to participate in the civic worship of the Roman Emperor as a god.  The Emperor at that time was Domitian who claimed himself to be a god and demanded to be worshipped as such.  He had temples with his statue in them all over the Roman Empire for that purpose.  Most emperors just claimed to be a son of the god Jupiter and it was when they died that they became fully a god.  Domitian was a bit shrewd, if not crazy, and claimed to already be a god and should be worshipped as such and this helped solidify his rule throughout the empire.  Therefore, when Christians refused to do their civic duty of worshipping the Emperor and instead called Jesus Lord, Saviour, and Son of God, that was treason.  That’s the reason I think the Romans arrested John in his nineties and imprisoned on Patmos. 

Throughout this letter John keeps emphasizing that Jesus is the real Son of God, the One True God and encouraging Christians to hold firm to that confession and to demonstrate their allegiance to Jesus by loving one another as Jesus loved them.  Victorious living, as I see it here, is the followers of Jesus together loving each other as Jesus loved and died for us each – unselfishly, unconditionally, even to the point of death.  Jesus conquered the world, conquered sin and death.  In the power and presence of the Holy Spirit Jesus made this victory real in the small communities of his disciples who loved as he loved.  As John saw it Lord Jesus and his Kingdom of Holy Spirit-filled disciples by building loving communities were conquering the Roman Emperor and his empire built by means of fear, economic domination, and military might.

The immediate question that follows on all this is “what does this have to do with us today?”  Well, all of us were brought up in a world that was undergirded by the institution of the Christian Church.  In our life times we have seem this same institution lose its favoured status.  Oh, the church still wields some power.  It was the Evangelical Christian vote that provided the swing vote that elected the current President of the United States.  Here in Canada, I really don’t see where the Christian vote has any sway at all as less than 20% of the culture still goes to church on a regular basis.  Our culture as a whole is either indifferent to the Christian faith or biased against it.  The lifestyle of those who call themselves Christian does not look all that different than everybody else around us.  We seem to differ from the world around us only in our individual beliefs and our being more likely to volunteer.

I started this sermon talking about victorious living, about us as individuals being faithful in prayer, devotions, and service; about keeping hopeful and praising God in all things; and fixing our eyes on Jesus.  That’s private faithfulness.  But Jesus didn’t say that people would know we are his disciples by how we privately practice our faith.  He said people would know we are his disciples by the way we love. For the last 1700 years the church has been undergirding the empire that Jesus in actuality conquered.  We have a prime opportunity to simply be about the love of Jesus these days, but it means that beyond simply holding to our private beliefs, we have to start being public in our loving.  Amen.