This was my first time preaching in front of a congregation. It was a thrilling experience. I felt comfortable in the pulpit. God was with me!
The sermon is based on Romans6:1-11 and the Old Testament text I refer to in the sermon is Exodus 14:19-22 and Joshua 3:14-17.
To Walk in Newness of Life
I don’t remember my baptism, I know stories about my baptism, but I don’t remember it happening. The story from Mom has great details. As a young infant, I was baptized into the family of faith, Dad was holding me and I was holding on to his arm, I didn’t cry, and afterwards the minister took me in his arms and walked up and down the aisles introducing me to my church family.
I may not remember this actual event, but I know this was my time of becoming a child of God. And the first step on a long path of having a relationship with God.
This path has led me on several twists and turns, and thankfully has brought me to seminary where my journey is continuing.
I love doing exegesis! You won’t hear that from all seminary students. You may be wondering what is exegesis. It is the studying and reading a meaning out of scripture using many tools. It is a process of learning where you
examine the original language,
look at the historical context,
the literary context,
determine where the passage begins and ends, and how the scripture flows.
This means there is a lot of translating, reading of commentaries, and comparing different translations.
So exegesis is fun for me, a wealth of learning opportunities.
All this you do before you ever begin writing a sermon. After doing all this preparation, then with God’s help, you find the message from the text.
Then you need to find an interesting way to share that message with others.
Now we turn to Paul’s letter to the Romans.
Paul is writing to the church at Rome. Unlike other churches he writes to, this is not a church Paul had a hand in establishing. Paul never had a chance to visit, but he is hoping to in the near future. And this church has both Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians –people who did not come from the Jewish faith.
Let’s look back at the end of chapter 5. In the previous chapter of Romans, Paul compares Adam and Christ.
Because of Adam we experience sin and death; because of Christ we experience righteousness and resurrection.
Adam’s action brought us into sin, with no hope of ever overcoming it. But through God’s grace and Jesus’ action, we no longer live in that sinful life.
In short Adam got us into trouble, Jesus got us out. Jesus, our Redeemer.
Chapter 6 begins with Paul asking and answering a big question; a question many people at the time were asking. ‘Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?’
In other words, do we keep sinning so God can keep showing us grace? His answer is NO! Of course not!
This where things start to get interesting.
‘…all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death’
‘Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.’
I like the way Paul writes, I like how he turns a phrase and this is one of the good ones in this scripture passage.
But what does Paul mean?
‘Baptized into his death’; ‘Baptism into death’. Baptism and death seem to be at opposite ends of the lifecycle for us. How can these 2 be put together?
That little word that connects the two that seems odd. ‘Baptism into death’. It is that little word another similar one that stand out to me throughput this passage. Eis is the Greek word here. And into is probably the best translation; other options being unto, toward, for, and among. But what does this little word into mean? How does Paul relate our baptisms with Jesus’ death?
How are we baptized into his death?
Let’s go back to our Old Testament readings for a minute. The language Paul uses is reminiscent of the exodus event.
Israel had been in slavery in Egypt. They were delivered by God’s act, passing through the waters en route to their promised inheritance.
Likewise you and I have been redeemed from sin as we pass through the waters of baptism and are thus en route to our promised inheritance, the gift of eternal life.
For Paul, baptism takes a person from one’s native condition (in Adam/in sin) and brings the person of faith ‘into’ Christ so that one lives ‘in’ Christ and ’for’ God. That means you and I now walk in newness of life.
Today when we think of baptism, we think of what we saw here last week –a child being welcomed into the family of faith as a child of God. He will always walk in newness of life.
The act of baptism was different in Paul’s day. You remember from scripture Jesus’ baptism by John, done in the Jordan River.
They did not use our small amount of water, this was being covered by water.
A person was lowered into the water,
buried like Jesus then
then emerging from the water, symbolizing Jesus’ resurrection.
This is newness, washed clean of sin,
now able to walk in newness of life!
The word ‘in’ appears again. ‘Walk in newness of life’. And later in verse 11: ‘alive to God 'in' Christ Jesus’. In the Greek this word is ‘en ’, spelled epsilon-nu or e-n, it means ‘in, by, or with’. In verse 11, this little word brings a powerful meaning. ‘Alive to God in Christ Jesus’: of inter-relationship especially involving either Jesus or God or both.
We are alive to God because we are connected in unity with Christ Jesus!
We have been baptized ‘into his death’,
we are in union with Christ, but we are not only identifying with the dying Christ who has won victory over sin, but introduced into the very act by which the victory is won.
Jesus, suffered on the cross for us, taking on our sins.
Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ.
When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, by his resurrection, we are now ‘alive to God’.
We now have victory over sin,
victory over death,
and we are transformed to walk in the newness of life.
In Christ the power of sin is broken, so once again we have to say
‘no, of course we do not keep sinning so God can keep showing us grace’
because God’s grace through Jesus’ act has freed us,
our baptism has cleansed us,
we are now walking a new path, and we have new life!
So to remind ourselves of this new life, alive to God in union with Christ,
our baptism is what we can remember and take with us today.
The seminary teaches this a lot and have various ways of doing this:
pouring water into a baptismal font during the Assurance of Pardon,
on occasion receiving small stones from the font,
or dipping our fingers into the baptismal font.
One of the most memorable things to me was a suggestion to do a spiritual practice and I want to pass that spiritual practice on to you.
As you go through the week, pause and remember your baptism, your personal relationship with God. You can do this by a simple act.
Whenever you wash your hands this week, before drying your hands, pause, and touch your forehead with your wet fingers, saying to yourself “I am a child of God”!
Try this, this week. Then go and know you are blessed to walk in newness of life!
Amen.
audio: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/108288011/Leah_sermon_6-22-2014.mp3
And the benediction influenced from our closing hymn, I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light.
We want to follow Jesus.
As we go from this place as children of God,
Let us walk in the newness of life
And spread our light to others.
In the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
