Sermon for June 22nd

I once led a memorial service for a guy I had met only once or twice at church but never really knew at all. It really wasn’t until his funeral preparations that I got to know this man and his family. But once I got to know him, I just couldn’t believe all the things this guy had done! The family started telling stories and memories about him and they just got worse and worse and funnier and funnier. This man was a real sinner. Everybody there knew it. He pulled some of the most horrific pranks and freaked people out constantly in his life. I just kept looking over at his wife, with this look of amazement on my face, as family members recounted event after event—any of which could have led to a divorce just based on the sheer danger recounted, or selfishness exhibited, or stress involved. How had this nice lady ever been married so long to such a crazy guy like this?

Now, at most memorial services that I have attended, people don’t often mention the dead person’s favorite sins; instead, they often try to build up their good deeds, their positive traits and their Christian attributes. But this memorial service was very different in that regard. While most people miss loved ones because of how sweet and loving they could be; it seemed that many family members and friends at this memorial service might miss this guy partly because of what a jerk he could be at times. And by the end of the service, people were saying the same things. Well, but, he’s gone now, and won’t be able to do that crazy stunt any more. Or they might say, I wish that he would just get up and start yelling at me, but, he can’t.

“Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?” These words, written by the apostle Paul in the book of Romans, reflect the same experience people had at this memorial service. Could this man, remembered at the service, a father, a husband, a friend, and a brother continue all the crazy and horrendous acts he had done in his life? “By no means!” Paul says. Put into more modern language, we might say, “Well no. Duh! He’s dead. He can’t do much of anything now can he?”

Perhaps I am stating the obvious here, but when you are dead, all your expectations and your plans, whether they are virtuous or not, come to an end. Even if you want to do something good. Even if you desire to do something bad. Tough luck. You are dead and it aint gonna happen.

There is a book called The Hammer of God. In it there is a story about a young pastor in Sweeden named Fridfeldt who goes to visit Frans, a man who is dying. The pastor, Fridfeldt knows that this man, Frans, is a godly man and a true believer. But on arrival Frans is only halfway conscious and begins relating sin after sin from his youth as well as his contemporary naughty thoughts and desires. All the while, Fran’s daughter cries beside the bed as her father relates one embarrassing detail after another. I’ll continue the story from the book:

“Friedfelt could not help thinking how alike we all are within, after all. The same jealousy, the same pride, the same unloving heart. He also thought about how it would now go for Frans. As long as he was conscious he had faith. That seemed quite evident. But beneath the thin shell of his conscious faith this evil still dwelt within the heart. ‘Just as it is with me’, mumbled Fridfeldt. The only difference was that he was still in possession of his full senses, and in the interest of his good reputation must cover tightly all the uncleanness within. As for the poor old man, his lid had fallen off, and everything lay bare.” The man later dies and his daughter asks, “Tell me Pastor, do you believe he died a blessed death?” What do you think?

“Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that 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.” Could this man, who had been baptized in Christ Jesus, have somehow separated himself from God’s love long ago? Could this man, who had been baptized in Christ Jesus, have sinned a little too much in later life? Could this man, who had been baptized in Christ Jesus, have let his lid fall off a little too soon and lost his faith? “By no means!” Paul says. Again, using more modern language. “Well no. Duh! He died. He was buried into with Jesus at his baptism! He couldn’t do anything about that. He died!

Perhaps I am stating the obvious here again, but when you are dead, all your expectations and your plans, whether they are virtuous or not, come to an end. Even if you want to do something good. Even if you desire to do something bad. Tough luck. You are dead and it aint gonna work. This is true the day you die as well as sixty years after you have died. This is true when you have died with Christ at your baptism.

This last week was a week full of graduations. I feel rather knowledgable about graduations because I have done it four times if you include high school and college. This is what I know. You have to go to school until you graduate and, while you are at school, you have to go to classes and do the work and do it well or else you won’t get your diploma. That’s just how school works. But what if, on your first day of elementary school, or high school, or college, or medical school, or seminary, the president, or superintendent told you that you didn’t need to worry about graduating anymore. It was all taken care of and he, or she, handed you your diploma saying, “Congratulations!”

It didn’t matter how hard you worked in school, how many classes you went to, how much you sucked up to the teachers, you were going to fail this school miserably. This president, or superintendent, expected no more than a 0.0 grade point average from you. But, the superintendent loved you. They loved you and gives you your diploma, free of charge, as a gift, before you could ever succeed or fail. How would you feel about this? Cheated? Offended? Guilty? Unbelieving? Thankful? Free?

“Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that 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.” Your baptism was your graduation. You received your diploma, your promise of eternal life, free of charge from God who loves you. Jesus understands that in this life, you will sin against him again and again. Jesus understands that in this life, you will sin against one another again and again. In the school for the salvation, you will all be given a 0.0 grade point average. He knows all this, but he loves you and he forgives you. Therefore, you may consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

When this passage from Romans, that you heard today, is read, we often think that Paul is trying to guilt trip us into becoming better people. We like to believe that the jury is still out on us and God is watching for us to succeed or fail in this Christian thing. That way, if you really wanted to, you could sin enough and thwart God’s decision that has already been made for you. We want that choice! We want that freedom! Not to choose God, no, we know what would happen then. But how far would we have to go to reject him! “Shall we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?”

The apostle Paul says, “By now means! Well no. Duh! How can you, who have already died, go on living in sin? It doesn’t work that way. Jesus Christ has already made his decision about you. When you were baptized in Christ Jesus you were baptized into his death. You didn’t just die, you were buried! 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. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

Your lid has already popped off and everything was laid bare. You died. Your memorial service is over. Jesus has already handed you over a promise of eternal life. “We know that our old self was crucified with Jesus so that the body of sin might be destroyed and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin.” You have died and your life now hidden with Christ in God.

Does this mean that you’ll still make bad decisions and sin against God and one another. Yes. In this life on earth you can count on it. But. In God’s eyes you have already died. Just like his son Jesus. Everything is accomplished already. “And since we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So, you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”