Christmas Sunday 1 Consider Yourself

Luke 2:22-40

† In Jesus Name †

Grace and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ!

As Deacon Jonathan and I were discussing the sermon text for this morning, we came up with a classic story illustration showing the spiritual truth of the Romans passage Jonathan read a moment ago.

It is perhaps one of the best known stories of the last century, a veritable stage masterpiece, with characters so well developed, and well known, that if I give you their first names, you will know right away the story.

Grannie, Jethro, Ellie-mae and Jeb…

When we discuss the life of a Christian, and dealing with sin, I know of few stories that picture the problem so well, and yet, give us such hope. Hope as we go from ignorance to understanding, hope as we go from living in spiritual bankruptcy, to living in spiritual joy and peace; hope, as we go from living in lives where sin dominates, to lives lived in the richness of Grace.

If you remember the opening music, once from the ground bubbled the liquid, the family, the kinfolk of Jeb Clampett, urged Jeb to get away from there. So to, we see Paul advising those people who would play around with sin, the advice is the same – get away from there. It is not how one should live, with the riches given them in Christ Jesus.

1. Livin Ignorantly

a. Paul’s Don’t you know?

b. What makes about living like you are not saved?

i. Guilt ?

ii. Shame?

iii. Repercussions?

iv. It’s worse – because you realize the hurt

Can you imagine, for the moment, that you are one of the Klampett’s near kin,or neighbors? For so many years, you saw a family living in abject poverty, who lived hand to mouth, eating whatever possum, rabbit, or rodent that the man of the house was able to shoot?

In their ignorance, these people lived in the worse form of poverty imaginable. In ignorance, because they were not poor, they just realized the riches that were already theirs! Ignorance of the riches that were theirs, led them to live a pathetic life.

As Paul writes to Rome, a similar picture can be drawn. These people live in a society that is so dominated by sin, sin of every kind is not only available to have happen, but if you wanted, you could find a forum to just observe it. To the church there, Paul has spent a great deal of time in the previous chapters, helping them realize how sin has so greatly scarred and dominated both Jews, and Greeks. How that sin deserves punishment, death, eternal separation from God. He also deals with how we have been freed from that punishment, how Christ has become the final offering for sin.

A potential problem arises though, that Paul wants to shut off before hand. For he, and God who inspires these words, know how the human mind thinks. It is given that our sins were forgiven, all of them, at the cross. And it is a given, that God is glorified because He has forgiven our sins. Someone is undoubtedly going to come up with the idea that God will receive more glory, if He forgives more sin; therefore, if we want God to receive even more glory, we should sin more!

This is the spiritual equivalent of the Klampetts staying there, in the mountains, living hand to mouth on possum, rabbits, and rats, after they have found the oil. What sense does that make? To live in abject poverty, while having millions sitting in the bank? Yet that is what those who would continue is sin, or as other translations have it, abiding in sin do. They ignore the riches found in Christ Jesus, and live in the squalor of sin, as if they were not saved.

Paul’s question, “don’t you know”, is a colloquialism, and is better perhaps translated, “are you ignorant?” Are you ignorant of the blessing you have, in being baptized in Christ? Don’t you now you don’t have to live in the squalor of sin? Hear how another church heard the same message from Paul,

8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Colossians 3:8-10 (ESV)

Anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscenity, lust, greed, these things controlled us before we received life in Christ, the newness of life that Paul tells us that those who have been baptized into Christ’s death, and walk in the newness of life. We don’t have to live in the squalor of being dominated by sin, we have been given the riches, and have escaped that life.

Connected to Christ

To his death & life
Encoded…
Connected by Baptism
Luther’s wall

For the Klampetts, it was liquid gold that made all the difference in the world. For the Christian, it is a different water, a water of no special merit on its own, but because it used with the name of God to baptize us, it makes a far more significant difference in our lives, than a few million barrels of oil could.

For that baptism, that water applied in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, does something special. It unites us with the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the Greek, we are folded into His death, and into his life. Another way to picture it, is a braided cord, where we are so enveloped in Him, and His death, that His death, for sin, includes us. But as well, His resurrection does as well.

Sin, looking for us, wanting to dominate us, can only see the death of Christ, which satisfied the obligations that were owed because of that sin. Likewise, because we are so identified with the death of Christ, we are guaranteed that we are united with Him in a new life. A life free from the domination of sin.

In our baptisms, we have a new beginning.

Tomorrow, a new calendar goes up in my office. The old calendar is dead, of no use, but the occasional memory. It is no longer 2006, it is 2007. In the same way, when the water of baptism was applied to you, you no longer were the property of sin, you became a new creation, property of God.

3. Newness of life

a. Struggling with the change

b. Remission –

c. Admission

d. Commission?

When the Klampetts moved from Montana, or North Dakota, or Tennesee, to the state of California, things changed. Their legal residence changed, their lives changed, their diet should have changed! They no longer lived in squalor, in poverty, hostage to their environment. Yet they still struggle with what that meant. Jeb still wore the same clothes, Jethro still had the same twang, and thought the same things would impress the girls of Beverly Hills, that impressed the girls of Harleton, and of course grannie tried to find the California equivelant of possum or skunk, and collard greens.

We too struggle with living a life separated from the old life, bound in sin. We know those old ways so well, we know the temporary pleasure, that results, long term in guilt and shame. We struggle to live differently, to not live the way of the world.

For that, this passage reminds us of three “missions”, that will help us.

The first is remission – that in Christ, the remission of our sins is guaranteed. It is not permission, that is, he doesn’t approve of them, but in our baptism He has remitted them – taken away the effect of them on our eternal lives. No longer do they have that power over us, no longer are we bound to them.

That is why Luther suggested, “that on the wall at the foot of the believer’s bed should hang, side by side, the crucifix and that person’s baptismal certificate. As the Christian goes to bed at night the last thing he sees is the cross of his savior and the baptismal certificate whereby he has been incorporated into Christ with all its attendant benefits. As he awakes in the morning he is again reminded. He is equipped in Christ to go out and live before God in righteousness and purity.”

That brings us to our second mission – admission – we are admitted to the Kingdom of God. We need to realize that we don’t belong in the world, that Christ has made us righteous, free, holy. That is the promise found in verse 7 of our epistle!

“For one who has died has been set free from sin.”

That word, set free- is the word that means we are declared righteous – declared just, declared innocent of the sin. They are welcome into the presence of a King, and you should know, those baptized in Christ are declared righteous, just, free.

It is as we realize that we have the remission of sins, and admission to the very presence of God, that we begin to see the different life, the kind our passage calls the “newness” of life. The new creation, abundant life.

A life, and a hope so incredible, that we tell others of it, so that they too may share in the freedom, the joy the hope. That sharing of the blessings given to us by God, is the third mission – what we call the great commission.

My friends, remember the basics – what Christ has done for you, what promises you have in your baptism, and when tempted to get involved in sin, to dwell in places of spiritual darkness and poverty, listen to the words of Jeb’s kinfolk – get away from there….

And being away from there, may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus.

AMEN.