06 Easter Eve Sermon Romans 6. 3-11

            This is a story that didn’t quite make it into the Gospels for some reason.  But it is a story that takes place on the Saturday after Good Friday.  Joseph of Arimatheia is resting and hanging out in his back yard.  He quietly ponders the events of the previous day.  His neighbor comes up to him and after exchanging the friendly neighborly small talk asks Joseph, “What were you thinking yesterday?  I mean you gave over your tomb to that criminal, that trouble maker.  You worked long and hard to save up enough money to buy that thing and now you have just given it up.  Have you lost your mind?”  To which Joseph replied, “It’s really no big deal.  He only needed it for the weekend.” 

            It is a story that would not be funny without Easter, because without Easter it would not be true.  Today is a special day in this Holy Week.  We find ourselves past Good Friday, but looking forward to that Easter celebration that will begin in a few short hours.  So this is a very appropriate time and place to talk a little bit about Baptism and what it means to be baptized into Christ. 

            St. Paul writes, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 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.

5 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. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For whoever has died is freed from sin. 8 But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Now there is a lot of talk here about sin and death and life.  But here is the gist.  The life we live, we live through our baptism.  This baptism connects us to the death and resurrection of our Lord.  Because he died, we have, in a sense died.  And because we rose victoriously from the grave, we know that we have that life everlasting as well. 

This life is not something that happens once we stop breathing.  But it begins when that water touches us and the words, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” are spoken.  So we no longer live for ourselves, but the lives that we live we live for and in Jesus.

This is something truly awesome because it is only in Jesus that we know true life.  “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  He tells us.  And again, “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.”  Life isn’t necessarily living the way that we want to.  Looking out for number one and all that stuff, rather life found in living the way that God intends us to live.  And when we live that way it is good.  This is a life that is given to us as a gift by our God.  We do not have it because we are good enough, or because we have earned it.  Rather, he gives it to us, by his grace, freely for the sake of Christ. 

The life that we live, we do not live as individuals, but as a community that is brought together by our Lord.  It is not me and Jesus, and you and Jesus, and him and Jesus and her and Jesus, and it just happens to be that we are next to each other while we are with Jesus.  But it is me and you and him and her and Jesus, together, as community of faith, as members of his body.  We are not here as a group of individuals in that happen to be in the same place.  That is what you experience when you go to a restaurant or a movie theater or a country club.  But we are here as members of the same body, as children adopted by the same heavenly father.  We are here as a group of people that loves and cares for, and looks out for one another.  That is living life in our baptisms.  That is something amazing, and awesome.  It might seem a little overwhelming, but there is no better way to live.  Can you imagine what kind of witness is given to the world around us, when they see a community living together in the love of Christ. 

Now this does not mean that we live perfectly.  We cannot.  It is impossible.  If it were possible Paul wouldn’t have to write about not sinning.  But here is the difference, when we do sin against one another, we go to that other person and there is reconciliation and forgiveness.  It is truly awesome and humbling.

I had a truly Holy Week experience this past week.  Which I guess is appropriate.  But I was overwhelmed with this sense of community and life together as the body of Christ.  It happened in three people, but it is certainly lot limited to these three, I am just using them as an example of this life together as the baptized people of God. 

First was a gentlemen that I did not really know.  But we shared a meal together.  Our common bond? We are both sinners purchased and won by the death of our Lord Jesus.  We got to know one another better and that time spent together was time well spent.  It was a holy time.

In a different time spent with another friend, there was support and encouragement given.  It was much needed at the time and this friend was able to give it.  To speak words of grace and forgiveness to challenge and exhort so that the life lived and the actions taken would be done to glorify our God.  With out this friend, there would have been anguish, but his words brought hope and healing.  It was time well spent.  It was a holy time. 

And at yet another time there was another friend.  This relationship had become a bit strained.  But there was talking.  Not angry and mean talking, but open and honest talking.  As a result there was forgiveness given and healing and restoration had taken place.  It was time well spent.  It was a holy time.

The life that we live together as the people of God is a gift.  We are given to one another, not to get on each other’s nerves and to be better than to other.  But to walk together as the redeemed people of God.  To live life together in community and to love one another as God has loved us.  Because when we love each other as God loves us, we are showing to one another God’s love for them.

May our God richly bless you and me as we live together as his people.  Brought together through a common baptism, a common adoption by the same heavenly father.  And may he be glorified in those lives that we live together.  Now and always.  Amen.