Week 4 Cross of Christ

Call to worship

One: It is the light of God’s love in Christ

that brings a rich harvest of goodness and truth.

All: So we would live like people who belong to the light.

One: We would have nothing to do with worthless things

that belong to the world of darkness.

All: In the name of Jesus

we would live in the light,

giving thanks to God the Father.

Prayers of the People

Almighty God: from the beginning to the end you have chosen       to love us,      to redeem us,      to shape us as your people. Though you were strong you became weak      so you could confront      to come face to face with our sin and our death Spirit of God, resting upon us: may your power enflame us      with your unity; may your peace touch us       with your grace; may your grace fill us       with your hope; may your hope lead us into your Kingdom. Lord in your mercy, Hear Our Prayer

God to your glory. We give thanks to you for them, we celebrate the times we got to spend with them, and we remembers the ways that they led us, that they enliven us, that they encouraged us, that they discipled us and so so much more. Lord God even through our grief we give thanks to you in remembrance of those that have gone before us.

Lord in your mercy, Hear Our Prayer

In this time where the church international has plenty of reason to be overcome by division Holy Spirit, commune with us. Equip us, strengthen us, convict us and encourage us toward becoming a more holy and complete church. We ask, Holy Spirit, that your power would be made known in your church and in your people that we might be one in the same way that you are one.

Lord in your mercy, Hear Our Prayer

We lift up those that are battling illnesses, injuries, and surgeries. We pray for healing, for the renewing of minds, for the freeing of spirits, and for the renewing of minds.

Lord in your mercy, Hear Our Prayer

Forgive, us we pray, for those times we have squandered,

and for those times we have used our creativity

as a force for destruction rather than reparation.

Forgive us we pray and free us for joyful obedience

Lord in your mercy, Hear Our Prayer

We know that you speak and breathe life in each of us individually and uniquely. And in this next moment of silence with lift to you in prayer the outpourings of our hearts. That the things that are on our hearts, the names of others that we have been praying for whose stories you know.

(wait 10 seconds)

Lord in your mercy, Hear Our Prayer

God, stretch our imaginations!

Open our eyes to see you

in your majesty above us,

your mystery around us,

and your Spirit always with us.

Together we pray as you taught your disciples to pray:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Amen.

Middle Section

We are going to have a listening session tomorrow

Sermon

The phrase where sin abound grace “superabounds”

The context is pushing back on the argument in the previous chapter and in true Pauline sense it is a pushing back against a basically non-existent opponent.

The argument is saying if God is full of second chances and third chances, why wouldn’t we game the system, and keep sinning

Romans 6:1–11 NRSV

1 What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? 3 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.

The context of the exodus

We are not just freed from, we are freed in

Exodus

Common mythos of the Jewish people

Delivered from slavery

Many jews would be thinking in terms of a second exodus

They were thinking about liberation from Rome, Paul was talking about liberation from the much larger things like sin, corruption, chaos.

In some ways the person that we are most enslaved to is ourselves

redefinition of sin and freedom

When I was a new disciple I believed that things that were temptations for me once I fell more in love with God, would fall away

It turns out they were still there

What is it that rules over us that we are following

God doesn’t simply meet us and tell us that what we are doing is fine

God leads us from our current way of thinking, our current circumstance, into a new land

Paul is mixing two parts of the culture - the specific act of baptism and the Exodus story

Baptism grows us closer to Christ

we are baptized into Christ's death

We are made one with Christ's death

We have an opportunity to die to the things that control us

There are some things that have dominion over us

There are things that are not of God

And in Baptism we too are freed we are not just freed from we are freed to be followers of Christ

The cross frees us in Christ

retouch on meaningful life language

It is out baptism that serves as a reminder to us that we are freed in Christ to be faithful disciples

You are baptized people you can’t get un-baptized

Baptism is the outward sign of an inward and spiritual grace.

Before you are even aware of it God’s grace is with you

We have many opportunities that are around us everyday to allow water to be a reminder to us

There is something powerful about having a tangible sign for us that just clicks

It also is an opportunity for God to speak to each of us as individuals

The UMC doesn’t even un-baptize, and we don’t rebaptize

through the sacrament of baptism

God's Spirit has been poured out upon water,

water poured over and immersing us,

water that flows freely for all who will receive it,

water from the streams of God's saving power and justice,

water that brings hope to all who thirst for righteousness,

water that refreshes life, nurtures growth, and offers new birth.

God’s grace portion

A number of ways that people get baptized and a number of ways that people remember their baptism

Psalm 51:7 NRSV

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Ezekiel 36:25–26 NRSV

25 I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Let these waters be to us drops of your mercy.

Let these waters remind us of your righteousness and justice.

Let these waters renew in us the power of Jesus.

Let these waters make us long for your coming reign.

Sprinkle the Water

To remind us that we have died to ourselves, and

Remember your baptism and be thankful, AMEN

Prayer after rememberance of baptism

Almighty God, the life you birthed in us

by baptism into Jesus Christ

will never die.

Your justice never fails.

Your mercy is everlasting.

Your healing river flows.

Your Spirit blows where you will.

We cannot stop you, God!

Lord God, we walk so far away from the life-giving Stream

that we do not hear its sound,

and we forget its power.

We parch ourselves.

Come, refresh us!

It’s in your name that we do everything

and it’s in your name that we pray

Benediction