How Does Life Come Through? Go Figure.

How Does Life Come Through Death? Go Figure. Romans 6:1-11; Colossians 2:8-15 We are familiar with the Lord’s Supper being a remembrance of Jesus’ sacrifice of His life for our sin and that by His death on the cross and the eventual resurrection so too are we assured of our resurrection to eternal life upon our demise. But do we realize that baptism is also a death-to-life sacrament? Did you ever think of baptism as a funeral service? Now I know that may seem strange, but there it is in Romans 6:3-4. But, of course, we are not talking a physical death, but a spiritual demise, a cessation of a sinful life in relation to baptism or the Lord’s Supper. In a book by UM Bishop William Willimon, The Gospel for the Person Who Has Everything, he tells this story of a young boy named Clayton who, on his fifth birthday, was asked what kind of a party he wanted to have. "I want everyone to be a king or a queen," Clayton said. So, he and his mother went to work fashioning a score of silver crowns (cardboard and aluminum foil), purple robes (crepe paper), and royal scepters (a stick painted gold). On the day of the party, as the guests arrived, they were each given their royal crown, robe, and scepter and were thus dressed and decreed as a king or queen. It was a regal sight, all kings and queens. Everyone had a wonderful time with party favors and eating ice cream and cake. Then they had a procession, a parade, up to the end of the block and back again. All in all, it was a royal, wonderful day. That evening, as Clayton's mom was tucking him into bed, she asked him what he wished when he blew the candles out on his birthday cake. "I wished that everyone in the whole world could be a king or queen, not just on my birthday, but every day." Bishop Willimon inserts himself into the story at the end by saying, "Well, Clayton, baptism shows that something very much like that happened one day at a place called Calvary. We who were nobodies became somebodies. Those who were no people became God's people. The wretched of the earth became royalty." Baptism is the mark of our true identity; it is what turns nobodies into somebodies. I Peter 2:10 says, "Once you were no people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy." I want to return to the Scripture where it says in v. 5, “If we have been united with Him…” The word "if" can be read as "since," as a reference to those who are in Christ. “If we have been united with Him” can be read, “Since we have been united with Him…” Our faith in Christ began with a spirit-baptism into Christ. This causes 2 us to be so closely identified with Him that God gives us credit for His righteousness and takes His death as payment for our sin. This is the meaning of baptism and also our understanding of the Lord’s Supper. Identification with Christ's death is the most intimate doctrine for the believer. Christ died to pay the price FOR our sins, but He also died TO sin - His death broke our relationship to sin, which enables us to walk in newness of life. Although we are to take up our cross daily and may suffer for our faith, we died to sin once and for all, and now we are to live for Christ day by day. When Paul talks about the death of Christ and our participation in that death, through baptism, he was thinking not only of forgiveness for past sins but of a drastic break with sin, a demolishing of sin's dominion over our lives. When Jesus died, He defeated sin once in time and for all time and for all people and if our lives are united in Christ's death, the power of sin over us is destroyed. Paul goes on to say, "If we have died with Christ, we also live with Him." Not only do we share in the death of Christ, we share in His resurrection. Jesus talks about this dying and rising, when He claimed, "Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls unto the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Likewise, he who loves his life will lose it, while he who hates his life in this world, will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:24-25). What does Jesus mean here with loving and hating life…? Jesus uses the duality of "love" and "hate" with respect to one's earthly life. Jesus was not commanding people to objectively "hate" our lives. Rather, He's saying that we ought to put 100% of our priority, emphasis, and effort into the will of God. Those who want to cling to the world, instead of Christ, demonstrate that they "love" the world too much to sincerely follow Him. A person cannot cling to worldly things and still make God their top priority. The symbolism is that of a seed being planted, then growing to maturity. Those who seek to truly follow Christ would, as it would seem to the world, lose everything. The end result, however, is exactly what the seed, the believer, was always intended for, which is something far greater and more glorious than what this life could ever offer. As contrary as it may seem, if you are going to find your life, you must lose it. That is, if you want to inherit the Kingdom of God, be poor in spirit; if you want to be comforted, mourn with those who suffer; if you want to inherit the earth; be meek, mild and humble; if you want a full life, live a sacrificial one; and so goes the Beatitudes. 3 Insisting on our own way does not allow us to value and appreciate others. It is only in giving that you receive. If you want to be first, then go to the end of the line. If you want to be a leader, take the basin and towel of a servant. All those paradoxes are wrapped in one: we must die in our desire to accommodate sin, if we want to live a full and abundant life today and a resurrected life tomorrow. UM author Maxie Dunnam tells the story of a man who was in the hospital for a severe case of depression. It was a sad visit. The man was near retirement; in fact, he could retire anytime. Yet, he's overcome with fear. He has nothing in store where the future is concerned, or so he thinks or feels. He is paralyzed really, unable to make decisions. As they shared, it became clear that this fellow had never really committed his life to anything - he certainly had never committed his life to Jesus Christ. They talked about that; and the man began to quiver, his voice grew quiet and shaky as he began to express his reservations. They were more than reservations, however. He had a great fear about what the Lord might require of him if he yielded his life to Him. Here was a man who had come to the verge of retirement, lifeless, without meaning or purpose that he could hold onto nor that could propel him into the future. As Dunnam left him that day, he remembered the famous evangelist called Christmas Evans. Evans had worn himself out, always on the move, preaching the gospel. His friends kept advising him that he should take things easier. His answer always was, "It is better to burn out than to rust out." This man was rusting out. Maybe we ought not to burn out, but we surely don’t want to rust out sitting around fretting about today and worrying about tomorrow. Paul reveals what happens when we put our faith in Christ. In a spiritual sense, we die with Him, and to our inclination to sin. Then, we are resurrected to a new spiritual life, begun with baptism and continued in remembrance at the Lord’s Supper. God intends for us to live this new spiritual life He has given to us with Christ. And we definitely look forward to the day we will be physically brought back to life to spend eternity with Christ.