Pentecost 3 – 25 June 2017 – Year A

Grace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for our meditation is written in the 6^th Chapter of St Paul’s letter to the Romans: Verses 1 - 11

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.

I wonder how many of you have heard of a weapon called the AK-47 assault rifle?

It was invented by a Russian general named Mikhail Kalashnikov. This has become the weapon of choice for revolutionaries; and poorer militant communist and Islamic nations because it is inexpensive to produce, simple and effective and almost impossible to destroy. To this day it is almost exclusively the weapon of choice used by terrorist groups. Australians and Allied troops have been facing them since the conflict in South Vietnam right through other theatres of war until this very day. When the general was confronted about the number of lives his weapon had taken, he replied, “I have no regrets and bear no responsibility for how politicians have used it.”

General Kalashnikov died in December of 2013, and shortly before his death he might have regretted his words. In a letter he wrote to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, he asked, “If my rifle took away people’s lives, then can it be that I am guilty for people’s deaths, even if they were enemies?”

You know, all of us have sins hidden in the back of our minds and in the corners of our hearts. These private sins give us grief any time they come to the surface of our thoughts. Even though they might have been forgotten by others, and even though we have been forgiven by God, the sins still bother us. The apostle Paul offers us this assurance: “Sin will have no power over you, since you are not under the law, but under grace.”

There is a common belief in society in general that living a good life and doing good deeds is enough to get into heaven when they die; you may be surprised by the number of Christian Denominations who preach this doctrine.  In our Biblical text; Romans 6: 1 – 11, St Paul tells us something quite different.  Paul tells us that the only way we can gain the new life that salvation offers is to die a spiritual death. In other words, our sin-filled nature has to die, and the only way it can die is if we accept Christ in faith.

Just as Christ died, was buried, descended to hell and rose again, we also have to be “buried” with him by baptism into faith. Only then can our link to our old, sinful life be severed. When we die to sin, death has no more power over us. We are reborn into a new life in Christ, just like Christ was resurrected from the dead. Our new “body” is clean, and free from sin.

There are those who also believe that once, through God’s grace, our sins are forgiven, they will continue to be forgiven, even if we continue on sinning. As Paul states; ^{Rom 6: 1-2} “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?”  The German Theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, described this attitude as “cheap grace.” People who have this attitude are forgetting one thing. Grace may be cheap for us, but it was not cheap for Jesus. He paid a heavy price, because he paid for God’s grace with his life. Grace is not a ticket to a sin-filled life. Grace does not give us permission to sin. God’s loving grace is the free offering that leads us to salvation. Grace is not the same as salvation. Grace is the coming together of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice and his obedience to the gospel. We do not go to heaven because we want to go. We get to go to heaven because of God’s grace, but only if we accept it by faith.

Reconciliation to God requires repentance, and repentance requires remorse. Remorse requires responsibility because we have to accept responsibility for our actions. Repentance restores relationships. Reconciliation reaps rejoicing, as in the Parable of the Prodigal Son when the father rejoiced at the return of his wayward younger son.

The key to salvation is baptism. Water baptism is an outward expression of the inner transformation of Christ. As we come to the water, we come to Christ. As we are washed in the water, we are buried with Jesus, and as we rise from the water we are raised with him to a new life. As we walk away from the water, we show that we are walking with Jesus in a new way of life. We can also cry “It is finished” because everything that can be done about our sins has been done by Jesus. Our old way of life has been crucified with Christ and we have been freed or justified from sin. Once we have been freed from sin, the Holy Spirit gives us understanding of what we have been taught about our relationship to sin to our own lives. The Holy Spirit is that ever-present conscience that empowers us to turn away from sin in our lives.

When we are baptised, we die to sin just like Christ died for our sins. We become a new creation, and as such the Holy Spirit empowers us to live a new, resurrected life in the power of our Christian Faith. From that time there comes the good works; not to save us but to bless us by being a blessing to those around us. ^{James 2: 14-15}“¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good^[a] is that? ¹⁷ So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

You see, we are called to make the same type of sacrifice that Jesus made. Christ calls us to serve just as He has served so that those who have not come to this faith in Christ, may see God’s grace, love and peace lived out in human form.

When we are baptised, we become united with him and our sinful lives are buried with him. Our sinful earthly life to that point is over and a new life begins. Our sins have been removed. The barriers that have kept us from the joy and freedom of the Gospel have been broken down. We are free to live Christ’s love. We have been made righteous because of Christ’s sacrifice. God declares that we as sinful people are righteous, and that righteousness is based on a belief and trust in Jesus instead of on our good works. God credits Christ’s righteousness to sinners who believe in Christ and accept what he did for them on the cross. God declared all sinners innocent when Jesus paid the price for our sin..

The Law of Moses, as written in the first five books of the Old Testament, was good, holy and righteous, but, as demonstrated right throughout the entire Old Testament, it could not be kept by sinful humans, and so it was like a curse on God’s people. The Law could only show God’s standard and condemn people who could not keep it. It could only trouble people’s consciences about their deeds just like General Kalashnikov’s conscience troubled him.

The message of St Paul is so liberating, his message of our salvation is so clear, through God’s abundant Grace we are free of the Law, we can call out “it is finished”; and yet the sad truth is that for many of us, we are still in captivity. Some of us are captive to shopping. They can’t pass up a sale, even if their homes are already full of unnecessary stuff. Some people are slaves to food. Some people are slaves to their jobs; power; recognition; wealth; stubbornness; self righteousness. Corporate leaders are slaves to greed. If we are all honest with ourselves we have to admit that we are a slave to the priorities in our lives that sometime override the grace filled freedom of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These obsessions make us feel guilty in Christ’s presence and condemn us and rob us of the liberating freedom and peace of true Christian living.

Allow me to quote a true story from the book “ Habitation of Dragons by Keith Miller. (Abridged)

One evening several years ago I was dining with a friend in a cafeteria when a good looking young woman walked up to our table. I recognised her as a member of the large Sunday-school class I taught. We began to talk and after 40 minutes she said wistfully “I really believe you’ve found hope in your faith and I would honestly like to make this beginning commitment of my life to Christ ….. but I can’t do it.”

‘Why not?’ I asked gently

‘Because I’ve got a personal problem that I can’t seem to resolve.’ She was biting her lip and looking down at a paper napkin she had folded into a small bulky square.

‘But that’s why Christianity is called “Good News” I said coming on strong. ‘We can’t solve our basic hang-ups and separations. I can’t promise to change anything. All I can do is to accept his love and grace.’

‘But’, she hesitated ….’I don’t feel acceptable until I whip this problem.’

‘Listen Susan, the old song doesn’t say “Just as I am when I whip my major problem”.  It says “Just as I am without one plea”, one problem, one guarantee’

She looked at me with the strangest dawning look of hope. ‘Do you really believe that?’ she said.

‘I’d bet my life on it.’

She looked down at her hands for several minutes. ‘All right’, she said, almost as a challenge, ‘I’m committing adultery every Thursday night with a man who has a wife and young children. And I cannot quit. Now can I come into your Christian family?’

I just looked at her, I certainly had not expected that. My first conditioned reaction as a Christian Churchman would have been to think that she is not ready for Christ.

Suddenly, I realised how phoney we Christians are. Of course we would expect her to quit committing adultery. We don’t mean ‘Just as I am without one plea’. We actually mean, ‘Just as I am when I promise implicitly to straighten up and quit my major sins’. This girl had nailed me with her honesty. She knew that she did not have the strength to quit her ‘sinning’, and yet it was her weakness that had brought her toward Christ in the first place.

I thought about Jesus and what He would have done. Then I looked up at her, ‘Of course you can commit your life to Christ just as you are’.

‘He knows you want to quit seeing this man, and I don’t know where else you could ever hope to find the security and strength to break up with him. So if you commit your life to Christ right now, then Thursday night, if you can’t help meeting your friend, take Christ with you. Ask him to give you the strength to break off the relationship.’

Susan stepped across the stream and became a Christian.

Do we ever feel challenged or unacceptable like Susan, do we carry doubts in our daily Christian living

In times of trial, it is comforting to turn to the age old Hymn by Joseph Scriven.

What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! Jesus knows our every weakness; Thou wilt find a solace there. Amen.

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen