You are free
Romans 6:12-23
RUMC 6/29/14
(Slides 1-8) Forced labor,
sex trafficking, bonded labor, debt bondage, involuntary domestic servitude,
forced child labor, child soldiers, child sex trafficking.
(Slide 9) For 29 million of
our brothers and sisters around the world, Slavery is a modern reality: a
modern, ugly, shameful, hideous, appalling truth.
Slavery is morally repugnant
to each and every one of us, yet the truth that Paul points out in our passage
from Romans 6 is that each and every one of us is a slave. Oh, not this kind of
slave, thank goodness, but a slave nonetheless.
If a slave is one who is “strongly
influenced and controlled by something.”[i]
He is right.
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Do you work your tail off
every day just to keep the mortgage or rent paid and food on the table… you are
a slave to modern economics.
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Do you spend most of your
life worried about one thing or another… you are a slave to your worry.
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Do you start thinking about
your next drink as soon as the class or can is empty?... you are a slave to
your alcohol.
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Do you spend day after day
under the dark cloud of depression… you are a slave to your mental illness.
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Do you live in fear that
someone will come home drunk or angry and smack you around again?... you are a
slave to that relationship.
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Do you spend half of your
life trying to get something that is bigger, better, or newer than your
neighbor? And the other half keeping up with maintenance on all of that
expensive stuff?... you are a slave to your possessions. They own you rather
then you owning them.
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Do you really need to have another one of
those pills the doctor prescribed after your surgery even though that was a
year ago? You are a slave to your legal drugs.
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Do you find yourself driven
by your calendar, just going from one event to another, one ball game to
another, one meeting to another?... you are a slave to your overscheduled life.
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Do you do most of what you
do because you feel guilty?... you are a slave to your guilt.
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Do you resist all outside
influences saying, “I am a free spirit. I am a slave of no one. I do whatever I
please, whenever I want”.… let me suggest that you are probably a slave to your
own ego and hedonistic desires.
Get the idea? To get away
from the emotionally loaded language of slavery, let’s say we all have a boss. Whatever
controls your life is your boss. As we approach the fourth of July this week,
there will be a lot of talk of freedom. I will be the first to give thanks that
we live in America with the political freedom it affords. But I have to tell
you that even those of us who live in the freest country in the world still
have bosses.
That is what Paul is saying.
We all live our lives for something. In the small picture that might be any of
the things I just described; economics, worry, alcohol, mental illness,
relationships, possessions, prescriptions, calendars, guilt or
self-centeredness.
I want to back up one more
step, however, and take a look at a bigger picture. Human beings are spiritual
creatures and each of us has made a choice about what is of ultimate importance
in our lives. I am talking about more important than economics, and worry, and
alcohol, and mental illness, and all those other things. I am talking about why
you get up in the morning. Why do you keep breathing? When everything else
breaks, fails, or disappears, what will be left for you? As your pastor, the
question in which I am most interested is whether, “you live for God, or do you
live for something else?” Who is your boss, the God of creation and the God of
the universe, or do you have some other ultimate concern.
Being a Christian means
turning away from all other ultimate concerns, whatever they might be, and
turning our ultimate faith to God alone.
That’s where we connect with
Paul in Romans.
He begins the 6th
chapter talking about sin. In this passage, sin
is making anything but God our ultimate concern.
Paul says that in baptism we
die to our old selves. We die to the old boss of our lives, whatever that was. But
that isn’t all. He goes on to say that because of baptism, we are now alive for
God. He writes, “Consider yourselves dead to sin
and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Then in our
reading from this morning he starts, “THEFEFORE…” So this reading is predicated
upon what Paul has just said. It assumes that we are dead to sin and alive to God
through our baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus.
He writes, “Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you
obey their passions.” In other words-in baptism you fired the power of sin
saying, “You are no longer my boss.” Why then, would you go back and behave as
though Sin is still your boss?
·
Once you
are well you don’t stay on the respirator.
·
Once the
tire is fixed, you don’t leave the spare tire on the car.
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Once the
sprained ankle is healed, you don’t continue to limp.
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Once the
power comes back on you don’t continue to sit in the dark.
·
So WHY… Why
for heaven’s sake do we give our lives to God and let sin continue to influence
our behavior?
You know
what I am talking about. We don’t have to look very far. In fact, no further
than our own pews.
·
We all know
people who sit here Sunday after Sunday and then go home and cheat on their
spouse. The sin of adultery is their boss.
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We all know
people who come Sunday after Sunday, drop a dollar in the offering plate and
then go home to count their mattress full of money. The sin of greed is their boss.
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We all have
the same number of hours in our weeks, but you know there are people here who won’t
spare an hour to serve anyone but themselves. The sin of selfishness is their
boss.
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We all know
the people who are sitting here right now looking at other people, nodding
their heads and in their judgmental hearts saying, “thank God I am not like that
sinner.” Well if you look a little closer in the mirror, you might discover
that you are. Perhaps the sin of judgment is your boss.
If any of us look in the mirror, we
will discover that to a greater or lesser degree we have fallen into the very
sin from which we thought we were free.
There are
some who would say, “Don’t worry about a little sin. It’s OK.” In verse 15,
Paul enters into a dialogue with himself. He says something like “some people
say, “don’t worry about it. Since we are under grace instead of the law, it is
OK and we can sin without consequence.” In other words, God’s forgiving grace
is infinite; why not keep sinning when we know we will be forgiven anyway?
·
The same
logic applies when we are eating chocolate. Well, I’ve eaten half a box, why
stop now.
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The same
logic applies to our taxes. I pay enough taxes; they won’t notice this one more
little omission.
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The same
logic applies to speeding. You know 9 your fine, 10 your mine.
We can get by with a few little sins in our lives
can’t we?
Paul
writes, “By no means! Do you not know that if you present
yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you
obey.” In other words if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck… you have
to at least consider the possibility that it might be a duck. If you walk like
a sinner, and talk like a sinner… you might be a sinner. You may have given
yourself to God yesterday or 50 years ago, but if you still walk like a sinner and
quack like a sinner… sin is still your boss. You have a new boss, but you are
still following the instructions of your old boss, sin.
The problem we have is that when we enter the new life with its new possibilities, the
old patterns and systems do not shut down. The destructive ruts and routines
are still there. BUT… BUT…Paul is saying: you don't have to surrender to those
habits, ruts, and routines because God’s grace can lift you beyond them. You are no longer trapped by the past. Sin is no longer
your boss.”
Sin is no longer our boss, but for some reason some Christians hang on
to it as a comfortable friend. After all, they had some good times together. Let
me tell you sin is the kind of friend that would sooner stab you in the back
than pat you on it. We need to get as far away from it as possible. Sin is not
your friend and sin is not your boss.
That whole process of weeding the sin out of our lives is called
sanctification in which we grow to be more and more Christ like. But that is a
sermon for an upcoming week.
There are two things we need to take away from this.
1) Previously, we sinned because we had no choice. Sin was our boss and
we had to do what the boss said. If sin is no longer our boss and we still sin…
do you see where I am going? If sin is no longer our boss and we still sin that
makes the sin our choice. The new boss sent his only son to die for our sins,
to set us free from our sins, to set us free from the old boss, and here we are
once again showing loyalty to our old boss of sin and death.
God hates all sin, but when it is one of his own children… how much more
must it grieve God to see one of his own… one whom he has marked in baptism
saying, “This one is mine.” How much more must it grieve God to see us fall to
sin after we have been saved from sin?
Thanks be to God that no matter what, we are forgiven sinners. Thanks be to God that even this sin is
covered by the death and resurrection of Jesus. Thanks be to God that God’s
forgiveness is bigger than any sin we might commit. Thanks be to God that we
are not trapped in that place of sin and by God’s grace; we can be turned back
to the path of righteousness.
2) The second thing I want us to take from this passage is that since we
have a new boss we have a whole new set of marching orders. The Kingdom of God
doesn’t look anything like the kingdom of this world. The Kingdom of heaven is
a radical departure from the world we know. We have to get used to that. We
have to understand that everything we thought we knew has been turned upside-down
and our behavior needs to reflect that.
It is one thing to say in baptism, “I reject the evil powers of this
world and repent of my sin.” It is quite another to “accept the freedom and
power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms
they present themselves! “ And it is even another to actually carry through on
those vows in our everyday lives.
That, however, is what the Christian life is all about living into the
new order of God’s kingdom. Living into the upside-downness of Jesus way of
looking at the world. Living into the reality that sin is no longer our boss…
God is.
KNOW THIS
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Life is no longer about us. It is about God
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It is no longer about pleasing yourself, but pleasing God
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It is no longer about what you can get, but about what you
can give
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It is no longer about what you can do, but about what God can
do through you
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It is no longer about collecting things, but it is about
receiving grace
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It is no longer about domination but about serving
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It is no longer about winning, but about having peace
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It is no longer about time, because we have eternity
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It is no longer about success, but about faith
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It is no longer about luck, but about hope
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It is no longer about taking, but about loving
You know
what, God sounds like a pretty good boss to work for. I think that is what Paul
is trying to say when he ends this passage saying, “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of
God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Live that eternal life starting
here and now.
AMEN
Life is no longer about me, it is about God.
Life is no longer about me, it is about God.
·
It is no longer about pleasing myself, but pleasing God.
·
It is no longer about what I can get, but about what I can
give.
·
It is no longer about what I can do, but about what God can
do through me.
·
It is no longer about collecting things, but it is about
receiving grace.
·
It is no longer about domination but about serving.
·
It is no longer about winning, but about having peace.
·
It is no longer about time, because I have eternity.
·
It is no longer about success, but about faith.
·
It is no longer about luck, but about hope.
·
It is no longer about taking but about loving.
·
It is
no longer about me, but about the free gift of God which is eternal life in
Christ Jesus my Lord
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