Sunday, July 17, 2011

Sermon (July 17) - "The Greatest Letter Ever Written: Romans 5-8"



     We continue our four week study of Paul’s letter to the Romans which we began last Sunday.  This is a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians who were in Rome around 55 A.D., which was about 25 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection.
     Paul begins his letter by announcing good news.  Not just any good news, but the best news we can ever hear.  And the good news is this.  Even though we have all sinned and have missed the mark in being the people we were created to be, by placing our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, God can make us right with God.
     One of the key components in being a good communicator is to know your audience.  Paul knew this and he writes about this good news in a way that the Christians in Rome would understand.  As we talked about last week, the Church in Rome consisted of both Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians.  For the Jewish believers in Rome, Paul wants them to see that the reason the Jewish people were called by God to be his special and chosen people was that through them, God would bring about the transformation of the world which is good news for the whole world, including those who are non-Jewish.
     And for the non-Jewish believers in Rome, Paul wants them to see that this good news of Jesus Christ is only made possible because of the covenant that God had made with Israel centuries earlier.  Without some understanding of God’s covenant with Israel, the story of Jesus and the good news he brings, makes little or no sense.
     If we flatten out the story and remove the particular way that God has acted through Israel to bring about the good news of Christ, we miss out on how far God was willing to go to rescue us from sin and death.   So keep this in mind as we move along through Paul’s letter.  Think of how what Paul is writing is good news for both Jewish and non-Jewish believers in Christ.
     After Paul announces the good news of Jesus Christ, Paul refers to the creation of the world from the Book of Genesis in the opening chapters.  Paul writes that humans were created to be God’s image bearers and instead we sinned and followed our own way.  The result was that we now have a world that is filled with sin and Paul gives us a long list of sins in Romans 1:28-32.
     From there, Paul begins to tell the story of how God went to plan B to deal with the Adam and sin problem.  God calls Abraham and makes a covenant with him. It would be through this covenant with Abraham and his descendents that God would bring transformation to the world and deal with the problem of sin.
     And this brings us to chapters five through eight which is our focus for today.  In chapter five, Paul again refers back to the creation story and the story of Adam, the first human being.  And he compares Adam’s sin and disobedience which led to sin and death to Jesus’ faithfulness and obedience which leads to holiness and new life.  There can’t be a greater contrast.  One man brings about death and destruction whereas this other man brings about life and transformation.
     Someone has wisely said, “There is a lot of Adam in all of us.”  But thankfully, there can also be a whole lot of Jesus in all of us.
     In chapter six, Paul moves from Adam and Abraham to the Exodus story.  I was in a bible study with a pastor friend of mine and she made the comment that for her, the exodus story is the key story for the whole bible.  And I think she’s right.
     The exodus story is the story of when God’s people were slaves in Egypt and God called Moses to lead the people from slavery and into freedom.  It was through God’s power and might, that the Pharaoh of Egypt finally let the people go.  God parted the Red Sea so that the people could cross through it and that brought them to the wilderness.  It’s in the wilderness that we get the Ten Commandments story where God gave them the law. 
     By following God’s laws, this was how the people of Israel would live out the covenant that God had made earlier with Abraham.  And it would be through this covenant, first through Abraham, and now with Israel, that God was going to transform the world, the way it was always meant to be, a place of justice and peace.
     The exodus story is a wonderful story.  God saves Israel from slavery in Egypt.  God renews the covenant with Israel by giving them the Ten Commandments.  And eventually, they make it into the Promised Land where they build homes and enjoy the fruit of the land. 
     But that isn’t the ending of the story.  From there we read of how Israel would disobey God and instead of living out their covenant, they experienced the consequences of their sins.  They ended up being ruled over by the world powers of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and the Romans. 
     But even though Israel was unable to fulfill the covenant that God had made with them, here’s the really important thing in all of this.  God still remained faithful.  And to fulfill the covenant and the promise that God had made with Abraham and Israel, God took matters into his own hands by sending Jesus Christ, his only Son into the world.
     Jesus ended up doing what Israel had been unable to do.  And through Jesus’ total obedience to God, he died on a wooden cross.  And through his death, Jesus was able to defeat sin and death once and for all. 
     Charles Wesley, the great Methodist hymn writer put it so well in his great hymn, “O For a Thousand Tongues.”  Referring to Jesus, he writes, “He breaks the power of canceled sin, he sets the prisoner free; his blood can make the foulest clean; his blood availed for me.”
       In Romans 6-8, Paul connects good news of what Jesus did on the cross with the exodus story.  Just like God rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and led them into the Promised Land, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we can be freed from our sins and be led into newness of life.
     So whenever Paul uses words like “slaves” or “being enslaved” or “set free” or “freed,” these are words that are to remind us of the exodus story.  Paul is connecting the exodus story with the good news of Jesus Christ.  I went verse by verse in chapter 6 and I underlined 12 of these words or phrases.  So here are some examples:
     Romans 6:6 – “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.”
     Romans 6:16 – “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
     Romans 6:17 & 18 – “But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”
     Those other references are found in verses 19, 20, and 22.
     Another image that Paul uses to connect what Jesus did on the cross with the exodus story is baptism.  That’s in the opening verses of chapter 6.  By going through the waters of the Red Sea, God was able to lead the people into freedom.  The water in the Sacrament of baptism is to remind us of how Jesus leads us into freedom from our sins through his death and resurrection. 
     In chapter 7, Paul refers a lot to the law, again reminding us of the exodus story and of how God gave the law and the Ten Commandments to the people of Israel when they were in the wilderness.  Paul writes that the law in and of itself cannot rescue us from sin and bondage.
     In chapter 8, Paul writes about the spirit.  In the exodus story, the Israelites were led by a cloud by day and fire by night.  But now through what Jesus has done for us by dying on the cross and rising to new life, the Holy Spirit is what guides us to our inheritance and to our Promised Land.  In Romans 8:14, Paul writes, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”
     And here’s the really great part.  If we compare Paul’s letter of Romans to a great musical symphony, then chapter eight would definitely be that part of the composition where it reaches its height.  It’s that part where you feel the goose bumps on your arms and the hair standing up on the back of your neck.  This is where Paul’s retelling of Israel’s story in the light of Jesus’ victory on the cross was headed all along.  And this is why this letter is good news and the greatest letter ever written. 
     First of all, here in chapter eight, Paul tells us that this good news is about all of creation being renewed.  Paul writes in Romans 8:19-21, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”
     Paul is lifting up the great Jewish hope that a day will come when all of creation will be renewed and transformed.  And because of what Jesus Christ has done for us through his death and resurrection, this will become a reality.  The Book of Romans isn’t just about me being saved from my sins.  The Book of Romans is also about all of creation being transformed.
     That’s why Paul writes in chapter one about the good news of Jesus Christ.  Thank God because we know all too well of how much our world is in need of the good news of Jesus Christ.
     And thankfully, the good news is meant to be good news for you and for me.  By placing our faith in trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we can have an assurance that we will be with God forever.  This last part of Romans 8 is one of my favorite passages of scripture because it claims that we can have an assurance in any given moment that we are children of God.
     Paul writes, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?  Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword?  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, no angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
      This is the assurance that John Wesley, the founder of Methodism experienced when he had his now famous heart-warming Aldersgate experience back in 1738.  It was Paul’s letter to the Romans that prompted him to stand up and say to the people who were gathered for an evening prayer meeting and later record in his journal, “I felt my heart strangely warmed.  I felt I did trust in Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
      The good news of our faith is not only that Jesus Christ has saved us from our sins, but that we can have an assurance in any given moment that we belong to God.  Maybe you are longing for this kind of assurance in your faith.
      This past Winter, one of our church members, Gina Pressler called me to see if I could come and baptize Brayden Tackett, a seven year old boy in our community who she had been tutoring at his home.
     Brayden had terminal cancer. And he knew that he was going to die.
     Brayden told his family that he wanted to be baptized because in his words, if he was going to die, he wanted to know for sure that he would go to heaven.  And so I went to Brayden's house.  Brayden was playing a video game when I arrived.  I could tell he was a little unsure of who this strange man was who came to visit him.  Even after I explained that I was a pastor of a United Methodist Church and came to get to know him, he seemed a little cautious of this man of the cloth.

     But that all changed quickly when he started putting a puzzle together on the floor. "Hey, do you want to help me with this Spiderman puzzle?" It was that puzzle that began a new special friendship between the two of us.

     After one puzzle, we began work on another one. And then it was time. Family and friends had moved into the room. The bowl was filled with warm water. And I asked Brayden if he was ready to be baptized. All of the sudden, this talkative, quick-humored seven year old was speechless. A serious look came upon his face and he nodded his head in agreement. Yes, he was ready. Oh how he was ready!

     I told Brayden a little about Jesus, how he had lived on this earth a long time ago calling people to follow him and how he helped people come to know God. And I said that he then died on a cross so that we can live with God forever and three days later God helped him to become alive again. I concluded the briefest sermon I have probably ever preached by saying that Jesus is alive and is present with us for his baptism right here in his home.

     "Brayden, the reason we use this water for baptism, is to remind you that just as water helps us to get clean in a bath, God cleans us so that we can be with him forever." After this brief baptism instruction, I felt ready to ask Brayden the big question, "Do you have any questions you want to ask me?"

     By the way he was concentrating on my every word and knowing he was a very outgoing seven year old, I had a hunch that he probably had something to tell me. As he looked intently into my eyes, and after a long 5 to 10 seconds had elapsed, he finally said to me, "I have to pee first."

     I didn't expect that particular comment in that sacred moment but that’s just who Brayden was.  Brayden was beyond his years. He knew to cut to the chase and how to dispense with long conversations. When he said he was read, he was ready.

     Brayden came back from the bathroom with a family member guiding him and after stumbling to the floor since he had some paralysis on one side, he sat back down and said, "I'm ready."

     "Brayden, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."  We all laid hands on young Brayden and I offered a prayer that he would always know that Jesus loves him and will always be there for him.

     For the rest of my time in Brayden's home, he stared intently at his lit baptism candle which included his name on it. He then spent time looking at a large cross which was another gift that our church had provided.  And then he sat on my lap and we continued to talk and celebrate his baptism. 

     The next time I visited Brayden, his grandmother told me how much that baptism meant to him and how it had given him a sense of peace.  Brayden passed away on May 16th.  And on Friday, May 20th, I officiated at his funeral service which was held at our Crossroads facility on West Fair Avenue.  The day of his funeral marked the four month anniversary of when I had first met Brayden and baptized him at his home.
     The day before the funeral, I went to the visitation calling hours.  And next to his casket and proudly displayed on the wall was his baptism certificate.
     What’s true for Brayden can also be true for us.  Through Jesus Christ, God has won the victory over sin and death and a time will come when all of creation will be renewed and transformed.
     And as we place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we too can have that assurance that nothing will ever separate us from the love of God.  Nothing.  Not even death.
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