Genesis 21:8-21; Psalm 86:1-10,16-17; Rom 6:1b-11; Matt 10:24-39
“So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
When I was young, 5 or 6, religious instruction left me with a very simplistic view of Sin:
Sin was bad. Being a Sinner made you bad. No one liked Sinners.
Sin led to death. – I thought life led to death, but OK. I didn’t really understand that one.
Sin was almost a swear word. Strangely enough, Priests and Pastors used the word like it was their job, which it kind of was. – People frequently used the word “bad” in its place.
What was considered Sin was very black and white, easy to distinguish from things that were not Sin. If I was confused about whether or not something rose to the level of Sin, it was because I was being obstinate, which in itself was a form of Sin. – If I wasn’t sure, I shouldn’t do it.
Sin was something Jesus loved me despite, although I somehow got the impression that if you really wanted Jesus to be your friend, you did not Sin. – I thought His friendship was unconditional.
Jesus hated Sin, so if I was a sinner, Jesus probably hated me? – That was a tough one to swallow. Even more confusing than the friend thing.
Sin was something that was completely within my control. If I committed Sin, it was because I chose to do so. If I did not Sin, it was because I chose not to do so. Sin was completely up to me. – I was doomed.
Sin came in many levels of severity. Some, called venial Sins, were forgivable by God, but other Sins, called Mortal Sins, were probably not forgivable. – I wanted to see a list just to be sure.
Jesus came to forgive my Sins, to take the blame for my Sins, to suffer because of my Sins. Jesus still suffered when I Sinned. – Ouch!! I was responsible for Jesus’ suffering, even and especially on the cross.
Sin was why Jesus’ dad killed him in that horrible, violent, evil way. Or maybe God himself didn’t kill him, but God let others kill him because I was a Sinner. – Talk about a healthy dose of guilt.
Sin was something you were punished by God because of. Sometimes people were hit by cars, sometimes they lost all their money, sometimes a tornado hit their house, sometimes their loved ones suffered or died; the worse the thing that happened was, the more Sin and punishment was the probable cause. – A wrathful God was a scarry God.
The special place where those who resisted Sin go to is heaven. The place for the rest of us Sinners is hell. – It felt pretty bleak.
Sin was all some pastors wanted to talk about. I liked ones who talked about Jesus and forgiveness.
I was really confused about Sin. A lot of adults seemed confused about Sin, too. What is Sin? Why does Sin exist? What really happens to Sinners when they die? What did Jesus have to do with Sin? If Jesus was a person, why didn’t he Sin? What did Jesus’ death have to do with Sin? Would we ever be free of Sin’s hold over us? If all Sins are forgiven in Baptism, why does Sin still matter? That’s a whole other sermon by itself.
Having aged roughly 58 years since my early days of pondering Sin, and especially having been to seminary, I have a much clearer picture of Sin – in some ways, in some ways still not so much.
Even though he lived before the Law and it’s formal list of commandments, I’m sure Abraham wondered about the Sinfulness of Sarah’s request that he banish Hagar the slave and the son Ishmael she and Abraham shared. After all, God had promised Abraham that he would make of him a great nation, and should he banish Hagar and Ishmael to death in the desert, that nation might be a lot smaller through that act.
While he’s still struggling with his wife’s request, God speaks to Abraham and assures him that, not only is banishing Hagar and Ishmael to the desert where they will NOT die but yet become a great nation not to be resisted, but in actuality it is God’s plan for Abraham and his first son Ishmael. As God says, “I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” By the very definition of Sin – purposely rejecting God’s will – if God wills it, it is not Sinful.
When Sarah’s Sin becomes God’s will for Hagar and Ishmael, no Sin has been committed, and Abraham no longer needs to worry about his wife or his slave and his child.
Our reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans is about nothing but Sin. Sin and death. Sin and the Law. Sin and life.
Paul starts his discourse by answering a question that seems silly to him. Basically, he says that God’s gift of Grace is the answer to Sin. The more Sin happens, the more God’s grace through Jesus Christ comes in to counteract that Sin. From the discourse it is clear that there are obviously those in the church in Rome who look at the relationship between Sin and God’s grace, and wonder if they should Sin more to enable more Grace to be given. Paul responds “6 What then are we to say? Should we continue in Sin in order that grace may abound? 2 Of course not!”
Then Paul teaches about the relationship between Sin and baptism. Paul continues, “If we died to Sin how can we go on living in Sin? And we did die to Sin. Don’t you know that by being baptized into the Body of Christ we have been baptized into his death as well as his resurrection? 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 through our baptism. 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. 6We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of Sin, our human body, might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to Sin. 7For whoever has died is freed from Sin. 8But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10The death he died, he died to Sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11In baptism we are dead to Sin and to the world, and alive to God in the body of Christ.”
The reading from Matthew’s Gospel this morning continues the last couple of weeks of Jesus’ instructions to the Twelve as they prepare to minister in small groups and without their master. And if last week’s reading didn’t scare the Twelve as to what to expect, and about the serious physical and spiritual dangers awaiting them in the mission field, Jesus drives home the seriousness this week.
Jesus warns the Twelve that as a consequence of Sin in the world, they will be treated just as badly if not worse than Jesus, their master, will be treated. They are not to be afraid of what Sin in the world can do to them – only to be afraid of “him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Despite the ravages of Sin in the world, God has their backs – God knows them and is with them – “even the hairs of your head are all counted.”
Jesus also acknowledges that the Good News he preaches concerning forgiveness of Sins will not be received as Good News to some. “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.” The battle between Sin and God’s Grace will be epic and personal. In that battle, those who protect themselves from the dangers of preaching the Good News will lose God’s Grace, and those who lose their lives preaching the Good News will receive God’s Grace.
The Good News today is that because of what Jesus Christ did for us on the hard wood of the cross, we are saved from the dominion of Sin and Death over us. Jesus destroyed the hold that death and Sin have over us, and poured out God’s Grace that leads to eternal life.
The Good News today is that in our baptism we die to Sin and the cares of the world, and in our resurrection we come alive to God in Christ Jesus. Though we may fear the death of our bodies, God is with us because we are of great value to Him. Nothing that happens to us in our life is outside the love of God and his Grace.