4th Sunday After Pentecost
Jeremiah 28:5-9 Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18 Romans 6:12-23 Matthew 10:40-42 Pentecost 4 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who brought us from death to life. Amen You have been brought from death to life, This is what Christ does for us when we are joined to him at our baptisms, he brings us from death to life. In our reading from Romans we join Paul as he tries to unpack what it means to say that we have died to sin and risen to Christ both on the cosmic scale and in our day to day lives. On the cosmic scale Paul paints with broad brush strokes and absolute statements. “Sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under the law but under grace.” “You..have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching which you were entrusted” “You have been freed from sin” And we say alleluia because this is good news, to be freed from sin, that’s amazing! And to be freed from sin means to be freed from death And yet even as we shout alleluias, we witness death in our daily lives, whether it is death with a capital D, of loved ones or innocent ones or whether it is death with a lower case d, the ending of a relationship, a time of sickness, a transition from one way of being to another way of being, all times when it seems like sin and death still reign and we wonder what difference does the cosmic make if all this suffering still exists. It makes all the difference in the world. because just as God brought us from death to life on a cosmic scale God brings us from death to life daily. When someone goes from isolation to being a member of a community they are brought from death to life. When you hear “I love you” after you thought you’d never hear those words again you are brought from death to life. When we go from fearing the future to being at peace with what life will bring we are brought from death to life. To belong to Christ means that life always has the last say, even though death has been defeated it hasn’t given up. but no matter how many times death tries to enter in life will be the result. As Christians we confess that we are in the middle, the already and not yet, Already Jesus has defeated death and not yet has this come to full fruition throughout the world. And as those who have been brought from death to life, God calls us to serve life, to resist the powerful temptation of sin and death and to bring life with us wherever we go moving the world a little closer to perfection as we do so Paul, writing to a first century audience puts our service in the stark terms of slavery, even as he realizes that the imagery is a little ridiculous Paul knows that his audience lives in a reality where all relationships are understood in terms of power over or power under and that perhaps with the exception of the emperor everyone was under the power of someone else. In Paul’s terms, before Christ we had no choice in who we served, we were under the power of sin, after Christ, because of Christ we are under the power of God and have a choice whether or not to serve sin or God and why Paul wonders would you serve sin when the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. You have been brought from death to life, Serve life Jesus in the gospel puts it a little more simply, The way to serve life, God, is through welcome “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me” This teaching comes right after Jesus has explained to his disciples the cost of discipleship, saying “those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” Essentially putting yourself before God is serving sin and leads to death while putting God before yourself leads to life God is served through welcome all kinds of welcome, it could be as simple as giving someone a cold cup of water or a wandering disciple a place to stay for the night, in the first century middle-east where there were no hotel chains or fast food restaurants for travelers, especially travelers like the disciples who Jesus instructed to travel light welcome was a matter of life or death Welcome is still a matter of life and death though we tend not to see it that way, in our own lives we are seduced into thinking that we can care for ourselves and that since we can others should be able to as well, but frankly all of us at some time will not be able to care for ourselves and this has nothing to do with our own abilities and everything to do with what it means to be human in a world where sin and death are still a reality and when those times come the matter of welcome is still a matter of life and death For babies, children, welcome, how they are cared for is a matter of life and death for refugees fleeing violence whether they are welcomed is a matter of life and death, for lqbtq people especially teens whose suicide rate is astronomically higher than the rest of the population welcome is a matter of life and death, for those seeking treatment and help with addiction and mental illness welcome is a matter of life and death. You have been brought from death to life now it is our turn to share the gift of life with all we encounter in ways large or small for the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Alleluia, Amen
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AboutPastor Emily Johnson preaches weekly at Christ Lutheran. These are manuscripts of her sermons given at Christ Lutheran. Feel free to engage with them in the comments section of the blog. Archives
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