The Real Reason Your Team Moves So Slowly

The name of God who is the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, have you been watching the World Cup? Yes, some of you. Some of you are like, what is that? I don't know. If you've not been watching it, you're missing out. I really like soccer. I played it in high school. I don't follow it very closely. But I love the World Cup. Kind of like I don't follow track and field or swimming, but I love the Olympics. World Cup, just every four years, it brings such passion. So many different cultures all on top of each other. I think it's a little like heaven's going to be, except heaven won't have as much beer. And it is so fun. I don't think. Anyway. So it's so fun to watch. These cultures come together. Like, you've been made of seen. Like all of Scotland. I think everybody from Scotland came to Boston. And it was in Boston. And they marched a couple of miles behind their bagpipers. They were wearing their kilts. And they went to Fenway Park. And they basically took over a Red Sox game. And it was hilarious and wonderful and so fun. They were there to like three o'clock in the morning. I don't think that they all stay behind to clean up the stadium after themselves, the way that the Japanese did, which was amazing and so respectful after their matches. And have you seen the Dutch? Oh my gosh. Like thousands and thousands, literally thousands and thousands of them wearing bright orange, following a bright orange double-decker bus. And they shipped over from the Netherlands. And they're taking, and they took Dallas completely by storm, then Houston, dancing in the streets. And I'm not going to sing you the song. But it is amazing. It's so much fun, so much energy. And it's even more fun when members of one culture get to come in and dance and sing and have fun with another culture. Like I saw a Korean supporter, a crowd surfing across all of the Mexican faithful. It was wild and wonderful. But that Korean wasn't cheering for Mexico, was he? He was just interacting and having fun. These fans are so deeply committed to their own teams because they are citizens of that country. You can't imagine the Dutch cheering for Argentina or the French cheering for South Africa or us Americans cheering for Japan. We wear our own colors. We fly our own flag. And so we're not going to root for another country's team any more than like Jags fans would root for the Titans. You know, that's not who we are. We're not going to do that. We don't wear their colors. We don't sing their songs. All throughout the world cup, the fans, allegiance and their rooting and the songs that they sing is all determined by their citizenship. And just like you, that makes me think of St. Paul's letter to the Romans. So, right? You didn't think of that? So we're picking up our passage in Romans. Paul is anticipating a question that would probably come up based on what he had been teaching in the previous chapter. This is what he had been teaching. He said that God gets glory from forgiving sin. He said that God gets glory from giving grace. He said that Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sin and all the glory for such grace is given to God. And so Paul can hear the skeptics. Well, wait a second, Paul. It sounds like you're saying that we should just keep on sinning because the more we sin, the more grace that he gives. The more grace he gives, the more glory he gets. So we should just keep on sinning. And some might be terribly offended by the idea that we could just go on sinning. And some might be terribly excited by the idea that we could just keep going on sinning. But the question remains, in the light of God's glorious forgiving grace, how shall we live? Does it matter what we do? That has a question that is critically important for all Christians at all times. And so for us today, in the light of God's grace, in the light of the fact that Jesus has borne all our judgment, in the light of the fact that we are free in Christ. How then shall we live? And what is striking is that Paul does not appeal to our willpower. He doesn't appeal to our morality. He doesn't lay on the fear of judgment. He doesn't wag his finger and say, "You better behave." Nor does he pump his fists and say, "You can do it." Rather, Paul appeals to our very identity as Christians. What is true about us, we don't wear the other team's colors. That's not who we are. Our life is not rooted in the fear of judgment. Nor is our life rooted in carefree indulgence. Our life as it is lived. In fact, our very identity is rooted in our citizenship in the body of Christ. That is who we are. Now Paul is not so naive to think that Christians don't sin. In fact, in chapter 7, he'll get actually a little bit vulnerable about his own sin. But he's making a point to all Christians. So to us, about who we are and who's we are and what that means for how we live our lives. It is a matter of death and life, he says. It's a matter of death and life, and he roots it all in our baptism. Now baptism, since Jesus ascended into heaven, baptism has always been the normal, sacramental event that happens when someone proclaims faith in Christ. And as a sacrament, baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality. Do you remember that? If you went through confirmation class, a baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality. So there's nothing magic about the water, but there is something deeply and profoundly true that the water of baptism points us to, something that's going on on the inside. And it's hard, I think, in our context for us to really get our minds around the death and the seriousness that Paul is talking about because we think about it and we think of the liturgical ceremony. We think mostly of cute babies with proud moms and dads. And it's gentle, and it's inspiring, and it's happy, and it's not wrong. But Paul is taking us way deeper beyond the ceremony to the message of baptism in order to answer the question, "How shall we live?" And while in the end, it is very good news. The message starts with death. In fact, in these 11 verses, I counted 17 references to death and to dying and to being buried. Paul says, "All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death." See, when we put our faith in Christ, what goes on the cross with Christ is not just a long list of naughty deeds that we shouldn't have done. That's probably what we most often think about when we think about the forgiveness of sins, like with God forgiving, this long list of naughty things that we shouldn't have done. But Christianity is not a self-improvement project. Christianity is not about getting rid of the bad so we can focus on the good because there is no good, not in a godly sense. Now you're good. You can good at lots of things. But not in the sense that we are perfect like God is perfect. Christianity is not just a list of bad deeds to avoid sin as self-centeredness. It runs all the way through all of us. The Christianity is not a self-improvement project. Christianity is death and then resurrection. See, what goes on the cross is our whole self. of us, you and me, the bad deal. sure. The way we've heard people of course, but also things that we look past like the vanity, with the pride, with the desire for recognition and glory, with looking down on others, the apathy to those in need and on and on. Our whole self goes on the cross. And when it goes on the cross, that self-centered person dies with Christ before God. And that self-centered person, the old person, the pre-Jesus person, that person is buried in the tomb with crucified Jesus. I want you to think about the symbolism that baptism offers us. Now it's harder to see in our context because again it's not wrong, but we just pour a little water over the head, right, and a little cute baby. But if you think about baptism by immersion, like all the way down under the river or something like that, maybe somebody was baptized like that here. Yes, we think about our sins being washed away, but when you go under, you get held down there. What happens? You can't breathe. And eventually you die. There is no life for us down there. That is our old self, our pre-Jesus self, the hurtful self, the prideful self, the grudge holding self, the desperate for recognition self, the God to be better than you self. That person is washed away. That person is put to death before God. On the cross with Jesus. Paul says, "We have been united with him in a death like his." In Christian, I want you to know, that is what is true about you. I don't know what your life looks like, but I know that before God in the heavenlies your old self was put to death. And thanks be to God, that's not where the sin it sins. Because with Jesus' death, there's never the end of the story, is it? There's purpose in the death. We have been united to him in a death like his. We will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. Our old self, Paul says, was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. And if we have died with Christ, Paul says, "We believe that we will also live with him." Christian, that is you right now. Be in baptism. When you come up out of the water, you can breathe. New life, resurrection. The old is gone. The new has come. And so what is true about you, whether you were sprinkled or whether you were dumped, whether you were baptized as an adult or a baby, and really whether you have been baptized or not as long as you believe it, your faith is in Jesus. What is true about you is that Jesus has so intimately tied us to himself that now his story is our story. He died. He took us with him so that when he rose, he's taking us with him. You have new life. You are totally known and you are totally loved. You are fully forgiven. You've got the full attention of the King of the universe. You are empowered and indwelt by the Holy Spirit and you are promised heaven. That's what Jesus said in the gospel passage. It's a tough passage. You said, "Those who lose their lives for my sake will find it. We will find real life in him." That's who you are. That's your defining characteristic. That is your identity. That is your citizenship. You are united to Jesus' death and resurrection. You get a new song to sing. You get a new flag to fly. The question for us, Christians, about how we are to live is not so much about what we are to do. It's about who we are to be. Just like the Dutch aren't going to cheer for the French because that's not who they are and Americans aren't cheering for the Brits because that's not who we are. Christians aren't living a life of sin because that's not who we are. We live according to who we are. So Paul says this, "Last line in the passage if you're looking at your bulletin," he says, "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." I have to tell you that word "consider" is too soft. It is the right translation but the sentiment in English is way softer than what Paul intended because we think, "Well, I'll consider it. I'll give it some thought. We'll see." This is not ambivalent. This is black and white. This is much more like reckon yourselves, calculate yourselves, give account for yourself as your life as dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. This is not give it a go. This is do the math, right? This is who you are, dead to sin, alive to God in Christ Jesus, death and life. So who are you? You are a child of the King. You are bought with his life, you're washed in his blood, you're raised by his grace. You are royalty with all the joys and all the benefits thereof. And I don't want to tell you, life with Jesus, it's upside down from the way of the world. And sometimes, and probably a lot of times, it's tempting to go back. The world tells you, "Ah, you're upside down. That's just not as good." And we aren't prone to believe it. Or we're prone to straddle the fence. Or pretend like it doesn't matter. Or pretend, like we're going to try to find a way to justify chewing out my neighbor instead of finding a way to love them. The truth is, life with Jesus, by his rules, it's just a lot better. Happier, freer, fuller, richer. Because when we try to fill ourselves up, we will always end up empty. We try to fill others up, we end up full and so do they. Should we continue to sin, the grace may abound. Why would we? We don't cheer for that team. It's not who we are. Our citizenship is in the body of Christ. We've been bought by his blood. Let us live in his freedom. Amen.