Sunday, August 19, 2007

"Free at Last" - sermon by Ruth L. Foss, July 29, 2007, Wesley United Methodist Church, Concord, NH

Free At Last

Scripture Reading: Colossians 2:6-19
Prayer:
Sovereign Lord
Be with us we pray as we look at our Baptism
Send your Holy Spirit down upon us
Our Teacher of your knowledge
Give us eyes to see,
Ears to hear
And an understanding of your ways and the Freedom you offer us
And we pray this in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior
Amen
Sermon:

When I first began to decide what piece of the lectionary to preach on…it was very difficult to chose. There was so much to preach about in the words of this week’s lectionary. You have Psalm 85…that talks about the restoration of Israel…it talks about the blessings that God imparts upon the faithful and God’s faithfulness to His people.

Then you have Luke 11:1-13 when Jesus teaches how to pray…that in itself would be about 4 or 5 different sermons. Then you have Colossian 2:6-19 that talks about Spiritual circumcision and baptism…it talks about how we are alive in Christ and God’s erasure of our sins. Now that’s what I call the Grace of God…being forgiven of all my sins even though I deserve death. This is FREEDOM. This is the scripture that spoke to me the most. As a matter of fact…both the Psalm and the Luke passages…to me…have to do with our baptism and what happens around that blessed event in our lives and the freedom that we all want in our lives.

What is baptism? What happens when we are baptized? Do I have to do it every time I sin or is it a “one shot deal”? How can I be truly free? These are questions that many people ask…my prayer is that we will be able to have a better understanding of our baptism, the freedom that is offered us and all the joy that surrounds that time in our lives by taking a look at baptism and what takes place during our baptism.

In Colossians 2 vs. 11-12…it speaks of baptism as spiritual circumcision. It introduces us to sharing in Christ’s suffering and death because we are “buried with Him.” “We are raised with Him through faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.” We believe that…through God’s power…we too are raised from our death but our death is the sin that we cause and live in. We believe we are forgiven of our sins by this same power of God. Now before baptism…these Colossian Christians were dead…alienated from God…they mired in sin…but now they are “alive” because God forgave their sins. God canceled the “legal note of debt” and Christ took the note on Himself. WE are set FREE!

I want you to think for a moment…is there anyone that we would do that for…would we take on someone else’s sin in order to free them from the chains that bind them? More over…would we send our only child to die for someone else’s mistakes especially if our child was with out sin? I think that most of us would have trouble with that. But…that’s just what God did for us. God wanted to build a bridge across the canyon that was created by our sin and the only way to do it was to send His son to the cross for us. Christ was that final atonement for our sin. Thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ who willing followed God’s path for His life.

Now…please bear with me as I segway for one moment since we are talking about our risen Lord Jesus Christ. Another part of the lectionary was from Hosea 2:1-10. This passage of scripture is mostly “doom and gloom.” God has had it with mankind. But…when I read the scripture…saw some hope…I could see God’s Providence for His people…a way to be a forgiven people…a way for atonement of sin. In vs. 7 it reads “I will have pity on the house of Judah and will save them by the Lord their God; (God wanting to have a relationship with His children) I will not save them by bow, or by sword, or by war, or by horses or horsemen.” Now if I have my genealogy straight…Our Risen Lord is from the line of Judah…God has saved us through this very line…this blood line…of the people God had pity on. God was working out His plan.

The other part of this scripture from Hosea that stood out was in vs. 10 where we read “yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered”…sound familiar? It is the same promise that God gave to Abraham. God keeps His promises unconditionally…God never changes. The vs. goes on to say “and in the place where it was said to them “you are not my people” it shall be said to them “children of the living God””. WE are adopted by God…not only are we God’s people…we are Children of God. We are adopted into the Royal Family of Christ Jesus when we are baptized. We are part of a Royal Priesthood with the head being our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that is an adoption that I think even our legal system today would have a hard time denying.

Baptism…this is a five-part process (other sermons to come).
1. Dying to sin…Baptism represents…is an outward sign…of what has taken place inside. We are born sinful because of Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden (I am going to have to have a talk wit Eve when I am called home…what was she thinking?). Even an infant that is baptized dies to sin, as I have stated we are all born sinful because of the first sin. We are all descendants of Adam and Eve and are under the same curse. I don’t really understand why some people think that an infant baptism doesn’t count. That you have to be older and understand what is going on for it to count. But again…that’s another sermon.

2. Newness of life…we put away our old life and start living a new life found in Christ Jesus. All things are new. There is no record of our past transgressions. We get a “do over.” But then again…our God is a God of second, third, fourth chance and so on. Look at God’s history with Israel in the Old Testament if you ever doubted that. 2 Cor. 5:17-18a tells us that ”if any one is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ (THANK YOU JESUS!)” At baptism we are liberated…freed…from sin! This is God’s action to fulfil the divine promise of salvation. We rise to begin a new life in Christ.

3. Union with Christ…We become Co-heirs with Jesus. As I have sated…we are adopted into the “Royal Family”. We are completely forgiven and we are like the Prodigal Son returning home with our Father seeing us from far off and running to us with his arms wide open welcoming us home!

4. Receiving the Holy Spirit…In 2 Cor. 1-21-22…Paul writes “But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, by putting His seal on us and giving us his spirit in our hearts as a first installment.” God gives us the first installment of the many blessings God wants to bestow upon us at our baptism. We are given the teacher of all knowledge…our guide through life. We are given a spirit of Freedom not of fear.

5. Incorporation into Christ’s Church…we are not just talking about Wesley…or any other church we may belong to. Incorporation into Christ’s Church is being to incorporated into the church of all believers with Christ being the head. We are part of a “WorldWide” church with all of us being brothers and sisters in Christ.

These alone are wonderful gifts…blessings…that are bestowed upon us but there is so much more that God gives us. WE are restored again to God. God puts away His indignation and anger…God shows us steadfast love in “while we still were sinners…Christ died for us.” WE are given God’s salvation and are reconciled to Him. We are Free to receive God’s stead fast love, righteousness and peace…God will give us what is good and our land will yield increase.

Luke 11: 9-10 tells us “ask and it will be given you; search and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds and for everyone who knocks the door will be opened.” We are free to come to the throne of grace and bow before our God and King. God hears our voice…our prayers…our praise…our pain.

I went to the Women of Faith conference in Boston this past Friday and Saturday. The theme of the conference was Amazing Freedom”. (Like that was just a coincidence) Now I want you to imagine this…4,000 like-minded women, coming together in praise and worship. It was awe-inspiring! By the theme…the title…of the conference you can tell that the theme for the weekend was God’s Amazing Freedom that is bestowed upon us. The stories and music that was presented there brought tears to my eyes. The one of the things that I took home from the conference is a new view of what Freedom is. To hear 4,00 women…all saying together I AM FREE…was almost deafening!

WE are free from the Chains of sin…we are free from the condemnation of sin…we are free from the death that sin causes us (not just physical but Spiritual death). WE are free to serve one another. We are free to love one another as Christ loved…and still loves…us. We are free to share our stories to help others find freedom for themselves. We are free to reach out to those around us…with Christ’s love. The love that nailed His outstretched arms to the cross which are the same outstretched arms that are wide open to accept us …where we are…into the family of God. We are free to believe in the Dream that God has for our lives. We are healed of our brokeness inside by our Lord Jesus Christ and are freed and not held down by it any longer. We are free to be ourselves. We are free to follow our call in life…the call that God will equip us for. True freedom does not mean without bars…true freedom is the indwelling of Christ! If the Son sets you free…you are free through and through.

Freedom…in baptism we are freed from the life we had before. We are given the precious gift of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are free to follow our God and know that God will make a way for us no matter what. Nothing is impossible for God and we are free from worry…anxiety…fears. We are given a Spirit of freedom not one of bondage. We are free to dance before our God and King with all our might knowing that victory belongs to the Lord.

I would like to read you a poem from my favorite poet…It is titled “Cast off your Shackles”

We are free from the restraints,
The bonds which have
Held us captive,
Free from the snares
The limits, the temptations
Of our own mortal lives.
Jesus has set us free.
By His death we die
By His resurrection
We live, we are raised like Him
We are baptized,
Spiritually circumcised
Into the family of God,
Free from the ledger of our sins
Erased and made clean.

We have a choice to make. We can either not to accept this gift and go about in life afraid of making mistakes…afraid that our past might come back to “bite us”…afraid that we are not good enough…or we can FREELY accept this wonderful gift from God and go through life trusting that God is with us…and if God is with us, who can be against us. We can chose to repeat the words of MLK Jr. and shout from the rooftops “Free at last…Free at last…thank God almighty…Free at last.”

AMEN

by Pastor Ruth Foss
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Suncook United Methodist Church
Suncook, NH



All of my poems are copyrighted by Raymond A. Foss, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. All rights reserved. Contact me at Ray Foss for usage. See all 35,240+ of my poems at www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com Poetry Where You Live.

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