Romans 6:1b-11
What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore 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.
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. 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. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Reflection
There it is! Yes, there it is! It seems all week long the passages have been about questioning the presence of God in our troubled lives. Or the feeling has been that we are in this all on our own. In this passage... There it is! " But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him."
Yes! There is the hope by which we live. A hope that rests, not in our own works, not in our own righteousness, not in our own efforts to attract the eye of God's favor, but in the death and life of Jesus. It's the hope that we can have in all situations of life; the bad and the awful and the lonely and the forgotten situations. "The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God."
Having observed this and having seen the gospel story we too can live in this world of sin in which we live. We too can live in the midst of our own sin. Yes, we too can change it around all because Jesus changed it all around. All in the way that we consider our life here and now and forever. Yes! There it is! That hope that we all must rely on with all of our lives. The hope and joy of the resurrection of Jesus, our God, our Savior, our Brother.
Yes! There it is! "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."
Now even in the midst of our own sin and even in the midst of the sin of this world, we can live a life that is dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Now we GO! Now we go forth to serve all those that Jesus served with an attitude of new life available to all. To all who exist unemployed, ill, in prison, addicted, hungry and all who mourn. We GO and serve all those who can't hear or feel the presence of God in their lives. We GO and tell the wonderful story of a changed life that all people can have because of what God has done in and through Christ Jesus. We GO with our hands, our feet, our hearts, our gifts, our Savior and become what God would have us become through the love of Jesus for and to and among and with those God gives to us day after day.
Yes! There it is! Our Hope and our GO power that takes us from here to eternity. We GO in the confidence that even when God feels absent, God is present with us and all around us and in us and through us... even if we don't know it... we GO with God!
Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eHg8s8M4no
Prayer
Lord, send me out with a new and a changed attitude and a realization that Yes! you have victory over sin and in your resurrection you have given me the freedom to live my life victorious over sin as well. Send me out free to love and serve all those you give to me. Send me out free to tell all the wonderful story of what you have done for me and for all people through Christ Jesus. Yes, Lord, send me out to do your will in your way to any and all you give to me... today... tomorrow... and forever. --- Amen
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