Sermon Title: "Buried with Christ in Baptism"
Date: June 22, 2008
Minister: Rev. Charles E. Ensley, Jr.

Lesson:  Romans 6:1-11

“Buried with Christ in Baptism.”  I had to think at least three times whether I wanted to use that for today’s sermon title.  There are some themes in today’s lesson that seem pretty dark, ones we do not usually associate with the joy of the sacrament of baptism:  Words like:  sin, death, buried, crucified, destroyed, enslaved.

Actually, some of what I say, do and pray is solely due to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  That’s what happened this week in developing today’s worship theme, starting with last Sunday.  I was meeting with Katelyn Rea to plan her baptism for today.  She asked about the difference between being baptized when “sprinkled” with water versus being immersed.  I told her the earliest baptisms, including Jesus’, were for the forgiveness of sins. 

You were immersed in water—the River Jordan, for instance—and when you came up, you were considered cleansed of your sins:  washed, just as we come out clean after a shower or bath.  You also are said to be dead to your old self, but come up out of the water as a new person in Christ.

Some churches continue to baptize that way; it’s dramatic and memorable.  Baptists, Disciples of Christ all have baptisteries at the front of the church where our altar is.  All new Roman Catholic churches and a number of remodeled ones have a fountain near the entry of the sanctuary, where one can either be immersed or sprinkled with water.  The location signifies that baptism is the sign of entrance into the church, and ones life as a Christian.

On Monday, reviewing the lessons suggested for this Sunday, I found today’s passage from the Apostle Paul’s letter, which seemed to put into theological terms the very same thing I was trying to get across to Katelyn as we prepared for her baptism.  Nevertheless, it still seems a strange text for so bright and warm a summer Sunday—Paul’s weird words about death and dying with Christ.

The context in which Paul wrote in the mid-first century was a misunderstanding in the Roman church.  Some believers had interpreted the free gift of forgiveness in Christ as an excuse to continue in sin “that grace may abound.”  To refute this idea, Paul explained the meaning of baptism.  Whereas continuing in sin enslaves us to the passions of the body, dying and rising with Christ—figuratively speaking—frees us for life in the Spirit.

It’s like this:  someone feels that since they’re baptized, they’re saved by grace, so they can go ahead and do anything they want.  Some folks still feel that.  They’ve accepted Christ as their Savior, or they acknowledge they’ve always been conscious of his presence.  They’ve joined a church.  They can do anything they want Monday through late Saturday evening—perhaps even into the early hours of Sunday morning.  Just as long as they dress up and go to church on Sunday, they’re saved.

But Paul uses the emphatic words “buried with Christ in baptism” to mean something else.  Anyone who has ever stood at a graveside and watched a casket being lowered into the ground and covered with dirt will understand his point.  Burial is a process.  Just as the interment of a body requires hard work and the use of shovels or a backhoe, so burying guilt, fear and despair demands an ongoing effort and reliance on the Holy Spirit.

The work of burying our most excruciating memories and unmanageable habits will continue for the rest of our lives.  Some memories and habits won’t be laid to rest until we are.  But returning to the meaning of our baptism and meditating on the healing made possible through Christ offers peace and hope in the struggle.  Your baptism means something, both in the past and in the present.  The actual baptism is important, whether you were told about it because you were too young to remember, or you remember because you were of age, but so too is the discipline of applying its meaning to our deepest wound and vulnerabilities.  When Martin Luther was assaulted by an overwhelming temptation, he cried out, “But I’ve been baptized!”  It didn’t mean he’d been baptized so he could do anything he wanted.  It meant he had been baptized, and he returned to the meaning of that to turn away from the temptation.

Sometimes, that’s all it takes:  a willingness to change direction.  Make a U-turn.  Or, as the Bible says:  Repent.

All you former Catholics know by now that we don’t have a confessional booth here, but some people have confessed to me nevertheless:  revealed their past sins, their waywardness, their struggles and temptations and mistakes and failures.  And I look at who they are now and sometimes find it hard to believe.  They now live a resurrected life.  They have found new life through Christ. 

Yesterday I attended the Annual Gathering of the Southern California Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ—two-to-three hundred clergy and lay delegates from our churches.  In the afternoon, I was part of a small discussion group of four who were asked to tell our faith experiences.  One woman, Mary, told us she had an abusive, alcoholic mother, who sent her children to church on Sunday to get them out of the house for a while.  In adulthood, Mary said she made poor lifestyle choices, was involved in a bad relationship, did things she knew weren’t right.  She felt in despair.  She prayed hard, and through many tears, began to feel reconnected to Christ.  She found a UCC church in Las Vegas and began to attend.  Right after that, her brother from whom she had been estranged for 19 years contacted her.  Today, Mary is active at her church, volunteers as a counselor at church camp, and is at a much better place in her life because she made a conscious decision to pull herself up out of her desperate situation and follow Christ.

In the words of the closing verse of today’s lesson:  “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”  As Christians, we have been buried with Christ in baptism, and resurrected to new life in him as well.  We need not fixate on anything else.