Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? 2By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? 3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4Therefore 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. 5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6We 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. 7For whoever has died is freed from sin. 8But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
~ Romans 6:1-8
As I write this month, I am in the last hours of preparations for two retreats: the Bethel Mission Council Retreat, and the Long Range Planning Team/Mission Council Joint Retreat. I admit – I’m both excited and a little nervous. There is so much to share, so much to hear, so much to learn, and we have precious little time. Identifying and focusing on our highest priorities is actually harder than it looks. I’d be lying if I said our finances weren’t weighing heavily on my mind. They are. The Finance Team asked Council at their meeting on February 13 to ask ministry teams to control their spending to help keep our finances in balance. We know that finances play a role in our ministry and in determining what we can do, but it is not and cannot be the whole picture. And Bethel’s annual Leadership Retreat is just one week away. There certainly is a lot of talking, thinking, and planning going on.
So, what does all of this have to do with resurrection to new life?
We can think and talk and plan and strategize and develop metaphors, but, at some point, there must be action. There’s a time when we’ve gathered enough information and had enough conversation that we can hardly be considered as rushing to action unadvisedly.
Resurrection is about death and a return to life. Throughout Lent, we focus on the brevity of our lives and the reality that there is an end. As people of faith, we believe that at the end of this physical life, we will experience eternal life through Jesus Christ. As people of faith, we believe that we daily die to ourselves and rise again to new life in Christ as Luther reminds us in the Small Cathecishm.1
If you have ever read or heard those who have had a “near death experience”, you know that these people have a new perspective on life after their experience. If you had the opportunity to literally die and come back to life, do you think you would live the same way? What would it change?
After we die, whether it is dying in this life or the daily dying to self that Luther writes about, who among us would want to return to life that is anything less than spectacular (John 10:10).
Tomorrow morning when you wake up, give thanks to God for your life and re-commit your life to God as a baptized child of God. Then consider what this new life in Christ means to you, the decisions you make, and what’s truly important to you.
In Christ,
Pastor Jeff
From March 2013 Bethel Bell Tower newsletter
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1 Luther writes in the Small Catechism about the significance of Holy Baptism: “It signifies that the old creature in us with all sins and evil desires is to be drowned and die through daily contrition and repentance,and on the other hand that daily a new person is to come forth and rise up to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.”
Epicurious Lutheran 