Beginnings

Sermon by Jo Mackriell, ordinand.
Romans 6.1-11

Endings and beginnings seem very important to us at the moment.  When will the restrictions end ? When will the pandemic end?  When will shops begin to open, when can I begin to see my family and friends again?  When will we begin to get back to normality?  And for me the most pressing question is , when I am ordained deacon in 2 weeks time, God willing, what will my ministry look like?  And I think this is a question we all need to consider, what will our worship and Christian witness look like in the future. 

In our reading from Romans today there is a lot of talk about endings; the words death and died appear 12 times in those few short verses.  But Paul, as always, is really concentrating on new beginnings rather than endings. 

He begins this chapter by showing the ridiculousness of trying to live in our old ways, when he says, if by continuing to sin we can get more grace then shouldn’t we remain in a state of sin, to make the most of the grace that is available?  Of course not, that’s not how it works.  He reminds us that through baptism we have had a new start and we are given a new normality, a new way of living. 

I don’t remember my baptism, as I was only a few weeks old, but interestingly it was 2 days before an event that would change the lives of people in this country for weeks.  That event was snow! Snow that fell on the 26th December and lasted until the 6th March.  Many things came to a standstill and I think it was probably the last time that the football season failed to be completed.  Snow also reminds us of new beginnings; as we read in Isaiah, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”

Clearly there is something of vital importance in these verses from Romans 6 that Paul is at pains to communicate,   What we need to understand is that the death of Christ wasn’t the death of an individual, Christ died for all. In 2 Corinthians Paul says “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.  And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”

Being bound up in Christ’s death through baptism isn’t the end of the matter, it isn’t the purpose.  We need to read on for that.  The purpose is that through death we are raised with Christ to begin a new life.

Anyone who is baptised into Christ is dead to the old life and now lives in a new beginning.  And the miracle of that is that baptism isn’t a once for all, but a daily new beginning. 

I believe we have some big decisions to make in the coming days and weeks, as we try to negotiate our way through the rules and requirements which keep us safe and look for a new normality. What will we learn from this time of pandemic?   Many of us have been givers or recipients of acts of kindness and hospitality during these difficult times.  Communities and families, not least our church family, have come together in new ways.  Many of my friends and family have told me that they have been able to visit different churches, albeit virtually, during this time, and perhaps we can bring the best of all that together to create a new way of being the body of Christ. 

My prayer is that we will grasp this opportunity for a new beginning, that we won’t just go back to doing things the way they were before, in any part of our lives but that we will pray more, talk more and care more for all of those we come in to contact with and share this gift of a new beginning.