{"id":979,"date":"2014-06-23T09:41:48","date_gmt":"2014-06-23T14:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/?p=979"},"modified":"2014-11-25T10:11:06","modified_gmt":"2014-11-25T16:11:06","slug":"old-self-new-self-response-in-baptism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2014\/06\/23\/old-self-new-self-response-in-baptism\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Self &#8211; New Self, Response in Baptism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/sermons\/?sermon_id=40\" target=\"_blank\">Audio Link<\/a><br \/>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_7727sIfN-o?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Jeremiah 20:7-13<br \/>\nRomans 6:1b-11<br \/>\nMatthew 10:24-39<\/p>\n<p>So, you have been baptized into Christ Jesus, do you feel different?\u00a0 Different than what, would be a good question.\u00a0 Do you feel different than before you were baptized?\u00a0 For those that were baptized as an infant, that would be something to hear wouldn\u2019t?\u00a0 Baptism is a changing from the old self centered, inward focused, all about me to the new self, outward focused upon others, not self.<\/p>\n<p>Okay, so those of us who have been baptized as infants and children, probably cannot say there is a difference before or after the baptism.\u00a0 What we can say is if we have been living out the new self, learning to follow Jesus.\u00a0 Being a disciple is about learning.\u00a0 The term disciple means to be a \u201clearner\u201d.\u00a0 A disciple is not the master, but continually learning.\u00a0 This means that we make mistakes; we are not perfect but can only look towards a day when we will receive perfection in our resurrection in Christ Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>Jeremiah cries out against God and complains of how unfair he has been treated by those he prophesies to as well as what God has done to him by enticing and overpowering him to speak out against the people that mistreat him because of what he tells them that God has said.\u00a0 Jeremiah, a prophet is different than disciples, yet he is also not perfect.\u00a0 In the reading today, Jeremiah complains against God, against his persecutors, he wants to hold back, not proclaim the word of God. He cannot hold back, he is compelled through a burning fire shut up in his bones to speak.\u00a0 This desire Jeremiah says God has put in him.<\/p>\n<p>Jeremiah wants to remain with the old self, one that is focused upon him, doing what he wants to do not what God wants him to do.\u00a0 He cannot be this way, he has already taken the step out of the darkness and into the light and must speak what God has put upon his heart, what God has called him to do.\u00a0 Haven\u2019t you felt that desire to speak, speak what God has told you to speak about, what you know is the truth?\u00a0 I have and it can be feel like I am all tied up in knots, I am excited and scared, I just want to jump and click my heals but I also don\u2019t want anyone to see or hear me.<\/p>\n<p>Upon a baptism, you might hear \u201cLet your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.\u201d\u00a0 The light of Christ in us shines in the darkness of our sinful self, guiding us to our new self in Christ.\u00a0 As humans, we are imperfect, fallible and commit sins.<\/p>\n<p>It is the grace of God in the death and resurrection of God\u2019s Son, which we die to sin and are reborn new in Christ, in our baptism.\u00a0 The sins of the past and the sins of the future have no hold upon us.\u00a0 We have our own Exodus through baptism but even then we still wander in the wilderness.\u00a0 Our failures to shine do not condemn us but does that we mean we should give up and let sin rule us or as Paul asks in the Romans text, \u201cShould we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? <sup>2\u00a0<\/sup>By no means!\u201d<sup><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>As Lutheran\u2019s we often use Grace as our out.\u00a0 It is the grace of God through the death and resurrection of Jesus upon the cross that saves, not our works.\u00a0 Yet if we do not attempt to live a life, responding to what God does, then do we not just live a life full of abundant \u201ccheap grace\u201d?\u00a0 What Jesus did, was far from cheap, it was costly.\u00a0 The costly death that we are united in and ourselves die in, the old self, and the life we have in the resurrection of Jesus, to our new selves, demands us to respond.<\/p>\n<p>The response that we have can take so many forms, the response centered upon Christ, to serve others before ourselves.\u00a0 How about a doctor who takes on patients knowing they will not receive payment or payment in livestock instead.\u00a0 A Lawyer who takes on cases that they will never receive payment for but knows the person being represented needs their assistance.\u00a0 A person who chooses to change jobs, maybe one very high paying, to something that pays very little but sees a need, feels compelled to respond to the need.\u00a0 There are so many examples of what the world tells us we should do, which are contrary to what God wants us to do.\u00a0 It is not about I, number one, but about everyone else.<\/p>\n<p>As we heard in Jeremiah, the burning put upon us by God, to respond does not mean we will not be persecuted, or mocked or as it says in Matthew even have out bodies killed.\u00a0 What to fear more is not following the light and responding instead in darkness.\u00a0 When we are tempted and temptation happens daily, from small temptations to large, when we respond in darkness to the darkness, then not only is our body destroyed but so is our soul.\u00a0 Not by God but by us in following the tempter from hell.<\/p>\n<p>Grace abounds for us, baptized in Jesus\u2019 death.\u00a0 The love of God abounds in the grace that is showered upon us in the death of the old self and the creation of the new self.\u00a0 We are no longer enslaved to sin but freed of the bonds of sin.\u00a0 Baptism is more than a rite of passage, it is a new identity and when we embrace the new identity even in our imperfection, then we become more of our identity.\u00a0 It can even seem like that old saying, fake it until you make it.\u00a0 How we act, how we respond, what we do shapes us to who we are and will be.<\/p>\n<p>We must trust in our new identity, our new self.\u00a0 In our baptism, we either belong to Jesus or not.\u00a0 There is no partial belonging.\u00a0 We do not just belong to Jesus on weekends, not just Sunday. \u00a0Jesus has more than part time custody He has full time custody.\u00a0 That too means that our bodies, our checkbooks, our votes, our property, all we are, all we do, our entire being belongs to Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>The old self was about us, the worldly ways, look out for number one, ourselves.\u00a0 The new self is responding to Jesus in our new self, not because we must but because a burning desire that needs to be unbridled and let loose.\u00a0 It is in the new self that no matter the challenges, no matter the demons, we belong to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior to be united in death and united in life, because we can never die again.\u00a0 Death no longer has dominion over Jesus and therefore has no dominion over us.\u00a0 Our new self is calling us to respond to the love of God in Christ Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><sup><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/sup> <em>The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version<\/em> (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Ro 6:1\u20132.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Audio Link Jeremiah 20:7-13 Romans 6:1b-11 Matthew 10:24-39 So, you have been baptized into Christ Jesus, do you feel different?\u00a0 Different than what, would be a good question.\u00a0 Do you feel different than before you were baptized?\u00a0 For those that were baptized as an infant, that would be something to hear wouldn\u2019t?\u00a0 Baptism is a &#8230; <span class=\"more\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2014\/06\/23\/old-self-new-self-response-in-baptism\/\">[Read more&#8230;]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[73,15,11,40,37,3,10,5,70,14,83],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-admin","4":"post-979","6":"format-standard","7":"category-baptism","8":"category-christian-love","9":"category-death","10":"category-demons","11":"category-discipleship","12":"category-grace","13":"category-jesus","14":"category-law","15":"category-life","16":"category-love","17":"category-sermon"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2m6h5-fN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1997,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2018\/01\/09\/baptized-into-the-spirit\/","url_meta":{"origin":979,"position":0},"title":"Baptized into the Spirit","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"January 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Sunday, January 7, 2018 | Epiphany Baptism of the Lord First Sunday After the Epiphany Year B Genesis 1:1-5 Acts 19:1-7 Mark 1:4-11 Click here for an audio only version. https:\/\/youtu.be\/6rn5UEOTcuY Doubtless in Paul\u2019s mind they were not re-baptized but baptized into Christ once and for all. John himself, pointed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Baptism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Baptism","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/baptism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/6rn5UEOTcuY\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1347,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2015\/06\/17\/baptism-changes-our-reality\/","url_meta":{"origin":979,"position":1},"title":"Baptism Changes Our Reality","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"June 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/youtu.be\/xW616MbaGA0 Audio Link Sunday, June 7, 2015 | After Pentecost Genesis 3:8-15 Psalm 130: 1-8 2 Corinthians 4:13\u20135:1 Mark 3:20\u201335 Isn't it nice that we are in a different gospel today? Oh don\u2019t get me wrong, John is great stuff, but it is nice to have another perspective of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Baptism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Baptism","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/baptism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/xW616MbaGA0\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1488,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2016\/01\/13\/jesus-baptism-is-important\/","url_meta":{"origin":979,"position":2},"title":"Jesus&#8217; Baptism Is Important","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"January 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Old Testament \u00a0 Isaiah 43:1-7 Psalm \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Psalm 29:1-11 New Testament \u00a0Acts 8:14-17 Gospel \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Luke 3:15-22 \u00a0 The story of Jesus\u2019 baptism must be important.\u00a0 It is one of few stories that are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Baptism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Baptism","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/baptism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1458,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2015\/12\/15\/be-still-and-trust-in-the-lord\/","url_meta":{"origin":979,"position":3},"title":"Be Still and Trust in the Lord","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"December 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Due to a technical glitch, there is no audio or video of this sermon. Sunday, December 13, 2015 \u00a0Advent Third Sunday of Advent Year C Old Testament Zephaniah 3:14\u201320 New Testament Philippians 4:4\u20137 Gospel Luke 3:7\u201318 John\u2019s baptism is a break from how the Jews traditionally removed their sins.\u00a0 Once\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Advent&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Advent","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/advent\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1326,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2015\/05\/10\/i-am-the-vine-you-are-the-branches-made-new-in-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":979,"position":4},"title":"I Am the Vine: You are the Branches Made New in Baptism","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"May 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Unfortunately the Video and Audio is not available for this particular sermon. Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 3rd, 2015 Acts 8:26-40 Psalm 22:25-31 1 John 4:7-21 John 15:1-8 Jesus says that He is the Vine and we hear that we are the branches. In baptismal language, we have been grafted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Baptism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Baptism","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/category\/baptism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2014,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2018\/03\/01\/its-all-about-the-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":979,"position":5},"title":"It&#8217;s ALL about the Love","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"March 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Sunday, February 18, 2018 | Lent First Sunday in Lent Year B Old Testament Genesis 9:8\u201317 New Testament 1 Peter 3:18\u201322 Gospel Mark 1:9\u201315 https:\/\/youtu.be\/rKke3kRTQiM We started our journey with ashes, Remember you are Dust and Dust you shall return. 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