Romans 6:1-11
The Baptism of our Lord
13 January 2008
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
You probably all remember the 1985 movie by the title, “Back to the Future.” In that movie, Michael J. Fox portrayed 17-year-old Marty McFly. In the movie, Marty connects up with a mad scientist of sorts who has developed this time traveling space machine. It still has a few flaws and the scientist convinces Marty to be his guinea pig and help him further refine space travel. Marty gets into this space machine and finds himself transported back some 30 years to his own home town when his parents were his age. There in the past, he learned some things and messed with some things that would impact the future. Finally he learned that he had to get “Back to the Future” and not continue to dwell in the past.
When you stop to think about it, that’s probably a good theme to ponder at the relative start of yet another new year – “back to the future” and not dwelling in the past. At the starts of new years, it’s often our tendency to look back, to ponder yesterday, to count yesterday’s losses, to regret yesterday’s indiscretions and to get angry at yesterday’s injustices. If that’s where you find yourself today, I declare that it’s time to get back to the future.
How many of you have already broken your New Year’s Resolutions? It’s time to get back to the future.
How many of you have joined the couple of people I heard from this past week in realizing after my sermon last Sunday just how depressing this time of the year can really be with all decorations being taken down and packed away and all the Christmas spending spree bills beginning to arrive? It’s time to get back to the future.
That’s actually a great modern day summary of what St. Paul wrote for us today. First, he takes us back. St. Paul takes us back to the very reason why Jesus Christ had to leave His Home and His Throne and make His habitation among us for 33 years. That reason was our sin. It was our sin that effected the action of God. It was our sin that drove Jesus to the Cross where He suffered and died. It was our sin; it was the devil; it was death itself that was completely conquered by Jesus Christ on the Cross.
It is important to go back to those facts, but not so that we can wallow there, but instead to give us reason to get back to the future.
St. Paul says it like this: “If we have been united with Him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His Resurrection ... Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him” [Romans 6:5, 8]. That’s what you can summarize as “Back to the Future.” We need to look back to see what happened for us in the past. But when we do that, we get the uneasy sinking feeling and sneaking suspicion that that is not where we belong. There is no room for us in the life of sin. There is no room for us in the grave. There is no room for us in the clutches of the devil. The victory of Jesus Christ over sin, death and the devil is a victory for us. The victory of Jesus Christ propels us back into the present and sets our eyes on the future.
Many years ago, a man hired an experienced guide to lead him on a hike into the Swiss Alps. After many hours, they came to a high and remote mountain pass. To the man’s dismay, he saw the path had almost been washed out. To the left was a sheer rock cliff hundreds of feet high. To his right was a precipice that dropped nearly 1000 feet. They couldn’t go up. They couldn’t go down. He didn’t want to go back, so forward they went until he looked down at that drop. Looking down, he felt his head grow faint and his knees begin to buckle. At that moment, his guide shouted, "Do not look down or you are a dead man. Keep your eyes on me and where I put my feet, put yours there as well." The man did as he was instructed and soon he passed from danger to safety.
Jesus says those words to you and to me this morning: “Don’t look down or you’re a dead man in your sin. Keep your eyes on Me and put your feet where mine have gone.” Death and resurrection. Hopelessness and hope. Back to the future.
On New Year’s Day, 1929, Georgia Tech played the University of California in the Rose Bowl. In that game a man named Roy Riegels recovered a fumble for California. Somehow, he became confused and started running 65 yards in the wrong direction. That strange play came in the first half, and everyone who was watching the game was asking the same question: “What will Coach Nibbs Price do with Roy Riegels in the second half?” At half time, Coach Price looked at the team and said simply, “Men, the same team that played the first half will start the second.” The players got up and started out, all but Riegels. The coach looked back and called to him. Still he didn’t move. Coach Price went over to where Riegels sat and said, “Roy, didn’t you hear me? Then Roy looked up, his cheeks wet with a strong man’s tears, and said. “Coach, I couldn’t face that crowd in the stadium to save my life.” Then Coach Price reached out and put his hand on Riegels’ shoulder and said to him: “Roy, get up and go on back. The game is only half over.” So Roy Riegels went back, and those Tech men will tell you that they have never seen a man play football as Roy Riegels played in that second half.
That’s a lesson for you and for me. The Bible teaches us that what is done is done. There is no use in going back and reliving it or redoing it. God has one direction in life for us and that is forward. When King David sinned and displeased the Lord, God punished him for that sin and he grieved over it. Then, recognizing that the grief would not undo what he had undone, David put away his grief and “got back in the game.”
When we go back and see our sin and see the consequences of our sin, it is good to realize that the game is not over, only half over. With repentance and sorrow for our sin, God over and over again sends us back to the future and gives us the opportunity to “face” our sin with the knowledge that there doesn’t need to be a repeat of it in the “second half” of our lives. A better “game” can still be had if only we put off regret and go back to the future and put on the hope that He has created for us.
So where are you today? Has time travel transported you again into the past? Are you counting yesterday’s losses? Are you regretting yesterday’s indiscretions? Are you angry at yesterday’s injustices? If so, it’s time to get back to the future. It’s time to again touch the waters of Holy Baptism, to recall Christ’s death and Resurrection for you, then to claim the life He has planned for you – today, tomorrow and every day.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena