Proper 7 Sunday Year A 6/21/2026
Genesis 21:8-21; Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17; Romans 6:1b-11; Matthew 10:24-39
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
We have been talking about justification.
When we receive salvation… that is to believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and our Savior, and we become justified.
Justification is to have our sins forgiven.
The slate is wiped clean.
We are justified… we are saved by faith through grace.
That grace is the power of Jesus Christ on the cross…
and that power is made real in us by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
So if we are forgiven… then all is good, right?
Now that we are justified…
we can go live our life however we please, right?
Well…
In our second reading from Romans 6 today,
St. Paul moves into the area of sin…
Once we are justified…
What happens to the sin in our life?
What about sin?
I mean if grace is such a good thing… and sin helps God’s grace become abundant shouldn’t we go on sinning all the more?
As St. Paul would say… “By no means!”
So, let’s talk about what sin is.
Sin is not something we Christians…
especially Episcopalians (mind you)…
like to talk about.
We enjoy a good talk on love…
And about acceptance, and helping each other, and doing good works…
But we sometimes get a little queasy when our Holy Scriptures talk about sin…
especially when it speaks against our politics,
or our culture,
or our deeply rooted world views and practices.
Sin makes us uncomfortable…
Pervasive racism,
greed cloaked in ambition,
gossip shared as concern,
sexual perversion disguised as freedom.
But as the old adage goes:
The preacher’s job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
So, what is sin?
Our catechism defines sin this way:
Sin is the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God,
thus distorting our relationship with God, with other people,
and with all creation.
So let’s talk about this first part – Sin is the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God…
It is a juxtaposition between two wills…
What I want to do (my will) versus what God says is the right thing to do (God’s will).
Where do we find our own will?
How do we get that…?
It usually comes pretty naturally.
No parent ever had to teach their newborn baby to become more selfish.
We naturally want to please ourselves or do what makes us feel good.
However, when our will is in contrast to God’s will and we act upon it…
When we do that thing which is against God’s will…
We have found the definition of sin.
So where do we find God’s will?
We find God’s will in the Holy Scriptures through the illumination of the Holy Spirit.
Just to give a few examples in the New Testament:
1 Thessalonians 5:18: Give thanks in all circumstances;
for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 4:3: For this is the will of God, your sanctification:
that you abstain from sexual immorality.
John 6:40: Jesus said: For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life…
1 Peter 2:15: For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.
Romans 12:2: Do not conform to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
So, when our will does not line up with Holy Scripture…
And we decide to follow our will instead of God’s will… we sin.
And this sin distorts our relationship with God… with each other…
and with all creation.
So, if justification has freed us from sin… why are we still sinning?
(Well, at least some of us)
St. Paul goes into this…
And his answer wasn’t: Well, we must try harder not to sin.
And his answer wasn’t: Well, a little sin never hurt anyone, so, you know…
When he raises the rhetorical question:
What shall we say then?
Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase?
His indignant witty response to his own question was to remind his readers… of their baptism.[1]
Which might not be the first place we go when we consider our sins.
What is the proper view of sin for a Christian?
it is found in our baptism.
So, what is baptism?
Once again, we will turn to our Catechism…
found in our Book of Common Prayer.
It has been fun these last few weeks connecting the reading from Romans with our Prayer Book and our Anglican history…
I hope to continue that over the coming weeks…
Anyways…
Our catechism defines what happens at Holy Baptism as this:
…Baptism is union with Christ in his death and resurrection,
birth into God’s family the Church, forgiveness of sins,
and new life in the Holy Spirit.
Did you hear the relationship with our reading from Romans 6?
It was the first 8 words…
…Baptism is union with Christ in his death…
And that is why St. Paul’s answer to sin is baptism.
Paul wrote:
How can we who died to sin go on living in it?
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death…
You see the key for Paul in relation to sin is Baptism.
We are to regard ourselves as in fact dead…
as far as the power of sin is concerned.[2]
What is sin in our catechism?
Doing our will as opposed to God’s will.
Well, who died in our baptism?
We did… Our will is to be considered dead.
This is why what is required of us at Baptism is to renounce Satan, repent of our sins, and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
That’s in the catechism too and in the baptism liturgy found in the Book of Common Prayer on pages 302 and 303.
So, in our baptism… sin is defeated…
Is death also defeated?
Yes!
But not yet…
Baptism is union with Christ in his death…
And also, union with Christ in his resurrection.
Think of immersion baptism… the imagery is stronger… then how we often do baptism with the pouring of water. (recommended in BCP).
We go down under the water… death.
We come up out of the water… new life.
When we take another look at our reading… carefully…
We will notice that the participation in the resurrection is described exclusively in the future tense.[3]
In verse 5: we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his
In verse 8: we believe that we will also live with him.
So, we are dead to sin and being made alive in Christ’s resurrection.
And we call this in-between time…
This time where we have been justified…
Yet we are waiting for the complete fulfillment of our resurrection…
We call this time – Sanctification…
We will look more at Sin and Sanctification next week as our lectionary takes us further into Romans 6.
Today, though, in our reading…
The important response to sin…
Our old way of life…
Is baptism.
Listen to the hope that is found in the words of our liturgy at baptism…
Page 306 and following in the Prayer Book… it says this:
We thank you, Father, for the water of Baptism.
In it we are buried with Christ in his death.
By it we share in his resurrection.
Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.
Therefore in joyful obedience to your Son, we bring into his fellowship those who come to him in faith, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Now sanctify this water, we pray you, by the power of your Holy Spirit, that those who here are cleansed from sin and born again may continue for ever in the risen life of Jesus Christ our Savior.
The power of sin is defeated in our faith in Jesus Christ…
Confessed in the Sacrament of Baptism.
Our hope is in the name of the Lord.
Our hope is not in politics…
Our hope is not in money…
Our hope is not in recapturing some former glory of history past…
Our hope is not in technology, progress, or a robust economy.
Our hope is in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And because of that hope we work to change the here and now…
To defeat the power of sin in this world.
That is the power of Justification.
That is the power of our Baptism.
That is why we are here today…
And giving hope to a struggling world.
If you have never been baptized…
If you are curious about it…
If you desire to be baptized…
Talk to me…
Let’s have a conversation.
As the people of God…
As baptized covenant people of God…
As people of hope in Jesus Christ…
This is why we live the words of St. Paul in the last verse of our reading today…
…consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
[1] John Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downer’s Grove: IVP Books, 1986, 2006), p. 185.
[2] Paul J. Achtemeier, Romans, Interpretation (Louisvill: WJK, 1985), p. 104.
[3] Ibid., 104.
