Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, August 15, 2021
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: Baptism gives us a new self.
How’s your New Year’s Resolution coming? Since it’s August, you’re likely wondering, “What resolution?” Seems ages ago since we made one, and eons away before we make one again.
But make one we will. Why? Because people are forever on a quest for a new self. The resolution is just one of endless ways people try to commit to being better. Diets, beauty routines, gym workouts, self-help books—all of these are designed to make us better versions of ourselves. Sometimes these work, sometimes they don’t. But we keep trying.
What these are missing, though, is that these changes (for the most part) are often short-lived, not sustainable, or ineffective. And they all rely on our own ability to make the change. There is a change, though, that is not only sustainable and eternal, but also completely a gift outside our own making. It’s baptism.
In baptism we die to the old self and are reborn new. This promise won’t help us lose weight or build strong muscles. It won’t smooth our wrinkles or keep us from making dumb life mistakes. But it does fundamentally change us.
Apart from Jesus, we are slaves to sin. We wear our sin like a weight around our neck. Each thought, word, action, and the state of our being that hurts or harms pulls us further from God, others, and even our true selves.
Baptism sets us free of that weight, that burden. Does that mean we won’t make dumb or harmful mistakes? Of course not! It does mean, though, that those dumb mistakes don’t need to pull us farther from God, others, and self. Baptism offers us the opportunity to be cleansed of that sin regularly so that we might focus our energies and attention on that which pleases God. Unburdened, we are free to explore what living in Christ means for us.
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