When I go to Starbucks on rare occasion, I get the works. Throw me the espresso, the chocolate, the caramel, the whipped cream and add a toffee bar on the side. I like to throw caution to the wind. Sin me up. You've got to sin at least a little to be saved, right?

Let's talk about sin. In Paul's letter to the Romans, he tries to appeal to their cultural sense of logic to get his particular points about sin and grace across - but Paul's argument can be tricky to follow because his logic tends to break down a couple times. In the previous chapter he talks about sin coming through the fall of Adam, and how grace, ever the more so, comes through Christ. He wants to say that the sin that tarnishes humankind is paltry when compared to the abundance of God's grace. But then he realizes that if he goes too far on that point, the Romans might think it's OK to keep on sinning because grace will somehow pull them out of it in the end.

So Paul has just finished saying that the legal system put in place by Moses seemed to multiply the human capacity to trespass against God. Laws are no good because they just become something we can break. Grace is the better gift, he says. With Jesus, where sin abounds, grace comes in all the more. Can you begin to picture where the Roman mind is going with this? OK - laws don't work. God loves us more when we sin more. Hey, I like that sort of freedom. Don't we all? Permission to blow our diet on a 400 calorie coffee with a 300 calorie breakfast Danish on the side -Now who wouldn't appreciate a little undeserved grace at the Starbuck's counter?

Then Paul springs the big question on them. "Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?" I imagine that some of those either reading or hearing this letter are probably ready to say, "Sure, let's sin some more." But the next line is translated - "By no means." It's a wimpy translation. I invite you to imagine a much stronger, more emphatic, "NO WAY." My curmudgeon old school Lutheran professor of New Testament translation who was typically a bit of a prude broke character when he told our class that the translation of Paul's phrase here really ought to be, "Hell no." Paul switches gears on his audience. He's argued vehemently that sin is of little consequence. Grace is the trump card. But then he tells them that they aren't completely off the hook. If they buy into this message that Jesus Christ preached and lived a message of God's love, they just might have to start acting a little more loving toward each other. We are baptized, not in a cute cuddly "baby- being- walked- down- the- aisle" style. We are baptized to die as Christ died. There's a shocker. We die by his death so we can live in his life. This ups the ante from just not sinning or somehow being obedient to the law. We are summoned to live as Christ did, dead to sin and alive to God. Now if all I ever ordered was the "why bother," and I lived my life as cautiously and meticulously as I could, would that be following Paul's message here? I don't think so. Jesus flirted with the edge. He lived his life with the outsiders and sinners. He was accused of being a drunk and a glutton because people saw him plenty of times enjoying himself with crowds of groupies gathered around. For goodness sake, he kept a wedding party going an extra day or two by making more wine. Jesus opened himself up for plenty of criticism from the religious types. They thought he was arrogant, blasphemous, and most of all unholy. Sinful people followed him around, and when they didn't, Jesus almost seemed to stumble on them by accident. But even in all this, Jesus was dead to sin. Somehow the sinful, trying to cope with real life, behaviors of human beings made him soften and love them all the more. Instead it was the pompous, self-righteous Pharisees that made his blood boil.

Is it possible for us to be dead to sin, for us to live as though we were beyond the need for judgment either of ourselves or of others? Is it possible for us to imagine the kind of grace that makes human sin look weak and insignificant? Can we move beyond holding grudges, and leveling punishments, and responding to others with contempt? Perhaps only a convert like Paul could imagine this kind of grace. His experience of forgiveness was total and miraculous. As a former persecutor of Christians, who would have thought that he could become a Christian, let alone be transformed so much that he would take the good news of the gospel into the Gentile world? No one would have thought to do that. No one but God.

In the Presbyterian Directory for Worship, in the section on baptism, it reads, "God's faithfulness signified in Baptism is constant and sure, even when human faithfulness to God is not." Paul did know the depth of human depravity. That's also where John Calvin gets his best scriptural material. Reformed theologians throughout the ages have had a relatively small opinion of human ability and a very large understanding of human limitation. People sin - a whole lot. I guess if we could help ourselves, we would, but looking through these lenses, it doesn't seem likely that we'll get out of much of our mess. The good news is that God is faithful even when we're not. Thank God it doesn't depend so much on us.

Though Paul appreciates neither brevity nor simplicity in his writing, his message is clear: We don't have to worry. God's grace, God's faithfulness is complete. As popular as it has always been to complain about the awful condition of this or that, to say that people have lost their way and "tsk, tsk" the moral turpitude of the day, that should only endear us to God all the more. To be alive to God is to look through sympathetic eyes on our fellow human beings, to treat them gently and with greatest care. Jesus did not condone hurtful behaviors. He was downright angry and pushy when it came to issues of pride and control. Nevertheless, he comforted the broken people that he met, and he mended deep and open wounds in the human condition.

We signify this mending with the sacrament of baptism. We baptize into Christ's death so we may live in his life. Our Directory for Worship also reminds us that: Baptism signifies the beginning of life in Christ, not its completion. God's grace works steadily, calling to repentance and newness of life. God's faithfulness needs no renewal. Human faithfulness to God needs repeated renewal. Baptism calls for decision at every subsequent stage of life's way. So choose and keep choosing to be dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Amen.