“A New Beginning” - Eph 4:22-24, 2 Cor 5:17, Isaiah 43:18-19

For the past two weeks we’ve been taking a journey through the trash in our lives. We’ve dumped it out, named it, and today we are putting it where it belong. At the foot of the cross. To be left there.

It’s hard to leave our sin and baggage behind. For most of us it seems so familiar, that it is almost part of who we are. But it isn’t! We weren’t created for this! We weren’t created for sin and the burden it creates. We weren’t created to drag around the pain of past hurts. We were created for freedom in Christ Jesus. 

Christ doesn’t leave us empty handed. The first week in our discussion we talked about Jesus beckoning us to come to him, saying that his yoke is easy and that his burden is light. But we never really talked about what his yoke is - what exactly we are trading in our sins and sorrows for. We aren’t just giving something up, we are gaining something. Actually gaining many things. First we gain gratitude. Gratitude for the cross. Gratitude for Christ. Gratitude for the sacrafice other’s have made for us. Gratitude for the prayers that have been prayed on our behalf. Gratitude for life itself. The list goes on and on. 

Gracious people are seemingly hard to come by these days. We become embittered by the burdens we are carrying to the point where it is hard to have and express gratitude. And even when we find freedom in the cross of Christ, we may not become gracious right away, for gratitude is a spiritual discipline, hence why Christ refers to it as a yoke and a burden. But the more we practice being thankful, the more that we have the cross in the center of our lives as that which we are most thankful for, the easier it becomes. In fact, gratitude allows us to worship Christ more fully because we have a glimpse of the burden he has removed from our life. This also allows us to deal differently with those in our lives - showing them support, appreciation, and love, no matter how they treat us. 

Secondly, when we put our garbage at the foot of the cross, we pick up a new life in Christ. Jesus went to the cross for our garbage, our sin. But he also rose to new life. And so we too can have new life in him. A life of freedom. A life of forgiveness. A life of hope. This mornings scriptures speak of this new life in Christ. One where we actually fully put away our old lives, our old baggage, our old sin, and clothe ourselves in Christ. We are no longer marked by our sin. That’s passed away and we are new. 

But our new life in Christ is not just for ourselves. Freed from our sins we are sent out as disciples with the mission to make others disciples of the one we love. To follow Christ’s call to go to the very ends of the earth with this message of forgiveness and redemption. We are made new creations to work for the Kingdom of God! 

Thirdly, freed from our burdens we gain a right perspective on our home. No matter what trash we give to Christ we will always have one thing, if we don’t put it in the right perspective. We will always be longing for home. Our home in Christ. Our Heavenly home. But this too will be shed when we reach heaven. When we are finally home. And when we reach home we will be celebrated by our God and Father!

In the Gospel of Luke we find a parable that Jesus tells that is often coined “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” and it tells the story of a son that sinned more then we could ever imagine, but when he left that life behind, broken, to return home that he was greatly celebrated. Friends, such a celebration is waiting for us. We leave behind burdens to find great joy. We throw away our trash and we find hope in the future, and hope in the present. For we can be changed on this earth and we are also changed in eternity. 

Brothers and sisters, leaving our trash at the foot of the cross is both the easiest and hardest thing that we will ever do. It is easy when we can no longer deal with our sin. No longer run from it. And know that there is no other place to take it. But its difficult because it requires trusting that God wants to do a new thing in our lives. It takes courage to truly let go of the past and not look back. And we may have to drop off our trash several times, because we keep going back and picking up bits and pieces not fully trusting in God. But Jesus was serious when he asked to take our suffering, our burdens, our sin. And there is a new life waiting for us when we fully let go. 

For the last few weeks you have been encouraged to carry around rocks with your burdens, sins, and trash written on them. Today we are going to put them where they belong at the foot of the cross. We are going to symbolically surrender them to God, and pray for a new life in Christ. If you’ve forgotten your stone or didn’t get one, you will find a basket with rocks and markers by the cross. Brothers and sisters, come. Let go. Find freedom and forgiveness in the one who gave his very life for you. Amen.