Christians live under new conditions. Paul tell us in the Epistle lesson for this Sunday that the old life has been done away and that the new life has begun. We are new creations of God. There are all sorts of metaphors that the Bible uses to describe that Christian passage from old to new. It says that we have been born anew, or that we have passed from slavery into freedom. It proclaims that we have emerged from darkness into light, or from despair into meaning, from mourning into joy, or from death into life. We walk no more by the flesh, but by the Spirit, or we are no longer conformed to the world, but to the will of God. Throughout the scriptures, the newness of life that we have been given in Jesus Christ is emphasized.

 Perhaps nowhere is that newness emphasized more than in Paul's description of our baptisms in Romans 6. The apostle tells us that when we were baptized, we died and were buried with Christ. Our old lives, lived solely for ourselves, with all of their sin and guilt, their lack of hope and of a future, their bondage to the world and its evil, were buried six feet under by Christ's death on the cross and his burial. But by the resurrection of Christ, we were raised from the water of baptism to a new life, a new future, a new goodness.

 In a moving article in the October 21, 1992, issue of The Christian Century, Ralph C. Wood told of the baptism of a man imprisoned for the terrible crime of molesting his ten-year-old daughter. The man's wife and daughter forgave him for his sin, whereby "the molester got on his knees and begged for the mercy of God and his family" (p. 926). As a result, the prison chaplain agreed to baptize him into the Christian faith. The only baptismal "font" available was a plastic-lined wooden coffin, and so the prisoner, burdened with his sin, was lowered by the chaplain into the death of Christ and raised from the waters, washed clean of his past and given a future by the resurrection of Christ. From that time on, he was a new man; after serving his time, he became a faithful father and husband and member of his local church. Thus does the work of Jesus Christ make us new creations.

 I tell all of these things from the standpoint of the New Testament, because they serve as a parallel to our Old Testament lesson. The Old Testament parallel to baptism in the New Testament is circumcision. Both baptism and circumcision signal an entrance into the covenant relation with God, and immediately preceding our text, we read that all of the Israelite men who crossed the Jordan with their families and with Joshua into the promised land underwent that covenant rite. They and their families entered into a new life by becoming the covenant people of God. Moreover, to celebrate that new relationship, they celebrated the first passover in the promised land. And to emphasize the newness of their situation even more, we are told in our text that they no longer needed to be fed by God with the manna that had been their food in the wilderness. Rather, now they could eat the produce of the promised land. Everything was fresh and different. The Israelites had begun a new life.

 Apparently, the enigmatic sentence in verse 9 of our text is intended also to emphasize that newness, but none of us knows exactly what the verse means by "the reproach of Egypt." Perhaps it refers to the Israelites' previous slavery. Perhaps it is a reference to their previous ignorance of God. Certainly it furnishes a etymological meaning for "Gilgal," the place of Israel's encampment, because the Hebrew verb "to roll," galal, sounds very much like the name "Gilgal."

 Whatever the precise meaning, the new situation of Israel's life is being emphasized. Now she has a taste of "the glorious liberty of the children of God." God has kept his promises to her forebears. The life of slavery, with its hopelessness and bondage, is in the past. The long forty-year trek through the wilderness, with its thirst and hunger, its deadly serpents and dangers, is behind them. The seemingly difficult passage through the Jordan has been accomplished with the help of God's miracle. Israel, the wandering people, now has a home, commandments to guide her in her new life, and a relationship with the God who will be her refuge and strength through all the future. Israel and we have been given a new beginning. "The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come."

 In the thought of the Old Testament, however, Israel also has a mission. She has not been redeemed from slavery and guided through the terrors of the wilderness and given the land simply because God loves her, although that certainly also is the case, as the Old Testament tells us -- God always acts in love (cf. Deuteronomy 7:6-8). But God does not redeem his people and enter into covenant with them for no reason. Rather, God chooses and loves his covenant people, because he loves all peoples and has a purpose for all the families of the earth.

 We read of that love and purpose at the very beginning of Israel's story in Genesis 12:1-3. Abraham is told at that time that he and his descendants are to be the instruments through which God will bring his blessing on all people. We have corrupted the good world that God made at the beginning, and now God wants to restore the goodness to the world that it has lost. We live under the curse of sin and death, but through Israel, God wants to do away with evil and bring his blessing on all folk.

 Israel's new life of settlement in the land of Canaan, therefore, is understood in the Old Testament as her time of testing (cf. Joshua 23:14-16; Judges 3:1-6). Will she be a faithful people, following the will of her Lord, praising his name and serving him in everything she does, so that the other nations will see God's work in her and turn in commitment to the Lord also? If so, then Israel will fulfill her God-given task of being the medium of blessing for all the families of the earth, bringing all nations to worship the one true God. Or will Israel turn to other gods and goddesses and go her own willful way, deserting the task for which God has made her his own?

 That is the same task to which you and I and all Christians are called. We too have been redeemed out of slavery to sin and death and given a new beginning, in the glorious liberty of the children of God. But God has chosen us also, and made us his own because we have a mission. We have the calling from God to live such faithful lives, walking according to God's commandments, that other people will see God's work in us too, and be drawn to confess his lordship. We have a new life in Jesus Christ, and we have been given the Spirit of our Lord to enable us to walk and serve in his ways. And now the question for us is, as it was for Israel, will we be faithful? Will we so obey and trust our Lord that he can use us in his purpose of blessing and restoring his world to goodness? 

 We can have no more meaningful task given us in this life, nor can Jesus Christ equip us more fully for the task than he has already done by his cross and resurrection, by his scripture and his Spirit with us. We have only to accept his call and today begin the mission.