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Grace mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father through Jesus

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Christ his son our Lord. Amen.

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Have you ever been into something that you thought would be so great

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and then been utterly shocked when it's something more than you

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expected.

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I'm going to tell you about the time that I did just that. So some

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of you who've already been on vicarage.

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you guys might be familiar with the dinner ladies. The ladies who make

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it a point to have you over as often as they can over your vicarage to

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make sure that you're eating well because will vicar I just don't

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know if you're eating well.

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So we a couple of those on my vicarage and it would make sure that I

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have plenty of food

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and of course there was always desert.

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So this one time one of our dinner ladies she brings out a pan of

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chocolate cake.

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I just got this almost mischievous look in her eyes and she starts a

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slice it up.

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She serves me a size.

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She goes vicar

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this is my special cake.

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And to be honest, I have so much fear in my heart of hearts because I

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don't know what's going to follow but because I'm nice and I like

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chocolate cake.

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I take a big bite and I feel something that is stringy that they could

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almost be coconut but the taste isn't just quite right.

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What did you find the special ingredient yet?

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And then it hits me.

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A punch of salt and vinegar

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It's sauerkraut vicar.

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That really happened.

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I can't help but wonder if it's not a similar experience for Adam and

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Eve from the Old Testament lesson for this week and brought into the

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epistle.

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They see the fruit that is pleasing to the eye and good for food and

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they take that big first bite.

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They taste the flesh of the fruit

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they feel the juices dripping down their faces, and then their eyes

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are open.

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And because of them death struck its claim in the world.

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It set up its camp and began to claim its subjects.

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First Adam and then the rest of the world.

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Death and sin

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have entered in.

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Now I being the millennial that I am I love our epistle lesson because

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it lets me off the hook.

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I'm not responsible for how or why anything has happened.

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I get to blame it all on Adam and Eve.

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See, it's not my fault.

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I'm simply the victim of original sin. If it wasn't for that

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I'd be blameless.

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I would never once have sinned but all because of Adam I have to carry

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this burden.

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So why not throw all the blame on him and prop myself up?

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It's not like I've ever done anything sinful out of my own volition or

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will.

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I've never stolen anything.

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Or at least not anything of any major value.

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I've never acted on those sinful desires of the flesh.

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I've never actively seeked to harm anyone.

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No, I simply look the other way

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when I pass the corner of Clayton and Skinker. Looking the opposite

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direction of the people the brothers and sisters of Christ that are

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asking pleading,

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begging

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for any amount of change or food that they can take to themselves or

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their are their children.

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No, it's not my fault.

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When I do slip up

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it's just because of my addiction to sin.

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It's all Adam's fault Adam and Eve are the ones who took the first

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bite of the fruit.

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I didn't ask them to do that.

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I didn't sit in the garden and tempt them to disobey God's word.

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But they did and now I have to deal with it.

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It's not fair.

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Not fair that I have to pay for something someone else did.

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Except that those sins are also mine.

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Sin owns us. Claimed us as its victims and wrote the verdict on us

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from the moment

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we break forth into this world.

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Death,

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death and destruction

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all because of that one bite.

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That bite that brought more in than any human could have bargained for

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but thank God that he had something in mind for death itself to bite

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into.

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See when death took that bite that it thought would be its victorious

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bite that bite at the heels of the son of God

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it bit itself to death.

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Death got more than it bargained for and because of that we are set

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free from death's reign.

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Christ's sacrifice for us for you and for me, it's swallowed up the

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very threat that we hid from.

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The very same consequence that held us in bondage was destroyed.

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It no longer became a life of slavery to sin but if slavery to Christ.

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Just as because of one man death came into the world

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we are freed from it because of one man.

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Christ himself taking that burden that we have written on us.

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Paying the consequences for the actions of someone else.

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Death bit into the very living Son of God

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and Christ the one who was bitten.

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swallowed up the threat death.

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We have an overflowing abundance of God's grace poured out for each of

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us.

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So we live that out.

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When those waters of baptism, that baptism into that one death of Christ

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washed over our heads it marked us as his.

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Christ bore it all for us.

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He put it all on himself and sets us free to do the work he has for

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us.

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He set us free to love our neighbor as ourselves.

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With death swallowed up Christ frees us from the bonds of sin and

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binds us to himself to share his love boldly.

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Sharing his love boldly knowing that even when we fail and fall back

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into our old ways of sin

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Christ forgiveness is there for us.

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His forgiveness is sufficient for all of us.

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He's the one man who

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redeemed the world and swallowed up death.

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Now may that grace of God that surpasses all our understandings bless

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and keep us until that day when Christ comes again in glory.

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Amen.