Sermon for December 6th

The psalm we sung today is actually part of the gospel of Luke, it’s a prophecy spoken by the old man Zechariah after the birth of his son, who was later to be known as John the Baptist. Zechariah, who had not spoken a word throughout his wife’s entire pregnancy was suddenly filled with the Holy Spirit and said this about his newborn son, “And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare the way, to give God’s people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.”

How do you know that you are saved? What should you look for? Should you look for little signs? Like whether you are a forgiving person or whether you read your Bible every so often or whether you come to church a lot? All those signs will fail you one day. There is only one place that you can look and see, and hear and know that your salvation is in the hands of God: The forgiveness of your sins. John the Baptizer went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins was John’s goal. The forgiveness of sins is God’s goal for you. The forgiveness of sins is Jesus’ goal for the world. The forgiveness of sins is the goal of every single worship service at Saint Peters because, without your hearing of that forgiveness, you cannot truly believe that you have been saved by God. Trusting in anything else is simply not enough.

There are a lot of different ways to go about “doing” church. A lot of different services you could go to, types of music to listen to, places to worship, theological arguments to dissect. But without hearing God’s forgiveness, it doesn’t matter how traditional, liberal, conservative or popular any church service is . . . it’s simply missing the point. As your pastor, my goal is simple at each service and during each sermon: Dinstinguish between God’s laws which point out the sins in our lives and the Gospel of Jesus Christ where we can believe in the forgiveness of those sins. Only when the Law is given full rein can we see that our salvation lies only in the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

Forgiveness is a gift from God. But it doesn’t always seem like a gift. That became very clear to me as I began working on this sermon. In fact, when I think about forgiveness in my own life, it can seem like a very heavy burden to bear. Forgiveness is not only a gospel issue, but it also finds its way into our lives as a terrifying law. I know that forgiveness is also a heavy burden for many of you. And the more wonderful we make it sound, the more guilt we bear when we cannot or will not do it ourselves.

Forgiveness seems pretty easy at first. It sounds nice. But, before you are in the mood to start forgiving anyone they need to, you know, say they are sorry, that type of thing. They need to repent! They need to ASK for forgiveness. Because if there is no repentance or no acknowledgement of a mistake, something just doesn’t seem right about forgiving.

But what happens when repentance just isn’t there? What if no one says they are sorry? What if they say they’re sorry, but you still can’t forgive? What then? Jesus said, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Ouch! What if you just CAN’T forgive someone? What if you’ve tried and they won’t admit that they are wrong? That they have hurt you? What then? And what does that mean for your salvation? “if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” What if your bitterness is just too strong? What if you know in your head that it’s the right thing to do, but just can’t make your heart truly believe in it? Would YOU still be forgiven? Would you still be saved?

To forgive someone involves sacrifice. Someone needs to die. I know that that probably sounds a little hyperbolic, but have you ever done something really awful to someone you love? And then had to say you were sorry? I understand that forgiveness, in itself, doesn’t involve blood or anything like that, but, in the moment, when you ask for it, you just cannot continue to exist the way you were before. It is impossible. The old you, the one who hurts people and feels no shame, has come to an end and the new you is left to watch and wait and see what the future holds. Will you be forgiven? Asking forgiveness is not an easy thing to do. It opens up new possibilities only through the death of the old.

What happens when you are the one waiting to forgive and repentance never comes? What do you do when you have been hurt and no one knows? What if the person who hurt you has died? Or was a stranger? Or is someone you want to protect from the knowledge of your pain? What then? What if the pain is old? What if the hurt seems too silly to say anything? What if you are waiting to forgive but no one ever says they are sorry? God’s goal is your forgiveness, but what if you just can’t follow in His footsteps?

Forgiveness always involves a sacrifice. Who has hurt you? Maybe someone at work, or in your family, or at church? What feelings are you carrying? Bitterness? Anger? Resentment? All of the above? If you forgive, without ever being asked to do so, that means you will lose something. The anger, the resentment and the bitterness must be sacrificed. And by now they have become close friends. Are you willing to just let them die? When you forgive someone who never asked for that forgiveness, you are the one who has to die. And while your heart keeps beating, a part of you comes to an end.

When you begin to understand what it means to forgive you’ll understand why Jesus had to be born. When you realize that with forgiveness comes sacrifice, you’ll understand why he had to die. Each one of us sins day in and day out. We hurt people. We often either don’t realize or don’t want to admit what we have done. We inflict pain daily on the ones we love and those we work with, we forget the needs of the destitute and become lax in our prayers for the sick and dying. We intentionally defy God and worship our own unholy Trinity: our needs, our wants and our feelings. And we are called to repent of the things we do, Jesus says, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” But we don’t. We choose not to.

So, God had to make a decision. If he relied on us to say, “We’re sorry”, to repent or to ask forgiveness, the sacrifice would never have been made. We would have all died without hope. So God became the necessary sacrifice. God forgave you. The forgiveness of sins became His goal. Not because you deserved it. Not even because you asked for it. But because you didn’t and he loves you. He gave you the knowledge of your salvation by forgiving your sins.

Jesus said, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Jesus gave us an example to follow, by sacrificing himself in order to forgive our sins. However, Jesus was more than an example. Do not for one moment believe that Jesus was simply an example for you to imitate. God knows that we do not want to forgive. God knows that we do not know how to forgive. God knows that we cannot truly forgive so he BECAME the sacrifice, not just for our sins, but for the sins of the world.

If you cannot forgive those who have hurt you, trust in God’s forgiveness. Trust that He has covered their sins just as He has covered yours. If you cannot bear to sacrifice your bitterness, trust in Jesus’ sacrifice. “I believe, help my unbelief!” “I forgive, help my unforgiveness!” Because, in the death of Jesus Christ, all of us have died along with our resentment, our hate, and our anger. For this is why Jesus was born, to give God’s people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. That goes for you, for me, all those we have hurt and all those who have hurt us. Forgiveness always involves a sacrifice and Jesus is the lamb who was slain who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus has died for you and your sins are forgiven. Amen.