“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near! This isn’t a joke. This isn’t just a line from the Bible. And so you’d better know two things right now. First, what is the kingdom of heaven? What is it that is so near? And what does it mean to repent? It’s coming. The kingdom of heaven is coming.
What is the kingdom of heaven? The word that is translated “kingdom” in Greek is basileia and while it can sometimes refer to a location or a place where a king rules, it more often refers to the fact that a king IS ruling. The king’s reign. So what’s is the difference?
Well, a kingdom has boundaries. You can walk into a kingdom and then back out of a kingdom. But the rule of a king, the reign of a king has to do with who the king is and what he does— not the place. It’s like the difference between a noun (which just sits there) and a verb (which is active and living). The kingdom of heaven has to do with HOW God reigns or THAT God is ruling. It’s not a location, it’s more like an experience. When John the Baptist said that the kingdom of heaven was coming near, he wasn’t referring to crossing the bridge between Iowa and Nebraska, he was talking about how life, how hearts and how the world was about to change for everyone. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near!”
John the Baptist said, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” John the Baptist said, “The kingdom of heaven is near.” But when Jesus was standing right in front of him in the gospel of John he said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is here!” “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” According to 1 John 3:8, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” Under God’s kingship the power of sin could be destroyed. And John the Baptist wants us to be prepared to experience the joy of that revelation.
So he calls us to repent. What does that mean? Well, it’s more than just saying that you are sorry. When my daughter Sophia was just a little girl, we would put her in timeout when she did something wrong. When she was done, she had to say she was sorry and give us a hug. At first, she seemed to really be affected. But later on, she would simply graze our shoulder with a finger as she walked on by and said almost as an afterthought, “Sawee!” Was that TRUE repentance?
Repentance means not just saying that you are sorry, not just feeling bad, but actually turning around and turning away from your sin. Turning your back on sin. I’ts making a change. Finding a new focus. Jesus said, “You can’t serve two masters.” You can’t just sin and then say your sorry and keep doing it, that’s not repentance, that’s just guilt.
But that’s what most of us do isn’t it? Saying, “I’m sorry” nowadays means, “I feel bad.” I feel really bad for hurting your feelings, but you are kinda being a sissy. But I feel really bad about that. I’m sorry that I keep ignoring you honey. I feel really bad that this football game is just more interesting than you are. I’m sorry. I feel really bad about that. I’m sorry that I hate you. I’m sorry. I really wish that I didn’t feel this way. I know it’s not good for me. I wish you weren’t the way you are. I feel really bad about that. I’m sorry.
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” John the Baptist cries out, Stop saying that you are sorry! Do you think that God doesn’t see what you are doing? Are you just here because someone told you this was the right thing to do? That you SHOULD feel bad? That you should get baptized because it’s the religious thing to do? Don’t just SAY that you’re sorry, bear fruit worthy of repentance. Start living it out!
If you are sorry that you don’t read your Bible more, start bearing fruit worthy of repentance. . . start reading it. You are going to have to make a change. If you’re sorry that you’re impatient with your kids, that you yell at them all the time, start bearing fruit worthy of repentance . . .pray for your kids, pray for yourself, get more sleep I don’t know, but do something. Make a change! Don’t just feel bad, that’s not repentance. Do whatever you can to get away from whatever it is that’s causing you to sin.
In Pauls’ first letter to the Corinthians he says we have to run from sin. “Flee!” He says. “Flee from sexual immorality.” Don’t just say your sorry and keep doing it. Run! Run away! Don’t just say your sorry for commiting adultery and then keep her number in your cell phone. Don’t just say your sorry for sleeping with your boyfriend and then hang out him alone, at night, in an empty house, in your bedroom. That’s not repentance. You might feel bad for letting it happen, but God doesn’t want your guilt. He wants to set you free!
He wants you to experience the kingdom of heaven where sin isn’t just tolerated but destroyed through forgiveness. If you are ready to make a change, to repent, he is ready to forgive unconditionally. There is nothing that you have ever done that God will not forgive. Not because you said you felt bad, but because you wanted a new life. God is in the business of giving new life.
I read a book once that explained how you trap a monkey. Do you want to know how to trap a monkey? Well, in India at least, one way is to cut a little hole in a coconut, just about the same size as the monkey’s hand. The monkey will come and reach his little hand inside the coconut and grab some of that yummy sweet stuff and then try to pull it out . . . but he won’t be able to now that he’s got that stuff in his fist. Unless he let’s go of his prize, that coconut will slow him down enough to catch him. Repenting means to let go of your sin. To turn from your old life so that you can live a new one. You cannot hold on to your sin and still expect to find freedom from it. .
We all have something to turn away from and it can feel like if we do leave that sin behind then what will we be left with. I get that. It makes you feel good, I mean, sin often makes you feel really good. What will you do with your time if you stop? You might feel like you’re losing everything.
I used to play a card game called “Magic”. It’s a tradable card game like Pokeman if you’ve ever heard of that. Anyway, each card has a picture on it and a little description that changes the rules of the game in some way. I loved to play it. All the time.
I played it first with my dad who bought me the cards. We played it every day for about two years. We spent one entire Thanksgiving vacation playing it with breaks only for going to the bathroom. Then, when I went to college I stopped, but I didn’t repent. I kept my cards. I started again. But when I realized that I had become addicted again I stopped again. But I didn’t repent. I held out the hope that I could play again under the right circumstances. And, lo and behold, during my last year of seminary, I found out that I could play the game online. It still cost money, but now I could play any time of the day or night. A year later I had spent over a thousand dollars and had lost hours of time with my family that could never be returned.
I was so addicted to this game. When I was depressed, it was like a drug that I could go to and take away the pain for a little while. It was exciting! I couldn’t imagine finding joy outside of playing that one game. I didn’t want to repent. What would I do? I thought that I could just look at the cards, or keep the application on my computer, or go to the website and read about it, but that temptation was so strong that I had to not just feel bad about playing, I had to repent and turn my back on it. Out of my house, off of my computer, and out of my life!
I couldn’t just let it hang around and hope to be strong enough to fight because if I stuck my hand in that card box again I knew I just couldn’t let go. I was trapped. And no matter how bad or guilty I felt, until I got rid of it and truly repented, I couldn’t find the forgiveness and the freedom I was seeking. I wasn’t prepared to be forgiven for my addiction until I was really ready to leave it behind forever.
It’s almost Christmas. Are you prepared? Or do you have something to let go of? John the Baptist points to Jesus and says, “Don’t look at me! Look at him!” He’s the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! Let go of everything but him. People like the Pharisees and even John’s own disciples come to him to ask him questions and John always says, “This isn’t about me! It’s about Jesus! That guy! Over there!” I must decrease, he must increase. What is Christmas about for you? Jesus or something else? We must repent so that we can experience the kingdom of heaven. To be prepared to celebrate Jesus. Not Santa. Not the Christmas party. Not the vacation. Jesus alone.
What do we have to repent of as a church? We have to listen to the words of John the Baptist and remember that our community is about Jesus alone. Like all churches, we tend to lose our focus on Jesus and are start making it about all kinds of other things.
Why do you come to church? Because of me? Because you like me or think I’m nice or something? Because I’m new and interesting or at least new? It’s not about me! It’s about Jesus. It’s not about the praise band or the organ! It’s about Jesus. It’s not about any church leader! It’s about Jesus. It’s not about your friends. It’s not even about you, believe it or not. It’s about Jesus. Follow the long bony finger of John the Baptist who says, “It’s about him! Jesus. Only Jesus.” We must let go of everything else and repent for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.
It’s time for all of us to stop just feeling bad or feeling sorry. Repent and get ready, for the kingdom of heaven is not only near—it’s right here. Jesus promised, “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name I am there among them.” The kingdom of heaven is here. Experience the power of the Holy Spirit right now and repent, let go of everything else and hold on to Jesus Christ your Savior. He’s all you’ve got, but he’s all you need. By God’s authority I declare unto you the entire forgiveness of all your sins. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. That’s the power of the Holy Spirit. Welcome to the kingdom of heaven. Amen.
Showing posts with label Repentance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Repentance. Show all posts
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Sermon for July 18th (Conflict and Forgiveness)
Last week, I presented you all with a vision of what the ministries here at Emmanuel might look like one day. I continue to pray that the Holy Spirit inspires us as we are coming in to be sent out together in mission for Christ. But before we can go and do all the fun stuff, before we go out and do all the hard work, before hearts are changed, before lives are changed and before the world can ever be changed we must ensure that we have a firm foundation upon which to build.
We need to build our ministry upon a firm foundation so that, when God calls upon us as a faith community, to plants churches or to go out on missions or to serve at food kitchens, we can put our time and energy into that work. We don’t want our community falling apart like a sandcastle if issues come up that attempt to bury us under conflict and unforgiveness. When I was working as a chaplain one summer in Minneapolis, the group I was studying with heard this imperative over and over again, “Deal with your issues now so that the people you serve don’t have to deal with them later.” One of the best ways we can serve others as a faith community is by putting into place a good system for dealing with our own conflicts.
And yes, we will have conflicts. Conflict is a part of our life together. If we can accept that fact and handle it appropriately, our community will grow stronger. And Jesus has given us a specific way to deal with conflict in our church so let’s take a look at what he has to say and apply it to our situation here at Emmanuel. Jesus starts off: “If another church member sins against you, go and point out the fault, just between the two of you.” Let’s just stop right there. I call upon you all today to heed the words of the apostle Paul as well, “Do NOT be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” I know that this is NOT the way of the world BUT, “If another church member sins against you, go and point out the fault, JUST BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU.”
That means that you DON’T talk to other people about what happened, you talk to the person who hurt you about what happened. The book of James says, “How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire . . . full of deadly poison.” When someone says or does something hurtful towards you and you talk negatively to someone else now about what that person did. . . well, you are committing the same sin, don’t you see? And not only that, but the wound that was opened in your heart is now burning from the heat of your anger and stinging from the result of your bitterness. Hatred, anger and gossip will not heal your wounds—in fact they make it worse. Bitterness is the poison that we drink ourselves with the hope of killing someone else. Healing occurs when there is both repentance and forgiveness. “If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.”
“But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses.” The key word here again is WITH. Take them WITH you. Don’t rant and rave about the injury or attempt to bias them to your side. If your cause is just, the truth will be clear. Calling your best friends to “back you up” is for gang fights, not for a conflict that you wish to settle peacefully.
If you are called to join the conversation, it is not your job to side with one person or the other. Your job is to help them talk and reconcile their differences. If you cannot think of someone to go along with you, I would like to encourage you to call upon me, as your pastor, to help you deal with this conflict. However, when you come to me alone, while I can do my best to counsel you, without the other party there the conflict will not be solved. Bring them WITH you. Putting me or anyone else in the middle of a conflict is neither helpful nor is it very nice.
“If the member continues to refuse to listen, tell the church.” What is the church? Does that mean the town of Fontanelle? Does that mean facebook? Does it mean to tell all your friends during fellowship time or during a ministry team meeting? No. We have called people from our congregation to serve as our representatives and leaders and put them on the council to help us deal with conflict in a healthy way. So, if someone has hurt you and even after speaking privately with them, and then with another person, there is no repentance—if the two of you have met together with others or with me and nothing has changed (perhaps the behavior has even become worse) come together to the council and together we will do our best work to settle the conflict as a community.
If there is still no repentance and no attempt at resolution of the issues—if the one who has hurt you refuses to listen to you and continues the hurtful behavior with no remorse, according to Jesus, as a community we are called to treat this hard-hearted person like a pagan or a tax collector. What does THAT mean?
I’d like to make two statements about this phrase. Both are important. First, pagans and tax collectors were the people Jesus hung out with to the horror of the rest of the Jewish leaders. “I have come not for the healthy but for the sick, not for the righteous but for the unrighteous,” Jesus said. We are under obligation as followers of Jesus to seek out pagans and tax collectors, pray for them and bring them back to Jesus.
However, pagans and tax collectors were also considered to be outside of the faith community, according to Jewish people, until they were restored. In other words, as a church, we should never kick someone out, faith in Jesus is the gate to this community. We cannot judge others as being more sinful that we are ourselves. However, repentance is a necessary part of the Christian life and so, we also must realize that until true repentance has occurred, a person should be disciplined in some way. For example, they may be disallowed from voting and kept from being on ministry teams or in leadership positions until the conflict has been resolved. The most common instance of this is when a pastor sins publically and is stripped of his position. Some pastors who go through this serve other churches, eventually, but not without public repentance taking place.
But have you noticed that Jesus’ system of conflict resolution, even if it works perfectly, is still missing something. Notice that Jesus keeps referring to a person “listening to you”. The most a person can do, when they have hurt you, is to repent. They can sincerely say that they are sorry, do what they can to make amends and attempt to stop the bad behavior. However, is that enough? Notice where Jesus goes next in this discussion. “Peter came and said to Jesus, ‘Lord if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but I tell you, seventy-seven times.’” As a congregation, we must not only have a system in place to deal with conflict, but we must have forgiving hearts or else we can never be free to serve anyone else.
I believe that there are some of you listening today who have not truly repented for your actions against others, even when you have sinned against other members of this church. If you truly believe that Jesus Christ died to take away your sins, what are you waiting for? Nobody’s perfect, this is true, but admitting your sins and turning from them is a part of being a Christian. In the gospel of John, Jesus saved a woman, caught in adultery, from being stoned for her sins. But while he did not condemn her, he also did not tolerate her behavior, “Go and sin no more,” He said. Each of you have been given a piece of rope with a knot in it this morning. If there is someone in your life you have hurt, you’ll understand that that knot is no mere symbol—it is the knot in your stomach and in your heart—a knot of guilt. Your relationship with that person, with this community and with God is not as it should be. Repent and believe in the good news. Jesus died for sinners just like you. Trust in his forgiveness. Trust in his mercy. Risk repentance.
I also believe that there are some of you listening today who, even when presented with the opportunity to forgive, have refused to do so, even when those who have hurt you have asked for that forgiveness. Just like the slave in the Bible story today, you have received and accepted the unconditional forgiveness of all of YOUR sins and, yet, somehow, you cannot also forgive? Do you truly believe that you have been hurt more than the Son of God crucified on the cross? Will you continue to hold resentment for those who have hurt you while God gives YOU pardon? Should you not have mercy on those who ask forgiveness just as God has mercy on you when you come to him with remorse? In the story, the slave is handed over to be tortured . . . Jesus said, “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” Perhaps that is why you have the knotted rope today. To remember to forgive because your heavenly Father has forgiven you.
It’s hard. I know that. All of this is hard. It is hard to confront someone when they have already hurt you. It is hard to say, “I’m sorry.” It is especially hard to forgive. We all struggle with these things. But I still see a day, when we are coming in to repent and being sent out to forgive. I want you to take a moment as we end today to think about your relationships with others in this very church. Who has hurt you? When will you go to them and let them know? Who have you hurt? How will you say you are sorry? Who has asked for your forgiveness? When will you forgive them? Perhaps you came in today to hear this promise, “By the authority of Jesus Christ, I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins.” Perhaps you will be sent out today with the same promise on your lips. Amen.
We need to build our ministry upon a firm foundation so that, when God calls upon us as a faith community, to plants churches or to go out on missions or to serve at food kitchens, we can put our time and energy into that work. We don’t want our community falling apart like a sandcastle if issues come up that attempt to bury us under conflict and unforgiveness. When I was working as a chaplain one summer in Minneapolis, the group I was studying with heard this imperative over and over again, “Deal with your issues now so that the people you serve don’t have to deal with them later.” One of the best ways we can serve others as a faith community is by putting into place a good system for dealing with our own conflicts.
And yes, we will have conflicts. Conflict is a part of our life together. If we can accept that fact and handle it appropriately, our community will grow stronger. And Jesus has given us a specific way to deal with conflict in our church so let’s take a look at what he has to say and apply it to our situation here at Emmanuel. Jesus starts off: “If another church member sins against you, go and point out the fault, just between the two of you.” Let’s just stop right there. I call upon you all today to heed the words of the apostle Paul as well, “Do NOT be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” I know that this is NOT the way of the world BUT, “If another church member sins against you, go and point out the fault, JUST BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU.”
That means that you DON’T talk to other people about what happened, you talk to the person who hurt you about what happened. The book of James says, “How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire . . . full of deadly poison.” When someone says or does something hurtful towards you and you talk negatively to someone else now about what that person did. . . well, you are committing the same sin, don’t you see? And not only that, but the wound that was opened in your heart is now burning from the heat of your anger and stinging from the result of your bitterness. Hatred, anger and gossip will not heal your wounds—in fact they make it worse. Bitterness is the poison that we drink ourselves with the hope of killing someone else. Healing occurs when there is both repentance and forgiveness. “If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.”
“But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses.” The key word here again is WITH. Take them WITH you. Don’t rant and rave about the injury or attempt to bias them to your side. If your cause is just, the truth will be clear. Calling your best friends to “back you up” is for gang fights, not for a conflict that you wish to settle peacefully.
If you are called to join the conversation, it is not your job to side with one person or the other. Your job is to help them talk and reconcile their differences. If you cannot think of someone to go along with you, I would like to encourage you to call upon me, as your pastor, to help you deal with this conflict. However, when you come to me alone, while I can do my best to counsel you, without the other party there the conflict will not be solved. Bring them WITH you. Putting me or anyone else in the middle of a conflict is neither helpful nor is it very nice.
“If the member continues to refuse to listen, tell the church.” What is the church? Does that mean the town of Fontanelle? Does that mean facebook? Does it mean to tell all your friends during fellowship time or during a ministry team meeting? No. We have called people from our congregation to serve as our representatives and leaders and put them on the council to help us deal with conflict in a healthy way. So, if someone has hurt you and even after speaking privately with them, and then with another person, there is no repentance—if the two of you have met together with others or with me and nothing has changed (perhaps the behavior has even become worse) come together to the council and together we will do our best work to settle the conflict as a community.
If there is still no repentance and no attempt at resolution of the issues—if the one who has hurt you refuses to listen to you and continues the hurtful behavior with no remorse, according to Jesus, as a community we are called to treat this hard-hearted person like a pagan or a tax collector. What does THAT mean?
I’d like to make two statements about this phrase. Both are important. First, pagans and tax collectors were the people Jesus hung out with to the horror of the rest of the Jewish leaders. “I have come not for the healthy but for the sick, not for the righteous but for the unrighteous,” Jesus said. We are under obligation as followers of Jesus to seek out pagans and tax collectors, pray for them and bring them back to Jesus.
However, pagans and tax collectors were also considered to be outside of the faith community, according to Jewish people, until they were restored. In other words, as a church, we should never kick someone out, faith in Jesus is the gate to this community. We cannot judge others as being more sinful that we are ourselves. However, repentance is a necessary part of the Christian life and so, we also must realize that until true repentance has occurred, a person should be disciplined in some way. For example, they may be disallowed from voting and kept from being on ministry teams or in leadership positions until the conflict has been resolved. The most common instance of this is when a pastor sins publically and is stripped of his position. Some pastors who go through this serve other churches, eventually, but not without public repentance taking place.
But have you noticed that Jesus’ system of conflict resolution, even if it works perfectly, is still missing something. Notice that Jesus keeps referring to a person “listening to you”. The most a person can do, when they have hurt you, is to repent. They can sincerely say that they are sorry, do what they can to make amends and attempt to stop the bad behavior. However, is that enough? Notice where Jesus goes next in this discussion. “Peter came and said to Jesus, ‘Lord if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but I tell you, seventy-seven times.’” As a congregation, we must not only have a system in place to deal with conflict, but we must have forgiving hearts or else we can never be free to serve anyone else.
I believe that there are some of you listening today who have not truly repented for your actions against others, even when you have sinned against other members of this church. If you truly believe that Jesus Christ died to take away your sins, what are you waiting for? Nobody’s perfect, this is true, but admitting your sins and turning from them is a part of being a Christian. In the gospel of John, Jesus saved a woman, caught in adultery, from being stoned for her sins. But while he did not condemn her, he also did not tolerate her behavior, “Go and sin no more,” He said. Each of you have been given a piece of rope with a knot in it this morning. If there is someone in your life you have hurt, you’ll understand that that knot is no mere symbol—it is the knot in your stomach and in your heart—a knot of guilt. Your relationship with that person, with this community and with God is not as it should be. Repent and believe in the good news. Jesus died for sinners just like you. Trust in his forgiveness. Trust in his mercy. Risk repentance.
I also believe that there are some of you listening today who, even when presented with the opportunity to forgive, have refused to do so, even when those who have hurt you have asked for that forgiveness. Just like the slave in the Bible story today, you have received and accepted the unconditional forgiveness of all of YOUR sins and, yet, somehow, you cannot also forgive? Do you truly believe that you have been hurt more than the Son of God crucified on the cross? Will you continue to hold resentment for those who have hurt you while God gives YOU pardon? Should you not have mercy on those who ask forgiveness just as God has mercy on you when you come to him with remorse? In the story, the slave is handed over to be tortured . . . Jesus said, “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” Perhaps that is why you have the knotted rope today. To remember to forgive because your heavenly Father has forgiven you.
It’s hard. I know that. All of this is hard. It is hard to confront someone when they have already hurt you. It is hard to say, “I’m sorry.” It is especially hard to forgive. We all struggle with these things. But I still see a day, when we are coming in to repent and being sent out to forgive. I want you to take a moment as we end today to think about your relationships with others in this very church. Who has hurt you? When will you go to them and let them know? Who have you hurt? How will you say you are sorry? Who has asked for your forgiveness? When will you forgive them? Perhaps you came in today to hear this promise, “By the authority of Jesus Christ, I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins.” Perhaps you will be sent out today with the same promise on your lips. Amen.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Sermon for June 13th (Faithfulness)
Temptations are a part of life. Temptations are a part of every marriage. There are a lot of beautiful people in this world and only one of them, at the most, can be your spouse. There are exciting things to do, wonderful places to go and great things to buy that you may never get to experience in the life you have, with the kids you have, with the partner you have. You may have had dreams about what marriage was supposed to be like that just have never come true or maybe were lost a long time ago. But, believe it or not, those temptations, those unmet expectations even those frustrated dreams can still be a part of a loving, healthy and faithful relationship. A Christian marriage, much like the Christian life in general, isn’t about perfection; it’s about forgiveness. A marriage isn’t built simply on excitement, but on love.
Many married couples are unhappy, aren’t they. But what makes them unhappy? Unmet expectations, feelings of rejection, lack of communication and the list goes on. But what would make these marriages happy? Some people have affairs in order to find happiness. However, there is no fleeting pleasure that can compare to the flood of guilt that follows later that night or the heartbreak that it causes to spouses, children and families. Some married people believe that leaving their marriage will make them happier and make things easier only to find that lonliness and depression, finding a new place to live and a dealing with custody battles aren’t really easy to deal with after all. Divorce is sometimes the best of two bad choices, but it is never easy and it really isn’t a “happy” experience.
You might be surprised to find out what the Bible says will bring happiness. It’s not about having the perfect spouse or the perfect life; instead, as Psalm 32 puts it, “Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” For those of you who are married, or who were at one time, you know that having a “perfect” spouse would probably be pretty miserable . . . because, not being perfect yourself, you could never keep up with them! What makes a happy marriage is not the sum of the good qualities in both partners. In a happy marriage, each person can accept the bad qualities in one another and continue loving that person for who they are—worts and all.
Today’s topic is faithfulness in a marriage. This morning, I am going to empower those of you who are married with ways to stay faithful to your spouse and I will deal with how a marriage can go forward after there is infidelity.
Nobody starts their marriage with the intention of cheating on their spouse. It is usually not even a matter of intentional infidelity, but a simple issue of “drifting”. Often, an affair will start with an acquaintance with common interests or with a friendship built on “being there” for one another. Then, only as friends of course, dreams are shared, more time is spent together, they laugh together and cry together . . . and everything is so great because you don’t have to bother your spouse with these issues or take up their time. It’s nice to have someone you can share things with at work, or on the internet, who doesn’t already know all your old stories.
Then, months later, you go out for a quick bite to eat one week and invite your friend over that night without remembering to tell your spouse who had to work late. What happens next nobody ever planned, or expected, but it just feels “right” in the moment. You never meant anything to happen, there was never any such destination, but by then it is too late and you’ve drifted to another shore.
As a Christian community, we have to be diligent in helping one another stay faithful to our marriages. If you see a good friendship “drifting” into something more, gently bring up the subject with them and pray for God’s guidance in the matter. This way we can keep our friendships strong AND our marriages stronger.
Kristy and I were engaged after dating for nine months in college . . . but we weren’t married until two and a half years later. At one of my jobs, I got to be friends with another work-study student and she and I would talk for a few hours each week while we folded envelopes. I don’t know when it was that I realized that I missed her at work and thought she was pretty cute. Then the guilt started setting in. I was engaged to the woman of my dreams and yet here I had a crush on some other girl and that really bothered me.
The writer of today’s psalm knows this feeling all too well, “While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand O God was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.” Would Kristy be really angry with me if I told her about my crush? Would she be jealous? Was God angry with me? Would this affect Kristy’s trust in me? What happened next is very interesting, I think.
You see, I told Kristy about my crush and you know what? She said she forgave me, that everything was fine and she may have even laughed a little bit. And at that very moment, once my deep dark secret was out in the open, the crush was crushed. It was over. I couldn’t figure out what I had seen in that other girl in the first place. Confessing my temptation was all it took for me to realize what a wonderful woman I already had been blessed with in my life.
Psalm 32, “Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the guilt of my sin.’” Of course, it is extremely important not to simply confess all things to the Lord, but to also confess to your spouse or else the temptation stays a secret and the guilt continues. How do you stay faithful in your marriage? Confess your secret sins before they become too much too bear. The faster you bring your secrets out into the open, the less power they will have over your life.
Finally, what are the options after trust has been broken, both emotionally and especially physically? Should infidelity mean immediate divorce or is there, really, any possibility of reconciliation?
In Matthew 19, Jesus answers his disciples’ questions about divorce with a concession that unfaithfulness is indeed grounds for divorce, but his concession does not change his first statement, “It was because you were so hard hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.” While all of us can understand why unfaithfulness would be reasonable grounds for breaking up a marriage, I want you all to see that it is the ONLY reasonable option. Any marriage would be shaken to its core due to infidelity, but Jesus didn’t mandate that ALL unfaithfulness should end with a divorce.
In fact, the entire book of Hosea portrays God as the kind of God who continues loving and forgiving us even when we are unfaithful. God commands the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute and even when she leaves him again and again to be unfaithful, God demands that Hosea return to her to bring her back. Would God have the right to cast us all off for our unfaithfulness to Him? For running after other gods and other lifestyles that we find better looking from time to time? Of course he would be justified for doing that! But he is a faithful God who forgives us again and again.
Only through confession and forgiveness can any marriage survive the struggles of this life. We are called to be faithful to one another, just as God is faithful to us. And through all circumstances, we are called to forgive each other just as Christ has forgiven us. Just as the woman in the story with Jesus could show great love because of the great forgiveness shown her, the more possible your forgiveness can be for your spouse when you realize the mercy shown to you through the death of Jesus on the cross.
God is faithful to you no matter what the cost because his relationship with you is not something he can separate himself from. It is my hope and my prayer that God will give you all the strength to be faithful to one another, and to forgive one another in all circumstances, so that your marriages might reflect the love God has shown you. No matter how much your marriage may be struggling right now, trust in God’s power to redeem. Seek help together and confess your secrets to one another. Forgive just as you have been forgiven. God is mighty to save both you and your marriage. He is faithful and He will do it. Amen.
Many married couples are unhappy, aren’t they. But what makes them unhappy? Unmet expectations, feelings of rejection, lack of communication and the list goes on. But what would make these marriages happy? Some people have affairs in order to find happiness. However, there is no fleeting pleasure that can compare to the flood of guilt that follows later that night or the heartbreak that it causes to spouses, children and families. Some married people believe that leaving their marriage will make them happier and make things easier only to find that lonliness and depression, finding a new place to live and a dealing with custody battles aren’t really easy to deal with after all. Divorce is sometimes the best of two bad choices, but it is never easy and it really isn’t a “happy” experience.
You might be surprised to find out what the Bible says will bring happiness. It’s not about having the perfect spouse or the perfect life; instead, as Psalm 32 puts it, “Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” For those of you who are married, or who were at one time, you know that having a “perfect” spouse would probably be pretty miserable . . . because, not being perfect yourself, you could never keep up with them! What makes a happy marriage is not the sum of the good qualities in both partners. In a happy marriage, each person can accept the bad qualities in one another and continue loving that person for who they are—worts and all.
Today’s topic is faithfulness in a marriage. This morning, I am going to empower those of you who are married with ways to stay faithful to your spouse and I will deal with how a marriage can go forward after there is infidelity.
Nobody starts their marriage with the intention of cheating on their spouse. It is usually not even a matter of intentional infidelity, but a simple issue of “drifting”. Often, an affair will start with an acquaintance with common interests or with a friendship built on “being there” for one another. Then, only as friends of course, dreams are shared, more time is spent together, they laugh together and cry together . . . and everything is so great because you don’t have to bother your spouse with these issues or take up their time. It’s nice to have someone you can share things with at work, or on the internet, who doesn’t already know all your old stories.
Then, months later, you go out for a quick bite to eat one week and invite your friend over that night without remembering to tell your spouse who had to work late. What happens next nobody ever planned, or expected, but it just feels “right” in the moment. You never meant anything to happen, there was never any such destination, but by then it is too late and you’ve drifted to another shore.
As a Christian community, we have to be diligent in helping one another stay faithful to our marriages. If you see a good friendship “drifting” into something more, gently bring up the subject with them and pray for God’s guidance in the matter. This way we can keep our friendships strong AND our marriages stronger.
Kristy and I were engaged after dating for nine months in college . . . but we weren’t married until two and a half years later. At one of my jobs, I got to be friends with another work-study student and she and I would talk for a few hours each week while we folded envelopes. I don’t know when it was that I realized that I missed her at work and thought she was pretty cute. Then the guilt started setting in. I was engaged to the woman of my dreams and yet here I had a crush on some other girl and that really bothered me.
The writer of today’s psalm knows this feeling all too well, “While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand O God was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.” Would Kristy be really angry with me if I told her about my crush? Would she be jealous? Was God angry with me? Would this affect Kristy’s trust in me? What happened next is very interesting, I think.
You see, I told Kristy about my crush and you know what? She said she forgave me, that everything was fine and she may have even laughed a little bit. And at that very moment, once my deep dark secret was out in the open, the crush was crushed. It was over. I couldn’t figure out what I had seen in that other girl in the first place. Confessing my temptation was all it took for me to realize what a wonderful woman I already had been blessed with in my life.
Psalm 32, “Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the guilt of my sin.’” Of course, it is extremely important not to simply confess all things to the Lord, but to also confess to your spouse or else the temptation stays a secret and the guilt continues. How do you stay faithful in your marriage? Confess your secret sins before they become too much too bear. The faster you bring your secrets out into the open, the less power they will have over your life.
Finally, what are the options after trust has been broken, both emotionally and especially physically? Should infidelity mean immediate divorce or is there, really, any possibility of reconciliation?
In Matthew 19, Jesus answers his disciples’ questions about divorce with a concession that unfaithfulness is indeed grounds for divorce, but his concession does not change his first statement, “It was because you were so hard hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.” While all of us can understand why unfaithfulness would be reasonable grounds for breaking up a marriage, I want you all to see that it is the ONLY reasonable option. Any marriage would be shaken to its core due to infidelity, but Jesus didn’t mandate that ALL unfaithfulness should end with a divorce.
In fact, the entire book of Hosea portrays God as the kind of God who continues loving and forgiving us even when we are unfaithful. God commands the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute and even when she leaves him again and again to be unfaithful, God demands that Hosea return to her to bring her back. Would God have the right to cast us all off for our unfaithfulness to Him? For running after other gods and other lifestyles that we find better looking from time to time? Of course he would be justified for doing that! But he is a faithful God who forgives us again and again.
Only through confession and forgiveness can any marriage survive the struggles of this life. We are called to be faithful to one another, just as God is faithful to us. And through all circumstances, we are called to forgive each other just as Christ has forgiven us. Just as the woman in the story with Jesus could show great love because of the great forgiveness shown her, the more possible your forgiveness can be for your spouse when you realize the mercy shown to you through the death of Jesus on the cross.
God is faithful to you no matter what the cost because his relationship with you is not something he can separate himself from. It is my hope and my prayer that God will give you all the strength to be faithful to one another, and to forgive one another in all circumstances, so that your marriages might reflect the love God has shown you. No matter how much your marriage may be struggling right now, trust in God’s power to redeem. Seek help together and confess your secrets to one another. Forgive just as you have been forgiven. God is mighty to save both you and your marriage. He is faithful and He will do it. Amen.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Sermon for March 14th
“Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sin is put away! Happy are they to whom the Lord imputes no guilt, and in whose spirit there is no guile!” The thesis of psalm 32 is this: Repentance and forgiveness gives health, salvation and wholeness.
The writer of this psalm begins by explaining his situation: “While I held my tongue, my bones withered away because of my groaning all day long.” In another translation of this verse, it says, “While I kept silence, my body wasted away.” What does it mean to “keep silence”? He has been silent about his sin before God. He either has not confessed his sins and/or he has not repented of them before God. These sins are still affecting his life. The writer describes what his deceitfulness before God—his refusal to admit and turn away from sin—what that did to him: “While I held my tongue, my bones withered away. For your hand was heavy upon me day and night; my strength was dried up as in the heat of summer.”
Many people do not believe that sin bears any consequences. You’ve no doubt met people who seem to do whatever they want, good or bad, and feel exonerated by the fact that they never seem to get in trouble. As a verse from the book of Malachi puts it, “What do we profit by keeping God’s command or by going about as mourners before the Lord of hosts? The arrogant are happy; evildoers not only prosper, but when they put God to the test they escape!”
But the Bible tells us again and again that there is a connection between sin and disease, faith and healing, “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed” the book of James says. The apostle Paul writes, “Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.” When Jesus was approached by a sick woman he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
Still, one would be hard pressed to always find a cause and effect relationship between one particular sin and a sickness. As Jesus explains in the gospel of Matthew, “God makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” In our day and age, Christians seem to get sick as much as non-Christians . . . why?
According to scripture, is all sickness caused by sin? Yes, but what sin or whose sin isn’t always clear. “As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” It is tempting to place blame for all sickness and pain in our lives, just like Job’s friends tried to blame Job for all that had happened to him. You see, Job did not become sick because of any particular sin he had committed; however, while he was griping against God for his undeserved suffering, trying to justify himself rather than God, he became prideful. So in the end, it was still only through repentance that Job was healed.
Many people do not believe that sin bears any consequences. Others might admit that there are consequences to sin, but only after death. Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead, but that does not mean that we still do not reap what we sow right here one Earth as well. Scripture says sin creates sickness. So if you or I are sick and suffering, why do we not look to God and repent in order to see where we may be out of line with God’s will? Why!?
Because we have heard stories. You have no doubt heard stories about how some Christians have refused to go to the doctor and died from an easily treatable sickness. Why does this happen? Because some believe there is no mystery to God’s healing. That they can decide when and where and how it’s going to happen. Imagine the arguments: If sickness is caused by sin and sin alone, going to a doctor won’t help—only prayer will. And if you truly have faith, it’s your own fault if you suffer or die. You just didn’t believe correctly.
You have no doubt heard stories of how people have been terrorized by feelings of guilt and hopelessness when, despite their fervent prayers, prayers of repentance and prayers of faith, they still don’t get better. Francis McNutt, the well known faith healer, tells this story: I remember once when we were praying at a Christian college for the students, one by one, and a lovely young woman came up When we asked what she would like us to pray for, she stammered and couldn’t tell us. Finally she said, ‘They say I have a brain tumor.’ But, ‘Who is they? It’s the doctors.’ She had been prayed for and her well-meaing ministers told her afterwards that the tumor was a ‘lying symptom.’ When she told us this, she burst into tears. A month later, her mother wrote, letting us know that she had died and thanking us for our encouragement. The group who had prayed for her didn’t even come to the hospital; they abandoned her in her hour of greatest need when she was struggling with a feeling that God had abandoned her.
God says to each of us, “My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts.” There are mysteries to sickness and suffering. There are mysteries to faith and healing. We will never fully understand how God works. However, despite the storylines we know all too well, shouldn’t the stories and promises in scripture mean something too? Scripture tells us plainly: sin causes sickness. God commands us to repent of our sins and we will be healed. In the Bible, healing is normal and expected. Perhaps we’ve missed something very important in trying to protect ourselves from abuses and disappointment.
Psalm 32, “While I held my tongue, my bones withered away, because of my groaning all day long. For your hand was heavy upon me day and night; my strength was dried up as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and did not conceal my guilt. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.’ Then you forgave me the guilt of my sin.” I have spoken to you these last few weeks about repentance and perhaps you have even considered it once or twice. But, then again, maybe you didn’t think that it was really that necessary because you have more time. You’re doing good enough. You’re healthy! You’re happy! While it may be uncomfortable for you and I to hear this, scripture makes it clear, unconfessed sin hurts you in mind and body and it hurts your relationship to God.
Psalm 32 goes on, “Therefore all the faithful will make their prayers to you in time of trouble; when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach them. You are my hiding-place; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance.” Both of my children have a peculiar habit which you may recognize. Sometimes, when they do something wrong and they are caught, they close their eyes. As if, by closing their eyes and blinding themselves to their sin, they have blinded me and their mother from it as well. And until they open their eyes and deal with the consequences of their actions, they are being affected by their choices and our relationship to them is affected. In the same way, when we sin against God or one another and choose to hide our faces from our mistakes, to keep silent, rather than confess our sins before God we will suffer. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth.”
Again and again in the Bible, physical and mental sickness and disease is said to be casued by sin and healed through repentance, forgiveness, faith and prayer. Are we paying attention to these words? Words from God that might give us faith? Or are we simply listening to the stories that cause us to doubt. What might change in your life if you took God at his word?
The psalmist says that we must find a different hiding place. We must stand, naked and exposed in the light of God, and say, “You, Lord, are my hiding place.” You see, most of the time, when my children finally open their eyes and admit that they have done something wrong, after a few tears they jump into my arms and bury their faces in my chest or armpit. We must hide in the light of God and not in the darkness of our lives.
Listen, there are many suffering today including many of our loved ones. There are so many sicknesses and diseases out there that doctors can treat but not cure. And yet, even though we know we are sinners and even though we hear this clear sin/sickness connection in the Bible, we are so much more likely to want to blame “luck” or say that “God sent this disease so it must be good for me” rather than to look at ourselves and ask the question, “Where is there still sin in my life?” I believe that God blesses us with doctors and nurses and we would be silly to forego medical treatment for ourselves or those we love when we are sick. However, aren’t we being just as silly, if not arrogant, to believe that our sicknesses and diseases have nothing to do with our sin?
As we focus on repentance this Lent, do not forget that Jesus Christ died for the ungodly on the cross. He did not come for the healthy but for the sick! He did not come for the righteous but for the unrighteous! So if you are sick and unrighteous, Jesus Christ is for you. Repent and trust in the Lord who is gracious and merciful. If you are weak under the weight of God’s heavy hands, trust in the Lord and in his mercy to redeem you. Do not simply trust in your ability to keep the law and refrain from sin, for the law says “Do this!” and it is never done! The gospel says “Believe in Jesus Christ and the power of his cross and his blood” and everything is done already. Salvation, healing and wholeness. Repent and believe in the good news! Amen.
The writer of this psalm begins by explaining his situation: “While I held my tongue, my bones withered away because of my groaning all day long.” In another translation of this verse, it says, “While I kept silence, my body wasted away.” What does it mean to “keep silence”? He has been silent about his sin before God. He either has not confessed his sins and/or he has not repented of them before God. These sins are still affecting his life. The writer describes what his deceitfulness before God—his refusal to admit and turn away from sin—what that did to him: “While I held my tongue, my bones withered away. For your hand was heavy upon me day and night; my strength was dried up as in the heat of summer.”
Many people do not believe that sin bears any consequences. You’ve no doubt met people who seem to do whatever they want, good or bad, and feel exonerated by the fact that they never seem to get in trouble. As a verse from the book of Malachi puts it, “What do we profit by keeping God’s command or by going about as mourners before the Lord of hosts? The arrogant are happy; evildoers not only prosper, but when they put God to the test they escape!”
But the Bible tells us again and again that there is a connection between sin and disease, faith and healing, “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed” the book of James says. The apostle Paul writes, “Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.” When Jesus was approached by a sick woman he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
Still, one would be hard pressed to always find a cause and effect relationship between one particular sin and a sickness. As Jesus explains in the gospel of Matthew, “God makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” In our day and age, Christians seem to get sick as much as non-Christians . . . why?
According to scripture, is all sickness caused by sin? Yes, but what sin or whose sin isn’t always clear. “As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” It is tempting to place blame for all sickness and pain in our lives, just like Job’s friends tried to blame Job for all that had happened to him. You see, Job did not become sick because of any particular sin he had committed; however, while he was griping against God for his undeserved suffering, trying to justify himself rather than God, he became prideful. So in the end, it was still only through repentance that Job was healed.
Many people do not believe that sin bears any consequences. Others might admit that there are consequences to sin, but only after death. Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead, but that does not mean that we still do not reap what we sow right here one Earth as well. Scripture says sin creates sickness. So if you or I are sick and suffering, why do we not look to God and repent in order to see where we may be out of line with God’s will? Why!?
Because we have heard stories. You have no doubt heard stories about how some Christians have refused to go to the doctor and died from an easily treatable sickness. Why does this happen? Because some believe there is no mystery to God’s healing. That they can decide when and where and how it’s going to happen. Imagine the arguments: If sickness is caused by sin and sin alone, going to a doctor won’t help—only prayer will. And if you truly have faith, it’s your own fault if you suffer or die. You just didn’t believe correctly.
You have no doubt heard stories of how people have been terrorized by feelings of guilt and hopelessness when, despite their fervent prayers, prayers of repentance and prayers of faith, they still don’t get better. Francis McNutt, the well known faith healer, tells this story: I remember once when we were praying at a Christian college for the students, one by one, and a lovely young woman came up When we asked what she would like us to pray for, she stammered and couldn’t tell us. Finally she said, ‘They say I have a brain tumor.’ But, ‘Who is they? It’s the doctors.’ She had been prayed for and her well-meaing ministers told her afterwards that the tumor was a ‘lying symptom.’ When she told us this, she burst into tears. A month later, her mother wrote, letting us know that she had died and thanking us for our encouragement. The group who had prayed for her didn’t even come to the hospital; they abandoned her in her hour of greatest need when she was struggling with a feeling that God had abandoned her.
God says to each of us, “My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts.” There are mysteries to sickness and suffering. There are mysteries to faith and healing. We will never fully understand how God works. However, despite the storylines we know all too well, shouldn’t the stories and promises in scripture mean something too? Scripture tells us plainly: sin causes sickness. God commands us to repent of our sins and we will be healed. In the Bible, healing is normal and expected. Perhaps we’ve missed something very important in trying to protect ourselves from abuses and disappointment.
Psalm 32, “While I held my tongue, my bones withered away, because of my groaning all day long. For your hand was heavy upon me day and night; my strength was dried up as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and did not conceal my guilt. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.’ Then you forgave me the guilt of my sin.” I have spoken to you these last few weeks about repentance and perhaps you have even considered it once or twice. But, then again, maybe you didn’t think that it was really that necessary because you have more time. You’re doing good enough. You’re healthy! You’re happy! While it may be uncomfortable for you and I to hear this, scripture makes it clear, unconfessed sin hurts you in mind and body and it hurts your relationship to God.
Psalm 32 goes on, “Therefore all the faithful will make their prayers to you in time of trouble; when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach them. You are my hiding-place; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance.” Both of my children have a peculiar habit which you may recognize. Sometimes, when they do something wrong and they are caught, they close their eyes. As if, by closing their eyes and blinding themselves to their sin, they have blinded me and their mother from it as well. And until they open their eyes and deal with the consequences of their actions, they are being affected by their choices and our relationship to them is affected. In the same way, when we sin against God or one another and choose to hide our faces from our mistakes, to keep silent, rather than confess our sins before God we will suffer. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth.”
Again and again in the Bible, physical and mental sickness and disease is said to be casued by sin and healed through repentance, forgiveness, faith and prayer. Are we paying attention to these words? Words from God that might give us faith? Or are we simply listening to the stories that cause us to doubt. What might change in your life if you took God at his word?
The psalmist says that we must find a different hiding place. We must stand, naked and exposed in the light of God, and say, “You, Lord, are my hiding place.” You see, most of the time, when my children finally open their eyes and admit that they have done something wrong, after a few tears they jump into my arms and bury their faces in my chest or armpit. We must hide in the light of God and not in the darkness of our lives.
Listen, there are many suffering today including many of our loved ones. There are so many sicknesses and diseases out there that doctors can treat but not cure. And yet, even though we know we are sinners and even though we hear this clear sin/sickness connection in the Bible, we are so much more likely to want to blame “luck” or say that “God sent this disease so it must be good for me” rather than to look at ourselves and ask the question, “Where is there still sin in my life?” I believe that God blesses us with doctors and nurses and we would be silly to forego medical treatment for ourselves or those we love when we are sick. However, aren’t we being just as silly, if not arrogant, to believe that our sicknesses and diseases have nothing to do with our sin?
As we focus on repentance this Lent, do not forget that Jesus Christ died for the ungodly on the cross. He did not come for the healthy but for the sick! He did not come for the righteous but for the unrighteous! So if you are sick and unrighteous, Jesus Christ is for you. Repent and trust in the Lord who is gracious and merciful. If you are weak under the weight of God’s heavy hands, trust in the Lord and in his mercy to redeem you. Do not simply trust in your ability to keep the law and refrain from sin, for the law says “Do this!” and it is never done! The gospel says “Believe in Jesus Christ and the power of his cross and his blood” and everything is done already. Salvation, healing and wholeness. Repent and believe in the good news! Amen.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Sermon for March 7th
Is God in control of natural disasters, like those we have witnessed recently in Haiti and Chile? Yes. In fact, to argue that God is not in control of these events is to strip him of the glory he deserves, “Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name; worship the Lord in holy splendor. The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord causes the oaks to whirl, and strips the forest bare; and in his temple all say, “Glory!”.
Does God create earthquakes? What does the Bible say? When Jesus died there was an earthquake. When the women went to the tomb, there was an earthquake, for an angel of the Lord rolled away the stone. In Acts chapter 16, when Paul and Silas had been thrown into prison, suddenly there was an earthquake and they were set free. In Revelation chapter 11, John has a vision of a great earthquake where a tenth of a city falls, seven thousand people are killed and, according to the Word of the Lord, “the rest are terrified and give glory to the God of heaven.” In Matthew, Mark and Luke Jesus explains that earthquakes will be one of the birthpangs to tell us when Jesus is coming again.
The prophet Nahum reminds us, “A jealous and avenging God is the Lord, the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and rages against his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger but great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in the whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither, and the bloom of Lebanon fades. The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who live in it. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and by him the rocks are broken in pieces.” Does God create earthquakes? Yes. Of course he does.
But, what about suffering? Does God cause suffering? Yes. Does God cause all suffering? No. We cause a great deal of it all on our own, don’t we. We suffer at the hands of others. Others suffer at our hands. Much suffering is caused by sin. God will not take the blame for that—for the sins that we commit. However, as sinners, we do suffer at God’s hands. 1 Samuel 2:6, “The Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and he raises up.” Deuteronomy 32:39, “See now that I, even I, am he; there is no god beside me. I kill and I make alive. I would and I heal; and no one can deliver from my hand.” Isaiah 45:7, “I form light and create darkness. I make weal and create woe; I the Lord do all these things.”
We suffer God’s judgment. We suffer God’s wrath. One might even say we suffer God’s resurrection finally for we are perfectly passive in that regard as well. Evil actions can cause suffering, but not all suffering is evil. Perhaps that is why we call the occasion of our Savior’s crucifixion and death “Good Friday.”
Jesus asks in Luke chapter 13 today, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?” It appears that some Jews had been killed while sacrificing in the temple at Jerusalem and the question Jesus poses to those around him is this: Do you think you are more righteous than they because you have not suffered the same fate? Jesus responds to his own question, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.”
We are all unholy, unrighteous, sick sinners apart from Jesus Christ. We deserve nothing but punishment for our sins. But when earthquakes or tornados or floods or accidents or diseases happen to us, our first instinct is to say that God had nothing to do with it! These are bad things! And God is good! We want to get God out of the picture. Why? Because to confess God’s responsibility is to confess our own responsibility.
Yes, God causes earthquakes. Because of sin? Yes. Because of sin. So what should we do? Blame the Haitians for being sinners for we know that they are? No one is righteous. Not even one. What should we do? Rebuke the Chileans for being unrighteous for we know from scripture that this too is a fact? Shall we blame and accuse those people? No. We should repent of OUR sins. We should repent knowing that it is but by the grace of God that we are not living out on the streets in front of our own devastated houses. We are no better or worse because we are all at God’s mercy.
Jesus goes on, “What about those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” You see, Jesus does not absolve the eighteen victims who were killed when a tower fell on them as if they were guiltless. But neither does he absolve the others still living in Jerusalem who were spared. It is only because God is merciful, and patient, that we live to theologize about earthquakes in far away lands rather than suffering from their effects ourselves.
Jesus told this parable, “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil? The gardener replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”
Immediately after calling those around Him to repentance in the face of God’s judgment, in the face of great suffering, Jesus tells this parable about a fig tree. How much more clearly could He make His point? You and I are not bearing fruit. We should be cut down. Suffer an earthquake Suffer persecution. Suffer an accidental falling of a tower upon us—but God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Still, as long as we refuse to confess our sins and refuse to believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior—we will not bear fruit. We will be cut down eventually. For apart from Jesus you can do nothing.
Now for the good news: Manure! Hallelujah for manure! That’s the good news. For you have a patient and loving gardener in Jesus Christ who cares for you enough to pile it on so that you might grow and bear fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. This is what God expects from us and, in order to produce, he fills our lives with manure (to put it biblically).
What does this manure look like? Suffering. Persecution. Hardship. Distress. Sometimes famine, nakedness or sword. Sometimes earthquakes. As Saint Peter’s first letter points out, “Rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold and gold, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” Sometimes it’s the manure in your life that ends up being the blessing because, very often, it is the suffering sent from God that brings you to faith in Jesus Christ alone. The suffering caused by the two recent earthquakes certainly isn’t good. But if they cause us to repent of our sins, then God has used even such an awful thing as an earthquake for our good.
It was the manure in Joseph’s life that showed him God’s glory. He was tossed in a pit and sold as a slave to Pharaoh by his eleven brothers. He was wrongly accused of coming onto Pharaoh’s wife and thrown into jail. But from this fresh pile of manure came the great confession of faith that Joseph told his brothers, “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.” Praise God for manure!
Jesus was betrayed, abandoned, rejected, beaten, mocked, crucified and buried. And from this suffering came the most glorious event of all time: Jesus rose from the dead by the glory of His Father so that you too might walk in newness of life. Thank God for the manure he sends!
Is God in control of natural disasters? Yes. Does God cause suffering? Yes, very often he does. But, when you look at your life, I pray that you might realize that even in the most horrible events you have gone through sometimes bring you closest to God’s heart. In all things, even suffering, God works for the good of those who love Him. When you realize that you are too weak to live on your own and begin to trust in Jesus as your fortress. When you finally confess that your sins have turned your world into a mess and you surrender your life to God. Yes God creates earthquakes. But even in all of this suffering, he promises that he is working for good. When he sends the manure: repent. When he sends the manure: trust in Him alone. Perhaps by the power of the Holy Spirit, as God works through this suffering, you and I will finally start producing fruit for the kingdom of God! Amen.
Does God create earthquakes? What does the Bible say? When Jesus died there was an earthquake. When the women went to the tomb, there was an earthquake, for an angel of the Lord rolled away the stone. In Acts chapter 16, when Paul and Silas had been thrown into prison, suddenly there was an earthquake and they were set free. In Revelation chapter 11, John has a vision of a great earthquake where a tenth of a city falls, seven thousand people are killed and, according to the Word of the Lord, “the rest are terrified and give glory to the God of heaven.” In Matthew, Mark and Luke Jesus explains that earthquakes will be one of the birthpangs to tell us when Jesus is coming again.
The prophet Nahum reminds us, “A jealous and avenging God is the Lord, the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and rages against his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger but great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in the whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither, and the bloom of Lebanon fades. The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who live in it. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and by him the rocks are broken in pieces.” Does God create earthquakes? Yes. Of course he does.
But, what about suffering? Does God cause suffering? Yes. Does God cause all suffering? No. We cause a great deal of it all on our own, don’t we. We suffer at the hands of others. Others suffer at our hands. Much suffering is caused by sin. God will not take the blame for that—for the sins that we commit. However, as sinners, we do suffer at God’s hands. 1 Samuel 2:6, “The Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and he raises up.” Deuteronomy 32:39, “See now that I, even I, am he; there is no god beside me. I kill and I make alive. I would and I heal; and no one can deliver from my hand.” Isaiah 45:7, “I form light and create darkness. I make weal and create woe; I the Lord do all these things.”
We suffer God’s judgment. We suffer God’s wrath. One might even say we suffer God’s resurrection finally for we are perfectly passive in that regard as well. Evil actions can cause suffering, but not all suffering is evil. Perhaps that is why we call the occasion of our Savior’s crucifixion and death “Good Friday.”
Jesus asks in Luke chapter 13 today, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?” It appears that some Jews had been killed while sacrificing in the temple at Jerusalem and the question Jesus poses to those around him is this: Do you think you are more righteous than they because you have not suffered the same fate? Jesus responds to his own question, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.”
We are all unholy, unrighteous, sick sinners apart from Jesus Christ. We deserve nothing but punishment for our sins. But when earthquakes or tornados or floods or accidents or diseases happen to us, our first instinct is to say that God had nothing to do with it! These are bad things! And God is good! We want to get God out of the picture. Why? Because to confess God’s responsibility is to confess our own responsibility.
Yes, God causes earthquakes. Because of sin? Yes. Because of sin. So what should we do? Blame the Haitians for being sinners for we know that they are? No one is righteous. Not even one. What should we do? Rebuke the Chileans for being unrighteous for we know from scripture that this too is a fact? Shall we blame and accuse those people? No. We should repent of OUR sins. We should repent knowing that it is but by the grace of God that we are not living out on the streets in front of our own devastated houses. We are no better or worse because we are all at God’s mercy.
Jesus goes on, “What about those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” You see, Jesus does not absolve the eighteen victims who were killed when a tower fell on them as if they were guiltless. But neither does he absolve the others still living in Jerusalem who were spared. It is only because God is merciful, and patient, that we live to theologize about earthquakes in far away lands rather than suffering from their effects ourselves.
Jesus told this parable, “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil? The gardener replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”
Immediately after calling those around Him to repentance in the face of God’s judgment, in the face of great suffering, Jesus tells this parable about a fig tree. How much more clearly could He make His point? You and I are not bearing fruit. We should be cut down. Suffer an earthquake Suffer persecution. Suffer an accidental falling of a tower upon us—but God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Still, as long as we refuse to confess our sins and refuse to believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior—we will not bear fruit. We will be cut down eventually. For apart from Jesus you can do nothing.
Now for the good news: Manure! Hallelujah for manure! That’s the good news. For you have a patient and loving gardener in Jesus Christ who cares for you enough to pile it on so that you might grow and bear fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. This is what God expects from us and, in order to produce, he fills our lives with manure (to put it biblically).
What does this manure look like? Suffering. Persecution. Hardship. Distress. Sometimes famine, nakedness or sword. Sometimes earthquakes. As Saint Peter’s first letter points out, “Rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold and gold, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” Sometimes it’s the manure in your life that ends up being the blessing because, very often, it is the suffering sent from God that brings you to faith in Jesus Christ alone. The suffering caused by the two recent earthquakes certainly isn’t good. But if they cause us to repent of our sins, then God has used even such an awful thing as an earthquake for our good.
It was the manure in Joseph’s life that showed him God’s glory. He was tossed in a pit and sold as a slave to Pharaoh by his eleven brothers. He was wrongly accused of coming onto Pharaoh’s wife and thrown into jail. But from this fresh pile of manure came the great confession of faith that Joseph told his brothers, “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.” Praise God for manure!
Jesus was betrayed, abandoned, rejected, beaten, mocked, crucified and buried. And from this suffering came the most glorious event of all time: Jesus rose from the dead by the glory of His Father so that you too might walk in newness of life. Thank God for the manure he sends!
Is God in control of natural disasters? Yes. Does God cause suffering? Yes, very often he does. But, when you look at your life, I pray that you might realize that even in the most horrible events you have gone through sometimes bring you closest to God’s heart. In all things, even suffering, God works for the good of those who love Him. When you realize that you are too weak to live on your own and begin to trust in Jesus as your fortress. When you finally confess that your sins have turned your world into a mess and you surrender your life to God. Yes God creates earthquakes. But even in all of this suffering, he promises that he is working for good. When he sends the manure: repent. When he sends the manure: trust in Him alone. Perhaps by the power of the Holy Spirit, as God works through this suffering, you and I will finally start producing fruit for the kingdom of God! Amen.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Sermon for February 28th
A quote from Martin Luther, "Thus and no other way it was to happen, and it always has gone thus, that the greatest harm and damage has been done to Christ, to His Word, and to His Church by those that have presumed to be the holiest and best."
Now, a quote from Jesus, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you would not!”
In the second reading today, the apostle Paul tells us about the enemies of the cross of Christ. We can only assume that these are not Christians. That they do not believe in God and do not give him the glory and honor that he deserves. Paul tells us about these enemies, “Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But . . . our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
For those of you who have been baptized into Jesus Christ, you have died to this world and have been reborn a citizen of a new world, a world whose ruler is God alone. You are still to honor your Father and your Mother. You are still to respect the governing authorities. But your final loyalty lies with God alone more than with anything this world has to offer. Reminds me of another group of people, thousands of years ago who were called to be a people by God himself in much the same way that you have been. God was their king and they were his people. They were called out of the world to be sent back into it, blessed to be a blessing. These people were the Israelites and they worshipped God, their king, in the temple in Jerusalem. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! The city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!”
Jerusalem became a very important city when it became the home of King David, considered the best and most faithful king in Israelite history. David made Jerusalem the religious capital of the nation by bringing the sacred Ark of the Covenant into it and setting up a tent for it. For those who are not familiar with the Ark of the Covenant, except through Indiana Jones movies, the ark was considered to be the representation of God’s continued presence with his people, the Israelites. Not only that, but it was considered to be his throne as well as the container of the Ten Commandments. When David brought the ark to Jerusalem, in that moment, Jerusalem became the main place of worship for God’s people as well as the holiest location on the face of the planet. Later, David’s son, King Solomon would build a temple around the ark in Jerusalem which lasted until it was destroyed in 70 AD. This temple was considered to be “the house of the Lord” and it is the same temple that Jesus would have referred to in the sayings and stories throughout the gospel lesson we hear each week.
Because Jerusalem was the center of worship life for God’s people, it was also the center of work for many of God’s prophets as they were sent to call the Israelites back to faithfulness to God. When the kingdom was divided into North and South, after King Solomon had died, Jerusalem was a part of the Southern kingdom and God sent many prophets to preach to it: Obadiah, Joel, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Micah, Isaiah and Jeremiah. But, from what we can tell, none of them were much liked by the people they were sent to. Probably because most people don’t like to hear bad news.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you would not!” I hope that you realize that the problem didn’t have anything to do with the stones that built up the city of Jerusalem, or the soil on which the city was set, or the architecture of the temple, but it was with the people, God’s people, who constantly turned from worshipping their Lord with all their heart, soul and strength and, instead, turned in on themselves or looked for hope in other places and from others gods. And while we do not live in Jerusalem now, the story is the same for us as it was for them.
The Christian church, in every age, including this one, right up to this very day, is being called to return to the Lord our God and yet we refuse! God calls us back to him again and again using prophets of all shapes, sizes, colors and types, but we do not return! I remember once going to a meeting with one of my professors at seminary when something was heavy on my heart. I do not remember what happened that had me feeling so guilty, but I was really bothered by it and stopped by this professor’s office for some counseling. We talked about it for awhile and by the end of the meeting I felt a lot better. He asked me, “Now, if after all of this you would like me to absolve you in the name of Jesus Christ, I would be happy to do so.” To which I answered, “No thanks! That’s alright.” and I proceeded to walk home.
It wasn’t until I was almost in the door to my apartment building that the following verse broke into my thoughts, “How often I desired to gather you as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you would not!” Had I really just refused to be forgiven with a simple, “No thanks!” God had sent me a preacher to forgive me and I felt like I was “good enough” without it! I had the urge to both throw up and run back to his office but, since I was near a phone, I called him up and explained to him that I wanted my absolution right then and there or else I was running back to get it. He explained that he’d rather that I was within arm’s distance, but that God’s Word would have to do with it purposed to do and he forgave me in the name of Jesus Christ.
How often does God wish to gather us in and we respond, “No thanks!” How often do we figure we’re doing alright without our forgiveness? We don’t need to pray, we don’t need to go to church, and we don’t need to read our Bibles. We are Christians already for goodness sake! THEY need it. THOSE people. Not US! And yet God continues to send preachers and teachers and moms and sons and friends to call us out for our sins and offer us forgives but we just won’t take him up on his offer. Some people, those who Paul calls the enemies of the cross, reject Jesus Christ outwardly. But we who believe that we have dotted our I’s and crossed our T’s when it comes to faith, well we reject Jesus just as much or more than anyone else. According to many surveys, being a Christian doesn’t seem to matter when it comes to making any better choices than atheists or agnostics. We aren’t being forced to make bad choices; we do them of our own volition and will. We must repent and return to God.
There is forgiveness with this God, but it will come from the cross and, so, we must gather there. Jesus said, “And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’” On Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem with a King’s welcome, but within days he would be crucified. The Lord of All, the Savior of the Earth, is on his way to die on a cross for our sins. He came to die not just for the enemies of the cross, but to die for his very own people who have rejected him both in Jerusalem and, yes, here at Saint Peters in Cornwall. Thankfully, he has gathered us all here, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, so that we might confess our sins before Him and hear our forgiveness . . . whether we think we need it or not. Let us pray . . . . Amen.
Now, a quote from Jesus, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you would not!”
In the second reading today, the apostle Paul tells us about the enemies of the cross of Christ. We can only assume that these are not Christians. That they do not believe in God and do not give him the glory and honor that he deserves. Paul tells us about these enemies, “Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But . . . our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
For those of you who have been baptized into Jesus Christ, you have died to this world and have been reborn a citizen of a new world, a world whose ruler is God alone. You are still to honor your Father and your Mother. You are still to respect the governing authorities. But your final loyalty lies with God alone more than with anything this world has to offer. Reminds me of another group of people, thousands of years ago who were called to be a people by God himself in much the same way that you have been. God was their king and they were his people. They were called out of the world to be sent back into it, blessed to be a blessing. These people were the Israelites and they worshipped God, their king, in the temple in Jerusalem. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! The city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!”
Jerusalem became a very important city when it became the home of King David, considered the best and most faithful king in Israelite history. David made Jerusalem the religious capital of the nation by bringing the sacred Ark of the Covenant into it and setting up a tent for it. For those who are not familiar with the Ark of the Covenant, except through Indiana Jones movies, the ark was considered to be the representation of God’s continued presence with his people, the Israelites. Not only that, but it was considered to be his throne as well as the container of the Ten Commandments. When David brought the ark to Jerusalem, in that moment, Jerusalem became the main place of worship for God’s people as well as the holiest location on the face of the planet. Later, David’s son, King Solomon would build a temple around the ark in Jerusalem which lasted until it was destroyed in 70 AD. This temple was considered to be “the house of the Lord” and it is the same temple that Jesus would have referred to in the sayings and stories throughout the gospel lesson we hear each week.
Because Jerusalem was the center of worship life for God’s people, it was also the center of work for many of God’s prophets as they were sent to call the Israelites back to faithfulness to God. When the kingdom was divided into North and South, after King Solomon had died, Jerusalem was a part of the Southern kingdom and God sent many prophets to preach to it: Obadiah, Joel, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Micah, Isaiah and Jeremiah. But, from what we can tell, none of them were much liked by the people they were sent to. Probably because most people don’t like to hear bad news.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you would not!” I hope that you realize that the problem didn’t have anything to do with the stones that built up the city of Jerusalem, or the soil on which the city was set, or the architecture of the temple, but it was with the people, God’s people, who constantly turned from worshipping their Lord with all their heart, soul and strength and, instead, turned in on themselves or looked for hope in other places and from others gods. And while we do not live in Jerusalem now, the story is the same for us as it was for them.
The Christian church, in every age, including this one, right up to this very day, is being called to return to the Lord our God and yet we refuse! God calls us back to him again and again using prophets of all shapes, sizes, colors and types, but we do not return! I remember once going to a meeting with one of my professors at seminary when something was heavy on my heart. I do not remember what happened that had me feeling so guilty, but I was really bothered by it and stopped by this professor’s office for some counseling. We talked about it for awhile and by the end of the meeting I felt a lot better. He asked me, “Now, if after all of this you would like me to absolve you in the name of Jesus Christ, I would be happy to do so.” To which I answered, “No thanks! That’s alright.” and I proceeded to walk home.
It wasn’t until I was almost in the door to my apartment building that the following verse broke into my thoughts, “How often I desired to gather you as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you would not!” Had I really just refused to be forgiven with a simple, “No thanks!” God had sent me a preacher to forgive me and I felt like I was “good enough” without it! I had the urge to both throw up and run back to his office but, since I was near a phone, I called him up and explained to him that I wanted my absolution right then and there or else I was running back to get it. He explained that he’d rather that I was within arm’s distance, but that God’s Word would have to do with it purposed to do and he forgave me in the name of Jesus Christ.
How often does God wish to gather us in and we respond, “No thanks!” How often do we figure we’re doing alright without our forgiveness? We don’t need to pray, we don’t need to go to church, and we don’t need to read our Bibles. We are Christians already for goodness sake! THEY need it. THOSE people. Not US! And yet God continues to send preachers and teachers and moms and sons and friends to call us out for our sins and offer us forgives but we just won’t take him up on his offer. Some people, those who Paul calls the enemies of the cross, reject Jesus Christ outwardly. But we who believe that we have dotted our I’s and crossed our T’s when it comes to faith, well we reject Jesus just as much or more than anyone else. According to many surveys, being a Christian doesn’t seem to matter when it comes to making any better choices than atheists or agnostics. We aren’t being forced to make bad choices; we do them of our own volition and will. We must repent and return to God.
There is forgiveness with this God, but it will come from the cross and, so, we must gather there. Jesus said, “And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’” On Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem with a King’s welcome, but within days he would be crucified. The Lord of All, the Savior of the Earth, is on his way to die on a cross for our sins. He came to die not just for the enemies of the cross, but to die for his very own people who have rejected him both in Jerusalem and, yes, here at Saint Peters in Cornwall. Thankfully, he has gathered us all here, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, so that we might confess our sins before Him and hear our forgiveness . . . whether we think we need it or not. Let us pray . . . . Amen.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Sermon for February 24th
Lent is a time for repentance—for saying that you are sorry. But how do you show God that you are sorry? How do you tell your family or your loved ones that you are sorry? Sometimes I am really horrible at saying, “I’m sorry”. It’s not that I don’t know how say the words, it’s just that I often say them too much. So much that there are times when the words themselves can lose meaning altogether. In ancient times there were many ways that you could show how sorry you were, especially how repentant before God you were. You could tear your clothes, throw ashes on your head, walk around almost naked in loose dirty clothes (called sackcloth) or you could even stop eating! But, in the book of Joel, God says that all these outward signs aren’t good enough. They’re not bad, of course, but they are not enough! God wants more! God wants real change! He wants an inner change to go with that outward repentance. He doesn’t just want you to SAY that you are sorry, but to be made new!
The prophet Joel announces, “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing.” God wants His people to not just tear their clothes, but to tear their hearts? But how do we do that? How can you tear open your heart rather than just your clothes? How can you say you are sorry and make it mean more than just empty words? How can you change? God says, “Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.”
Actions speak louder than words. When you hurt someone, sometimes saying, “I’m sorry” just doesn’t cut it anymore. You must return to them and stay even when it can be painful. Maybe that means that you sit with them and say nothing at all and withstand their barrage of hurt feelings while you simply listen as they scream at you. And sometimes there is just no way of making something better, what’s done is done. What are you going to do then? What happens when saying, “I’m sorry” doesn’t seem to do much good? God isn’t interested in hearing you simply say that you are sorry. He wants you to return to Him and sustain a good relationship with Him once and for all.
In the arena of politics, there are often questions about retribution. How do we say that we are sorry? For example, how does our country say that it is sorry to the African-American community in response to the decades of injustice they withstood because of slavery? Should there be any retribution? There have often been calls for money to be awarded to the ancestors of slaves because of all the money and years and respect that were taken away in that time. And, perhaps, there is a place for all that, I don’t know. Someone with a little more political know-how should probably answer that. However, whether or not this kind of retribution ever occurs, I don’t believe that it would be enough to truly say, “I’m sorry.” It might help lift the burden enacted by institutionalized racism over the centuries, but those who were most affected by slavery are dead now and extra money or property seldom ever truly heals a wound.
Instead, I believe that the true measure of repentance will come from a lifetime of living together. When each person tears open their hearts and asks forgiveness, not simply for past misdeeds, but for our own prejudices. THAT will do more to heal a relationship than simply handing over some extra money. In the same way, God doesn’t simply want our money, or a little confession here or there, or a fast, or a sacrifice . . . he wants a new life—a new relationship.
That is why he sent Jesus Christ. Jesus was not simply the Lamb of God who could repay the debt of sin. While the Bible does say that he was a ransom, Jesus is so much more than that. His death was about more than retribution. He doesn’t simply atone for our sins, but he is Emmanuel, God with us. He comes to suffer with us. There is nothing we go through that he doesn’t go. He became sin who knew no sin. He came to create a new creation. To make a good tree out of a bad tree. To make a sheep out of you, a goat. So that you might live a new life in a new relationship with God. Producing good fruit. To be led by the good shepherd into a new and wondrous future created for you by a God who abounds in steadfast love.
Repentance is about so much more than retribution. God doesn’t want to see you suffer, he wants to suffer with you. He doesn’t just want a pound of flesh, or to see you walking around in torn clothes, He wants all that you have—He wants all of you. It is never too late to repent, to tear open your heart and confess your sins before God, because God has sent his Son to give you a new heart, a new spirit and a new relationship with Him. The goal of repentance, of tearing open your heart before God, is forgiveness. When God gives you a new heart to take place of the old one. When God makes a new you. When you no longer only have a relationship of repentance with God, but a relationship with Him in eternal life. Amen.
The prophet Joel announces, “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing.” God wants His people to not just tear their clothes, but to tear their hearts? But how do we do that? How can you tear open your heart rather than just your clothes? How can you say you are sorry and make it mean more than just empty words? How can you change? God says, “Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.”
Actions speak louder than words. When you hurt someone, sometimes saying, “I’m sorry” just doesn’t cut it anymore. You must return to them and stay even when it can be painful. Maybe that means that you sit with them and say nothing at all and withstand their barrage of hurt feelings while you simply listen as they scream at you. And sometimes there is just no way of making something better, what’s done is done. What are you going to do then? What happens when saying, “I’m sorry” doesn’t seem to do much good? God isn’t interested in hearing you simply say that you are sorry. He wants you to return to Him and sustain a good relationship with Him once and for all.
In the arena of politics, there are often questions about retribution. How do we say that we are sorry? For example, how does our country say that it is sorry to the African-American community in response to the decades of injustice they withstood because of slavery? Should there be any retribution? There have often been calls for money to be awarded to the ancestors of slaves because of all the money and years and respect that were taken away in that time. And, perhaps, there is a place for all that, I don’t know. Someone with a little more political know-how should probably answer that. However, whether or not this kind of retribution ever occurs, I don’t believe that it would be enough to truly say, “I’m sorry.” It might help lift the burden enacted by institutionalized racism over the centuries, but those who were most affected by slavery are dead now and extra money or property seldom ever truly heals a wound.
Instead, I believe that the true measure of repentance will come from a lifetime of living together. When each person tears open their hearts and asks forgiveness, not simply for past misdeeds, but for our own prejudices. THAT will do more to heal a relationship than simply handing over some extra money. In the same way, God doesn’t simply want our money, or a little confession here or there, or a fast, or a sacrifice . . . he wants a new life—a new relationship.
That is why he sent Jesus Christ. Jesus was not simply the Lamb of God who could repay the debt of sin. While the Bible does say that he was a ransom, Jesus is so much more than that. His death was about more than retribution. He doesn’t simply atone for our sins, but he is Emmanuel, God with us. He comes to suffer with us. There is nothing we go through that he doesn’t go. He became sin who knew no sin. He came to create a new creation. To make a good tree out of a bad tree. To make a sheep out of you, a goat. So that you might live a new life in a new relationship with God. Producing good fruit. To be led by the good shepherd into a new and wondrous future created for you by a God who abounds in steadfast love.
Repentance is about so much more than retribution. God doesn’t want to see you suffer, he wants to suffer with you. He doesn’t just want a pound of flesh, or to see you walking around in torn clothes, He wants all that you have—He wants all of you. It is never too late to repent, to tear open your heart and confess your sins before God, because God has sent his Son to give you a new heart, a new spirit and a new relationship with Him. The goal of repentance, of tearing open your heart before God, is forgiveness. When God gives you a new heart to take place of the old one. When God makes a new you. When you no longer only have a relationship of repentance with God, but a relationship with Him in eternal life. Amen.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Sermon for February 17th (Ash Wednesday)
Isaiah 58, “Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?”
When I was in high school I tried fasting one time, or at least what I considered would be fasting. I skipped breakfast and lunch and, in the place of that food, I at peas, canned peas, and then drank all of the pea juice. And why did I do it you might ask? Well, you are not the first to ask that question and, seriously, I can’t say that I remember exactly why, but I do remember two important reasons: First, I was trying to better myself, psychologically, to see if I had the willpower to do it and, secondly, I thought that it would help me to lose weight—I wasn’t actually trying to lose weight, but I thought that it would have to help and that wouldn’t be bad. Thus began Steven Broers’ notorious high school pea diet which gained me the nickname “Peabody” among my friends and, certainly, created an aura of confusion around me for a short amount of time. Is that what God is talking about when he says that we are to come before him repentant and fasting?
Thus says the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?”
I love Lent because it is a time to repent, to ask forgiveness from God and to turn from our sins: to change our minds about our bad behaviors and to stop doing them. You see, repentance is more than a change of mind, or even a change of heart, it is a change of direction. It is more than NOT doing something: holding your breath for 40 days until you can start right back up where you left off. It is deciding to stop doing something and to start doing something else. Not just to take a break, but to break away. But for many people Lent has become a poor man’s New Year’s Resolution. Already fallen off the track for that diet you started in January? Well then give up ice cream for Lent: I mean, it can’t hurt! Forty days of not smoking? Hey, that’s possible! And even if you can’t do it the whole time it has to be good for your lungs. Maybe if you make a concerted effort to get to church on Wednesday nights you’ll be off the hook for Sundays. Lent has become a time to work on our personal vices rather than following God’s Word and repenting from our sins. This isn’t a time to better yourself, but to take stock of your relationship with God and with others.
What does it mean to repent of your sins? As I said before, it means to change direction, to turn around, to turn away from your bad behaviors once and for all. So, the prophet Isaiah points out that God isn’t so much interested in you humbling yourself, but that you might lift up the humble. Rather than skipping a meal, cook a meal for someone who needs it, invite them over and eat less so that they have enough to be full. Send home the leftovers with them. God’s not interested in your losing weight; he’s interested in feeding someone who is hungry. Will you still lose weight? Perhaps. I’m always for starting a habit of Bible reading, but if this discipline is simply to better yourself, than you’ve missed the point. Read the Bible to someone you love and they’ll receive the benefit. Will you learn your Bible better? I hope so. It’s bound to happen. But repenting before God isn’t to build yourself up, but to follow God’s will and love your neighbors. God calls us to make Lent more than just about ourselves.
For this is the story of Lent, after all, not that Jesus came to be served, to show off his obedience and be glorified before his Father, but that he came to serve you and to give his life a ransom for many. His death on the cross was not to show off His glory, but to bring about your salvation. The point of Ash Wednesday is not that you put ashes on your head to show off your piety before others or to look the part of the guilty sinner. The time for bettering yourself is over, but hear the words: all you are is dust and to dust you shall return. Your chances for saving yourself ended when Jesus died alone. It’s time to turn away from yourself and start looking at the cross. Amen
When I was in high school I tried fasting one time, or at least what I considered would be fasting. I skipped breakfast and lunch and, in the place of that food, I at peas, canned peas, and then drank all of the pea juice. And why did I do it you might ask? Well, you are not the first to ask that question and, seriously, I can’t say that I remember exactly why, but I do remember two important reasons: First, I was trying to better myself, psychologically, to see if I had the willpower to do it and, secondly, I thought that it would help me to lose weight—I wasn’t actually trying to lose weight, but I thought that it would have to help and that wouldn’t be bad. Thus began Steven Broers’ notorious high school pea diet which gained me the nickname “Peabody” among my friends and, certainly, created an aura of confusion around me for a short amount of time. Is that what God is talking about when he says that we are to come before him repentant and fasting?
Thus says the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?”
I love Lent because it is a time to repent, to ask forgiveness from God and to turn from our sins: to change our minds about our bad behaviors and to stop doing them. You see, repentance is more than a change of mind, or even a change of heart, it is a change of direction. It is more than NOT doing something: holding your breath for 40 days until you can start right back up where you left off. It is deciding to stop doing something and to start doing something else. Not just to take a break, but to break away. But for many people Lent has become a poor man’s New Year’s Resolution. Already fallen off the track for that diet you started in January? Well then give up ice cream for Lent: I mean, it can’t hurt! Forty days of not smoking? Hey, that’s possible! And even if you can’t do it the whole time it has to be good for your lungs. Maybe if you make a concerted effort to get to church on Wednesday nights you’ll be off the hook for Sundays. Lent has become a time to work on our personal vices rather than following God’s Word and repenting from our sins. This isn’t a time to better yourself, but to take stock of your relationship with God and with others.
What does it mean to repent of your sins? As I said before, it means to change direction, to turn around, to turn away from your bad behaviors once and for all. So, the prophet Isaiah points out that God isn’t so much interested in you humbling yourself, but that you might lift up the humble. Rather than skipping a meal, cook a meal for someone who needs it, invite them over and eat less so that they have enough to be full. Send home the leftovers with them. God’s not interested in your losing weight; he’s interested in feeding someone who is hungry. Will you still lose weight? Perhaps. I’m always for starting a habit of Bible reading, but if this discipline is simply to better yourself, than you’ve missed the point. Read the Bible to someone you love and they’ll receive the benefit. Will you learn your Bible better? I hope so. It’s bound to happen. But repenting before God isn’t to build yourself up, but to follow God’s will and love your neighbors. God calls us to make Lent more than just about ourselves.
For this is the story of Lent, after all, not that Jesus came to be served, to show off his obedience and be glorified before his Father, but that he came to serve you and to give his life a ransom for many. His death on the cross was not to show off His glory, but to bring about your salvation. The point of Ash Wednesday is not that you put ashes on your head to show off your piety before others or to look the part of the guilty sinner. The time for bettering yourself is over, but hear the words: all you are is dust and to dust you shall return. Your chances for saving yourself ended when Jesus died alone. It’s time to turn away from yourself and start looking at the cross. Amen
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sermon for March 29th
Many times, the joke is, when the gospel text and the Epistle, the second reading, is too difficult to talk about, pastors will choose to preach on the psalm. Well, think what you will, but honestly, today’s psalm is just too wonderful to pass up. During the midweek Lenten services, we have been going through the Lord’s Prayer and learning what we can about how praying affect our lives and our relationship to God and one another. Today we’ll be learning from another prayer, from the prayer of King David after he had committed adultery with Bathsheeba.
Do you remember the story? King David is considered to be the best king in Israelite history. He was the youngest boy in his family when God called him to be king through the prophet Samuel though he wouldn’t actually take the throne until Isreal’s first king, Saul, had died. King David brought peace to his country and brought all of the tribes of Israel together through defeating the dreaded Philistines and making Jerusalem the capital and a symbol of national unity. God brought peace to his people through king David.
But David found a way to create a problem even in the midst of peace. Though he had been faithful to God’s word and followed in God’s ways, in a moment of weakness he happened to catch a glimpse of the bathing beauty Bathsheeba as she was naked upon a nearby rooftop. When he saw her, he had to have her, and so he called her to him and slept with her. He was the wonderful king David after all! But she became pregnant and, oh yes, I forgot to mention it, but she was already married. So, what did David do? Well, he killed her husband.
David was the best king Israel ever had! He was also an adulterer and a murderer. But God wouldn’t stand idly by while people were being killed and marriages defiled even if it was by his most beloved and righteous servant David. So, God sent the prophet Nathan to have a chat with the king. Nathan told David a story, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds; but the poor man had nothing but one little lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his food, and drink from his cup, and lie in his lap, and it was like a daughter to him. One day, the rich man was going to have a visitor, but he didn’t want to take one of his own flock of lambs to prepare for dinner. So, that rich man took the poor man’s lamb and made it for dinner instead.” After telling this story, Nathan asked King David, what should be done about all this? King David said to Nathan, “That rich man who has done this deserves to die!”
Nathan said to David. “You are the rich man! You had everything given to you from God. You’re the king for goodness sake! You had as many wives as you would ever need, you had money and you had peace in your kingdom. Whatever you wanted, God would have given it to you. But instead, you took matters into your own hands. Not only destroying the marriage of two good people, but killing a man just to get what you wanted.”
Sometime after this, maybe it was the very next second, maybe it was the next week, but sometime after Nathan called David out for his sin, it appears that David wrote down a prayer to God, our psalm for today, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.” It’s interesting to note something about these lines. After all the things David did to get into this mess, he’s not listing off what he’s going to do to get out of it? God is the subject of all these verbs. YOU have mercy on me O God. YOU blot out my transgressions. YOU wash me and cleanse me from my sin. David teaches us something very important about asking for forgiveness: it’s not going to happen because you made everything better. Forgiveness comes from God alone.
“For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.”
David realizes that even if Bathsheeba forgives him, even if he does all the penance he can and makes it up as much as possible to the family of Uriah, he can’t make his sin and guilt go away. He has sinned against God and all his efforts, though important for reconciling himself to others, can’t reconcile him with God.
You can hear David’s despair, “my sin is ever before me.” He is standing face to face with his sin every time he looks at Bathsheeba, every time he looks in the mirror, every time someone tells him what a great king he is, every time he prays. His mistakes are either right on the front of his mind or lurking somewhere just beneath the surface.
In fact, his despair has become so palpable, that it has moved its way into his conscience. He realizes that not only did he sin against Bathsheeba and her husband Uriah, but he has sinned against God. He realies that not only did he sin against God this one time, but ever since he was born he has been sinning. He realizes that there was not a moment in his life when he was righteous, ever since his very conception, he’s been rebelling against God.
Maybe some of you recognize this pattern of thinking. When you do something wrong and start beating up on yourself, it starts seeping into every part of your life. Not only did you unintentionally yell at your child once, but you are a bad parent. Not only are you a bad parent, but you are a bad spouse. Not only are you a bad spouse, but you are a bad person. The sin stops being about a one time event, but starts defining every event in your life until it defines you. Not only did you sin, but you are a sinner.
Sometimes, even in the life of a Christian, sins can lead to unthinkable consequences. People who have driven a vehicle recklessly or under the influence of alcohol or drugs sometimes find themselves in accidents with fatalies that they were the cause of. They know that their relationship with God has been changed and they don’t know how to make it better. It doesn’t take long for the statement, “I am lucky to be alive” to change into, “I shouldn’t still be alive” and then finally become, “I don’t have a right to be alive.” Their sin is always before them and they can’t see anything else.
The next section of David’s prayer is a cry for help again from the depths of his despair, “You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.” David realizes what must be done. He cannot just justify his sin or learn to live with it. His sin must be erased. Blotted out. Hidden from his eyes and from God’s eyes in order for life to become livable again.
In the story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Conner, there is a woman whose car breaks down when three men stop by the road to help her. The woman is talking and talking and talking and being very annoying saying how one of the men looks just like her son. The men aren’t really there to help her at all but are convicts as we find out. At the end of the story, we discover that the man she thinks looks like her son IS actually her son, but he is so annoyed with her that he shoots her in the head. When questioned about it by another one of the men he says, “She needed to be shot in the head every day of her life.”
Now, I know that this might be a very dark way of looking at things, but in much the same way, we need to be shot in the head every day of our lives. We need God to, “put us out of our misery” so to speak by forgiving us so that our sin is no longer right in front of our face. So that he can hide his face from our sin and wash us cleaner than snow. King David couldn’t see past his own sin and neither can we, so God must do something for us.
“Create in me a clean heart O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.”
If God shoots us in the head, then he’s got to give us a new one. If he crushes our bones he needs to raise us up to new life. Here, as at the beginning of the psalm, all the verbs again have God as their subject. David doesn’t ask God to “fix him” so that he’ll run better like a tuned up sportscar. He doesn’t ask God to help him live a better life. David asks to be made NEW. Give me a new me David says because the old me is a pile of junk. Create in me a clean heart and give me a new spirit.
When you are fighting with a friend, or a family member, or a spouse, the worst part is the estrangement. Sometimes it’s so difficult just to be patient and wait for everything to get back to normal. David knew what it was to be loved by God and faithful to God’s Word and here he prays that God would make that a reality again. Not by fixing the old King David that used to follow God’s laws, but by making a new creation, a new King David. That’s really the key; you see, we aren’t trying to change history here. Sin has happened. There’s no going back. God deals with sin by creating you new. You don’t have to go back in history and change it. In fact, you can’t. So God makes sin history and gives you a future through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Even Jesus had a history after his resurrection or else you wouldn’t know it was him. He shows up with the wounds still visible and touchable on his hands and feet. God knows that when he gives you a new heart and a new spirit that you’ll still have a history too. In fact, we pray that Jesus remembers every one of our sins so that he doesn’t forget to forgive a single one of them. But, we also pray that on the last day, he remembers that they are history. We pray, just as David did, that God hides his face from our past and only sees the new future he has in store for us.
Finally, God does more than listen to David’s prayer. He sends Nathan to forgive his sinful king. After David admits his sin, Nathan says this, “Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die.” Nathan admits that yes David deserves to die, but that death is not the final word. There were consequences for King David as there will be for us from our sinning, but God’s forgiveness is the last word. God also has a last word for you. “You sins are forgiven. God has hidden his face from them. You are new in God’s eyes. God has separated you from your sins, calling you new and calling your sins ancient history. God restores you now to the joy of his salvation. Your sins are forgiven and your life is made new. Amen.
Do you remember the story? King David is considered to be the best king in Israelite history. He was the youngest boy in his family when God called him to be king through the prophet Samuel though he wouldn’t actually take the throne until Isreal’s first king, Saul, had died. King David brought peace to his country and brought all of the tribes of Israel together through defeating the dreaded Philistines and making Jerusalem the capital and a symbol of national unity. God brought peace to his people through king David.
But David found a way to create a problem even in the midst of peace. Though he had been faithful to God’s word and followed in God’s ways, in a moment of weakness he happened to catch a glimpse of the bathing beauty Bathsheeba as she was naked upon a nearby rooftop. When he saw her, he had to have her, and so he called her to him and slept with her. He was the wonderful king David after all! But she became pregnant and, oh yes, I forgot to mention it, but she was already married. So, what did David do? Well, he killed her husband.
David was the best king Israel ever had! He was also an adulterer and a murderer. But God wouldn’t stand idly by while people were being killed and marriages defiled even if it was by his most beloved and righteous servant David. So, God sent the prophet Nathan to have a chat with the king. Nathan told David a story, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds; but the poor man had nothing but one little lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his food, and drink from his cup, and lie in his lap, and it was like a daughter to him. One day, the rich man was going to have a visitor, but he didn’t want to take one of his own flock of lambs to prepare for dinner. So, that rich man took the poor man’s lamb and made it for dinner instead.” After telling this story, Nathan asked King David, what should be done about all this? King David said to Nathan, “That rich man who has done this deserves to die!”
Nathan said to David. “You are the rich man! You had everything given to you from God. You’re the king for goodness sake! You had as many wives as you would ever need, you had money and you had peace in your kingdom. Whatever you wanted, God would have given it to you. But instead, you took matters into your own hands. Not only destroying the marriage of two good people, but killing a man just to get what you wanted.”
Sometime after this, maybe it was the very next second, maybe it was the next week, but sometime after Nathan called David out for his sin, it appears that David wrote down a prayer to God, our psalm for today, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.” It’s interesting to note something about these lines. After all the things David did to get into this mess, he’s not listing off what he’s going to do to get out of it? God is the subject of all these verbs. YOU have mercy on me O God. YOU blot out my transgressions. YOU wash me and cleanse me from my sin. David teaches us something very important about asking for forgiveness: it’s not going to happen because you made everything better. Forgiveness comes from God alone.
“For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.”
David realizes that even if Bathsheeba forgives him, even if he does all the penance he can and makes it up as much as possible to the family of Uriah, he can’t make his sin and guilt go away. He has sinned against God and all his efforts, though important for reconciling himself to others, can’t reconcile him with God.
You can hear David’s despair, “my sin is ever before me.” He is standing face to face with his sin every time he looks at Bathsheeba, every time he looks in the mirror, every time someone tells him what a great king he is, every time he prays. His mistakes are either right on the front of his mind or lurking somewhere just beneath the surface.
In fact, his despair has become so palpable, that it has moved its way into his conscience. He realizes that not only did he sin against Bathsheeba and her husband Uriah, but he has sinned against God. He realies that not only did he sin against God this one time, but ever since he was born he has been sinning. He realizes that there was not a moment in his life when he was righteous, ever since his very conception, he’s been rebelling against God.
Maybe some of you recognize this pattern of thinking. When you do something wrong and start beating up on yourself, it starts seeping into every part of your life. Not only did you unintentionally yell at your child once, but you are a bad parent. Not only are you a bad parent, but you are a bad spouse. Not only are you a bad spouse, but you are a bad person. The sin stops being about a one time event, but starts defining every event in your life until it defines you. Not only did you sin, but you are a sinner.
Sometimes, even in the life of a Christian, sins can lead to unthinkable consequences. People who have driven a vehicle recklessly or under the influence of alcohol or drugs sometimes find themselves in accidents with fatalies that they were the cause of. They know that their relationship with God has been changed and they don’t know how to make it better. It doesn’t take long for the statement, “I am lucky to be alive” to change into, “I shouldn’t still be alive” and then finally become, “I don’t have a right to be alive.” Their sin is always before them and they can’t see anything else.
The next section of David’s prayer is a cry for help again from the depths of his despair, “You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.” David realizes what must be done. He cannot just justify his sin or learn to live with it. His sin must be erased. Blotted out. Hidden from his eyes and from God’s eyes in order for life to become livable again.
In the story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Conner, there is a woman whose car breaks down when three men stop by the road to help her. The woman is talking and talking and talking and being very annoying saying how one of the men looks just like her son. The men aren’t really there to help her at all but are convicts as we find out. At the end of the story, we discover that the man she thinks looks like her son IS actually her son, but he is so annoyed with her that he shoots her in the head. When questioned about it by another one of the men he says, “She needed to be shot in the head every day of her life.”
Now, I know that this might be a very dark way of looking at things, but in much the same way, we need to be shot in the head every day of our lives. We need God to, “put us out of our misery” so to speak by forgiving us so that our sin is no longer right in front of our face. So that he can hide his face from our sin and wash us cleaner than snow. King David couldn’t see past his own sin and neither can we, so God must do something for us.
“Create in me a clean heart O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.”
If God shoots us in the head, then he’s got to give us a new one. If he crushes our bones he needs to raise us up to new life. Here, as at the beginning of the psalm, all the verbs again have God as their subject. David doesn’t ask God to “fix him” so that he’ll run better like a tuned up sportscar. He doesn’t ask God to help him live a better life. David asks to be made NEW. Give me a new me David says because the old me is a pile of junk. Create in me a clean heart and give me a new spirit.
When you are fighting with a friend, or a family member, or a spouse, the worst part is the estrangement. Sometimes it’s so difficult just to be patient and wait for everything to get back to normal. David knew what it was to be loved by God and faithful to God’s Word and here he prays that God would make that a reality again. Not by fixing the old King David that used to follow God’s laws, but by making a new creation, a new King David. That’s really the key; you see, we aren’t trying to change history here. Sin has happened. There’s no going back. God deals with sin by creating you new. You don’t have to go back in history and change it. In fact, you can’t. So God makes sin history and gives you a future through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Even Jesus had a history after his resurrection or else you wouldn’t know it was him. He shows up with the wounds still visible and touchable on his hands and feet. God knows that when he gives you a new heart and a new spirit that you’ll still have a history too. In fact, we pray that Jesus remembers every one of our sins so that he doesn’t forget to forgive a single one of them. But, we also pray that on the last day, he remembers that they are history. We pray, just as David did, that God hides his face from our past and only sees the new future he has in store for us.
Finally, God does more than listen to David’s prayer. He sends Nathan to forgive his sinful king. After David admits his sin, Nathan says this, “Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die.” Nathan admits that yes David deserves to die, but that death is not the final word. There were consequences for King David as there will be for us from our sinning, but God’s forgiveness is the last word. God also has a last word for you. “You sins are forgiven. God has hidden his face from them. You are new in God’s eyes. God has separated you from your sins, calling you new and calling your sins ancient history. God restores you now to the joy of his salvation. Your sins are forgiven and your life is made new. Amen.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Sermon for March 9th
The prophet Ezekiel stands in the middle of a valley. He looks up and he sees high, rocky mountains or maybe there were green rolling hills all around him. The bright sky above his head creates a beautiful scene declaring the wonders of God, the greatness of the almighty. But then he looks down to the ground. And as he looks down, around his feet, he notices something. What is he seeing? Something unfamiliar. He takes a closer look, squinting to make sure that he’s not just hallucinating in the glare of the sun. Then he straightens up in a shiver. All around him, filling the valley, are bones. He is standing in the middle of a graveyard.
These are not just some dead cow skulls littering the ground that he has to step around. These are human bones. To his right, there are piles upon piles of dead, dry bones. Dry bones. Old bones. As he turns to his left there are more. Hundreds upon hundreds of femurs, skulls and ribs lying scattered on the ground. He quickly scans all around him and there are more and more, piles and piles of bones. Like some kind of unfathomable disaster destroyed an entire group of people and laid them waste in a moment. All around him, lying in piles or scattered on the ground. He stands in the middle of the valley. Surrounded. By bones. Dead people. Dry bones. He stands surrounded by the silence of death.
Then, God speaks, breaking the silence. God breaks the silence with a question, “Mortal, can these bones live?” But you know what I’d like to know if I were Ezekiel? Before I even thought, or imagined, or cared whether these dead dry bones surrounding me could live again? I’d want to know what happened. I’d like to know how they died. I’d like to know how a disaster, of this great a proportion, came to happen, leaving so many people to die and lie as a bunch of bones in the middle of a valley. And, more than that, how could God let it happen? So, before we follow this reading in Ezekiel to its end, and find out if these bones can live, I’d like to find out who is responsible for all these dead, dry bones in the first place.
In the book of Ezekiel, the prophet is constantly being called on by God to proclaim judgment against the holy city of Jerusalem for the sin of its people. Remember that Jerusalem was the place of worship for an entire nation, it was the symbol of Israel and of the continued presence and favor of God for his people. I’ll read for you a little bit from Ezekiel, chapters 21 and 22, “Mortal, set your face toward Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries; Thus says the Lord: I am coming against you, and will draw my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you both righteous and wicked.” “As one gathers silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into a smelter, to blow the fire upon them in order to melt them; so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you; and you shall know that I the Lord have poured out my wrath upon you.”
Jerusalem was captured and destroyed in 587 BC, right during the time that Ezekiel was a prophet. And now, after the destruction of the temple. After many words of judgment from God, Ezekiel stands in the middle of a valley surrounded by bones. These bones are not the bones of dead Israelites from Jerusalem. However, they could just as well be. And for the Israelites, who had lost their homes, their place of worship, their families, their livelihoods and were scattered into exile, these bones strewn across the valley no doubt looked like a reflection of their experience and their lives. Who is responsible for all these dead dry bones?
Ezekiel chapter 5 says this, “Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem, I have set here in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. But she has rebelled against my ordinances and my statutes, becoming more wicked than the nations and the countries all around her. Therefore, because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, and have not followed my statutes or kept my ordinances, I, I myself am coming against you; I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. Because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again.”
Who is responsible for all these dead dry bones? There are two answers. When Ezekiel announced his words to the Israelites, they would have had two answers as well. God is responsible and we are responsible. We have sinned against God and God has punished us. God was responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem, no doubt about it, but that also doesn’t get the Israelites off the hook.
So, now, back to that other question, the question that God posed to Ezekiel as the prophet is standing out in this valley of dry bones. The Lord asks Ezekiel, “Mortal, can these bones live?” Ezekiel answers, “O Lord God, you know.” Now wait a minute. Why doesn’t Ezekiel just answer the question? Why does Ezekiel wait for God? Ezekiel must realize that the people who died and now lie there as dead bones were responsible for their sin and for their eventual destruction. Even if God did the punishing. Why doesn’t Ezekiel look to the dead bones of those people for any hope of new life? In fact, he could have even look to himself for an answer, he was a prophet. Couldn’t he have done something? Why does he insist on waiting for God’s answer? And what do you think? Can these bones live?
Today is the fifth Sunday of Lent. During Lent, we are called to repentance, asking forgiveness for what we do wrong in our lives. Lent is really no different than any other time of the year, but as a church we focus on our weakness so that we can find strength in Jesus’ death and resurrection is. So that, in our weakness, we can find strength in God. But it is easy to start thinking that the more we repent, the better off we become. The more guilty we feel, the more religious we look. We start looking at our dead, dry bones and expecting new life to just start popping out. If only we just worked a little harder. Do a few more good things. Give up chocolate or smoking or swearing for a few weeks. But dead bones just lie there on the ground, they can’t do anything else.
Can you actually live again when you die? Can you forgive the person that hates you and treats you like dirt? Can you stop your habit of getting drunk? Can you stop gambling? Can you be healed? Can you really trust God? The only answer I have for you is to join me in praying to our heavenly Father and say, “O Lord God, you know.” Or, as the psalm we read today says, “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I hope.” Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, but apart from me you can do nothing.
There is no point in expecting your dead, dry bones to start living again. Even if you are really motivated. But listen to what God can do, this time, from the book of 1st Samuel, “The Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and he raises up.” You can trust that God is just as compassionate about raising you from the dead as he is passionate to destroy your sin. And during Lent, you can find out just how far your Savior is willing to go to save you. All the way to death on a cross to defeat sin. All the way into a tomb to defeat death. All the way into hell to defeat the Devil. And all the way into this world to defeat you and bring your dead dry bones to life.
In the readings from Ezekiel that spoke of wrath and destruction, God kept repeating that the Israelites would know that it was the Lord that did these things. In today’s reading, God insists that the Israelites will know him now in a new way, He says, “You shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from your graves O my people.” We do not know God only as a loving God, nor do we know God only as an angry God. We know him as both. God’s love and kindness is meant to lead you to ask forgiveness again and again. Jesus loves you, not so that you will rest confident in your sins, but so that you will repent of everything, so that Jesus can be all in all for you. So that you can rest completely in his arms, perfectly passive, like a pile of old bones. Waiting for the Lord of all to start speaking you back to life.
“O dry bones, hear the words of the Lord, Thus says the Lord God to your bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.” Amen.
These are not just some dead cow skulls littering the ground that he has to step around. These are human bones. To his right, there are piles upon piles of dead, dry bones. Dry bones. Old bones. As he turns to his left there are more. Hundreds upon hundreds of femurs, skulls and ribs lying scattered on the ground. He quickly scans all around him and there are more and more, piles and piles of bones. Like some kind of unfathomable disaster destroyed an entire group of people and laid them waste in a moment. All around him, lying in piles or scattered on the ground. He stands in the middle of the valley. Surrounded. By bones. Dead people. Dry bones. He stands surrounded by the silence of death.
Then, God speaks, breaking the silence. God breaks the silence with a question, “Mortal, can these bones live?” But you know what I’d like to know if I were Ezekiel? Before I even thought, or imagined, or cared whether these dead dry bones surrounding me could live again? I’d want to know what happened. I’d like to know how they died. I’d like to know how a disaster, of this great a proportion, came to happen, leaving so many people to die and lie as a bunch of bones in the middle of a valley. And, more than that, how could God let it happen? So, before we follow this reading in Ezekiel to its end, and find out if these bones can live, I’d like to find out who is responsible for all these dead, dry bones in the first place.
In the book of Ezekiel, the prophet is constantly being called on by God to proclaim judgment against the holy city of Jerusalem for the sin of its people. Remember that Jerusalem was the place of worship for an entire nation, it was the symbol of Israel and of the continued presence and favor of God for his people. I’ll read for you a little bit from Ezekiel, chapters 21 and 22, “Mortal, set your face toward Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries; Thus says the Lord: I am coming against you, and will draw my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you both righteous and wicked.” “As one gathers silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into a smelter, to blow the fire upon them in order to melt them; so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you; and you shall know that I the Lord have poured out my wrath upon you.”
Jerusalem was captured and destroyed in 587 BC, right during the time that Ezekiel was a prophet. And now, after the destruction of the temple. After many words of judgment from God, Ezekiel stands in the middle of a valley surrounded by bones. These bones are not the bones of dead Israelites from Jerusalem. However, they could just as well be. And for the Israelites, who had lost their homes, their place of worship, their families, their livelihoods and were scattered into exile, these bones strewn across the valley no doubt looked like a reflection of their experience and their lives. Who is responsible for all these dead dry bones?
Ezekiel chapter 5 says this, “Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem, I have set here in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. But she has rebelled against my ordinances and my statutes, becoming more wicked than the nations and the countries all around her. Therefore, because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, and have not followed my statutes or kept my ordinances, I, I myself am coming against you; I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. Because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again.”
Who is responsible for all these dead dry bones? There are two answers. When Ezekiel announced his words to the Israelites, they would have had two answers as well. God is responsible and we are responsible. We have sinned against God and God has punished us. God was responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem, no doubt about it, but that also doesn’t get the Israelites off the hook.
So, now, back to that other question, the question that God posed to Ezekiel as the prophet is standing out in this valley of dry bones. The Lord asks Ezekiel, “Mortal, can these bones live?” Ezekiel answers, “O Lord God, you know.” Now wait a minute. Why doesn’t Ezekiel just answer the question? Why does Ezekiel wait for God? Ezekiel must realize that the people who died and now lie there as dead bones were responsible for their sin and for their eventual destruction. Even if God did the punishing. Why doesn’t Ezekiel look to the dead bones of those people for any hope of new life? In fact, he could have even look to himself for an answer, he was a prophet. Couldn’t he have done something? Why does he insist on waiting for God’s answer? And what do you think? Can these bones live?
Today is the fifth Sunday of Lent. During Lent, we are called to repentance, asking forgiveness for what we do wrong in our lives. Lent is really no different than any other time of the year, but as a church we focus on our weakness so that we can find strength in Jesus’ death and resurrection is. So that, in our weakness, we can find strength in God. But it is easy to start thinking that the more we repent, the better off we become. The more guilty we feel, the more religious we look. We start looking at our dead, dry bones and expecting new life to just start popping out. If only we just worked a little harder. Do a few more good things. Give up chocolate or smoking or swearing for a few weeks. But dead bones just lie there on the ground, they can’t do anything else.
Can you actually live again when you die? Can you forgive the person that hates you and treats you like dirt? Can you stop your habit of getting drunk? Can you stop gambling? Can you be healed? Can you really trust God? The only answer I have for you is to join me in praying to our heavenly Father and say, “O Lord God, you know.” Or, as the psalm we read today says, “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I hope.” Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, but apart from me you can do nothing.
There is no point in expecting your dead, dry bones to start living again. Even if you are really motivated. But listen to what God can do, this time, from the book of 1st Samuel, “The Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and he raises up.” You can trust that God is just as compassionate about raising you from the dead as he is passionate to destroy your sin. And during Lent, you can find out just how far your Savior is willing to go to save you. All the way to death on a cross to defeat sin. All the way into a tomb to defeat death. All the way into hell to defeat the Devil. And all the way into this world to defeat you and bring your dead dry bones to life.
In the readings from Ezekiel that spoke of wrath and destruction, God kept repeating that the Israelites would know that it was the Lord that did these things. In today’s reading, God insists that the Israelites will know him now in a new way, He says, “You shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from your graves O my people.” We do not know God only as a loving God, nor do we know God only as an angry God. We know him as both. God’s love and kindness is meant to lead you to ask forgiveness again and again. Jesus loves you, not so that you will rest confident in your sins, but so that you will repent of everything, so that Jesus can be all in all for you. So that you can rest completely in his arms, perfectly passive, like a pile of old bones. Waiting for the Lord of all to start speaking you back to life.
“O dry bones, hear the words of the Lord, Thus says the Lord God to your bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.” Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)