Sermon for September 5th

“This is the message that we have heard from Jesus and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” Light comforts and light exposes. Light blinds and light leads. Darkness comforts and hides. Darkness blinds and confuses. Are you walking in the light or hiding in the darkness? Are you being led by the light or confused in the darkness.

According to the book of 1st John, “If we say that we have fellowship with Jesus Christ while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son cleanses us from sin.” Light exposes. That why my family was so happy this summer when we finally got shades at the parsonage. At nighttime, when it was dark outside, turning on the lights inside exposed to the outside world a little too much sometimes. In the book of first John, we hear that, “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” When we get close to Jesus, he shows us how far from him we truly are in our hearts, in our actions and in our lives. He exposes us as sinners in need of a Savior.

Have you ever seen or gone to the Macy’s counter where they sell all that make-up? Have you ever seen the huge magnifying glass mirrors they have there and the brighter than bright light on the counter. These are the tools of the trade, to come close to your face and let the light expose your minutest skin defects and make you feel that the only way you can face the world is to buy a fifty dollar zit cream the size of a thimble. When your problems are exposed, we are all driven to hide or to stand up and face the light.

While I was attending the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music getting my Masters in Double Bass Performance, I spent a lot of time practicing. Kristy was working as a music teacher in some inner city schools there and would be gone all day, but I would be gone all day and all night. She would ask for me to come home and I’d tell her that I had to keep practicing or I had to go to work or I had to do something else. She could only make me come home when she’d get so frustrated and upset that she would cry. Then I’d feel bad and come. She called me a workaholic, but I didn’t feel the label stuck because I didn’t WANT to work so much, I felt like I HAD to do it for US.

Then, one night, I remember going to bed early (since I had to get up and work early the next day). Sometime soon after, I woke up with the realization that she was right. I was a workaholic and I had missed out on so much time with her that I could never have back. Ever. My sin was exposed to me though I know that I had been exposed to her and the rest of my family much earlier. When I realized what I was like, it was like I could look back at everything I had done up to that point and a light was shown on all of it. I could suddenly see what she had always seen before. When God’s light convicts you of your sin, you suddenly see things that you were blind to before. You start seeing yourself as God sees you. When you become a Christian and start walking in the light of God, you can’t be ignorant and arrogant of what you are like anymore. You are exposed and forced you to either confess your sin or live your life in the full knowledge of your hardheartedness.

But God’s light does more than simply reveal sin, it also leads you in the right paths. “If we say that we have fellowship with God while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true. But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. By this we may be sure that we are in Jesus; whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk just as he walked.” Becoming a Christian is more than simply realizing your sin and confessing your need for a Savior; it is about following a new way that is opposed to sin and following your Savior. We have to walk the walk and follow Jesus.

I know that a lot of you now have some type of GPS navigational system in your cars, a Garmin or something. And when you type in your destination, the idea is that you are to follow those directions. If you get off course, some voice will start calling out to you, “you’re going the direction” or “recalculating” or something. You don’t type in a destination if you aren’t going to follow the directions.

As a Christian, we are called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. He is the light that shows us the path to take, but just seeing the pathway to our destination isn’t enough, we have to follow that path. When I graduated from seminary, I had to make a choice about what path to take regarding how I would be ordained. I was still a member of the ELCA at that time and the ELCA had made an agreement with the Episcopal church that every pastor MUST be ordained by a bishop. I believed that this undermined the authority of the Bible. I believed that God’s Word was effective whether I was ordained by a bishop or not. I didn’t want to do something that I believed would undermine peoples’ trust in God’s Word as their source of hope and power and have them put it in a human being instead. However, I knew that, to follow this pathway, would mean possibly getting in a lot of trouble. You see, I saw the right way lit up for me, but I also saw very clearly the impending danger. Just seeing the right direction doesn’t make it any easier to follow. I finally took the way that the light led me, I also did get into a lot of trouble. Thankfully, following God’s leading and walking in the light has led me to LCMC and to this church. There are many times in my life when I see the right thing to do and don’t do it; but, by God’s grace, I took the right path at least that once and that has made all the difference.

The book of first John continues, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” To live a life as a Christian we must walk in the light: that means following Jesus and walking according to God’s commandments “so that we may not sin”, but it also means seeing our sin, confessing it and trusting that Jesus saves us from that sin.

But how can you do both? The text says to follow the light, “So that you may not sin.” How is that possible? To not sin would be to deny what the text says later on, “if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” How can we believe both things at the same time? Are we supposed to “not sin” or confess that we cannot “not sin”?

How can we do both? Well, for once, my seminary training is really helpful. You see, in the language this letter was first written in, it wouldn’t have been so confusing. 1st John was written in Greek, like the rest of the New Testament. And in the Greek language there are different verb tenses than we have, namely, there is a way to show that an action repeats. Perhaps a better way to translate this verse, to get the point across, is to say it this way, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin, and sin and keep on sinning.” Once again, “So that you may not sin, and sin and keep on sinning.”

God knows that we fall short of the glory of God. If we say that we don’t we make him a liar the text says. But walking in the light means that if we do something wrong, when our sin is exposed by God’s light, we need to stop doing it and follow the light in a new direction. We can’t just doing that sin over and over and over again without attempting to change our behavior. Maybe we’ll fail, but when God’s light exposes us again, we must seek to follow God’s light in a new direction. If we continue doing something that we know is wrong without attempting to stop, we are NOT walking in the light and we are NOT living the Christian life.

But it’s hard to walk the walk isn’t it. For instance, the vast majority of couples that are getting married are living together. This is true for both Christian and non-Christian couples. And while having the same address is certainly no sin, what’s happening in the bedrooms at those addresses is according to God’s word. He commands that sexual intimacy be placed within a marriage and not outside it: this includes prohibiting both adultery and pre-marital sex. But the thing is, most couples know this! They know that God doesn’t like it and yet, even once the light exposes this as sin, well, nothing really changes. And, as I said before, it’s not about addresses, it’s about the behavior. We all have really awesome Christian friends or family members that either have done this or are doing it. I am sure some of you here are involved in this as well.

What can you do about it? Well, if you want to walk in the light you must do more than simply confess that what you are doing is wrong, you are called to change your behavior and follow Jesus, walk in his footsteps and in his light. There is nothing that can separate you from God’s love, you are forgiven completely—this is just one of many sins that we struggle with in this room—but repenting means to turn around and try to follow in the right direction.

We also must be wary of becoming legalistic and prideful of people who are trying to follow God’s will but continue to struggle. Many churches check people’s addresses before allowing them to be married as if that would stop all bad behavior. If you are struggling with this in your relationship, you are welcome here. We’re all struggling with something. And yes, you are welcome to be married here as are your children and friends in the same predicament. We cannot tie up heavy burdens on people so hard to bear without being willing to lift a finger to help. As Christians, we are called not only to shine Christ’s light to expose sin, but also to help people walk in God’s pathways.

All of us struggle to be the kind of Christians we want to be. We are embarrassed by our sins when they are exposed and we are constantly refusing to follow where Christ leads. The good news is that even as we are hiding out in our darkness and even when we choose the dark path rather than the lighted way, our darkness will never overcome God’s light. Just as the smallest sliver of light can fill up an entire room, Jesus love, compassion and forgiveness is enough to fill your life with hope. There is no sin dark enough that his forgiveness will not destroy and there is not direction you can walk where God will not follow you. Amen.

Sermon for January 18th

In past sermons, I have mentioned, once or twice, that God intends to use your hands and your feet to serve your neighbors and to show them love. Today’s passage from 1st Corinthians reveals that God intends to use even more than just your hands and your feet. “The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.” Yes, God is the God of everything . . . even the God of sex. Sexual activity can either benefit your neighbor or hurt them. Your spouse, your partner, or a complete stranger, can either be loved or hurt depending on your choices and how you use the body God has gifted you with.

Paul says, “The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord . . . .” But what is fornication? What is Paul talking about? What does fornication mean? Does it mean all sexual activity? No. Fornication is any sexual activity outside of the blessing and relationship of marriage.

In the first chapter of Genesis, God created a man and a woman in the image of God and then he gave them their first command, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Did God say, “Go take a cold shower?” Or, “Look, but don’t touch?” Or perhaps, “Now stay away from each other?” No. “God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’” Let me be very clear about this: God commanded the first man and woman he created to go have sex and have babies. This is not a God who hates passion! This is not a God who is unfamiliar with desire! This is not some prudish God who despises flesh! He made flesh! He designed all the parts involved! He created pleasure! He desired passion for those he created.

But he didn’t create sex and pleasure as simply some object to obtain like just another apple from a tree in the garden. In God’s creation, sex is placed within a specific context. God created sex within a particular kind of relationship. God created a man and then, for a partner, he created a woman. The text conveys that this difference in gender is part of the created order and is something good. Sexual relations are put in this context—into this relationship. Sex is a gift, but not just for the man and not just for the woman, but for and with one another.

In Genesis 2, God makes it clear that sex is even more than a gift though. It defines this relationship in a new and glorious way, “Therefore, a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Marriage is not defined by having children because we, as God’s creatures, are not able to have them apart from God’s creative work. Moreover, just having a child does not a marriage make. Sometimes, through scientific methods, a child can begin life apart from any relationship or marriage at all! Even within a marriage, sexual activity might cease “for a set time” as scripture says.

So what defines a married relationship? Marriage, in the Bible, is not defined as such but is described as being between men and women in a relationship where sexual activity is given boundaries. You don’t HAVE to have sex in order to be considered married, but you have to be married in order to consider having sex. Sex in any other manner, for whatever other reason outside of this special kind of relationship, is considered fornication, something God did not create human beings or their bodies to do. God created you to love and serve your neighbor, your spouse and complete strangers EVEN when it comes to your sex life.

As with any command from God, there are a several different ways we might respond to it. I’m not telling you three ways that you might WISH to respond, but I am describing three ways that sinners, like you and I, tend to respond. For instance, you may just disagree with God’s Word and seek some other words that seem to make more sense to you, be more tolerable or feel better. When you hear that you should “shun fornication”, you might decide that fornication is an outdated rule that shouldn’t apply to you for some reason or another. You are not changed and God’s Word is not changed, but life continues on more or less the same. On the other hand, you may agree completely with God’s Word and attempt to follow his rules perfectly while pointing out how others are not doing so well. But, if you are more interested in meeting God’s demands than loving your neighbor, this is called legalism. In this case, when you are told to “shun fornication”, you might believe that you aren’t fornicating with anyone that you can think of and thank God that you are so holy. Believe it or not, no one is changed in this scenario either, not you and not God’s Word.

But there is a third way to hear God’s command. The law still doesn’t change (I hope that you are getting the gist of that) but, in this case, you are changed. When you are told to “shun fornication”, you might realize that this Word from God is talking about you. You are the one being judged. God is pointing out your sins; you can’t escape them and you can’t blame someone else.

Our society has condemned, oppressed and despised many people of the world and used the Bible, or other religious books, as justification for doing so. Prostitutes are treated like dirt by those who use them for their bodies as well as by those who disagree with their lifestyle. Homosexual people are victimized by hate crimes and mocked by stereotypes. People who have affairs are shunned by their closest friends and relatives for their poor judgment and mistakes. Child molesters are beaten and sometimes even killed in jails.

On the other hand, people living together before marriage is quite acceptable in our society today. Premarital sex is just fine . . . as long as you don’t get pregnant that is. That can sometimes be embarrassing. You can look at pornography from the comforts of your own home if you stay up late enough and have cable TV or a satellite dish. And, the cute blonde down the street? Well, you can imagine a late-night rendevouz with her without anybody ever even realizing you are thinking about it.

We view these things differently don’t we. No one would ever equate the seriousness of child molestation to a little fantasy about a movie star. However, in God’s eyes, according to his law, they are both sins. They both need to be stopped. Everything I just mentioned would be considered fornication, sex outside the boundaries of God’s blessing in marriage. God speaks the same way about it all: “Shun fornication! The body is not meant for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. For you were bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body.” You may not even have done anything, you may only be thinking it, unintentionally, or in your dreams! But throughout the Bible, God is no more lenient with men or women sleeping around with various partners than he is with people sleeping around with other gods, with other words or with other moralities. God wants us all to be perfect. And we all fail miserably. Not only in how we act in public, but even in the privacy of our own minds and bedrooms.

As I said before, God’s Word does not change, but there is a chance that you might and that is why he speaks at all. God’s law always condemns. God’s law is not compassionate. God’s law judges you and me and every single person on this earth. He tells you to shun fornication because he wants you to love and be loved without the risk of harming or being harmed. He gives his final word to all forms of sex outside of the relationship of marriage . . . and his word is “NO!” His word is final. It is difficult and sometimes gut wrenching for us to hear this. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t need a Savior.

But, in fact, we do need a Savior. You NEED a Savior. Jesus died not only for your sweet little sins that you can’t help but for the sins that you never wanted saving from. He saves you from yourself and he even died so that you might have a blessed sex life, believe it or not! So that sex in your life might be a gift, not just in the eyes of you and your partner, but in the eyes of God and your community as well.

God doesn’t tolerate your excuses. He doesn’t accept your arguments. Instead, he does something completely unexpected: he forgives you and promises that your sins, even your sexual sins, will never separate you from his love. He doesn’t just want you to feel bad, to feel guilty or to repent of your sins; he wants you to repent and then believe that he has forgiven you once and for all. So you can love and be loved freely and without fear even in your most intimate relationships. He tells you to flee fornication so that you might run into his open arms. He calls you out on your sins so that he might forgive you completely. No matter how far you have fallen, God is right there to pick you up.

Sex is a gift from God for his creatures. But it can only be considered a gift within the context of a relationship blessed by God where it is given its proper purpose. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But now, hear this: you are forgiven and I pray that God might help you glorify his name even with your body. Amen.