Sunday Sermon: Facing Our Sins

Scripture Passage – Romans 3:23-24

Description – Initial Sermon in the 2013 Lenten Series “Facing the Cross”

(Note: the Lenten materials written by Mark Zimmerman and Rev. Jerry Hays “Facing the Cross” and published by Creative Communications for the Parish were used in the construction of this message and series. Grateful acknowledgement is given for their ministry.)

 

(Bring a mirror out and stand it in front of the congregation and ask someone to read the verses on the slide.)  “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”

 

This season of Lent is, in the best sense of the phrase, a ‘looking in the mirror time.”  But we instead of a mirror we look in two directions – outward at the cross as we ‘Face the Cross’ in this Lenten series and inward as we allow the Holy Spirit to show us what we need to be shown in our hearts and souls. Over the next six Sundays we are going to be facing the cross as we face, our “sins, temptation, fears, worldliness, one another, and suffering.”

 

This morning as we face the cross we face our sins because as we focus on the cross and what Christ has done for us, we can face our sins because they have been, and will be as we ask God to, forgiven!

 

Our main text this morning contains a familiar verse to many of us but it also contains an additional truth that we sometimes I think forget to ponder and believe. It is Romans 3:23 and 24 and I read this morning from the New International Version and the New Living Translation and the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

 

“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

 

“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.”

 

“…since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,…”

 

Now if you notice the NIV and the NRSV has verse 23 as an incomplete sentence. So let’s look at what is said prior to verse 23 in these two versions to make it a complete sentence.

 

We go back to verse 21 in the NIV and here is what it says, “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

 

Now here is what the NRSV says from verse 21 on to verse 25 to finish the sentence “But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christfor all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonementby his blood, effective through faith.”

 

“Pastor, I thought that we were just looking at verses 23 and 24. They make sense to me as they stand!”

 

They do to me, too.

 

But, having some understanding of the context is always helpful. And Romans is a very deep book. Paul is writing to make a point that because of what Jesus Christ has done for all of humanity both Jew and Gentile, the way to forgiveness has changed from the sacrificial system of the Old Testament to the way of Grace in the New Testament. No one, no one is excluded from the invitation and offering of Christ’s salvation on our behalf.

 

It was a radical concept back in the day because it was the point at which the emerging Christian faith was pulling away from its Jewish roots. And it was disturbing a great deal of people who thought that the old way should still be in place. Paul dealt with this issue throughout his ministry. He addresses it in some of his letters to the churches which appear later in the New Testament.

 

But now having a bit of context, let’s look out our main theme for this morning.

 

 Sin.

 

Wonderful word, isn’t it? Dark. Gloomy. Judgmental.

 

It is not a popular word.

 

But since the Bible uses it, we need to address it. This season of Lent requires us to think about the sin that we have in our lives.

 

But what is sin?

 

Good question!

 

There are a bunch of words used in the Bible about sin both in the Hebrew language of the Old Testament and the Greek language of the New. One such Greek word is Hamartolos which is pronounced ham-ar-to-los.’ It appears 45 times in the New Testament including four times in Romans. And the word used for sin in Romans 3:23 is the word Hamartano which appears 37 times in the New Testament and 6 in Romans. All of these words imply the idea of ‘missing the mark.’ In other words what Paul says to us, in the slightly larger context of Romans 3:21-25 is that everyone, Jew and Gentile, has missed the mark.

 

Missed the mark of what, pastor?

The doxa or glory of God!

Doxa is a Greek word which means, among the following, “opinion, judgment, view” and “the absolutely perfect inward or personal excellency of Christ…”

In other words we have fallen short in God’s view. We’ve sinned.

But what is sin, pastor?

Some people have a view of sin that is along the lines “of don’t smoke, don’t chew, don’t go with girls who do.” Sin is bigger and much deeper than this.

I think that we have often classified sin as something we ‘do.’ And sin is that. – We lie, we steal, we unfairly judge, among other things.  But sin is also more than something we do. There is an attitudinal dimension to sin. We can sin without “doing” anything. Jesus talked about such things in Matthew 5 where Jesus went to the motive of anger, revenge, and rage behind the act of murder and the motive of lust behind the act of adultery. In Jesus’ mind, the anger and the lust made a person just as guilty of sinning as the acts that accompanied them.

So Paul says, ‘we have all missed the mark that God has set up for us to hit.’ We are not perfect. We are in need of redemption!

This segment we call verse 23 is a segment that has been encouraged to be memorized and shared, over and over and over again. It tells a harsh story. We are flawed in God’s eyes and we cannot achieve the mark, the perfection of hitting the mark. At.all.

When I started writing this sermon I read our main text and I stopped and thought to myself, “Jim you have heard Romans 3:23 quoted and preached many, many, many times. But when have you studied, discussed, or heard a sermon on Romans 3:24?

“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

 

“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.”

 

“…since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,…”

 

There is good news this morning!

We are redeemable!

We are forgivable!

We are loved by God!

We are not a lost cause!

We are not a hopeless case!

This season of 40 days prior to Easter should and must give us pause because humankind is in need of redemption and a transformation that no government, economic, educational, or social program can make. Only the Lord truly can transform us. And none of us, unless we chose to resist God’s loving offer of forgiveness, are beyond this forgiveness, this transformation.

I close with a story from Brennan Manning about a college student named Larry who Manning taught in the late 1960’s. This is Manning’s description of Larry. “He was short, extremely obese, he had a terrible case of acne, a bad lisp, and his hair was growing like Lancelot’s horse – in four directions at one time. He wore the uniform of the day: a T-shirt that hadn’t been washed since the Spanish-American War, jeans with a butterfly on the back, and of course, no shoes. In all my days, I have never met anybody with such low self-esteem. He told me that when he looked in the mirror each morning, he spit at it.” (emphasis mine)

Manning goes on to describe their first meeting and then what Larry got as a gift for Christmas one year.

He lived on the east coast with his parents whose father, according to Manning never came to the dinner table no matter how hot it was without wearing a suit and tie. One evening Larry tells his dad that he had to leave for school the next day. His father inquired as to the time, Larry told him and his dad said that he would ride the bus with him to the bus station.

As they got off the bus, directly across the street is the factory where Larry’s dad worked. Six men are standing there and they begin to say, and I am quoting Manning here, “Oink, oink, look at that fat pig. I tell you, if that kid was my kid, I’d hide him the basement, I’d be so embarrassed.” Another said, “I wouldn’t. If that slob was my kid he’d be out the door so fast, he wouldn’t know if he’s on foot or horseback. Hey, pig! Give us your best oink!”

Larry went on to tell his professor, Manning, that his dad hugged him, kissed him and said, “Larry, if your mother and I live to be two hundred years old, that wouldn’t be long enough to thank God for the gift He gave to us in you. I am so proud that you’re my son!”

Larry went back to campus a changed young man. He cleaned up some, even began dating a girl, became president of a fraternity, and was the first to graduate with a 4.2 GPA. He also went to Manning one day and said, “Tell me about this man Jesus.” And for the next six weeks, 30 minutes at a time Manning did so. Larry went on to become a priest and a missionary, and again I quote Manning, “Sold out to Jesus Christ” because of his father’s love.

This is my point – this story is Romans 3:24 in my opinion. God has kissed us time and time again when we have felt ugly and unworthy. He embraces us in the presence of Satan demeaning taunts and tells us that He loves us!

So no matter our past and our appearance, we are loved and valuable to the Lord and this 40 day journey is a reminder that at the end… there is a cross and more than that, there is an empty tomb and even more than that – there is love, a love that takes us where we are and helps us become, if we so choose, the person that God has always meant us to become.

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall who’s the fairest one of all?”

What say you this morning?

Amen.

A Review of Stephen Arterburn’s Healing is a Choice

Do You Want to Get Well?

In a revised edition of a previously written work, Christian counselor and author Stephen Arterburn gets personal as he unpacks the process of healing we all need in Healing is A Choice: Ten Decisions that Will Transform Your Life and Ten Lies That Can Prevent You From Making Them.

They are, respectively:

1. The Choice to Connect Your Life (to others and healing communities and groups) vs. the belief (lie) that “All I need to heal is just God and me.”
2. The Choice to Feel Your Life (acknowledge and process your feelings) vs. the belief (lie) that ” Real Christians should have a a real peace in all circumstances.”
3. The Choice to Investigate Your Life in Search of Truth vs. the belief (lie) that “It does no good to look back or look inside.”
4. The Choice to Heal Your Future vs. the belief (lie) that “Time Heals All Wounds.”
5. The Choice to Help Your Life (by yourself) vs. the belief (lie) “I Can Figure this out by myself.”
6. The Choice to Embrace Your Life vs. the belief (lie) “If I just act as if there is no problem, it will finally go away.”
7. The Choice to Forgive vs. the belief (lie) that “Forgiveness is only for those who deserve or earn it.”
8. The Choice to Risk Your Life (and face your pain) vs. the belief (lie) “I must protect myself from any more pain.”
9. The Choice to Serve (others and God now) vs. belief (lie) “Until I am completely healed and strong, there is no place for me to serve God.”
10. The Choice to Perserve vs. the belief (lie) “There is no hope for me.”

The personal touch on this revised edition of this book, which includes an end of chapter study guide, that has many helpful exercises, is Arterburn’s journey from marriage through divorce and back into remarriage, though he does not spend a great deal of time on the details of each phase.

Time and again Arterburn stresses that while healing ultimately comes from God, each of us has to continuously make the choice to want to heal and be well. He stresses the ability and desire of God to help a hurting person make healthy, though often difficult, decisions to embrace healing and take the steps necessary to move forward.

Arterburn does not throw faith around in this book as a simplistic fix to a person’s deep inner wounds. Rather, he admits, through his own personal experience (without sounding self-aggrandizing) that faith is a way to navigate the hard places, such as forgiving the one who has harmed or hurt you.  There were many important and helpful statements that I underlined in my iBooks version of this book and two that I found to be helpful and perspective giving were the twenty personal inventory questions that appear in the chapter detailing the the third choice: Investigate Your Life in Search of Truth and the wonderful affirmations of chapter 11.

With the study guides this would be a wonderful book to use in group study.

I rate this book a ‘great’ read.

Note: I received an eBook version of this work via the Thomas Nelson’s blogging review program Booksneeze in exchange for a review. I was not required to write a positive review.

The Strategic Importance of Forgiveness

Once the willingness to forgive is abandoned, the raison-d-etre[reason to be/for being] of the Christian fellowship is lost. The society of the forgiven has no meaning if those who are forgiven are themselves unforgiving.  (Block segment mine)

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RVG Tasker

Commentary on Matthew 18  (Tyndale New Testament Commentary)

 

In my preparation for a presentation on forgiveness in a few weeks, I came across this statement by Tasker as he discusses the latter half of Matthew 18. It has given me a fresh and vital perspective on the strategic importance of forgiveness as a key practice and attitude of the Christian faith and the Christian Church.

The Audacity of Forgiveness

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Scripture Passage – Luke 23:34

Description – 2011 Community Good Friday Message

Our text for this noon hour is Luke 23:34, “While hanging on the cross Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”

An increasingly common sight along our interstates and local highways these days are crosses used to mark the sites of those killed in traffic accidents. There are three crosses about 5 minutes from our place of worship today that mark the site of a very tragic accident several years ago when US 6 was a sheet of ice.

And when I travel down Interstate 69 I think of the site where a tragic accident took place five years ago next Wednesday as a group of students and staff from Taylor University, headed back to campus when a semi, driven by a driver who had apparently fallen asleep at the wheel, crossed the median and hit their van head on. Of the six students who were in the van, only one survived.

Then several weeks later it was learned that a mix up occurred in the identification of two of the students and one who was believed to have been killed had really survived while the other one, believed to be alive, had died instead. What followed was an incredible story of grief and healing and forgiveness.

I remember watching Oprah when the family of the one who survived were interviewed. As I knew it would, a question came up about a phone call from an attorney seeking to represent them in legal action. With Oprah watching the audience to see their reaction, she asked him what they told the attorney. Basically it was, ‘Take your business elsewhere.’

Would you and I do the same? Or would we sue and seek damages? Or would we instead choose to forgive as these two families did?

Now I don’t know what happened after all of that but my sense was that those two families wanted to honor God and I have not heard of a lawsuit ever being filed. It could have been but at that time five years ago, it was not happening.

To forgive those who had mixed up your daughter’s identity and was responsible for her death was an audacious act.

 During this Lenten season I have taken our congregation on a journey through the very painful wounds people inflict on one another of invalidating people’s views, feelings, and even personhood; of escalating conflict through words and actions which “raise the temperature” in a relationship; of negative interpretations of one’s actions and words: and of withdrawal/avoidance in our relationships by either walking out of a conversation or simply avoiding a conversation that needs to take place; and how Christ demonstrated forgiveness as He faced these things in His earthly life and during His arrest, trial and crucifixion.

In the face of such inhuman and dehumanizing responses, forgiveness was an audacious act.

As He hung on the cross Jesus could have said, “Hey! I am the Messiah and this situation needs to be righted.” And then He could have acted accordingly but then forgiveness would have been short-circuited. God’s plan of redemption would have never taken place.

Jesus did not have to forgive them, but He chose to forgive them, as our text indicates. ‘Them’ – those who arrested Him, those who ‘tried’ Him, those who spit on Him, those who denied Him, those who taunted Him, and those who hung Him on the cross – they needed to be forgiven. For if not, where would have forgiveness started if not with ‘them?’

Forgiveness is an audacious thing to do to people who rage at and taunt us to our face and behind our back.

Yet we struggle with forgiveness, don’t we?

And it is not some fuzzy group of people ‘out there’ we have the most trouble forgiving, is it?

It is the people ‘in here’ that we have the most trouble forgiving.

The people we work with…

For students, the people who teach us and who we learn alongside…

The people we live next door to…

The people we call family, and not just the ones we live with, but the ones who share our family history and genetic sameness…

The people we worship with…

These are the people most difficult to forgive at times.

They wound us with their words or lack of attention…

They ignore us (just ask any teenager about the pain that comes from being ignored and they will tell how much it hurts)

They dismiss our views as stupid; our emotions as unrelated; and sometimes our very being as inconsequential.

I ask us this noon hour, “Do you think that the enemies, of which Jesus spoke, the ones He tells us to love, are not the ones we would see on a battlefield, but the ones in the bed next to us; or across the dinner table, or at the next machine or cubicle; or the ones who share our last name?”

To forgive them for wounding us so deeply is an audacious thing.

A bullet fired from a rifle at a distance on a battlefield is one thing but a knife in the back is something else. Jesus did not face the sniper’s rifle on this day. No he faced the deadliness of hand to hand/face to face combat. He was stabbed in the back by betrayal and denial.

The audacity of forgiveness requires us, almost on a moment by moment basis it sometimes seems, to forgive again and again and again:

“Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”

 “No, not seven times, but seventy times seven!”

Forgiving someone is an audacious thing to do. But it is also a necessary thing to do.

Jesus, I believe, hung on that cross neither out of hate nor anger but out of love. We who are parents understand what it means to ‘sacrifice’ for our children. We make choices to give something up or go without so that our kids can go to a camp, or have essential athletic equipment, or, in the case of our family these days, sing and dance across the stage!

We do it out of love. We want our children to thrive and succeed in ways we did not and we trust and pray in ways that God wants them to thrive and move forward.

But the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, a sacrifice greater than we will  ever make for our children, was as John 3:16 reminds us, was made out of love, not anger/not hate for all humankind. Forgiveness is God giving up the right to take the human race out of existence. Instead of judging (which He had a right to do and, one day, will do) God sought to close the gap between Him and us by sacrificing Himself, out of love, on the cross.

Forgiveness, through Christ’s death, and praise God, His resurrection, is about God wanting us back, wanting us home. He looks for us, He seeks us out, He loves on us even at our worst, because we matter to Him.

As I wrote this and thought about God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ I thought about the story of a man and his two sons. One was apparently was all set with daddy and could have anything He wanted when he wanted it. The other one wanted it then and there and he got his and wasted it while the other one stayed home thinking, I believe, “I have got it made!”

Eventually the one comes home because he realized that Daddy could be helpful again as he had run out of money and fun. But the other one has difficulty with it and refuses to join in the homecoming celebration for lots of reasons one of which I think is a fear that he is about to lose his status with daddy as the ‘good’ son. Daddy is frustrated and wonders why the oldest has trouble with the younger brother coming home. What he hears from the oldest is a person who has high expectations that become a breeding ground for all kinds of resentment and, as a result, of unforgiveness as well.

As I have re-read and re-studied the parable of the prodigal son in the past few years I have begun to ask myself, ‘Who is the real prodigal in this story?’

Forgiveness is a core issue here. The father forgave the youngest for his ‘oat sowing’ ways. But the oldest could not and more likely, would not.

And further more the oldest son misses the point of what the father did for the youngest son. It was not about ‘things’ nor power nor standing.

It was about a father who loved his two sons and was glad they were both home. A father who would have done just about anything to make sure they would be.

The father could have accepted the youngest offer of becoming a hired hand but that would have not been forgiveness. It would have been something short of forgiveness. In fact, I think that it would have illustrated the kind of a relationship that many people have with God today – a professional arrangement: lots of contact and interaction but a lack of a deep seated and personally chosen commitment.

This daddy loved his boys! He was not happy with a business arrangement as the youngest desired and the oldest seemed to have. This daddy wanted to be daddy in the best sense of the word. He did the audacious thing – he forgave his youngest and restored him to the right relationship – father and son.

The same holds true with our Heavenly Father. Jesus did not die on the cross so that we would have a formal relationship with us. He died so that He could get inside of us and change us at a deep and personal level. He wanted us back so much so that He could again celebrate with us and welcome us home.

(Prayers of Prodigals by Jim Kane)

O God

I have betrayed one that I love…

I have thrown away their trust,

I have stomped on their personhood.

I have treated them as a commodity and not as a person…

How could I have done this?

How could I have been so blinded by the shiny and new;

the provocative; and the sensual

by the unquenchable thirst for power and influence…

He is (was?) my friend/She was (is?) my spouse/They “are” my family…

I am unworthy to ask for forgiveness

I am only worthy of damnation and rejection

Everywhere I go people look at me and think (or so I think)

“GUILTY!”

But is it not the guilt ridden look of shame on my face that they see?

I am undone

I have failed

I am unworthy to look in their eyes and say, ‘I was wrong, please forgive me..’

Shame shadows me like the dark shadow of death..

And I have died and I have caused death…

the death of a trust

the death of a love

publicly pledged and given

nurtured from birth

created out of a common cause

O God! Help me!

I burn with the flames of sin, of shame, of evil!

Am I done?

In Your stealthy Love that fills my soul with hope,

In the Grace that seeps through the cracked walls of my soul

In the Mercy that oozes from the floor and gives me a solid foundation to stand on

You come to bring me home…

Me…

the prodigal me…

smelly, dirty, rancid

a shadow of the self You want me to be

You come and tell me

‘this day, you will be with me in paradise’

I had only hoped for a spot on the kitchen staff

but you have a place for me at family table…

I am undone

redone

re-booted

re-tuned

re.born

Great God of mercy,

Heavenly Father,

Abba…

Daddy!

I come, I come

just as I am

I come

redeem

renew

restore

restart

Amen and Amen

© 2011 by Jim Kane

Is there such a thing as a ‘no fault life?’

Image by C. G. P. Grey via Flickr

Scripture Passage – Luke 23:39-43

Description – The Sixth and Final Lenten sermon for 2011

Ever have an accident? Were you or the other party, if there was another party, at fault?

Here are some excuses given on police and insurance reports regarding accidents and I share them you from the perspective of “Who’s fault was it?”

“An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my vehicle, and vanished.”

“Coming home, I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I haven’t got.”

“The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.”

Then there is this jewel:

“I was on the way to the doctor with rear end trouble when my universal joint gave way causing me to have an accident.”

(Source: By His Stripes: Healing wounded relationship by Roger J Sonnenberg, © Creative Communications for the Parish, 2009)

One of the “recent” realities of our time is the development of ‘no fault insurance.’ And from what I was able to learn this week about no fault coverage is that it is a way to save time and money when minor accidents occur by not fixing blame on someone for the accident. There is more to it than this and not every state has no fault insurance. In fact, some have repealed their no fault laws in recent years.

As we conclude this Lenten series on finding healing in our relationships, I ask this morning, “Is there such a thing as a ‘no fault life?’”

Here is our main text from the New Living Translation this morning from Luke 23:39-43:

One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!”

But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”

And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (NLT)

In the past five weeks we have dealt with the relationally damaging issues of escalation, invalidation, negative interpretation, and withdrawal and how Christ faced every one of them and yet, as we heard last week, chose to forgive instead of hold a grudge or worse against those who had treated Him that way. This morning we take another look at forgiveness in the segment of scripture that is just after the one from last week and I want us to pay attention to the difference between the two thieves in their response to Jesus as well as Jesus’ response to the one thief.

First a couple of observations about the text:

The first thief to speak, often referred to as the unrepentant thief, joins in the harassment of Christ. “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!”

The second thief to speak, often referred to as the repentant thief, seeks something else, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” Many different interpretations and conclusions could be made (and have been made) about these two thieves but in the context of this series one thing stands out – their attitude toward Christ.

The first thief embodies everything destructive we have talked about this series. He dismisses Jesus as the Messiah by mocking (really invalidating) Him and then by escalating the situation by taunting Him along with the crowd.

He is bitter, resentful, and I would even suggest that he is very afraid because he is facing death (sometimes people get angry when they get afraid.) It is also interesting to think that given that Jesus was given what would amount to a painkiller of some kind, as noted in Matthew 27, this man probably was drugged and in a state of shock because of the physical pain he was experiencing. And yet he responded to Jesus with harsh words and, I think, a sneer in his voice.

And then there is the repentant one.

As I ponder these two people who hung on either side of Jesus lots of questions enter my mind. “Were they partners in crime?” “Did they know one another?”

“Did they commit the same crime?” “Were they brothers?”

We don’t know and really it is Christ who is and must be our focus, and yet these two men represent the two bottom line responses to Christ – rejection or acceptance. They represent humanity.

This second one, through the work of the Spirit we must believe, recognized who Jesus truly was, and responded to him with a trembling and anxious hope that he would be remembered by the Lord in His kingdom. But Jesus responded by saying “you will be with me in paradise.”

Why the sour and bitter response of the one and the anxious but believing response of the other?

This is where we clearly see our choice to choose between (and struggle with) right and wrong/good and evil as St Paul makes clear in Romans 7:

I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another powerwithin me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

He confidently concludes: “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.”

So what does this mean for us today?

This sinful nature of which Paul speaks, that he wrestles with, and (I will simply state) so do I, is not a ‘no-fault’ nature. It has implications for every aspect of life from economics to family life to international relations.

We are responsible for how we deal with this nature because it is part of every one of us. It is a flawed, deeply flawed nature.

The thieves on the cross illustrate for us the reality of our lives lived out of such a nature. It has led them to this point, a point of physical death. They have been condemned to death because the nature of which Paul speaks and we all wrestle with had been allowed to take control and guide their actions and attitudes.

But their nature, that force within them, within each of us, also condemned them to a second kind of death – a spiritual death and that is what the second thief is very much aware of as he hung beside Christ. Anyone of us here this morning could be either one of those thieves.

Now wait just a minute pastor, I have never committed a crime! I have never been accused of stealing anything. I have never even had a speeding ticket!

Okay.

But have we not invalidated another person by the way we talk about them behind their back?

Have you or I not escalated a situation to white hot heat by throwing flammable words out of our mouths in order ‘to set the record straight?’

Have we not demeaned a person by refusing to engage in a conversation that we need to have with them and listen to their side of the story?

I am thinking right now about the two sons in the parable of the prodigal son. And I am thinking about the older son at this moment.

Listen to what he says to his father when he hears of the party being thrown for his younger brother:

Luke 15:25-32

When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

       “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

       “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

I have asked myself from time to time, which son really is the prodigal, the one who came to his senses or the one who stayed home? It is tragic, and Jesus made this clear because He was making a point, that the older son was missing out on what was most important, the right and best relationship with the father. Why? He was focused on the wrong things. He felt he was entitled to certain things because he had been faithful to his father. But he was missing the bigger point. It was not to be ‘what have you done for me lately dad.’ It was to be ‘I love you dad and I am glad that you are my father and this is my family.’

Entitlement is a dangerous place to be because it sets one up for all sorts of pain and disappointment. We have heard about entitlement in this series though we have not necessarily spoken of it directly.

I think that the unrepentant thief had an entitlement issue. He expected Jesus to do something for him without having to do anything in return.

But the second thief did not express such an attitude of entitlement. His awareness was driven by fear, a good kind of fear I would add, and the realization that life had not turned out in the right way. In humble awareness and hope he sought out Jesus’ remembrance.

But Jesus did more than remember him. He brought him into the kingdom. He forgave him because Jesus heard, not just in the words but also in the man’s attitude of true sorrow, words of regret and repentance.

Which is what all of this is about – forgiveness and absolution.

Absolution, now there is a word that perhaps we have seldom heard. What does it mean? It means the same as forgiveness. But there is a deeper aspect to it as well.

To absolve someone of something is, according to dictionary.com, “to free from guilt or blame or their consequences,” and “to grant pardon for.”

This is at the heart forgiveness. Jesus, in His love and mercy, frees the man from the guilt of his consequences and pardons him for his actions.

This is what the cross and Lent and Holy Week and Good Friday and Easter Sunday is truly about! Forgiveness! Absolution!

As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:19, “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.”

So how do we make forgiveness and absolution happen?

Well at one level, we cannot make it happen. It is not our doing. It is God’s doing.

But…

We have to have the perspective and attitude of the repentant thief. We must come humbly to Christ and ask to be forgiven of our sins. Christ wants to do this for us. He wanted to do it for both men who hung on either side of him. But we must be willing and open and humble ourselves.

We must also be willing to forgive. Jesus spoke of this often. The whole Bible speaks of this as well. This is part of the message of reconciliation of which Paul speaks.

Finally we must change our ways and the direction of our lives. For some of us it means letting go of old things and embracing new things. One of the most difficult and to me, sad, things about people in the Bible are those who get so close to following Christ but then, at the last minute, turn away. There is the rich young ruler and there are those in the crowd following Jesus who has things to do first before they can follow Jesus.

They missed out on so much more.

The unrepentant thief missed out on so much more.

And they cannot blame God for those missed opportunities and neither can we.

How is your relationship to God this Sunday morning? Is it what it needs to be right now?

Have you confessed your sins and shortcomings to Christ? Or, because of pride or a hardness of heart, are you refusing to do so?

Have you accepted Christ’s forgiveness? Or do you struggle to be forgiven by trying to do it on your own.

We do not live in a ‘no-fault’ world. But we can live forgiven.

We do not life a ‘no-fault’ life. But we can be forgiven and empowered to live a God centered life.

Let us be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit this morning and respond accordingly.

Amen

There Is No Warranty on Relationships

Scripture Passage – Luke 23:32-34
Description – The fifth sermon of the 2011 Lenten Series

I begin with a loaded question this morning, ready for it? (And I am not asking for feedback this morning.)
Married people, what is the one thing about your spouse that you still wish you could change after being married to them for whatever length of time you have been married to them?
The purpose for my question has to do with the ever present expectations that exist in not just marriage but any relationship.
Roger Sonnenberg makes some very interesting, and I think, insightful, comments about expectations regarding marriage, and really, human relationships in general when he says,” marriages come with all sorts of unrealistic expectations, fueled by a media that suggests a few dates, a jump in the sack, and you can live happily evermore, unless you’re one of the actors or actresses portraying the characters themselves!”
Now when I think about expectations I also think about cars. I have owned eight cars in the past 30 years. That is average of just under four years per car. In several instances I was expecting to keep a car for several years after paying it off. And I was also expecting that they would last several more years.
I have found my expectations very unrealistic. The longest I have kept a car was 6 years and by then it was leaking antifreeze in the car lot where we bought our next car and the salesman said, “That’s not your problem anymore.” But we purchase warranties and buy cars that feature 100,000 mile and five or six year warranties and yet our expectations seem to be disappointed when they don’t last or face a stream of recalls (which in one way is a good thing compared to the way it used to be.)
Now what does our main passage have to do with this issue of expectations? Especially as it deals with expectations in relationships that do not have warranties?
A key way to answer this question is by asking, ‘What builds and enhances relationships?’
We have looked at ways the past four weeks in which relationships are torn down. Escalation through an increase of provoking words and actions; invalidation by means of tearing down the efforts and even personhood of another human being; making negative interpretations of conversations and events by believing the worst instead of seek to discover the truth; and withdrawal or avoidance that cuts off good and effective communication from taking place.
All of these four dysfunctions were present in Christ’s arrest and death.
But taking a cue from Sonnenberg, I suggest that we see in Christ’s response of “Father, forgive them” as an expression of restoration, and even healing, of relationships, torn by invalidation, escalation, negative interpretation, and even withdrawal.
Forgiveness opens the door to validation, clear communication, and a calming environment in which people and the relationships people need to exist thrive and grow. Forgiveness, what Christ’s death and resurrection has made possible from the very heart and love of God, brings healing because:

…it validates us as created in God’s image and people of worth and value;

… it creates the ability, through the power and work of the Holy Spirit, to clearly and effectively communicate our thoughts and feelings as well as understand the thoughts and feelings of others;

… it ‘lowers the room temperature’ by de-escalating our emotions and the words which express those emotions and can thus enable us to resolve conflicts in God honoring ways.

… it removes unrealistic expectations that often are the spark in escalating a conflict or causing us to invalidate others by words and actions by revealing just how unrealistic those expectations are.

So what does all of this mean for us this week?

The conflicts that Christ faced during His time here on earth are the same kinds of conflicts we face today. He was invalidated, he faced escalating violence that culminated in His death. His identity and character was discounted and misunderstood. And those closest to Him deserted, betrayed, and denied Him at the worst possible moment. But in a moment when He could have exerted His power and authority and come down off the cross… He chose to forgive.
We have been misunderstood and discounted at times. We have been betrayed or deserted by those we thought were friends and even have had family turn their back on us and walk away. People have withdrawn from us and avoided having conversations that needed to happen due to fear, anger, insecurity, or something else that we will never know about because the other person avoids addressing the situation.
But, we have been given the choice to forgive because Christ has forgiven us… all of us. And He did so while hanging on the cross.

And as I prepared the message this week I found myself asking the question “Who is the “them” that Jesus is referring to when He says, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do?”
All of humanity is present at the cross. It is the Passover season and people of many nationalities and backgrounds have come to Jerusalem to celebrate God’s redemptive act or to keep things from getting out of hand.
I think that some of them stood and watched Jesus’ trial. I think that some of them stood along the streets as He marched, in great pain, to the place of execution, and mocked Him. And I think that some of them stood near the cross and taunted Him.
“You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!”
“He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

So who is them?
All of them! All of us!

When Jesus said to Nicodemus that because God loved the world and would send His only son to redeem the world, He did not put any qualifiers on it. The world means, the world, all of humanity.
Jesus chose to forgive; God chose to forgive; all of us, past, present, and future. None of us are outside the walls of God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ, none.of.us.

Would you, would I, choose to forgive those who were taking my life? That’s a good question to ask but it is not the right question to ask this morning.
The question to ask, “Am I willing to forgive, truly forgive, those who have hurt me – who have invalidated me, who have dismissed my thoughts and my feelings, who have bullied me through escalating a conflict, and who have walked away from or out of a conversation that was essential to have?”
Some of us might be thinking this morning, “Pastor Jim, I want to forgive and move on but I cannot forget what was done to me.” Others of us might be thinking, “I want to make things right but I am not sure how to do so.” Or, “I want to forgive and reconcile but the other person is unwilling or I don’t know where they are at or are dead.” How are we to do this? How do I truly forgive and move forward?
Here are four things:
1. We make the choice to forgive – sometimes again and again and again. Forgiveness is one thing. Forgetting is another thing. It is important to remember Matthew 18:21-22, “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
2. Be willing to make the first move. Matthew 5:23-24 gives us some encouragement (and challenge). “If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God.”
3. But also be willing to wait. The story of the Prodigal Son and his father is a story to ponder here. The father waited for the Son to come home. He did not run after him but welcomed him home with open arms. Sometimes in the process of forgiveness we have to wait.
4. Pray, pray, pray. We need to be in tune with the Lord in this matter and we need to pray for those we are seeking to forgive and be forgiven.

Let us ponder the meaning of Jesus’ message in Luke 4:18-19 as a way of understanding the intersection between the results of invalidation, escalation, negative interpretation, withdrawal, and unrealistic expectations and the hope of Christ’s forgiveness: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Let us seek to be free from invalidation, escalation, negative interpretation, withdrawal and avoidance, and unrealistic expectations as we in turn, through the power of the Holy Spirit, help others to be free from the same thing, as we forgive, and pray for God’s forgiveness to be accepted in other’s lives. Amen.

You Don’t Count

Scripture Passage – Matthew 27:27-31

Description – The second sermon of the 2011 Lenten Series

When nations go to war one of the things that happen is that the dynamic of invalidation takes place as a means of defeating the enemy.

This happens, quite frankly, through not just  military means but  psychological means as well to break the enemy’s will to fight.

When families go to war one of the things that happen is that the dynamic of invalidation takes place as a means of defeating the enemy no matter who it is – husband, wife, child, or parent.

Families use words, words that hurt, words whose sole purpose is to defeat another person. Actions, like “the cold shoulder” are also part of the arsenal. The result is that people are invalidated.

When churches go to war one of the things that happen is that the dynamic of invalidation takes place as a means of defeating the enemy and not necessarily Satan but the person who disagrees with “my” views.

Churches likewise use words, that hurt, and whose purpose runs the gamut from a coup d’etat to maintaining the status quo. Then there are actions, like arguing over bylaws, which are means to invalidate others, by arguing how a motion is to be made or not made.

Invalidation is a way of life for us in this sinful and fallen world.

Now what do you mean Pastor by invalidation? One definition, in a martial environment, is of a “pattern in which one partner subtly or directly puts down the thoughts, feelings, or character of the other.”

(Source: Fighting for Your Marriage via By His Strips Lenten Series created by Creative Communications for the Parish)

As we continue our Lenten journey toward Jerusalem, I again remind us of something that I shared two weeks ago as I introduced this Lenten series.

Jesus knew exactly what it was like to be inflicted by words and actions that hurt.

Jesus was invalidated, often invalidated, during His earthly ministry. He was invalidated as the religious, and political, leaders of that day called into question his motives, his character, and his identity.

And He was deeply and profoundly invalidated the morning of His arrest as we read in our main text for this morning, Matthew 27:27-31

The soldiers assigned to the governor took Jesus into the governor’s palace and got the entire brigade together for some fun. They stripped him and dressed him in a red toga. They plaited a crown from branches of a thornbush and set it on his head. They put a stick in his right hand for a scepter. Then they knelt before him in mocking reverence: “Bravo, King of the Jews!” they said. “Bravo!” Then they spit on him and hit him on the head with the stick. When they had had their fun, they took off the toga and put his own clothes back on him. Then they proceeded out to the crucifixion. (The Message)

As I read this passage again this week I decided to further research the process of crucifixion and several details in this passage. I will spare us a complete and detailed picture of all that happened when someone was crucified.

However, I want to point out two details, one of which is in this passage and one of which appears in the next two verses, verses 32-34 “Along the way they came on a man from Cyrene named Simon and made him carry Jesus’ cross. Arriving at Golgotha, the place they call “Skull Hill,” they offered him a mild painkiller (a mixture of wine and myrrh), but when he tasted it he wouldn’t drink it.”

The first point has to do with the “entire brigade” which is translated “company” in other versions of scripture. I did some research to find out how many soldiers made up a company of Roman Soldiers. I could not find an exact number but it appears that it was perhaps 200 or so soldiers.

What this says to me is that, no matter how big the number, a lot of Roman soldiers were present to humiliate and to invalidate Jesus as they mocked him as “King of the Jews.” And invalidation by such a large group has always been a tragic and profoundly painful experience.

The other point I want to make is that most of the time the condemned person carried the cross they were to be hung on to the crucifixion site. Jesus couldn’t and Simon was forcibly used to carry it. He had been beaten, which was necessarily not the normal custom, as well as flogged. He had no strength left in Him.

The whole situation was very invalidating. It was designed to be. You were a criminal, a radical, a terrorist, you were nothing. You were not human. You did not count.

In their mocking and in their customary abuse, the Roman soldiers, invalidated Jesus Christ.

So what does this mean for all of us today? Why should we even hear, let alone consider, this whole concept of invalidation? Jesus after all died and rose again! That’s what we need to talk about, Pastor not this stuff!

This stuff is too uncomfortable. Too raw.

Let’s talk about heaven!

I acknowledge such feelings. This was not an easy sermon to write. (And this has only been the introduction!) But scripture speaks a great deal to the whole issue of human relationships and we see the effects of our sin and our sinfulness throughout the Bible!

There is…

Cain and Abel,

Jacob and Easu,

David and Uriah,

The Prodigal Son and his brother,

Jesus and Judas

All were relationships in which one party basically said to the other, “You don’t count” and because you don’t count I am going to do all I can to get the upper hand.

And it is because of our selfish choices that began when Adam and Eve believed that becoming like God would the best thing that could happen, we have been engaged in invalidating others while trying to find validation from everything else but the Lord!

How do we reverse the cycle of invalidation that has crippled our relationships across the board?

Let me suggest three key things:

We start by becoming emotionally mature and whole. I have really come to believe that emotional health and wholeness is a vital part of being a strong follower of Jesus Christ.

Dr Bob Kellerman of RPM Ministries (www.rpmministries.org) suggests that “emotions are windows to the soul. All emotions, positive or painful, open doors to the nature of reality. Emotions link our inner and outer world. But we want to escape the reality of both. The Scriptures teach that the suppression of feelings is a refusal to face the sorrow of life and our hunger for heaven. It is not a mark of maturity. Our refusal to embrace our feelings is an attempt to deal with a God who does not relieve our pain.”

He goes on to say “emotions are God-given. They are not satanic. Adam had them before the Fall. God has them. Christ has them. In and of themselves, they are not sinful. They are beneficial, and yes, even beautiful.”

(Source: http://www.rpmministries.org/2011/02/emotional-intelligence-the-abcs-of-emotions/)

Some of us are simply more emotional than others. We express our feelings quite freely and others of us are not so emotional, we tend to privately express our emotions. But all of us have emotions and it is part of being created by God.

To validate people’s emotions takes the guidance of the Holy Spirit, lots of listening, and emotional maturity. Easier said than done, I know. And in my own journey I have moved in the direction of emotional health and maturity as I have learned to, with the help of the Holy Spirit, feel and own my own feelings.

The second thing I think we need to do is to admit, then process, and learn from our feelings again with the Spirit’s help. Now to some of us this might appear to be weird and ‘touchy feely.’ It isn’t.

One of things that I have had the touching privilege of watching over the years are several individuals who have come to the place of a more peaceful and God centered life as they have admitted to, processed, and learned from their feelings as part of taking responsibility for their lives and overcoming despair and even depression. It was not an overnight process. It was, at times, a frustratingly period of starts and stops. But, with God’s grace and help, they learned, that emotional health and maturity was part of becoming a person who learned to validate themselves and others in a new and honest way.

This is not just about a humanistic view of life. This is not just some positive psychology thingy. I think that one of the most important aspects of the Great Commandment, loving your neighbor as yourself, has to do with the practice of validating people. But in loving your neighbor as yourself (which includes validation), you have to love yourself. To do that requires a continuous commitment to the Lord which includes emotional maturity.

Jesus is our example here. He validated people, certainly as He called them to change, and called them to follow Him, but also as a means of making clear the profoundness of God’s grace and mercy. He did so out of an emotionally matured heart.

Finally we need to practice, as our handout for this morning states, good words.

In Philippians 4:8 we read these words: “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”

One of the challenges to validation is the thoughts that we think. The words we speak are often the messengers of our thoughts. So to speak validating words we have to think validating thoughts. Our handout makes that clear with point number one.

Jesus likewise affirms the link between our thought life and our words when he speaks about the spiritual clarity, or lack there of, in our hearts and what comes out of our mouths as we read in Luke 6:45. “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.”

Now while I will readily admit that I sometimes do not say what I am thinking because such restraint is very important and necessary at times, The words that come out of our mouths reflect what is in our hearts and if validation is not in our hearts because we have both chosen for it not to be there and also because we have not allowed the Lord to cleanse our hearts, then our words will be invalidating words and we also live as invalidating people.

As I reflect on these three actions: allow for feelings to be experienced and expressed; appropriately process our own emotions; and intentionally, with the Spirit’s help think and speak words of validation, a question come to my mind that I think summarizes the importance of living a life of validating people.

What do you want your last words to be to those you love and care about?

It will soon be 20 years since my father passed away. My dad was a servant. He served the local churches we attended as a family very well. He was trusted by the pastors who served us and I think, was a source of help to those pastors.

I was finishing up my second master’s degree when word came from my mom that dad had experienced as serious heart attack. I postponed a final exam and headed home the next morning.

I spent five days with my dad before I left him for what would be the last time. Over the next two weeks they attempted to correct his very blocked arteries but was unable to do so.

Two days before he died I had what was to be my last phone conversation with him. I was underemployed at the time and was looking for a ministry position to fill (which would not happen until 15 months after his death.)

As we started to hang up my dad said to me with a quietness in his voice that I had never heard, “I am praying that the Lord will lead you to the right job.”

Those were words of validation. Those are words that I will remember for as long as I am able to remember them. They helped me stay steady as I navigated through the transitional period I was in.

What do you want your last words to your children, your family, your friends to be? Words of invalidation or validation?

Christ came to release us from the wounds of invalidating words and actions. He understood what it meant to be invalidated.

What is the Spirit saying to you this day?

I pray that each of us will be open to the Spirit this morning and in the mornings to come to so that we will heal with our words and actions and as we do, the grace of our Lord and Savior will work through our words and actions of validation and accomplish His redemptive purpose in people. Amen.

Forgiveness, A Necessary Gift

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Scripture Passage – Hebrews 11:23-29a and John 3:13-17

Description – The Second  Sermon of the 2010 Advent Series

(Introduction included a dramatic reading from the Advent Series ‘While Shepherd’s Watched,’ by Arden W. Mead. © 1999 Creative Communication for the Parish)

It was by faith that Moses’ parents hid him for three months. They saw that God had given them an unusual child, and they were not afraid of what the king might do.

It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be treated as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of the Messiah than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to the great reward that God would give him. It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt. He was not afraid of the king. Moses kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible. It was by faith that Moses commanded the people of Israel to keep the Passover and to sprinkle blood on the doorposts so that the angel of death would not kill their firstborn sons.

It was by faith that the people of Israel went right through the Red Sea as though they were on dry ground. But when the Egyptians followed, they were all drowned.

(Slide one) Now at first reading, this passage of scripture when compared to the story of Moses as it is stated in Exodus 2 and following, seems to gloss over the fact that Moses murdered an Egyptian who was beating an Israelite and then was confronted by other Israelites about the matter when he attempted intervene in a conflict between two of them thus forcing Moses to run for his life! So how come Moses is included in this wonderful 11^th chapter of Hebrews?

One word. Redemption.

What else can explain God’s mission for Moses other than redemption? He had committed a capital crime and ran from being arrested and executed for his act.

Now we read these words from Hebrews after the fact as we have the larger picture of Moses’ life before us in scripture. So, I believe, did the writer of our main text today. And yet Moses was a fugitive on the run from a heinous act committed, from all indications, in a moment of extreme passion.

We continue our advent series, ‘While Shepherd’s Watched’ today with a visit to Moses and his story.

Last week we began this holiday series with Abraham and next week we shall visit King David. But in all of these visits a theme that our dramatic readings have pointed us toward has been the theme of looking to the sky. I have expanded on this with the theme of watching as indicated in the materials we are using this Advent season.

Our dramatic reading is set later in Moses’ life as he talks with his successor, Joshua about his “life on the lam” and also God’s redemptive acts.

I think that when he left Egypt that first time in a hurry he was “watching over his shoulder” for many, many years wondering if he would be recognized and captured when a group of Egyptian traders would come through the area he ended up living in. (Guilt, shame, and fear causes us to look over our shoulder too, doesn’t it?)

But forgiveness, redemption is available to us as well.

I have often wondered why it took God so long to get Moses’ attention with “a bush that did not burn up while it burned” and ordered him back to Egypt.  Perhaps it was so that those who knew him (Moses) would be dead by now and not cause problems because of what happened.  Or maybe Moses needed that time to come to the place where God knew he was ready. I don’t know.

I wondered how often Moses looked up at the sky over those long years and wondered if he thought about his parents and his people. I wonder if God became a distant memory as well. Did Moses still believe in God or was God out there, up there some where, and not close by?

But I also know this and believe this to be true: God was aware of Moses over those years and God was aware of the suffering of His people and when God deemed the time was right to act, He did so. And he started His process of redeeming both the ancient Hebrews and Moses. A process, a plan that ends, yet in some ways begins, with the baby in the manger.

As I re-read Exodus three this week, I noticed that Moses did not bring up the past when He began talking to God about this return trip. But I cannot help but think that in the excuses he began to make about being a stutterer (which he could have been); or the credibility issue with the people, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘the God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they won’t believe me… Then what should I tell them?” (Exodus 3:13); behind all of them was his thoughts about his past.

But God was too busy with redeeming the ancient Hebrews and their future leader to let that get in his way.

Now you might be thinking, Pastor Jim, didn’t Moses need to get down on his knees and repent of what he had done? That is a good point.

(Slide two) Enter…

… the –bush –that -did- not- burn- up –while- it –burned

Exodus 3:1-7 “One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he went deep into the wilderness near Sinai, the mountain of God. Suddenly, the angel of the Lord appeared to him as a blazing fire in a bush. Moses was amazed because the bush was engulfed in flames, but it didn’t burn up. “Amazing!” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go over to see this.”

When the Lord saw that he had caught Moses’ attention, God called to him from the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

“Here I am!” Moses replied.

“Do not come any closer,” God told him. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he hid his face in his hands because he was afraid to look at God.”

I wonder if Moses ever thought that this day would come. I wonder if and when he looked up at the sky at night, would redemption, forgiveness, a second chance come to him- Moses, a man who was once been a part of a royal court in what was probably the most powerful nation of that region in the period of history, and now was a lowly shepherd?

What needed to happen is that God needed to become Moses’ God and not just the God of his ancestors. And I think that in the subsequent dialogue between God and Moses, part of the agenda is for Moses to fully embrace not just God’s plan for the people, but His plan for Moses as well. And wrapped up in all of that somewhere is God’s act of redeeming Moses from what he had done in the past.

(Slide three) This gift of forgiveness is a necessary gift in order to live and love as God desires us to. And on that day, when a bush that burned but did not burn up caught Moses’ sight, everything began to change for Moses.

Have you ever had a ‘burning bush’ moment when God became alive and personal to you? Such moments take place when we most likely do not expect them. God suddenly shows up in an unusual way and catches our attention. They cause us to look up and at God.

I asked some friends this week,” Where is the most unlikely place you have heard what you have believed to be God’s voice ‘speaking’ to you?” Some of them said they have heard God’s voice while driving, in the shower, listening to music, and at their work location. For me one of the most unusual places has been while cutting the grass during mowing season. Now these probably are not “bush burning” moment but they indicate that God speaks to us at different times and in different ways.

And this brings us to communion this morning.

The gift of forgiveness, of redemption, of a second chance, came to Moses in the form of a “bush that burned but did not burn up.” God did this to get Moses to “look up” and see Him.

God continues to offer us forgiveness of our sins and shortcomings. He might even use a “bush that burned but did not burn up” moment to get our attention. But we also have the more common and equally important moments of confession, like this morning, when God speaks to us.

Are there things that you need to confess to God today and seek His forgiveness? Confess them today even I speak. Let God have His way with you by turning in repentance and forgiveness to him. Look up and see the Lord today.

Amen.

July 6, 2010: A Prayer for the Week

Almighty God, Spirit of purity and grace, in asking thy forgiveness I cannot claim a right to be forgiven but only cast myself upon thine unbounded love.

I can plead no merit or desert:

I can plead no extenuating circumstances:

I cannot plead the frailty of my nature:

I cannot plead the force of the temptations I encounter:

I cannot plead the persuasions of others who led me astray:

I can only say, for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son, my Lord. Amen. (John Baillie)

The Message of the Church is Love and Forgiveness

Scripture Passage – John 3:1-21

Description – First of a part series ‘The Message of the Church is…’

(Slide 1) Think back with me to December 26, 2009, the day after Christmas. Perhaps you still had one or two more Christmas celebrations to go but for most of us, Christmas celebrations, i.e. ‘opening the gifts’ was done for another year.

(Slide 2) Quick, name one Christmas gift that you received!

Ok, name one Christmas gift that you gave?

Now since I was not sure how this little experiment was going to work, I determined to use some statistics to follow up! According to research done in 2007 by World Vision, the International Relief agency, 51% of the men surveyed in the United Kingdom, could not remember “what gifts their partners got them last Christmas.” Now ladies, before you smile too broadly, 43% of the women surveyed could not remember what they had been given! The study also noted that 27% of the Britons surveyed could not remember what they had been given.

The study goes on to say, “Over three quarters of those surveyed (76%) believed that they waste up to £50 (about $76.00) on unwanted presents each year. Added together this would mean a massive £2.3 billion (about 5.3 billion dollars) in wasted Christmas presents across the nation this festive season.

Of the hundreds of thousands of gifts that are unwanted each year, 39% sit in the cupboard gathering dust and 28% are sold on the internet after the festive season has ended.”

(Source: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/6436)

Why?

I started this way this morning because of a belief that we easily forget important things. Fellow blogger Joan Ball wrote recently about her inability to remember certain things.

“I forget birthdays and anniversaries (including my own). I have no cloth-covered boxes full of trinkets that jog my memory about precious moments from days gone by. The pictures of family and friends that I do have – and there aren’t many – are strewn haphazardly in boxes in the garage with books and papers that I haven’t gone through in two or three moves from one house to another.

Now to be fair to her she goes on to say this. “It’s not that I don’t value memories, I just tend to hold onto them in stories rather than in keepsakes and deliberate celebrations… I have to count on my hands or do math to recall when exactly I got sober, how many years it’s been since I got married or whether it was daytime or night when I gave birth to my children. Yet I can recall a dozen stories about each of the events as if they happened yesterday.”

(Source: http://blog.beliefnet.com/flirtingwithfaith/2010/03/lent-holy-week-easter-and-memories-of-my-parents.html)

This is my point about gifts and remembering… and forgetting.

(Slide 3) There is a danger in forgetting… the right thing.

(Slide 3a) There is a danger in remembering…the wrong thing.

(Slide 4) I believe that today we are in danger of forgetting what the church and message of the church is truly about and to be about. I also believe that we are in danger of remembering the wrong things about the church and the message of the church.

I am concerned about the hijacking of the word “Christian” for many different things these days. To me it has become an almost exclusively political word that causes problems for both the church and our society.

And in light of Easter I think that we need to spend time remembering what the church and the church’s message is truly about. For the next seven weeks, are going to spend time in both the New and Old Testaments with large segments, if not entire chapters, of scripture for the purpose of revisiting and remember what the church’s message and purpose is.

Here is a brief overview.

(Slide 5)

Today: Love and Forgiveness – John 3:1-21

Next Sunday: Repentance – Acts 2:22-47

April 25^th: Obedience – 1 John 3:1-10

May 2^nd: Communion – Luke 24:35-49

May 9^th: Guiding and Caring For Others- Psalm 23

May 16^th: Peace – Acts 7:54-60

May 23^rd: The Power to Change – Acts 2:1-13

This morning, I will read our main text as I go along rather all at once.

(Slide 6) Jean Vanier has written “Until we learn to see our enemies as wounded people who are loved by God, gentleness & reconciliation are not possible.”

And, from one perspective, we have two enemies facing one another in the beginning of John 3.

(Slide 7) “After dark one evening, a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus, a Pharisee, came to speak with Jesus.”

The differences between who Nicodemus represents and who Jesus represents are well known and need no more comment here except to say that these differences are made clear in their dialogue that follows.

“Teacher,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are proof enough that God is with you.”

Jesus replied, “I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God.”

“What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”

Jesus replied, “The truth is, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven. So don’t be surprised at my statement that you must be born again. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”

“What do you mean?” Nicodemus asked.

Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? I assure you, I am telling you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe us. But if you don’t even believe me when I tell you about things that happen here on earth, how can you possibly believe if I tell you what is going on in heaven?”

Sometimes we have perhaps thought that the dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus was done at night as Nicodemus did not want to be seen. Seen by whom? His people? The disciples? Other people?

Granted, we read in John 19:39, “Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night, also came, bringing about seventy-five pounds of embalming ointment made from myrrh and aloes.” In other words, he helped to bury Jesus.

Why? Many believe that he was a secret disciple of Jesus. And perhaps he was.

But, what if he came to help bury Jesus so that he could say to his people, “mission accomplished” I helped bury him?”

We don’t know for sure though this hint from John 19 and another one from John 7 as well as his statement in our main text that “Your miraculous signs are proof enough that God is with you” could indicate that Nic truly believe that Jesus was the Messiah.

As I re-read this passage again this past week, I found that Jesus is very blunt with him when he fails to understand what Jesus is saying.

…don’t be surprised at my statement that you must be born again.

…You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things?

I don’t know about you but it seems to me that they are talking past one another. It is like they have two different agendas as they speak. Have you ever had your experience of talking past another person and not connecting with them on the “same page” as we put it?

But I also have started to wonder if their agendas were different because they had two different mental models or paradigms they were operating from.

Jim Harrington, Mike Bonem, and Jim Furr define a mental model as “the images, assumptions, and stories we use to interpret our world and guide our actions.”

(Source: Harrington, Bonem, and Furr Leading Congregational Change)

For example, when we hear the word “city” our mental model of a city comes into play quickly and subconsciously. For some of us the word “city” brings forth images of busyness, crime, and of fear. For others the word “city” evokes images and assumptions of lots of things to do and places to go. Our response to the image and conception of “city” is based on our paradigm that is deeply held and shaped out of our experiences and choices.

Nicodemus is speaking out of his training and background as a religious professional. He speaks the language of faith but in a very intellectual and traditional way. His mental model of faith is shaped by a perspective that it is a group of rules and guidelines and traditions that must be followed so that God is obeyed.

Jesus sees it very differently.

He speaks of Spirit and being born again and of faith. Of things unseen but felt like the wind. His mental model, His paradigm, is shaped by an inner awareness and understanding.

I think that this passage illustrates something that we have trouble understanding in our day and age. Namely, the radical difference between the old way of coming to God through the Law of Moses, as defined in the Old Testament verses the new way that Jesus would bring into existence through His death and resurrection. They are two very different ways of looking at not just faith and God but also love and forgiveness.

Well Jesus takes over the rest of the dialogue and Nicodemus is silent. We do not know how they parted. But it is in the middle part of this chapter, the most often quoted part, that Jesus makes clear to Nicodemus, and to us via the Holy Spirit through the words of scripture, what is the core issue about forgiveness and love.

For only I, the Son of Man, have come to earth and will return to heaven again. And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so I, the Son of Man, must be lifted up on a pole so that everyone who believes in me will have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.

“There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God. Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. They hate the light because they want to sin in the darkness. They stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be punished. But those who do what is right come to the light gladly, so everyone can see that they are doing what God wants.”

We have quoted, and have heard quoted, many, many, many times this sixteenth verse of John 3. It is considered to be a key verse for the Christian faith. Take it out, ignore it, or deny it, and you will strip the Christian faith of its reason to be.

Jesus did not come to this earth to be a political revolutionary. He stayed away from politics. (And politics, along with jealousy, combined with the sinfulness of humanity did Him in!)

Jesus was the Messiah, the chosen one! He came to redeem us from the sin that has caused us failure, guilt, and shame with Him and others. He came not to condemn us (we do that quite well, unfortunately) He came to forgive us and love us and make us truly new persons. He came to save us! He came, as He says in Matthew 5:17 “[not] to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to fulfill them.”

(Slide eight) So what does all of this mean?

It means first and foremost that the message of Jesus to Nicodemus is His message to us today. It is the message of the church down through the centuries.

God’s purpose in the world, as Jesus makes clear, is not the condemnation of the world but the salvation of the world. It is about reconciliation with God. Paul makes this clear in 1 Corinthians 5:19, “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others.”

But this message is to be covered, no slathered, with and in love, God’s love, a love that is terribly and tremendously different that the love we think is so important. Now I just used the word “slather.” What does it mean to slather something? Slathering something is “to cover or spread thickly; to use up in a lavish way.”

(Source: http://www.yourdictionary.com/slather)

Now compare this to the word slander which means to defame or malign. People are sued for slander and sue for being slandered. And slander is something that is in high use today.

Jesus spoke truthfully to Nicodemus and Jesus used strong language from time to time as he dealt with those who questioned his motives and his identity. But, He also said, as those who had opposed Him finally got their way, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

One of the charges leveled at the church today is that seems to be short of slathering people with and in the love of God and long on slandering. It is a charge that has been given down through the centuries. The mental model of Christianity for many is one of judgment and damnation.

And while the church is composed of redeemed and forgiven people, those people are imperfect. And yet Jesus still calls those who claim Him as Savior and Lord to do love their enemies and to do good to those who persecute us.

Now God does have standards. He is Holy. He cannot tolerate sin. That must be clearly said. But God also loves with a great and powerful love that is always pursuing and seeking those who are away from Him.

(Slide eight B) So how does this apply to Monday morning at work, school, home, and in the neighborhood?

Take a moment and a piece of paper and answer that question for yourself? What has the Lord been saying to you this morning?

Here is a quote from earlier that I encourage you to use in your reflection time.

(Slide 9) Jean Vanier has written “Until we learn to see our enemies as wounded people who are loved by God, gentleness & reconciliation are not possible.”

One of our messages to speak and demonstrate is to love and forgive. Jesus made that clear. In light of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, let us again return to the simple message and practice of loving and forgiving. We need it. The world needs it. Amen.