Kathryn Z. Johnston Searching for Sunday John 8:1-11 March 10, 2019 Confession Psalm 103:1-14

Transcription

1 Kathryn Z. Johnston Searching for Sunday John 8:1-11 March 10, 2019 Confession Psalm 103:1-14 Psalm 103:1-14 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle s. The LORD works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion for his children, so the LORD has compassion for those who fear him. For he knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust. John 8:1-11 Then each of them went home, while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say? They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She said, No one, sir. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again. This is the Word of the Lord If you re ever feeling bad about yourself, and need a little pick-me-up, go ahead and Google Pinterest Fails. This is where people have tried to copy things they saw on Pinterest, like this: A A Pinterest Crayons 1 Searching for Sunday: Confession March 10, 2019

2 But what they end up with is this: B It should have been this: C D But instead it was this: This is nice: E F This is not: I actually have one of these epic fails under my belt. I was supposed to make this: G But instead I made this: H B Crayon Pinterest Fail C Pinterest Fail Eggs D Eggs Pinterest E Candy Corn Pumpkin F Candy Corn Pumpkin Fail G Elmo H Elmo bad 2 Searching for Sunday: Confession March 10, 2019

3 Not the worst ever maybe child look like he actually ate Elmo: I except that the icing makes a small What I like about #Pinterestfails is that, for the most part, they are posted by the person who tried and failed. Whoever it was went for it! And then fell short. Very short. Then they admit that they just weren t up to the task. J What would churches be like if Christians were more willing to admit how we fail? Why do we confess our sins? Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But why do we do this together? Because we are a community, a covenant people. But what is the real truth? We actually don t think we re that bad, and don t think the confession always applies to us. And how do you feel about that other guy? It s about time he confessed his sins, he s terrible. In Searching for Sunday, Rachel Held Evans writes that the practice of confession gives us the chance to admit to one another that we re not okay, and then to seek healing and reconciliation together, in community. No one has to go first. Instead we take a deep breath and start together with the prayer of confession these brave prayers are just the start. Like the introductions at an AA meeting, they equalize us. They remind us that we all move through the world in the same state broken and beloved and that we re all in need of healing and grace. i And yet, instead of the church being a place where we get real, it s often a place where we ve forgotten how to be real. Rachel Held Evans suspects this impulse is the same one that tells us we should drop a few pounds before we join the gym; the same impulse that causes some to clean their bathroom and vacuum their floors before the cleaning service arrives; the same impulse that Nadia Bolz- Weber refers to as the long and rich Christian tradition which in Latin is called totally faking it. ii I Elmo icing on toddler J Floured Grandma 3 Searching for Sunday: Confession March 10, 2019

4 Too often we think the church is for people living in the after picture. We think church is for taking spiritual Instagrams and putting on our best performances. We think church is for the healthy, even though Jesus told us time and again he came to minister to the sick. K We think church is for good people, not resurrected people. iii Can we be our self at church? Can we believe in God, and believe in science? Can we believe in God, and believe that women and men are equal? Can we believe in God, and believe that Scripture is subject to context and interpretation? Can we believe in God, and struggle with our faith can we be a Christian come to church and still - DOUBT? L Somewhere along the line Christians got it in their head that faith is something we re supposed to have all figured out at the start, when instead it s something we take one day at a time. I ve actually got really good news for all of us we re not supposed to have it all figured out, that s God s job. M God is sovereign (that s a big fancy word for knows all the things ); we are not. And friends, hearing that we are not sovereign should be a relief, not a disappointment. We are not called to be perfect. We are not called to have all the answers. We are not called to get it all right. And we are certainly not called to look down on those we think are doing it wrong. We are called to be honest about who we are: beloved children of God. We are called to be honest about whose they are: beloved children of God. We are called to be honest about how hard life is, because we bond more deeply when we share our brokenness than when we share our belief. So come to church as you are N. Rachel Held Evans: We Christians don t get to send our lives through the rinse cycle before showing up to church. We come as we are no hiding, no acting, no fear. We come with our materialism, our pride, our petty grievances against our neighbors, our hypocritical disdain for those judgmental people in the church next door. We come with our fear of death, our desperation to be loved, our troubled marriages, our persistent doubts, our preoccupation with status and image. We come with our addictions to substances, to work, to affirmation, to control, to food. We come with our differences, be they political, theological, racial, or socioeconomic. We come in search K Good people/resurrected people L Doubts M Sovereign N Pinterest lamb cakes 4 Searching for Sunday: Confession March 10, 2019

5 of sanctuary, a safe place to shed the masks and exhale. We come to air our dirty laundry before God and everybody because when we do it together we don t have to be afraid. iv Why do we confess our sins? Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But why do we do this together? Because we are a community, a covenant people. Earlier I read a passage from the Gospel of John that has always intrigued me. In a Greek New Testament class we had to work on our own translations, and through that context determine what we thought Jesus was drawing with his finger when he knelt down to the ground. O Jesus is teaching in the Temple and the religious authorities bring him a woman who they caught in adultery. These guys didn t like how Jesus hung out with people they considered to be other. Evans describes them this way: These were the people who wore their brokenness on the outside, people whose indiscretions were so other, so uncommon, their entire personhood was relegated to the category of sinner. They were the people the religious loved to hate, for they provided a convenient sorting mechanism for externalizing sin as something that exists out there, among other people with other problems making other mistakes. It s the oldest religious shortcut in the book: the easiest way to make oneself righteous is to make someone (else) a sinner. v And so they brought Jesus this woman to test him. It was a clear-cut transgression with very clear-cut consequences. And Jesus responds by doing the most curious of things. While reading the story you can practically hear the yelling and accusing, start to die down as Jesus kneels and begins to write on the ground. Some say he was writing down the name of the equally guilty partner. Some say he was listing the sins of the accusers. Some say it was a reference to Jeremiah 17:3 which declares that the names of those who turn away from God will be written in dust. You are dust, and to dust you will return. Be wary in the hearing of this story. When you listen to it, do you put yourself in the role of Jesus? If so, this sermon alone cannot help you. Do you put yourself in the role of the religious authorities? There s probably some truth in that for us that gather in this space on Sunday mornings. We like our rules and our religious codes. They make us feel safe and righteous. We have sins we take very seriously, and others (because they are our own) that aren t that bad. When they kept on questioning Jesus, he straightened up and said to them, Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, O Jesus drawing in sand 5 Searching for Sunday: Confession March 10, 2019

6 Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She said, No one, sir. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again. Why do we confess our sins? Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But why do we do this together? Because we are a community, a covenant people. As for mortals, their days are like grass, They flourish like a flower of the field; For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more, P But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting vi Put down your defenses. Lay down your stones. Look at your sins written in the dust and watch as they are carried off by the wind. In the name of the Creator, the Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. J K L M P Steadfast Love of the Lord 6 Searching for Sunday: Confession March 10, 2019

7 N O P i Rachel Held Evans. Searching for Sunday. Nelson Books, p ii iii Evans, p. 70. iv Evans, p. 71. v Ibid, p. 91. vi Psalm 103:15-17a 7 Searching for Sunday: Confession March 10, 2019