Sermon 12b 2018: A Power That Forgives and Overcomes Sin Introduction: Real People Doing Dumb Things Sinning One of my favorite Sunday School teachers and fellow choir members growing up Was a man named Ron Ziegler; He taught our 8 th grade class, which is a saintly thing to do for anyone; And later moved to the 9 th and 10 th grade class Which was a class on the entire Bible and its application in life. He enjoyed teaching since that s what he did in his regular life; But ran into a little problem when the curriculum turned to the section on sex And marriage and the Biblical view of that part of our lives. Now for those of us who teach or who have raised teenagers, This is not the easiest topic to talk about, much less teach a class on; And though Ron worked out a well-balanced, Biblically based lesson; The kids seemed pretty uninterested; Until one of them asked if there were sex stories in the Bible. Ron later told me that he gulped a little and smiled as he told them, yes, There were both good and bad examples of sex represented in the Bible. And now he had their attention; For the rest of the class, the kids feverishly searched their Bibles Looking for sex stories and finding some that they shared with one another. And within days of that class finishing, Ron started receiving phone calls From the parents of the kids in the class to congratulate him on his teaching skills; Because their children had developed a great love of Bible reading; And had their Bibles with them and open all the time; And were talking about the Bible on the phone with their classmates. 1
Naturally, none of the parents knew what the children were reading about; They were just happy that their kids were reading the Bible on their own; They were happy until one of the more overly protective parents found out That her son was reading about sex in the Bible And called the Rector to complain. The next Saturday morning, the Christian education commission held a special meeting To find out what Ron had been teaching in his class; And decided that because of all the controversial material in the Bible No further Sunday school lessons that year would include direct use of the Bible. Well that s an odd solution for taking controversy & challenging materials out of church But there are some stories in the Scriptures That are designed for more mature audiences; In fact, there are some full-fledged soap operas in the Bible. But the real controversies and challenges in the Bible aren t really about the sex; The controversies and challenges for many of us with the Bible Is that the stories include real life and real people who look like us; It s about people who do noble things and it s about people who do dumb things; And often it s the same people who do the noble things and the dumb things. A friend of mine remarked to me last week that the reason Jesus says To both love your neighbors and to pray for and to love your enemies Is that they are often the very same people. The Bible is full of these people, people like you and me Who do noble, important, heroic, selfless acts; And people who do ignoble, strange, awful things to others and to themselves; People who sin, as we say in the church; People who miss the mark, people whose aim in life is off; 2
People who are doing and living in ways that are just not right Who do things that are not good for us or for others; And who live in ways that are contrary to God s purposes and desires. The controversy that many of us really have with the Bible and the Christian life Is that it names this behavior in very clear terms and we don t like it; And what s more we can t control it. You see, the strange thing about doing dumb things, about sinning; Is that the more we do these sinning kinds of things, the more we sin; The more we find ourselves spiraling further and further Away from our true selves; And further and further away from God; And on our own we don t have the power or the ability To stop it and to get back on the right track. Spiraling Sinfulness Now, as I said before, we don t like talking about sin, most of us; It reminds us that we re not all that okay; Which goes against our preferred approach to life That I m okay and you re okay and we re okay; There s really nothing wrong in our lives, Frank, just some mistakes every now and then. And I admit that I ve tended to talk less about sin and sinners over the past few years Then I did earlier in my ministry and especially when I wasn t the Rector But the fiery assistant who figured that the Rector could give me cover And clean up my messes When people got upset about me being blunt about the quality of our lives. But today I m taking the opportunity to talk about sin with you; Because it s real, because it s in the Bible this morning Because it really messes up our lives, other people s lives and our life with God. 3
And one of the great examples of the power sin And the spiraling that takes place once we start down that road of sin; Is this story about King David, Bathsheba, and her husband, Uriah; It s a story that speaks to the power of sin to change people And how sin can not only mess up people s lives, but also bring death. We just heard the story, so I won t reiterate all the details; But look what happens when David steps outside his marriage To lay with another woman; who gets pregnant; Which David tries to cover up by first tricking Uriah; And eventually by ordering Uriah s death. Count the Ten Commandments with me that David broke in this one story: First, there s the adultery, oh yea, coveting another persons spouse before that; Stealing something that doesn t belong to him; Bearing false witness about whose child this is; Murder, when he sends Uriah back to the war; It s not the kind of behavior that honors Mom and Dad; Taking the Lord s name in vain as he breaks his vow as God s anointed; Setting the power of his kingship, a false idol, above God s law; And deciding, in breaking these laws, that he himself is God. I figure David broke nine out of the Ten Commandments, And ten, if this happened on the Sabbath; Do you see the spiral we get in when we start down certain roads? How one act leads to another and another and another; Until we ve really messed up ourselves and our lives. You and I may not have sinned in the particular ways David sins in this story But there are moments in all of our lives, maybe right now in our lives; When we did something we shouldn t have done 4
And then did something else and something else after that And experienced a whole spiral of sinful acts. Apparently sin has a power that works in our lives A power that is beyond our full control; It s not just as a one off event, not just as a single moment in time; But a power that leads down a road we would never choose to travel If we understood all the consequences our actions might lead to, Or if we could stop ourselves before we started. For as much as we d like to stop or make good on our dumb acts, our sins; We simply can t on our own and so we deal with whatever consequences there may be And face a diminishment, a shrinking of who we are and who we can be; And more often than not become stuck in a place we d never choose to go. A Savior But thankfully that s not the end of the story in the Bible or in our lives; Thankfully, we worship a God who not only offers to forgive us for our sins When we turn from them, when we repent and ask for it But we also the God who offers us a power to work in us to keep us from sinning And from getting caught in the spiral of sin. It s a power that can heal and multiply loaves and fishes; It s a power that can walk on water; It s a power that can overcome sin and death on a cross; A power that can bring forgiveness and new life; A power that is ours when we turn to God And invite God s Spirit to live in us and work in us. For along with the controversies and challenges in the Bible Also comes a promise of life and a power for life that is beyond ourselves; A promise of a life and a power that comes from God 5
As St. Paul writes this morning in the letter to the Ephesians, It s a power that can accomplish more than we can ask or imagine When we invite or allow God to work in us; When we give our lives over to God so that He can forgive and restore us And set our feet on the right path of life. This promise and power doesn t mean we won t sin, we are humans after all; But it means that we can be forgiven and start again And keep from always getting caught in the spiral that takes our lives from us; And separates us from the peace and presence of God. And so on this warm summer Sunday, Allow me to invite you to face the reality of your life and the promise of God; To admit that while you and I do some noble acts, we also commit sinful acts And then ask for God s forgiveness and ask for God s power To restore us and to work in us in ways that will stop the spiral And lead us into the life that s really life. Don t hold back in seeking God s forgiveness; He already knows what you and I have done and are doing and loves us anyway; He knows and He is ready to forgive and restore us today and always; So that we can enter and find the life that is really life with God. Amen. 6