sin – Page 3 – Salvaged Faith

Defeat Evil with Goodness

Posted on March 25, 2012Leave a comment

This past week, I listened to an interview between Terry Gross and Jason Segal – one of the producers and the star of the most recent Muppets movie.

Mr. Segal described what it was like to become a part of the Muppets franchise and how much he learned about Muppet culture. One of the things he discovered was that Muppets don’t ever make jokes at other people’s expense. They don’t ever make fun of other people. They are intrinsically good and kind and well intentioned.

And they do not ever try to get revenge or hurt someone else. Even when faced with their worst enemies – with someone who is trying to kill them or hurt them – they will respond with kindness.

In the very first Muppet movie – Kermit the Frog – was being pursued by Doc Hopper who wanted to loveable Muppet to be the spokesperson for his line of frog leg’s restaurants. Eventually, the story led to a western style showdown.

Even faced with his worst enemy, Kermit reached out in love. He shared compassion. He tried his best to warm the heart of our cold-hearted villain… asking “What’s the matter with you Hopper? Don’t you know what its like to have a dream? Who are you going to share your dream with?” and he was willing to die rather than fight or give in. Thankfully, Dr. Bunsen’s “insta-grow” invention kicked in just in time and Animal saved the day by scaring the villains away.

We might read our scripture this morning from Romans and we might watch that clip and scoff – a real person couldn’t be expected to do that. We have been taught to fight back, to defend ourselves, to seek revenge AND to win…

I know that when my back is against a wall, my first instinct is to do everything that I can to get away from the situation – violence included. Just ask either of my brothers after they have tried to tickle me.

Forgiveness and compassion and kindness towards our enemies is such a difficult thing to fathom. Some of us have been in life and death situations where we have had to defend and protect ourselves. A few of you have served our country and many of us have loved ones who have put their lives on the line in order to protect others. In the real world – you can’t just offer a flower and ask someone to be your friend… You can’t just say, I’m sorry… You can’t be nice and hope that someone who is ready to attack you will go away.

Which is why it is important to remember that the words found in Romans 12:16-21 are not rooted in fantasy. They are not simply wise words to remember and try to live by. They are words written by someone who has experienced the grace of God. They are words written by someone who has experienced the forgiving power of transformation. They are words written by someone who is a living witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This book of Romans was written by an early enemy of the Christian faith. Long before he was the Apostle Paul – the fine, upstanding, young Jewish leader Saul – was one of the leading agents in suppressing the movement. He sought out the Christian followers to be executed for heresy. He not only breathed threats against the disciples of Jesus… he was on his way toDamascusto carry out those threats.

And yet, one of the greatest early enemies of Christianity was touched by Jesus on that road and his life was forever changed. And the disciples of Jesus Christ let him into their lives… witnessed his transformation and offered forgiveness and healing and love.

Paul, himself, witnessed what love could do to hatred. He experienced what forgiveness could do to revenge. He lived a life that exemplified compassion and grace towards his enemies. Whether he was in prison, or on trial, or experiencing the ongoing persecution of Christians himself, he remembered and lived out the faith that Jesus Christ had passed on to him.

In Romans 12: 14-15, Paul encourages us to not only bless our enemies but to weep with them and to rejoice with them. He is asking us to identify with them and to genuinely seek their good. When he and Silas were imprisoned unjustly in Philippi, they ministered to their jailer, and Paul remembered what it was like to be an unbeliever, remembered what it was like to be a persecutor. When we identify with our enemies, when we walk in their shoes, when we see them as human beings, we find it easier not only to love them… but also to forgive them and to share the good news with them.

In many ways, that is the amazing thing about our relationship with Jesus Christ. Because of our sin, because of the ways we had turned our backs to God over and over and over again… all of humanity had become enemies of God. Our love failed. We rejoiced in the darkness rather than the light.

And yet, rather than deliver us what we deserved, our God in heaven decided to become one of us. Jesus Christ humbled himself and laid aside his glory and became one of us – an infant placed in the hands of a humble family, a child learning in the temple, a young man teaching and preaching beside the sea. He became one of us, identified with us, took our life into his own in order that we might not receive justice… but that we might receive grace.

Next week we begin a long and dark week of persecution and trials in the life of Jesus… beginning with his triumphant entry into the city of Jerusalem. But as we have read in the scriptures and as we will experience in worship, Jesus not once cursed his enemies. Not once did he wish them harm. Not once did he become like them. He shows us how to love, how to forgive, and in the process to not be a passive bystander.

Perhaps one of the best examples of this is his encounter with the moneychangers in the temple. While John’s gospel includes this event at the beginning of his ministry, in each of the other gospels it takes place during that final week in Jerusalem. Knowing the persecution he would face, knowing the anger he would stir up, Jesus was not afraid to speak truth to power. He was not afraid to protest at an injustice and make a scene without hurting people, work for change without diminishing another human beings dignity. It is okay to be angry – but it is not okay for than anger to rule your heart. The real question is, how can our outrage, our frustration, our pain be used to work for love and justice and change in this world?

Theologian John Mabry writes:

Rosa Parks is an imitator of Christ, not because she suffered for taking her stand (or keeping her seat, in her case), but because she had the courage to believe in her own dignity and fought for it in spite of the conflict that resulted. Nelson Mandela is an imitator of Christ, not because he suffered in prison, but because he held out for peace and justice, and led a nation to resurrection. In each case it is not the suffering that is redemptive, but the courage to pursue justice in the face of pain and evil.

And that is what Christ did. He sought to share the good news of God with the world. He proclaimed the reign of God in the face of the reign ofRome. He sought to reconcile his enemies and restore the love of God in the temple and inJerusalemand in the world. And he was killed for it.

In the face of injustice and evil and oppression, we are called to overcome with goodness. We are called to overcome with love. We are called to overcome with compassion. We are called to not let those forces to control our own hearts.

Share the story of the Danish resistance to the Nazi occupation during WW2.

Maybe you have heard this before, but it is a parable worth repeating and remembering:

A Cherokee elder was teaching his children about life.

A fight is going on inside me,” he said to them. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandchildren thought about it and after a minute one of them asked, “Which wolf will win?”

The elder simply replied, “The one you feed.”

Let us feed the wolf of love in our lives. Let us be imitators of Christ Jesus – standing up for what is right, blessing and not cursing our enemies, showering them with love and compassion and forgiveness… so that we do not ourselves become that very thing which we despise.

Amen and Amen.

my good deeds are like a tampon…

Posted on November 23, 20111 Comment

In this week’s lectionary readings we find a prayer from Isaiah 64. The tide has turned in Isaiah’s (or second Isaiah’s) thoughts and no more are there promises of destruction… now there are promises of salvation and pleas for God to act.

“If only you would tear open the heavens and come down!” Isaiah cries.

It is a lament, for Isaiah looks at himself and at his people and knows why God is not answering. The people have sinned and turned their backs. So God is waiting.

As I read this prayer today with my lectionary group, I was unprepared for the next line in the scripture. As I remember the translation there was always something about filthy rags… but as I read along in my new Common English Bible, the verse leaped off the page:

“We have all become like the unclean; all our righteous deeds are like a menstrual rag.”

To be unclean – ritually unclean – means that a person is temporarily unsuited to take part in holy activities like prayer, sacrifice, fasting, etc. Temporary is the key word there. A ritual impurity, such as that caused by contact with bodily fluids or menstruation, are not permanent states of being.

In order to become clean again… a ritual washing is required. Sometimes just the hands, sometimes full emersion. But washing none the less.

When Isaiah uses this concept in the passage, he is connecting the hearts of the people to their worship. He is connecting a physical reality to a spiritual one. Because of their sins, they have defiled themselves. God doesn’t want them in the presence of the divine right now. Like it will later say in Malachai 1:10 –

“Who among you will shut

the doors of the temple^c

so that you don’t burn something

on my altar in vain?

I take no delight in you,

says the LORD of heavenly forces.

I won’t accept a grain offering

from your hand.”

When our lives are filled with sin, good deeds mean nothing. They can’t earn us a place in God’s heart. In fact, the hypocrisy of them only serves to anger our Lord more, because they cover up the truth… that we need to be washed clean.

That we need to be transformed from the inside out.

That we need our Holy Potter to take our misshapen clay and to form us once again.

Come, Holy God, tear open the heavens and wash us clean.

LIFE in the Spirit

Posted on July 10, 2011Leave a comment

I woke up this morning, and literally, almost, could not physically get out of bed!

Yesterday, my husband and I cleaned the exterior of our cars. No… cleaned isn’t quite the right word. We scrubbed and polished and waxed and buffed our cars.

And let me tell you… my car needed it. As we started the project, I realized that I had not actually washed my car since I purchased it last spring.

I thought this might be an hour long little project. Brandon had other plans 😉

So five hours later, my arms feel like they are going to fall off from polishing out scratches and buffing on a shiny coat of wax… and then I decide there is still time left in the day to pull the weeds that have been accumulating in my flower beds.

This morning, I can barely move my fingers, much less hang on to anything… my back is stiff, my shoulders ache… man, this getting old stuff is for the birds! 😉
Sometimes we like to think about our bodies as a physical container. That the real “me” is somewhere inside all of this skin and bone.

In fact, this morning, I was ready to throw out the container all together if it would stop aching so much…. Bring on the robot bodies, or the heavenly places where I could float around without any join pain.

But you know what? That way of thinking is not true. Our bodies are incredibly important.

Our bodies are an integral part of who God created us to be. Our flesh and blood are not earthly things that we have to slough off and deny before we get into heaven…. No, according to scripture, these bodies go there with us…. In one form or another!

Our sloppy thinking around bodies comes from passages like the one we have this morning.

The Apostle Paul uses a Greek word that is often translated as “flesh” – sarx. So we get translations that say things like – “those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the spirit.”

…and…

“those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
To our modern day ears, we think we know what that means at first hearing.

We know what flesh is… skin and bones… these things that ache and touch and feel and move around.

We know what spirit is… our souls, our minds, that of God that dwells within us.

So we think, bodies = bad, not pleasing to God…. Spirit=God, very pleasing to God.

BUT… sarx has more than one meaning.

While it can mean these skin and bones… it also is used to describe the lesser parts of ourselves…. Our animal nature, our cravings, the wretched parts of ourselves that keep grasping on to sin, no matter how many times we try to choose the right thing.

We talked about some of these last week: the craving for more, for status, for money, for food… all of those things that sometimes get the better of us and lead us down the pathways to sin.

THAT is what Paul is talking about here… not these good old, but sometimes achy bodies of ours.

In fact… our whole passage for this morning is about how we can have abundant life right here and right now in these very bodies!

How these bodies can be filled with strength and power and holiness…

How these bodies, these selves, can be Christ-like.

This passage for this morning, far from being a diatribe against our physical nature is a challenge to live up to the potential of what we can in fact DO.

Last week, the question was asked: What do we do when we joyfully accept the love and grace of God… but sin is right there next to us like the walls of a prison fence?
Our answer came at the very end… and it’s the answer to almost every single children’s sermon question… Jesus Christ. Trust in Jesus, Live in Jesus, Look to Jesus. He is the one who has set us free and if we remember that, if we celebrate that, if we hang on to that, then sin doesn’t have the power to touch us anymore.

Now, that was a quick and easy answer. The kind of quick and easy answer that we might go home and stick on our fridge and forget about.

So we are going to unpack that answer a bit. We are going to look at all of it’s parts and pieces and explore, using this week’s passage from Romans explains HOW and WHY Jesus Christ frees us from sin and death. And we are going to do it through a simple little acronymn… LIFE.

First, we have the letter L – and L stands for LOVE. You see, God doesn’t just tell us not to sin…. He sends his own Son to deal with the problem of Sin.

As John 3:16 reminds us: For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Romans 8:3 translated by the Message: In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all.

No one enters another person’s messy life unless they love them. And when Christ died for us, he took all the sins of the world with him on that cross. And the powers of sin and death thought they had won…

And here is why I think the resurrection means far more than the crucifixion. Because when Christ rose up, sin and death were defeated. They were conquered once and for all. They no longer have any power over Christ….

Which brings us to our second letter – I. And I stands for INCARNATION. Incarnation means living inside, taking on flesh. We often use it to describe the birth of Christ – when God came and dwelt among us. But it also applies here. Because you see, Jesus Christ didn’t just wipe his hands of the matter. He didn’t just defeat sin and death… no, he sends his Spirit to live in us, so that we, too, have his power and strength and righteousness.

Yes, Jesus Christ wants to share that power with you. He wants to live inside of you.

When the Spirit of God dwells within us, then life and peace and righteousness and power dwell within us. And that is an amazing thing.

Over and over again in scripture, we are reminded of how we access this resurrection power…. We have to believe in Jesus Christ.

So our third letter is F, for FAITH. Belief seems like a simple thing. A thought. A statement. “I believe in Jesus Christ,” isn’t such a difficult thing to say.

But this third letter reminds us that belief is a choice. Belief is an action. Belief is a lifestyle.

Belief in Jesus Christ means letting his spirit rule our hearts, instead of our lesser animal nature. It means choosing the Spirit of God rather than Sarx – our human desires.

Let’s think about this another way. When we live according to the flesh, sarx, we are selfish and self-centered people. Any decision we make is based on our whims, our desires, and sin easily creeps into that life. Living only according to our desires leads us down the paths of gluttony and pride, anger, greed, and death.

But when we believe in Jesus Christ, we are making the decision to live according to his Spirit. We exchange our desires for his. We exchange our self-centeredness for Christ-centeredness. When we believe in Jesus Christ, we make him the Lord of our life… rather than ourselves.

And you know what? The Spirit of Christ makes much better choices than my gut does. The Spirit of Christ has much more power than my own selfish will. And the Spirit of Christ is the only spirit that has the power to defeat the death that will eventually overcome this body.

Our last letter is E. And E stands for EMPOWERED. When we know about God’s love… when we let the Spirit be incarnate in our lives… when we have faith in the way of Jesus Christ… then we are empowered to be different.

We are set free from sin and death.

>We are set free to love God more than ourselves

We are set free to participate in God’s saving work in this world.

Because you know what? God so loved the world… not just you, not just me, not just this church, but the world.

And what we know from the life of Jesus and the testimony of scripture is that God seeks to save this whole world. God seeks to transform this whole world.

That seems like a mighty and daunting task. We are barely keeping sin at bay in our lives… how could we possibly help God to change the world?

Perhaps it’s not so much that we are helping God, but that we get out of the way enough for God to help us. When Christ dwells within us, we not only find the grace and strength and power to resist sin, but also the love and peace and power to do God’s will. When we let the Spirit of God in, the transformation of the world begins… in your life, in your family, in this community and from there it spreads to the world.

All of this is God, working in you. God loving you. God dwelling in you. God’s acts and words that we have faith in. God’s power filling you up.

In the Spirit, there is LIFE.

It is SUPPOSED to be Hard

Posted on July 3, 2011Leave a comment

“Late in World War II a large number of American and British soldiers were languishing in a war camp deep inside Germany. Some had been there for many months. A high barbed-wire fence ran across the center of the camp, isolating the two sets of prisoners. They were not allowed to go near the fence or communicate with each other. But once a day at noon the British and American chaplains could go to the fence and exchange greetings, always in the company of the guards.

“The Americans had put together a crude wireless radio and were getting some news from the outside world. Since nothing is more important to prisoners than news, the American chaplain would try to share a headline or two with his British counterpart in the few moments they had at the fence.

“One day the news came over the little radio that the German high command had surrendered and the war was over. None of the Germans knew this, since their communications system had broken down. The American chaplain took the headline to the fence, and then lingered to hear the thunderous roar of celebration in the British barracks.” (illustration from Bill O’Brien, Christian Century article, June 28, 2005)

But you know what? Even though they knew in their hearts they had been set free, there were still prison walls around them. There were still barriers between them and their fellow brothers. And even worse, the captors who held them did not have such a radio, and had no way of knowing this news.

So what do you do when you have been set free by Jesus Christ… but sin doesn’t know it yet? What do you do when you joyfully accept the love and grace of God… but sin is right there next to you like the walls of a prison fence?

Today, we are going to explore this difficult question together as we look at Romans chapter 7. Will you pray with me?

Yes, the prison of sin just doesn’t know when to leave us alone. It is always lurking right there around the corner.

How many of you have seen those commercials for depression medication where this black cloud continues to follow a woman around? That dark cloud, always nearby, always lurking, never far from reach, is a very good picture of what sin in our lives. Try as we might to shake it… it doesn’t go away.

Like the walls of the prison those POW’s were surrounded by, sin is an ever present reality in our lives.

What I think pastors and Sunday school teachers have done for far too long is pretend like sin doesn’t exist.

Oh, sure, we talk about sin in our lives before Jesus, but it is as if faith in Jesus Christ is a magical cure that puts us in a happy little bubble where no sin or temptation can ever touch us again.

Sin is always in the past.

I absolutely love Vacation Bible School. Those five year olds and I had an awesome time this past week learning about the love of God and how he helps us when we are afraid and how he is merciful and forgiving.

But I got to thinking as I wrote this message… did we ever tell those children that sin doesn’t go away, just because Jesus is in our hearts?

Have you ever heard that?

In your two… ten… forty… eighty years of being a Christian, did someone ever tell you that even as a faithful disciple you are still going to struggle with sin?

I hope so… but I worry that hasn’t always been the case.

You see, our world likes to shove problems under neath the carpet. We like to hide them in dark closets. We don’t talk about our struggles. We don’t talk about our problems. And we certainly don’t talk about our sins.

Instead, we walk around with smiles on our faces, dressed up in our Sunday best, and pretend like now that Jesus is in the world all of our problems have disappeared.

That, my friends, is called a delusion. Or hypocrisy. Or any number of any other not so nice words.

What I wish someone had told me and my peers a long time ago is that sin will always be there… lurking just around the corner. Temptation is always a struggle. Mistakes, bad decisions, failure, backsliding… it comes with the territory of discipleship.

This faith journey is SUPPOSED to be hard. It is ALWAYS going to be a struggle.

That is why I am so grateful for pastors and teachers like the apostle Paul.

Because once again, he lays the truth bare and hits me in the gut…

Paul… the Pharisee among Pharisee… the rule-follower par excellence… the guy who always seems to have it together and who has such strength and such faith… all of a sudden he starts confessing…

I too, have spent a long time in sin’s prison. And I decide to do one thing, but then I act another, and I find myself doing things I absolutely hate to do…. I need help! I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it… Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time… The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. (The Message translation, paraphrased)

Last week, I confessed some of my own struggles with sin… in part, inspired by what Paul says right here.

As a reminder that we are ALL human, and that this Christian life is not easy.

Just because we may have accepted Jesus Christ, does not mean that life will be a piece of cake from here on out.

In fact, just the opposite is true.

The moment we accept the freedom and love and grace of Jesus Christ, we immediately discover that we have enemies.

No longer is sin the friend that keeps us company… now it is the dark shadow that seeks to bring us back into its clutches.

And it does so any way that it can.

Paul talks here in this passage about how parts of himself feel like they are at war with one another… he can think good thoughts and make good decision, but then his sarx, his flesh or lesser self, those parts of his life he just can’t control… well, that steps in and messes it all up.

You see, try as we might, sometimes sin finds a way to wrap around parts of our lives. Maybe when you are tired or stressed out. Maybe when you have had a couple of drinks. Maybe when you are with certain friends or coworkers. Maybe what leads you down that wrong path is sex, or food, or money…

Whatever it is, we all have those parts of our lives that just don’t seem to want to let go of sin.

And so sin grabs hold, and hangs on right there…. And we find ourselves stuck in a civil war between the self that wants to do good and the self that wants to go back to old ways.

Throughout Christian history… faithful people have struggled in this way.

But as Bill O’Brien reminds us, “ Christianity and Western civilization do not fight an isolated curse.”

He talks about other faiths who also describe this struggle, including “Islam which identifies this struggle as jihad. The Arabic root for jihad means “strive, effort, labor.” Lesser jihad defines the kind of struggle justified in defense of oneself, for example, in military action. But greater jihad is the fighting of evil in one’s own heart. This is an inward reformation — a spiritual and moral struggle that leads to victory over ego.”

Every person shares this struggle between what we know is right and what we actually find ourselves doing. Sin lurks around the corner for all of us.

I want to take you back to that story of the prisoners of war in Germany. Remember that they heard the good news that the German commanders had surrendered and that the war was over?

Let me ask the question again… what do you do when you have been set free by Jesus Christ… but sin doesn’t know it yet? What do you do when you joyfully accept the love and grace of God… but sin is right there next to you like the walls of a prison fence?

Well, as O’Brien tells it, “An amazing thing happened. For the next three days the prisoners celebrated, waving at the guards — who still did not know the news — and smiling at the vicious dogs

“Then, when they awoke on the fourth day, there were no guards. Apparently they had fled into the forest, leaving the gate unlocked behind them.

“That day the prisoners walked out as “freed men.” But they had really been set free four days earlier by the news that the war was over.” (Bill O’Brien, Christian Century article, June 28, 2005)

We too, know that we have been set free from the power of sin by Jesus Christ. And so we find ourselves like those POW’s living in the prison camp still, waiting for our official release.

We know and we trust that it is coming. We know that someday the grace of God and the power of Jesus Christ will perfectly transform our lives and sin will no longer have any power whatsoever over us.

But while we remain within these walls… we can sit and sulk and lament our struggles –OR –

We can join with one another, our brothers and sisters in Christ, and celebrate the victory we know is ours already.

You have been set free. The struggle is still ongoing, but it no longer has to consume you.

Fix your eyes on Jesus… pray for his help… and know that the victory is already yours.

STOP… in the name of Love.

Posted on June 26, 2011Leave a comment

Do any of you have days that you aren’t proud of?

I had one of them just a few months ago.

It was a day where I was grumpy and snarky. I was gossipy and rude.

My husband and I had a fight the day before and the disagreement still had not been resolved. The anger I was feeling crept out in a thousand different ways.

We just so happened to be at my in-laws that Saturday.

And when my husband’s grandfather confronted me about my changed attitude, my quick response was – “It’s my day off from church… I’m allowed.”

UGH!

Friends… I am not a perfect person, and I will never pretend to be a perfect person.

But as soon as those words slipped out of my mouth… as soon as I said, “It’s my day off from church… I’m allowed…” I realized how very wrong those words were… and how very wrong my bent towards sin was on that day.

This morning, we begin a journey with Paul and the church of the Romans. Paul has some really challenging words to share with us over the coming weeks and months… words that might cause you to sit back and say: UGH!

But that is what we are here for. We are here to encourage one another… to hold one another accountable… and to help each other grow deeper in their relationship with God and their love of other people.

Let us pray:

Dylan shared with us just a few minutes ago some words from the apostle Paul to the church in Rome.

Paul was a Roman citizen, a man with some standing in his little corner of the world, with rights and responsibilities some could only dream of.

When he writes a letter to the church in Rome, it is kind of like writing a letter today to the church in Washington, D.C. He is writing to the very seat of power. He is writing to people who are movers and shakers. He is writing to people who have influence in the world…

But in current terms, Paul was a nobody to the Romans. He would be like the mayor of a small Iowan town writing a letter to congress. No one knows who he is… and no one important would pay him the time of day.

So Paul is also writing to their servants and slaves and the commoners without any citizenship and status who have heard about God’s love and grace and have become a part of the church also.

And so Paul doesn’t start out his letter by listing his credentials…

He begins by talking about Jesus Christ and his work. He begins by saying, I am a slave of Christ Jesus….

Up until now, Paul has not made a journey to the city of Rome and has not had the opportunity to visit the church there. So this letter represents Paul’s first words to this church. It contains everything that he thinks it is important that they know.

In these pages are great and wonderful thoughts about sin and death and salvation and how we should live together as followers of Christ.

And so for a while, we are going to spend some time in this one letter, and see what Paul might also have to say to us today…

Since we are not starting at the very beginning, I want to give you a quick summary of what is contained in the first five chapters.

Paul writes at great length that all of us are under the power of sin. Gentiles don’t have any good reason to be excused from the power of sin. Jews don’t either. There is nothing that we can do to escape its power. Not works, not the law, not ritual, not closing a blind eye… nothing.

Nothing… except faith. Except trust. Except accepting the grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

His faithfulness makes us righteous. His faithfulness makes us worthy. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us and by his blood we have been reconciled to God.

And so, by faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we have died to that old power of sin and now live under the power of grace.

All of that brings us to our scripture for this morning.

We are beginning our journey with this passage of scripture, because here is where it gets really practical.

If none of us can escape from the power of sin on our own… and if Christ really died to set us free… and if we accept and trust in that grace of God that Jesus Christ showed us…

Then what?

How are we supposed to live now?

Paul’s answer in these verses is simple… Stop letting sin get the better of you.

Stop offering parts of yourself to sin, to be used as weapons for wrong.

Stop setting aside pieces of your life, giving them to things that are not godly.

Paul is reminding us… if you truly accept and trust in the grace of God… there are no days off for sinning.

Remember my very bad, horrible, no good day…

Because of the argument my husband and I had, I let the anger I was feeling have control. I let it. I took all of those feelings and set them aside in a neat little box and decided that I didn’t need God’s help in dealing with them.

And because I gave that anger power and because I gave it free reign in my life, it took over. The next day I was bitter, and I had a quick wit and biting humor, and when I washed the dishes I banged pots and pans around… oh my goodness… I was a terrible person that day!

I CHOSE to let sin in. I chose to let my mind and my personality be under its power. I gave in.

Now, the thing is, in my old life… my life before Jesus Christ… that would have been normal. I didn’t have a choice. Capital “S” sin… the power of Sin was there, lurking around every corner and it had me by a tight leash.

But Christ broke those chains. Christ ended the reign of sin in my life. Christ set me free.

And through faith in Jesus Christ and the sharing of the sacraments… you too, can be and have been set free from the power of sin.

We are no longer ruled by sin…. And so now we are free to live holy lives.

The thing that always hangs us up at this point is the freedom has been defined as the power to do whatever we want.

But the truth is… we are always ruled by something. Our feelings, our government, our thoughts…

Just because sin doesn’t have control, doesn’t mean we can go about whilly nilly in this world.

And so in this passage, Paul introduces us to step two…

First, we were freed from the power of sin

So now… live under the power of grace. Live under the power of God. Turn your life over to God’s plan and purpose.

To do that requires a two part choice…. We have to STOP offering pieces of ourselves over to sin. And we have to START offering ourselves as instruments to God.

You see… the grace of God can and will make a difference in our lives… but only if we let it. Only if we don’t hold back parts of ourselves from God’s transforming power.

In this passage, Paul grabs us by the shoulders and is shaking us awake… At least I know for me it was like a slap in the face….

YOU ARE A CHRISTIAN! He reminds us. Sin has no more power over you…

YOU ARE A CHRISTIAN! So stop making excuses and trying to justify your poor choices.

YOU ARE A CHRISTIAN! So stop living your faith only on church days and start living your faith every single moment.

YOU ARE A CHRISTIAN! A new person! A fresh start! God’s holy creation!

So stop living like you did in the past and start embracing the power God gives you to be a child of God.

All around us this morning are stop signs.

They remind us that it is time to stop living like we did yesterday or last week, or whenever it was that you let Sin have power over you last.

In each of the pews, there are some smaller versions of these stop signs and I want to invite you to take one home with you.

Stick it on your bathroom mirror. Put it on the wheel in your car. Place it somewhere you will see it every single day. And let it be a reminder to you that you have the power to STOP living under the power of sin. You can STOP letting sin rule your day.

I want you to hold those stop signs in your hands for just a moment and think about one thing… one habit… one person or one situation that needs to stop being a part of your life so that you can say YES to God and start living the way God wants you.

If you have a pen… maybe write that thing on the back of your stop sign.

Let us commit together, to stop letting sin have power in our lives…. And let us together live holy and godly lives.

Amen!

ding dong, the witch is dead…

Posted on May 2, 2011Leave a comment

I found out that Osama Bin Laden had been killed last night as I was crawling into bed. It has been a long week, I was tired, and my husband came in and announced the big news. My husband! Who normally isn’t all that concerned about world politics/situations.

The first thing I thought of was – “no way!” And then – “hmm… I wonder what that means?”

Today, I had a congregational funeral to deal with. No time to think about it… although a few people here and there mentioned it and I caught a few clips of stories on NPR.

This afternoon, I was knee deep in reciepts and deposit slips trying to account for donations and reimbursement items from a month of busyness and a couple of youth fundraisers.

And when I got home at 5pm, I really didn’t want to think about it. I plugged in the headphones, turned up the music, and mowed my lawn for the first time of the year.

I found a few stray plants – an iris that was in the middle of the yard, a few ferns that started growing outside of their beds – so I moved them to better locations. I raked up the grass clippings and I put them underneath the strawberries. I sprayed some turf builder on the grass until it ran out.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that nothing in my life has changed. Probably nothing in most of our lives has changed.

I listened here and there to various stories as I made a quick trip to the gas station for lawn mower gas and then again after I was finished to pick up some spaghetti noodles. And everyone was talking about how this one guy created so much destruction.

My first thought is – we probably are giving the guy too much credit. The organization he was the head of is not a one person show. Yes, he was the face and figurehead of so much terror that has occured in this world, but I’m not going to let one person scare me or turn my world upside down. I’m not going to concede and give him that power.

My second thought relates to that strange mythological status that we have given him. Kind of like the Wicked Witch of the East… at her sudden death, the people started singing and dancing in celebration. Suddenly they were freed from the fear and the frustration, the anger and the pent up revenge and hostility… they burst forth in song in relief.

I can’t help but see images and hear audio from those crowds that have gathered to celebrate without transporting myself to Oz. It is surreal, it is strange, it is funny and yet… not really.

As a Christian, the only reason that I celebrate the death of another person is because I believe in the power of resurrection. I believe in the grace and mercy of God that takes what is perishable and makes it eternal. I believe in the new creation.

I don’t believe I have been given the ability to judge another person’s life. It is not for me to determine their eternal destiny. And… I cannot put a limit on God’s power to transform and renew and restore even the darkness itself.

I find no reason at all to celebrate the death of a man who killed many. It doesn’t make me happy or feel good. It doesn’t bring me joy. It just reminds me that we are mortal. That our grabs for power and our bent towards hatred and evil are real and that they are destructive. This reality sinks me farther into the human condition. We are broken. All of us. And we need help.

If we can turn back towards God and seek peace…

If we can remember that justice and revenge are God’s work and not our own…

If we can love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us…

Maybe then, I might be able to celebrate.

But for now, I’m going to get my hands dirty and plant some irises.

Ghenna

Posted on April 3, 2011Leave a comment

One of my favorite things to do as the weather warms up is to get outside and play some disc golf.

A week and a half ago – before winter decided to come back and pay us another visit – I was able to play my first round of the year at Jones Park in Cedar Rapids.

We always begin our rounds at Jones on tee 15. The parking is better by the hill top pavilion, and there are convenient bathrooms there for when you are waiting for other friends to arrive.

That’s where I found myself on that Wednesday afternoon. The sun was shining, the air was warm, and as I waited for a friend to join me, I sat on the grass and soaked in the warmth for the first time of 2011.

Looking out from that hill, you can pretty much see the whole park. The pond, the golf course, the playground and the pool, and oh yeah, just over the tree tops, Mount Trashmore.

For a while, I thought Mount Trashmore was simply the name my friends and I affectionately called this heap of trash. But apparently, the city’s former mayor coined the term decades ago and “Mount Trashmore” has remained as this landfill’s unofficial name.

It is located on the southwest side of town, and was officially closed in 2006 as work was being done to cap off the heap of waste… allowing green grass and vegetation to grow over it. But all of that changed in 2008 when flooding necessitated the use of the landfill for all of that flood debris.

Three years later, dump trucks are still making their way around the landfill and it keeps growing and growing and growing, high above the city’s treeline.

That heap of garbage reminds me of another dump – one mentioned in our scriptures for today.

Unfortunately, due to some poor translating, most of us don’t know about this lovely little waste pile that was once located on the southwest side of Jerusalem….

Will you pray with me?

Today, we begin to look at the third section of the sermon on the mount contained in Matthew. Here, Jesus moves from our attitudes and our witness to the world, and he dives into some teaching about how we behave – how we act – and in particular, how we treat one another.

This whole section actually contains Matthew 5:17-48. Jesus talks about what we should teach one another, talks about anger, and adultery, divorce, promises, revenge, and how we should treat enemies. And we are going to get to the meat of that text – the relationships – next week.

Before we get there, however, I think we need to spend some time with a certain four letter word.

In most of our English translations of the New Testament three greek words are translated into one English word – Hell. These three are hades, which refers to the greek place of the dead, tartaroo – which shows up only once in 2 Peter 2:4 and refers to a dark abyss within Hades where the supremely wicked are punished (again from Greek thought), and gehenna – a word used 11 times by Jesus throughout three of the gospels and once in the book of James.

That word, gehenna, shows up three times in Matthew chapter 5 alone.

Each and every single time it shows up, Jesus warns us that unless we change our ways, unless we do something, we are going to end up there.

So – before we look at those relationships in our lives, I want us to think about what “there” is…

The greek word gehenna is actually made up of two Hebrew words… one meaning valley or son (as in child) and the other is a proper name. So this word gehenna means either the son of Hinnom, or the valley of Hinnom.

The Valley of Hinnom is a real place just on the southwest side of Jerusalem. It is mentioned multiple times in the Old Testament – both in the setting of borders for the tribes of Israel and also in describing the religious practices that took place there. The Valley of Hinnom was in most cases the site of despicable actions. Pagans and even some of Israel’s kings had made child sacrifices there in the valley by offering them up in fire. As time went on, the Valley of Hinnom became not much more than a garbage dump on the edge of town.

That is presumably what it was at the time of Jesus. A place of trash and waste. A place to throw unwanted things. Continual fires burned there in the dump to consume the garbage and to prevent pestilence. In John Wesley’s notes on the Matthew 5, he reminds us that if any criminals were burnt alive as punishment, it was there, in that horrible place.

As I researched this valley, this place called Gehenna, I read that some think the poor, the unwanted and criminals were actually buried here, rather than in nice and expensive tombs that a good burial would have entailed.

Gehenna is a place for garbage. It is a place for that which is unwanted. It is a place to destroy waste and filth.

Let’s forget, for just a moment, that for two thousand years we have translated this greek word Gehenna into little tiny four letter word like hell. Let’s instead put ourselves in the shoes of the first century Jews who might have been sitting on the hillside listening to Jesus teach – as he does here in Matthew.

Let’s, for the sake of argument, pretend that they can see that valley of garbage, gehenna, somewhere off in the distance… much like I could see Mount Trashmore from the hill top in Jones Park.

Maybe it is just the rising smoke from the smouldering fires. Maybe it is just the faint smell of burning garbage that lingers on the air. Maybe you can actually see the heaps of trash, even from far off, just outside the gate of Jerusalem.

Imagine you are there… and then hear again these words from Jesus.

21“You have heard that it was said to those who lived long ago, You shouldn’t commit murder, k and all who commit murder will be in danger of judgment. 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with their brother or sister will be in danger of judgment. If they say to their brother or sister, ‘You idiot,’ they will be in danger of being condemned by the governing council. And if they say, ‘You fool,’ they will be in danger of gehenna (fiery hell). 23

…And if your right eye causes you to fall into sin, tear it out and throw it away. It’s better that you lose a part of your body than that your whole body be thrown into [gehenna]. 30 And if your right hand causes you to fall into sin, chop it off and throw it away. It’s better that you lose a part of your body than that your whole body go into [gehenna].

Do you hear those passages differently, knowing about this burning garbage heap just outside of Jerusalem?

As Jesus used this word, gehenna, with his followers, their minds immediately drifted to this valley where the waste of their world was destroyed.

Time and time again, Jesus uses everyday and common things to help the people understand some ultimate truth about God. He talks about flowers and yeast, seeds and vineyards, buildings and rocks and even garbage.

Each of those common, everyday things used in his parables are more than what they seem.

And so when we hear about this continually burning garbage dump… we put a word to it – hell.

But before we add layer upon layer of meaning – before we take two thousand years of church tradition and meaning and pile it all up on that little four letter word, let’s look at what Jesus is using it for right here.

First, Jesus never says that those who break the commandments go to hell. He doesn’t even refer to it anywhere in Matthew 5 as a place of punishment.

No, Jesus is talking about garbage, waste, unwanted things. Useless things.

Jesus starts by talking about our attitudes and continues on with the witness we bear forth in the world and then Jesus starts talking about the law and the kingdom of God.

As he speaks, he tells us: As long as heaven and earth exist, neither the smallest letter nor even the smallest stroke of a pen will be erased from the Law until everything there becomes a reality… unless your righteousness is greater than the righteousness of the legal experts and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

All of it is about the kingdom. Kingdom attitudes, Kingdom witness, Kingdom behavior.

In this whole next section, Jesus is talking about what is useless, unwanted, cast out of the Kingdom of heaven…

Not about eternal punishment in some fiery place… but about what cannot, will not, be a part of the kingdom.

He’s talking about the garbage that has to be cleared out of our lives in order for us to be a part of the kingdom.

He’s talking about the trash that gets in the way of us truly living like Kingdom people.

He’s telling us that unless we are willing to throw those behaviors and attitudes and feelings away, unless we are willing to clean house and transform our lives… we might as well just throw our whole selves out there on the garbage dump – because we are useless to him. We are useless to God. We are useless to the kingdom of heaven.

If we are not honest about our failings and our missteps then we are throwing ourselves out with the trash. By refusing to examine our lives, we live out there in the dump all of our own free choosing.

What does it take to live differently? What does it take to be a part of the Kingdom of God?

You have to be willing to let go of that thing which is holding you back from God’s transformative grace and love. Cut it off, throw it out, put it where it belongs… on the trash heap, out with the garbage, never to be seen again.

God wants you to be a part of the Kingdom.

You.

Not the garbage of your past that you cling to.

You.

Fully redeemed, made clean and whole by his love and grace.

Are you going to hold on so fast to the sin of your life so that you can’t enter?

Will you let it hinder you?

Or will you throw it out where it belongs?

On the southwest side of town there is a garbage heap… take out your sin and leave it there… and come join us in the Kingdom of God.

potluck worship

Posted on March 19, 20112 Comments

A colleague of mine recently forwarded an email about potlucks and banquets. It was written by Dr. Ed Robinson, the president of MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, KS.

photo by: Gözde Otman

Dr. Robinson asks us if our worshipping experiences are more like banquets or potlucks. And by that he means: do you come to worship and wait to be served, or do you bring something to the experience and try what is offered by others? (You can read the full article here)

I think it is a fascinating metaphor for both our worshipping life and our experience as the church. Is the church a place and a program that meets your needs or are you an active participant with something to contribute? Are you being served or are you serving? Are you a person in a pew or a part of the body of Christ?

I happen to love food. And I love potlucks even more. I’m not sure that you can be a good methodist withoutloving these two things! So, it’s probably obvious where I fall and where I encourage you to land in the choice between a banquet church and a potluck church.

But how do we turn our churches into potlucks? How do we encourage folks to bring something to the table? (or the sanctuary?)

First, I think we need to create opportunities in worship for folks to be active. Participation in a responsive liturgy is not enough. We need to ask people to get up, move around, think, respond, speak, and do things in worship.

This can be scary for churches that are accustomed to stand and sit worship. But what I have found is that people are hungry for the chance to be stimulated mentally, physically, and spiritually.

In my own congregation, we have interactive worship every so often. It is never something that is forced upon folks; people can stay seated if they want to. What is important is that whatever we are doing directly is related to the message for the day.

One of the first pieces of interactive worship we used related to the Lent 1 text from Genesis in cycle B. As we remembered God’s promise to Noah after the flood – we affirmed, as a congregation, that we are blessed by God. We proclaimed that God desires not the death of a sinner, but that we all repent and live. We celebrated that God promises to be, and has been, with us through the storms of our lives.

Our youth group prepared the canvases by painting them red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Then, following a brief mediation on the texts, I invited people to come and paint on these canvases signs of God’s promises to us. We remembered how God has shown us grace and mercy. We wrote words of hope and life.

Those canvases still hang at the front of our sanctuary.

Second, worship needs to connect with the congregation on a deeply personal level. It is not enough to simply preach a sermon that talks about the world around us – it needs to apply to what they are daily struggling with.

I have borrowed and adapated resources from a number of different locations, but one of my favorite sites is creativeprayer.com. One Sunday for worship, we talked about the sins in our own lives and used this idea for confession with sand. All around the room we place 2 gallon buckets filled with sand and handed each person a brown paper lunch sack. As we wandered around the room, we read the questions above each bucket and if that applied to us, we put a scoop of sand in our bag. They got heavy. It was a personal journey for each of us – and yet no one could see how much we were carrying. It was between me and God.

Near the end of worship, we took those heavy bags and we laid them before the cross. It was one of the most powerful worship experiences we have had in our church, because the message hit you personally. You carried the weight of your sin to the cross and left it there. Literally.

Third, the voices of the congregation need to have a space to be heard in worship.You cannot participate if you are not allowed to speak, to sing, to respond, to question.

While we don’t do this every Sunday (and sometimes I wonder, why not!), every so often our worship takes on a form of lectio divina. We ask folks to reflect on the scriptures and to share with one another what they think. There are other days when I ask folks to respond with their own questions. Even hymn sings provide the opportunity for individuals to share their favorite music and why it is a meaningful selection from their own experience.

I have also realized that there are some people who will never speak up during church. They don’t feel comfortable in front of large groups. I have attempted at various times to engage in The Roundtable Pulpit: Where Leadership & Preaching Meet sessions where a small group of folks help me to reflect on the text for the coming week. Those questions and ideas are then woven into the sermon. It provides an opportunity for voices other than my own to be heard and included. I love the concept, I have just had a difficult time getting a diversity of people to show up for the weekly gatherings.

Just as we have fantastic cooks in our local congregations, so too do we have people who are gifted in word, song, dance, creativity, passion, experience, and dedication. Just as we celebrate the good eats that come to the table when we feast together, so too should worship be a feast to God with all people offering together.