Sunday and the Sermon

 This afternoon here is today's sermon:

 

Proclaim Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins

April 18^th 2021

Luke 24: 36b-49

And

Romans 2:1-16

Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ”peace be with you. They were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, see that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence. 

Then he said to them “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you- that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.”  Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised, so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

(Romans 2: 1-16)

Therefore we have no excuse, whoever we are, when we judge others, for in passing judgement on another we condemn ourselves, because we judge, we are doing the very same things  Do we imagine, whoever we are, that when we judge those who do things  we consider ungodly we are doing them ourselves. Do we not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead us to repentance?

For it is not the hears of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law that will be justified.

In this precious last moment the disciples have with Jesus, Jesus says “repentance and forgiveness of sin is to be proclaimed.”

And I am curious about this word repentance.

Repentance has been part of movements of fear and manipulation. It has been used to shame and to control.    

But setting aside these negative connotations I want to invite you to a more biblical understanding of repentance. For Isaiah calls to us from the past, with the message from God that “in repentance and rest …you shall be saved. In quietness and trust shall be your strength.”

The Hebrew word for repentance literally means “to return” It acknowledges that to be judgmental is sin…to stray from the presence of God and that repentance is a returning.

Repentance is not earning of forgiveness by feeling bad or sorry enough.

These are the tactics we’ve learned work with one another. But this is not what God is asking of us.

Biblical repentance is a “returning”. Repentance literally means “the way back”.

What it is meant to do is to invite us to consider ourselves once again with an attitude of honesty and humility before God and one another.

And so we come together, all in this same boat of having missed the mark., all in this same boat of sin in the things we have done and left undone, in words we have said and words we have left unsaid, in disobedience to the Spirit of God, in wanting to control and direct our own lives, in the ways we have treated one another and ourselves. We come together, not alone.  We hold one another up to the light – not as different from ourselves, but as similar to us for even though our particular sins vary, our sinful state does not. As Paul makes pains to communicate in his letter to the Romans, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

This statement from Paul comes quite suddenly and unexpectedly. Paul begins in Romans chapter one by talking about “them.” We can imagine the whole crowd nodding in agreement. Certainly God condemns those people who we all agree are clearly sinners.

But then in a most striking turn he says,

Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others, for in passing judgement on another, you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.

Paul has set them up. Knowing the secret judgements of our hearts, Paul gets us all in the judgement seat, as he lists sinner after sinner, talking about how wrong “they” are.

And then when no one expects it,  out of the blue  Paul concludes by saying, “YOU” are without excuse, whoever you are. YOU.

Everyone thought they were just agreeing with Paul about other people’s sins. They think, “Why has Paul turned this on us? As though WE are the sinners.  

Paul is making the point that ALL are sinners. Paul is making the point that none of us can rightly stand in the judgement seat. Paul is teaching what Jesus taught that day he drew in the sand while accuser after accuser dropped their stones and left the woman they had dragged out to be stoned for adultery. None among them were without sin. So as Jesus said “let he among you without sin throw the first stone” and all fell away, except Jesus, the only one without sin.

Paul is catching us all red handed as we judge and condemn one another, by saying…

“You are no different”.

That is a bold and risky thing to say.  Perhaps it was good Paul’s message was delivered by letter and not in person…This may explain part of why he was beaten within an inch of his life on more than one occasion. To equate known  sinners with those society deemed good and upright people?

So, I invite you today to imagine yourself in the crowd that day , listening to Paul’s letter.

Then think how do we feel when he then says “Therefore YOU are without excuse.”

Personally I would feel like saying “Who? Me?” I think I would have been looking around, wondering who he thought he was talking to. I am the one who showed up. I am the one listening to his letter being read in the first place. I am seeking knowledge and understanding. I AM seeking God.

YOU? We think… That must be a typo.

But no, it isn’t a typo.

The whole point of listing out all of ”those people” was to show these people, and to show US, that WE are no different from the folks we all agree are sinners.  

The folks we ignore and isolate.

The folks we do not like and avoid.

WE are no different.

I cannot express how offensive this must have felt – if you let it sink in, you may well feel offended – but Paul says it anyway Paul echoes Jesus in saying that any among us without sin can throw the first stone at another. Paul, who himself had zealously followed after God all his life, knew that even among “the best” of them, they live in sin and evil and brokenness.

And Paul needed to get their attention OFF their neighbors and back on THEMSELVES.

As long as they were busy comparing their sins to others, they could feel better about themselves. But Paul makes the point that this is NOT how God measures our righteousness.

OUR righteousness is measured by God’s righteousness.  Our righteousness is measured beside Jesus’ . And, of course,  WE ALL fall short of the glory of GOD. We ALL miss the mark.

We can no longer take comfort in the ranking ourselves beside what we see as sin in one another. There is no truth in thinking we are better than others. For we are all alike before God.

It took me awhile to learn this lesson. I learned that if we neglect to forgive those we feel have wronged us, the only person really hurt is ourselves. That grudge we hold against another will eat at us ..it will over time poison us. It is essential that we forgive those we feel have wronged us. That forgiveness is the essential part of repentance.

As long as we are focused on others, we will not see the truth about ourselves.

The truth that we are beautifully and intentionally created by God and that God called us good.

The truth that we have been blessed to overflowing, in more ways that we can count.

The truth that we are loved and cherished by God.

AND the truth that no one of us is really deserving of this love.

The truth that left on our own, we tend to be full of darkness too.

The truth that we each sin and screw up time and again, and that it doesn’t matter if someone else’s screw up seems bigger. We are all screw ups from time to time, sin is sin, and when we neglect to forgive others whom we feel have wronged us, we have missed the mark.

In our honesty 

In the humbling of ourselves

In our returning our gaze OFF others and back on ourselves.

Why? Because we have heard and we believe that God knows us inside and out, just as we are, remembers we are made of dust, and loves us anyway.   And so we repent to receive forgiveness not only from others but also from ourselves.

May our lives shine with the light that comes only when we know because we have repented, we have been forgiven.

And may we extend that same light to everyone else.