This afternoon here is today's sermon:
Proclaim Repentance and Forgiveness
of Sins
April 18th 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.
