Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen
So, it’s time for some confessions.
It doesn’t take
much. Not much at all.
Driving down the
road during a winter storm, watching other drivers will do it.
The other
morning, during one of those snow storms, most of the driver’s on the road had
slowed to about 40 mph, and were doing our best not to slip and slide out of
control. Then I see a semi-truck coming
up behind me, passing everyone. I’d
estimate he was doing 60 mph or better.
And all I could say, was, “You fool!”
Another day, same
type of weather conditions, I was backed up behind a snow plow. I’ve learned that in such circumstances you’ve
just got to be patient. Yes, they are
only traveling at 30 mph, but passing is usually not safe.
In this
circumstance, the plow was in the left hand lane, with the extended blade
stretched out to clear the right hand lane as well. There was no opportunity to pass.
And
then again, a pickup truck raced up behind me, passing everyone along the
way. When he reached the snow plow he
was undeterred and simply swung around to the right, through the discharge of
snow coming off the plow’s blades and passed on the shoulder of the road. Once again, all I could say was “You fool!”
Jimmy Carter was
honest enough to admit it, even though he was criticized for being so honest.
And I have to
confess that I’m with Jimmy on this one.
Lust.
A strong craving
or desire of a sexual nature.
The struggle is
that we are sexual human beings. We
naturally experience sexual desires.
From a purely biological perspective, it’s that desire that keeps us
engaged in sex and having kids, necessary for our survival.
All it takes is
the mere sight of a man or a woman, and those desires can awaken.
I once joked with
a friend, that the best thing about getting older was that with every passing
year, more and more women were looking attractive.
He didn’t know
how to take that.
In all
seriousness, when I was 18, any woman over the age of, say 30, appeared to me
to be just plain old. Now that I’m 60, there are a lot more women
that are attractive.
It doesn’t take
much.
And the thing
about lust is that by the time you realize what’s happening, you’ve already
experienced it.
And according to
Jesus, the sin has occurred.
I have to tell
you a quick story about something that happened this week.
I post articles
on the Church’s Facebook page as a way of reaching out to the community. On Friday, my comments were on this text.
Almost
immediately it was ‘liked’ by a young woman.
As I often do, I clicked on her name to go to her Facebook page and find
out a little about her.
What I got, was
an eyeful.
My conclusion was
that she was employed over in State Line, and if she wasn’t, she could be.
Jesus said, “But
I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed
adultery with her in his heart.”
And then, if that
is not enough, there is this matter of how we get along in Church.
“So when you are
offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister
has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first
be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.”
Who among us can
say that we’ve never offered our gifts at the altar when there were people out
there with whom we needed to be reconciled?
One of the
occupational hazards of being a pastor is that too often, things are said, or
done, or not said or not done, that offend people.
I’ve had people
refuse to receive communion from me for months because they found fault with
one of my sermons.
What should I
have done in those circumstances?
Stop everything
until reconciliation was achieved? How do
I pastor a congregation if I am to ‘leave my gifts at the altar and go be
reconciled with anyone who has something against me?
It’s
pretty tough, especially because some people are not inclined to be
reconciled. They feel that they are
right, and I am wrong, and there’s little that can be said or done to change
that.
Oh Jesus, what
are we to do?
And why did you
make it so hard?
One of the things
about Jesus’ teaching, is that whether we like it or not, (and most of the time
we don’t like it) Jesus exposes our sinfulness.
And here in the
Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks incredibly forceful words about the spirit of
the law, not just the letter of the law.
According to the
letter of the law, I’m not bad at all.
I’ve never killed
anyone.
I’ve never
committed adultery.
And I can even
say that I’ve tried to seek reconciliation whenever I knew that something was
wrong.
It doesn’t stop
there.
According to the
letter of the law, I’ve done pretty well keeping all the Ten Commandments.
Part of this is
because I’m basically a good person.
And part of this
is because what I lacked in righteousness, I made up for with timidity.
There’s something
to be said for being shy.
I’m just not bold
enough to do something wrong.
At least
according to the letter of the Law.
But Jesus won’t
let us off the hook there.
He lifts up the
Spirit of the Law.
And there we all
stand convicted, our sins exposed, and it becomes clear how weak we actually
are.
As harsh as Jesus’
words are in the Sermon on the Mount, he doesn’t leave us there.
He
bids us come to the foot of the Cross, and there, on Golgotha, that other
Mountain, he forgives us.
Every day when I
come into Church, I see that wall hanging in our entry.
First of all,
because I knew Nancy. Nancy was one of
the first people I visited in the hospital when I was in seminary. Nancy had a business and created those wall
hangings with a scripture verse and woven ribbon.
But I also notice
it because it is one of my favorite verses.
“My grace is
sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”
When we are weak,
God is strong.
When we have
sinned, God’s grace and forgiveness are all the more powerful.
And
that’s all we need. It is
sufficient.
I’ve been
thinking about our congregation a lot since I’ve been here.
One of the
thoughts that I’ve had is that what is needed is for me to be a cheerleader of
sorts, and encourage you to believe that though you are small, you have much
going for you and you are a wonderful little congregation.
Affirmation, recognizing
that even though you are small, you can be faithful in doing God’s work, maybe
this is what is needed.
This has been
hard to believe at times, especially as our numbers have dwindled as one person
after another has left for one reason or another.
And so I’ve been
trying to affirm you, and reassure you, that your size is not something you
should feel bad about.
But maybe that’s
the wrong place to start.
Where Jesus starts, is with these difficult
words that we read this day.
Jesus starts by
exposing our sin, and calling us to repent.
Jesus starts by
showing us how we are weak, in order that we might see the power of God at work
among us.
I wonder.
I wonder if what
is needed is not affirmation, but confession.
You are not
alone.
Congregations all
over the country are struggling with declining numbers, many of whom don’t know
if they will be able to survive.
But is suggesting
that such congregations need to confess their sinfulness and weakness only to
add insult to injury?
It is like
kicking someone while they are down?
One of the things
I realize that I must confess is this.
I have often
tried too hard.
I have often
tried too hard to be successful as a pastor, and to bring about growth in the
congregations I’ve served. And when I do
that, I rely on my own abilities, not the power of God. And I fail.
I fail because I
am weak.
But if I admit
that I am weak, then I open the door for the power of God.
Perhaps that is
the confession that not only we at Peace need to make, but the whole Church.
That the harder
we tried, the more we failed.
By our own
efforts and understanding, we not only cannot bring the Gospel to all nations,
but we cannot even believe ourselves.
But to make such
a confession, is not to resign ourselves to defeat. It is to open ourselves to the grace of God.
Jesus exposes our
sin, our failure, our weakness, that we might experience the power of God
active in our midst.
Perhaps what is
needed is not for us to try harder, but to simply stand back, and watch what
God can do.
You fool! We say.
Child of God, Jesus says.
We are filled
with lust,
And Jesus calls us to love.
We harbor grudges
against one another,
And Jesus seeks reconciliation.
We fail.
And Jesus prevails.
This is the
Gospel of the Lord.
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