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Sermon: The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost Year C - 12th September 2010
St Alban's Anglican Church Epping 8 am
Readings: Jeremiah 4:1-12, 22-28 Psalm 14 1Timothy 1:1-2, 12-19a Luke 15:1-10
Going through the readings for today, it is tempting to bypass the first three, and to go straight to the Gospel, with its simple and beautiful parables of Jesus about the lost sheep and the lost coin, and their wonderful message of the love and grace of God.
There seems so much sin and judgement in the other readings, and I’m frankly not all that comfortable preaching about sin and judgement. I know that there are preachers who seem to major on these subjects: we imagine them peering over the pulpit, six feet above contradiction, thundering forth lurid images of hellfire and brimstone, wagging their finger at the dreadful sinners in front of them, thinking that they can terrify people into the kingdom of God. That’s not really me!
The problem is that the Bible has a great deal to say about sin and judgement. And Jesus certainly had a great deal to say about these things: his message was not all sweetness and light. So let’s look at the Gospel in relation to those other readings.
Firstly our Psalm – Psalm 14 : a Psalm so significant that it is virtually repeated word for word in Psalm 53. The real fool, says the Psalmist, is the one who says there is no God. Not that he or she was an actual atheist: that would be pretty extraordinary in those days. No – the fool is the one who lives as if there is no God: the one who takes no account of God at all. This is ultimate foolishness, says the Psalmist: not so much intellectual as moral and spiritual foolishness. The Lord looks for people who really live the lives they ought to live, who consistently live in obedience to him, but he finds no one. No one at all. There is a sense in which we are all spiritual fools, says the Psalmist. We were made to live God’s way: but all of us, to a greater or lesser degree, live our own way instead.
Yes, there are people who make up the “company of the righteous”: and they get it tough from the hardened rebels against God. But the message from the Psalmist is that really we are all sinners. We are all guilty before God. And God is well and truly aware. Our first message is that God knows sinners . Now those heavy words from the prophet Jeremiah: a frightening
picture of judgement: a hurricane wreaking havoc and bringing terrible destruction.
God’s own people are so sinful and ungodly that he will bring this desolating fury upon even them. He is determined to do it. Yet the destruction will not be absolute: it will not be a full end. But God will not relent, he will not turn back from this terrible act of judgement. And if this is on his own people of Israel, how will it be for those who are the enemies of Israel? Jeremiah makes clear our second message: that God judges sinners.
It’s not a comfortable message. But we do need to recognize the logic and the necessity of judgement. For the alternative to judgement is far worse. Can God to allow evil to triumph, or treat evil as if it doesn’t matter?
Think of those appalling acts of 9/11. How do we want God to react to those terrorists who killed and injured so many innocent people? Don’t we want to shout at them: “what you did was not a great act, it was an evil act. You are not martyrs, but murderers!” Don’t we want to tell them: “God condemns you for this: he is not pleased with you”? We are angered by these terrible acts: we feel indignant, and believe it is righteous indignation. And how do you think God sees it? Of course he is appalled.
The problem with sin is: where do you draw the line? Violent terrorism? Murder? Robbery? Driving while drunk? Driving while drunk and killing a pedestrian? Telling a big lie? Telling a little lie? Spreading racist ideas? Passing on gossip, especially if we don’t know it’s true? Failing to help a person in need? Pride? Greed? Covetousness?… You see the problem! There is somewhere we would like to draw the line, but how far along? And how do we make sure that we’re on the right side?
That’s the problem! Sin is sin. Evil is evil. Undoubtedly some things are more terrible, they do more actual harm, than others. But the Ten Commandments don’t say that murder is bad, but coveting or using God’s name in vain are not so bad. And Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount puts lust in the same category as adultery, and an abusive word in the same category as murder.
The Psalmist is right in saying that all people are sinners. We are all sinners. We mightn’t do some of the terrible things that some other people do: I hope that we don’t! But we are guilty before God. And God knows sinners.
And because God is a righteous God who takes sin seriously, a God who will not ultimately let evil triumph, we have to acknowledge that Jeremiah is right when he graphically expresses the reality that God judges sinners .
But that is only part of the story. For Paul in our reading from 1 Timothy describes himself as “a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence”. He is “the foremost of sinners”: surely worthy of God’s judgement. What happened? Paul says that he received mercy because he had acted ignorantly in unbelief. No doubt he remembers Jesus’ prayer for those who nailed him to the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” The grace of the Lord overflowed for Paul with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Christ displayed the utmost patience with him, making him an example for others who would find eternal life in Christ.
What we see here is that God understands sinners. Yes, he knows the worst about us. But he also understands why we do the things we do. He understands us when we make mistakes, when we head down the wrong path, when we let ourselves and him down. He understands our weaknesses and frailties. He understands our uncertainties and confusion. He even understands that anger, confusion, frustration and gullibility that turns some people into terrorists. God understands the best of us and the worst of us. And the grace which overflowed to Paul is the same grace which reaches out to us through Jesus.
So our readings tell us that God knows sinners, God judges sinners and that God understands sinners. And our Gospel tells us that God rescues sinners . Through sin we lose touch with God, and the life he shares with his people. And these two simple stories from Jesus tell us God’s reaction to our “lostness”. As the shepherd goes searching for the lost sheep until he finds it, as the woman sweeps out the house, searching carefully until she finds that lost coin, so God goes all the way to rescue us from the penalty and power of sin. He shows the extent of his love in the cross of Christ, bringing us salvation and restoring us to himself.
To be a sinner is in a real sense to be lost. But through Christ, we are found, because of the love of God. It shows how much he loves us, how much he values us, how precious we are to him.
To acknowledge myself as a sinner is to be realistic about my shortcomings before God. Because of our sin we are unworthy before God, but that does not mean that we are worthless: we matter immensely to God, no matter what our failings may be.
But there is one other message from these simple stories. When the lost sheep is found there is a celebration. When the lost coin is found there is a party. In the same way there is rejoicing in heaven when any sinner is rescued, when any sinner finds the forgiveness which comes to us in Christ. That’s another indication of how special each of us, the best of us and the worst of us, is to God.
Jesus told these stories in response to the attitude of the Pharisees and scribes. “This fellow welcomes sinners and even eats with them”, they said. They believed that God had rejected such people, and that Jesus therefore should not associate with them. They saw such people as sinners, but put themselves in a different category. “We’re not like them. They’re beneath us,” was their attitude.
But Jesus saw them differently. He saw them as sinners, in need of forgiveness. He saw them as lost, and needing to be found. He saw them as precious to God, and therefore precious to him.
The Pharisees had lost the plot, and you may remember that immediately after these two stories comes the prodigal son, with its appendix about the brother who was disgusted by the way his Father welcomed back the prodigal. Just like the Pharisees.
Even Sunday we come and confess our sins, we acknowledge ourselves as those who need God’s forgiveness; we admit that we still wander even though we have accepted the love and forgiveness of God. In the Eucharist we commemorate the death of Christ which paid the price for our forgiveness.
To be Anglican is to be a sinner: perfect people ought to find a perfect church – and that’s certainly not any Anglican church! So next time we are tempted to label someone as less worthy than us, let’s remember these truths from the scriptures. God knows sinners – and that includes us. God judges sinners – and we will have an account to give of our own lives. God understands sinners – and he shows understanding and mercy to us: we can be open with him. And God rescues sinners: let us be thankful that his love reaches out to us through Christ, and be humble in our dealings with others and our attitude to others.
As sinners, we as human beings are ultimately all in the same boat. But God loves each one of us, and longs for all people to open up to his forgiveness. No one is beyond the scope of God’s love, and no one is beyond the reach of God’s grace, which is there for all who look to Christ with their needs and failings, trusting in him for forgiveness and life. Amen.
Paul Weaver