UNDONE: Forgiveness undoing what we have become.(#2)

UNDONE: Forgiveness undoing what we have become.(#2)

Reinbeck 1/30/11

Doug Adams - Author of “The hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe” tells this story.

He got to the train station early, having remembered his departure time wrong.  He went to the stand to buy a newspaper, a coffee, and a bag of cookies to pass the time until his train arrived.  He sat down at a table with his newspaper, his coffee, and his bag of cookies.

There was a guy sitting opposite him.  He was perfectly ordinary-looking guy wearing a business suit and carrying a briefcase.

It didn't look like he was going to do anything weird.  What he did was this: he suddenly leaned across, picked up the packet of cookies, tore it open, took one out, and ate it.  Doug is British and he writes, “The British are very bad at dealing with (things like this).  There's nothing in our background, upbringing, or education that teaches you how to deal with someone who in broad daylight has just stolen your cookies.”  Therefore, he did the only thing he could do.  He ignored it, and reached out to lay claim to the cookies by taking one himself.

He thought that would settle the matter, but it didn’t in a moment the man did it again.  Brazenly stole one of Doug’s cookies in broad daylight.

They went through the whole package like this.  Well there were only about eight cookies, but it felt like a lifetime.  The businessman took one, Doug took one, the man took one, and Doug took one.  Finally, when the cookies were gone, the man stood up and walked away.

Breathing a sigh of relief, it wasn’t long before Doug’s train would come; so he tossed back the rest of his coffee, stood up, picked up the newspaper, and there underneath the newspaper was the bag of cookies he had purchased.

Through the whole exchange, he thought the businessman was stealing his cookies- he was thinking how he was being wronged- trying to figure out how he could straighten out this cookie thief.  Now Doug discovered-- he who was the cookie thief.

As we spend these weeks learning about forgiveness - before we get any deeper into how we forgive others, we need to reckon with a very basic issue.  Often we have to admit that we are the ones who are stealing the cookies.  We are the ones in need of forgiveness.

There are two things we need to know about being forgiven.

·                        One is we have to own up to our human wrong.

·                        Two, Jesus has already paid the divine price.

First, we have to own up to our own sin.  Matthew 5:23-24 says, “If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.  First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”

Notice, it says leave the church and deal make amends.  This happens before we come before God.  Before we seek God’s forgiveness.  Maybe we should have a sign on the door that says, “Cookie thieves welcome- if you have replaced cookies.”  “Sinners welcome, if you have made amends.”

Now… are the people we hurt always going to forgive us?  No.  Are those hurt from our sin always open to reconciliation?  No.  Nevertheless, we make the effort.

We swallow our pride, and our self-righteousness, and our egos and the last bite the other guy’s cookies; wipe the crumbs off our face; and we go offer our heartfelt apology while handing him the package of cookies that we bought for ourselves.

That’s what we have to do . . .  seek to be reconciled with our brother or sister before we can come before God.  Regardless of their response- their openness or bitterness- that is between them and God.  We know what we have to do.

Lest you think that once we have made up with our neighbor we are done, let me be clear.  When we wrong another person, we might be able to deal with the consequences of that wrong between them and us.  Nevertheless, we still have to deal with our sin before God.  The passage says to come back and make your offering to God.

To bring that right down to earth-

·         We can give the man our package of cookies, but God still has to deal with the ego that always assumes the other person is in the wrong.

·         We can make up with our spouse, but we still have to deal with God about the selfishness that caused us to stray.

·         Even when we have faced the music with our mother or father, we still have not gotten to the root of the rebellious spirit and must do that with God.

·         We can stop cussing people out when we are driving, but we still have not dealt with the deep-seated anger that caused us to boil over in the first place. 

·         We can go back and tell the truth when we have lied.  But we need God’s help with fear that caused us to lie in the first place.  

Do you see what I mean?  Even when we have dealt with the behavior, the sin in our heart is still a problem.  We might not see it, we might not understand it, and we might not know what to do with it.  But God does.

In today’s scripture, Jesus is being crucified.  Led up the path to that place with the ugly name: “Golgotha.”  Led up to the even uglier means of torture and execution: “Crucifixion.”  Led up to death.  He knows it; and all who watch know it. 

When they arrive, Mathew doesn’t go into a lot of details.  The details of crucifixion would have been all too well known to his audience.  He says simply, “They crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right, and one on his left.”  Then Jesus Speaks.  “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” 

This is the sentence I want to explore today.  Jesus has been beaten, flogged, spit on, kicked, pushed, mocked; he has had nails driven through his body he is hanging bloody and dying.  Yet, he says, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” 

Let’s look at two words…

First…Who is “them?”  For whom is Jesus praying?

·         Is he saying Father forgive the soldiers . . .  they are the most obvious choice.  They are the ones carrying out the execution.

·         But, could it be the whole Roman government with Pontius Pilate as its representative?  Pilate could have changed the outcome.  He could have followed his own instincts.  He didn't have to cave in to the pressure of the crowd and the lure of his own ambition.

·         Or is Jesus praying for the religious leaders, who badgered Jesus about his claims of authority and his ways of doing things?  They were the ones who conspired to betray him into the hands of the Romans.

·         Alternatively, could Jesus be praying for his own followers, the disciples who betrayed him, denied him, and abandoned him in the hour of his greatest need?  They could not have changed the course of events.  However, they could have stood by him, stayed with him, been loyal to him, and showed him they cared.  But, they were afraid.  They hid themselves away.  They closed themselves in.  They cowered behind locked doors.

·                     I say yes- yes -yes we was talking about them and more...  And the more includes you and me.  It includes all of us, who are a part of the brokenness of the world and the sinfulness of all humankind. St. Paul writes, "For our sake, God made him to be sin, who knew no sin.”  God made him to be sin, so that sin could be hung on the cross and defeated once and for all.

Whether we know not, or admit not, or believe not, or confess not, our sin is the reason for Jesus death.  Not that we caused it, but he died in order to take away the power of sin in our lives.  We are the them in Jesus Prayer- “Father forgive them- “He forgave our actions, forgave our motivations, forgave our hurtful feelings, and forgave our evil thoughts.  Forgave us, even though we don’t even understand how destructive their behavior is. 

Which brings us to the second word I want to examine.  WHAT.

Father forgive them for they don’t know WHAT they are doing.” maybe he was really saying:

·         “Father forgive them because they need forgiveness more than they know.”

·         “Father forgive them because they are in desperate need of forgiveness and they don’t even know it.”

·          “Father, they’re absolutely crazy!  They don’t have a clue about true love!  They’re totally messed up!  We need to help them!  We need to save them!” we need to forgive them.

So Jesus in one of his final breaths, sums up the whole purpose of his coming, living and dying.  He explains the entire reason for his resurrection.  FATHER, FORGIVE THEM.

Hard to believe isn’t it.  And that is our problem.  We have a hard time believing that God can forgive.

    One night a father and his son were walking down the street of a major city.  When they came near an alley they saw a young man in his 20’s sitting by the curb, weeping.  They asked him what was wrong, and he said:  “My mother and I are homeless and starving.  She’s so weak she can’t even walk.  She’s sitting on the ground back in the alley.  I came out here to cry because I can’t stand to watch her suffer.”

     The father and his son looked at each other, and without speaking a word, they both knew what they would do.  The father said, “My son and I will help you!  Take us to your mother, and we will help you both. 

 The homeless youth smiled, and then led the father and his son back into the dark alley.  After they walked about 50 feet they were assaulted by five armed young men jumped out of the darkness   

 The youth who had led them into this trap, said to the father, “Give us your wallet now!”  Then they held the father back, grabbed the son stabbed and beat him.

     Before he died, the son looked up at his father with blood dripping down his face and pain in his eyes, and the son said, “Father, please give them all of the life insurance money you’ll get after my death, so they will know that you love them and forgive them.”  The father answered, “Yes, my son, I will do as you ask.”  After the father spoke those words, his son died.

Does that story sound true to you?  Could you show such love to wicked people like that?  Could I forgive men after watching them beat and kill my son who only wanted to help them?  I don’t think I have that much love in my heart.  I don’t think you have that much love in your hearts, that is why we have such a hard time believing that God does.

I don’t know if the story is true, but contains truth.  It is a parable about how much God loves us and what happened for us on the cross of Christ. 

God so loved the world, even us sinners, God so loved the world that he gave his only son, and through him the treasure of forgiveness to all who call upon him.

Hey all you cookie thieves.  Make your amends with people, and trust that God has already taken care of the rest.  

UNDO #1 Unleashing the love of God in the worlld

UNDONE(#1)

 Forgiveness Unleashing Divine Love

RUMC 1/23/11

(Slide 1)

UNDONE- I am finally preaching the series I have wanted to preach for a year now.  I haven’t preached it before now because frankly as hard as forgiveness is to practice, I think it is even harder to teach. 

·         Who am I to stand here to teach you about forgiveness?  Robyn is able to move past a wrong 5 times faster than I am.

·         Who am I to stand here to teach you about forgiveness?  Some of you have forgiven errant spouses, abusive parents, chronically addicted loved ones and maybe worse.

·         Who am I to stand here and teach you about forgiveness?   I have not walked in your shoes, or felt the hurt you have felt.

Who am I to stand here and teach you about forgiveness?  I am no one.  Except I too have struggled with forgiveness.  Like some of you, I have struggled to let go of past wrongs.  Like some of you I have fought my way back from hurt and anger and entrenched grudge-holding to find that forgiveness is a better answer.

I said a better answer, not an easier one.  One pastor with a little more guts than I have; trying to illustrate how hard forgiveness is; and how forgiveness really runs against the tide of normal behavior in our culture; named his sermon series on forgiveness “the F word.”

I think “UNDONE” will be just fine for us.  I call it “undone” because what most of us really need is some assurance that even if we can’t undo the wrongs we have done-or the wrongs that have been done to us; we need to know that the damage that has resulted from our sins can be undone.  And at the risk of spoiling the end of the series for you let me assure you it can but only with God’s help.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First we need to understand what forgiveness is, and why it is important.

I started by searching for the first examples of forgiveness in the Bible.  Unfortunately, the very first story in the Bible, the creation story, turned out to be a forgiveness story. Right off the bat Adam and Eve sin. They suffer the consequences; being ejected from Eden.  And God forgives.

·         God does not keep digging up the apple thing to throw it up in their face?

·         God does abandon them?

·         God does not continue to punishing them?

·         God does not hold a grudge?

·         God just forgives.

What about the consequences you ask?  How can it be a forgiveness story when they were punished by being evicted from Eden?   

The first lesson we learn about forgiveness is that it does not exempt us from consequences.   Consequences are a natural or legal result of our behavior. 

·         They did the crime; they have to do the time.

·         They ate the fruit they got kicked out.

Adam and Eve suffered the consequences of their behavior, but the relationship between God and the earth man and his wife remained intact.  God still loved and cared for Adam and Eve.  The consequences and the forgiveness are completely independent issues.

·         If you break the law, you go to jail; and forgiveness is a separate issue.

·         If you recklessly injure someone, the insurance company may sue you; even if the victim forgives you.

·         If you betray a trust, you may not be trusted as you were before; but forgiveness can still happen.

So, the first lesson is forgiveness does not erase consequences. (Click slide)

The second story of forgiveness I found is a very interesting one about forgiveness between siblings.  Actually twins.  Jacob and Esau were twins.  Esau came out red and harry his whole body was like a fur coat. (I don’t make this stuff up read Genesis Chapter 25)  Jacob came out right after him holding on to his heal.

Jacob was a crafty fellow.  He managed to trick his older brother out of his birthright and then again by trickery, got his father’s blessing which rightly belonged to Esau. Esau vowed to kill his brother for his trickery.

Years came and went before the two would meet again. Jacob was blessed with many wives and flocks and much wealth.  Jacob knew about his brother’s vow to kill him.  He probably knew that he deserved it.  He sent an offering of half of his flocks and servants ahead to try to please or appease his brother.  With great fear the two brothers neared one another- and   do you know what happened?  Esau reached out and . . .  embraced his brother.

There was no apology.  There was no payback.  There was no accusation.  No strings. No grudge.  Nothing . . . just pure forgiveness.  That is because the way God defines forgiveness is pure grace- a pure gift. 

On the one hand I said forgiveness does not remove the consequences.   On the other, forgiveness does not wait either confession or punishment. . (Slide)

If Esau had waited for his brother to ask forgiveness or pay the price for his deception, he might still be waiting.

Sometimes if we wait for punishment to be exacted, or a confession to be offered we will never get around to forgiveness.  But that’s OK because we don’t have to wait.  Christian forgiveness does not depend on anything but love.  It does not depend on anything but Grace.

Finally I came to the story of Joseph.  Most famous for his colorful coat, you should now that his brothers were jealous of him.  They threw him in a pit and told their father that he was dead:  killed by a wild animal.  The truth was that they sold him in to slavery and his owners took him to Egypt.  There he spent years in slavery, years in prison and was finally released from prison and given an important job on the pharaoh’s cabinet- in charge of all the land of Egypt. 

When a famine came in the land of Israel, Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt for food but did not recognize Joseph.  After messing with them a little Joseph makes a decision.  He calls them back into his presence, sends out the Egyptians and reveals to them who he is. They are afraid, but he embraces them, accepts them and cares for them. 

You notice I said he made a decision. (Slide)  I said that very intentionally, because forgiveness is a decision.  It is a decision to absorb the injustice.  It is a decision to accept that wrong was done but not exact a penalty.

·         If a banker decides to forgive a loan it means the borrower does not have to pay his debt.  It also means that the banker has decided that the bank will absorb the loss of money. 

·         If a governor pardons a criminal rather than letting him be imprisoned, someone has still suffered the wrong that the criminal did. 

A pardon does not fix the wrong that was done.  Neither does forgiveness.  Someone has suffered for that wrong.  Someone has suffered for that sin.  But to forgive is to decide that we will absorb the wrong that was done.

Joseph could have enslaved his brothers selling him into slavery.  Joseph could have imprisoned them to get back at them for the years he spent in prison.  Instead he decided to forgive.  He decided to accept that wrongs had been done; and like a sponge he would simply absorb it.

Forgiveness is deciding to put relationship ahead of the wrong that was done, relationship ahead of the injustice, relationship before the pain.  Soaking up the wrong the injustice and the pain like a sponge and deciding to forgive anyway.  Deciding to love anyway.

Not letting our brains, or our knotted up guts, or our vengeful spleen do our thinking for us- but letting our grace filed  hearts make the decision for forgiveness and relationship ahead of all else.

Of whom does that remind you?  God?   When we practice Christian forgiveness in this way . . .

·         Accepting consequences

·         Not waiting for confession, punishment, or revenge

·         Deciding to put relationships first. . .

When we practice Christian forgiveness we unleash the love of God in our lives and in our world. (Final slide) When we practice Christian forgiveness we are reflecting of the light and love of our graceful God.

You see, all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and deserve eternal destruction.  But God loves us so much that he sent his only son to die that we might have eternal life. 

·         God does not release us of the consequences of our sin here on earth. 

·         Nor does He exact punishment for our sins. .

·         He chose to bear the price of our sin in Jesus Christ on the cross.  He soaked up all the evil, cruelty, injustice, inhumanity, and insanity we could offer, and in exchange offered perfect forgiveness for those who believe.

Simon Wiesenthal wrote a book entitled THE SUNFLOWER.

As the book opens Wiesenthal is a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp on a work detail. As they work they come across a graveyard containing the remains of German soldiers.  On each grave lay a sunflower. Wiesenthal writes

I envied the dead soldiers.  Each had a sunflower to connect him with the living world, and butterflies to visit his grave.  For me there would be no sunflower.  I would be buried in a mass grave, where corpses would be piled on top of mine.  No sunflower would ever bring light into my darkness, and no butterflies would dance above my dreadful tomb.

 Later, while working in a field hospital Simon was ordered by a nurse to follow her.

He was taken to the room of an SS agent named Karl Seidl.  Karl was dying and he wanted to confess his atrocities to a Jew.  Simon sat and listened.  He said not a word but listened.  He brushed the flies from Karl’s face and listened.  He gave Karl a drink of water and listened.  He actually knew some of the people whose tortures and deaths Karl described and he said nothing, he just listened.  He held Karl’s had as Karl requested, and said nothing, but just listened.

The man was seeking forgiveness.  When he finished telling his story, Simon got up and walked out still saying nothing. 

Karl Died that night and miraculously Simon survived the war.   98 people in his family were killed by people like Karl.

Simon ends The Sunflower with a haunting question. “Ought I to have forgiven him?  Was my silence at the bedside of the dying Nazi right or wrong? (Then he asks us to) change places with (him) and ask (ourselves) the crucial Question.  What would I have done?”

I don’t know what I would have done.  I cannot presume to say.  Eloise sent me a quote, however that I think illuminates the question.  Bonnie Thurston writes in the current issue of "Weavings"  "In the reality of this bad-unfair-unjust-tragic-painful (you fill in the blank) situation, HOW am I to respond? How can I be as much like Jesus as possible in the midst of this awfulness?" 

How can we be as much like Jesus as possible in the midst of the hurts of life?   In doing that, God’s love will certainly be unleashed into our world and into our lives.

Robyn's January 16 Sermon

"I just can't help it" Mike and Libby Flowers are missionaries serving Children of the Harvest Ministries in North Dakota.  One of their ministries is Spirit Lake Indian Reservation.  One of their first projects at Spirit Lake was what they call Sidewalk Sunday School.  In the middle of a circle of 30-40 homes there is a playground.  On the playground Mike and Libby set up an old green trailer.  They started playing Jesus Loves Me loud over a boom box and waited for the children to come.  Except the children did not come.  They were just about ready to give up when finally one little girl, named Amber Rose, came up.  They offered her a bologna sandwich, a bag of chips and some grape soda donated by Wal Mart where Mike was at one time a district manager.  Amber Rose ate, perhaps the only meal she had that day.  Mike and Libby waited for other curious hungry children to come.  They did not.  About the time they were ready to call it quits again, Amber rose left and returned with her brothers and sisters.  They ate.  At the end of the day Mike and Libby had fed 20 children and told them Jesus Loves them.  Why did Mike and Libby sleep on army cots in a school gymnasium and eat nothing but bologna sandwiches for their first 8 weeks at Spirit Lake?  Because of Jesus.  Because the good news of salvation is too good to keep inside.  Mike and Libby just can’t help but to tell others who need so desperately to know the love and mercy of God. Their witness drives home the point of how enthusiastic we Christians are (or ought to be) when we really commit our lives to Christ; then, we can't sit still. We become so excited, so thrilled, so grateful for our new life in Christ that we can't help but love Him, praise Him, serve Him, and share Him with others. This is precisely what happened to Andrew. He found the Messiah, he encountered Jesus - and he was so excited he couldn't sit still. Immediately, gratefully, excitedly, he ran to share the good news with his brother Simon. It reads like this in the first chapter of John's Gospel: "(Andrew) first found his brother, Simon and said to him: 'We have found the Messiah'" Then Andrew brought Simon Peter to Jesus. This was the greatness of Andrew. He was the man who was always introducing others to Jesus. Three different times in the Bible, Andrew comes to center stage and each time he is bringing someone to meet Jesus. Here in John 1, he brings his brother Simon Peter. In John 6, Andrew brings to Jesus the boy with the five loaves and two fish. And in John 12, we find Andrew bringing to Jesus the enquiring Greeks who wanted to meet Jesus and visit with Him. Andrew's greatest joy was sharing the good news of Christ and bringing others into the presence of Christ. Having found Jesus, he could not sit still, he could not help it. He had to share Christ with others. A minister friend of mine tells about a woman in his church who is so excited to be a Christian. She has a shady past and had pretty much hit bottom when a friend reached out to her and brought her to church. The church member welcomed her warmly and loved her into the circle of their love and God's love. She started going to church faithfully. She joined a wonderful Sunday School class. She began studying the Bible daily. She started praying regularly and in the process was converted. She realized for the very first time in her life that God loved her, even her! She came to understand that even though she had done all those sordid things in her earlier life, that God still loved her, forgave her, accepted her, valued her, treasured her. She was absolutely bowled over by that "Amazing Grace" and she committed herself to Christ heart and soul. Recently she said to her minister, "I'm so excited to be a Christian, that I've got a strong case of the "can't help its.”  Andrew was like this.   He, too, had a strong case of the "can't help its." He was so grateful, so thrilled, so excited about Christ that he just could not sit still. He could not keep Jesus to himself. You know, as I think about this and as I think about my own personal life and spiritual pilgrimage, I can tell you that I also have a strong case of the "can't help its." It goes with being a Christian. I can’t help it.  I have to sing.  I hear music everywhere. I hear the rhythm of life all around me.  Sometimes I’m not sure if this is a blessing or a curse, but when I walk down the street I hear the rhythm of my feet hit the sidewalk and a song pops into my head.  I bump along Highway 63 and the beat carries my thoughts away to some song.  I can be shopping in a department store or walking down the street, but many is the time I have embarrassed my children (and maybe even Noah Michael) by suddenly and spontaneously bursting into song.  Now if the song happens to be something from KNWS that one thing, but it might just as easily be “At the Copa, Copacabana the hottest spot north of savannah” or “I’m back in the saddle again.”  And, I admit, that IS embarrassing, but that’s what it’s like inside my head.  God has put music in me and it just won’t be still.  I’ve heard one other person say that this is how they experience life also.  He was the choir director from Asbury UMC in Bettendorf.  He seemed otherwise very normal to me, so I took comfort in the belief that hearing music in my head and soul 24/7 must be normal after all, at least for the wonderfully unique and loved person God has made me. I can’t help it.  I gotta’ serve.  It’s harder to describe this one.  I just know that since the time I was very young I have known that I would devote my life to helping others—because of Jesus.  People thing the particular types of service I am often involved in are difficult….and sometimes they are.  But I find joy, yes, even pleasure in my work.  I like helping other people find the hope and faith that is within them at times when they need it the very most.  Last Sunday I worshiped in Jesup so I could learn more about volunteer mission opportunities at Spirit Lake Reservation.  At some point during the preceding week I had a thought, not even fully formed, but something like “They are going sing “Here I am, Lord” and then I will have to go.  They did, and I plan to. Long ago I used to read stories in the Readers Digest. One was entitled “I am Joe’s Big Toe.”  Well this is what it is like to be Robyn’s hands and feet.  Driving- a lot.  Punching addresses into my Garmin, a lot.  Keyboarding, a lot.  Knocking, a lot.  Climbing stairs, walking through snow and occasionally through unmentionables animals have left behind—a lot.  My hands and feet get me in the door.  Hopefully my heart touches lives with the good news of hope—because of Jesus.  What about you?  Do you have a case of  “Can’t help its?”  -because of Jesus?  How would you complete this statement, “I just can’t help…? Because of Jesus.” Write responses. On that playground back at Spirit Lake Reservation is a basketball court.  On the first day of Sidewalk Sunday School Mike and Libby found the ball court covered in obscene graffiti, so terrible Mike says some of the words he had never even heard during his life in the Air Force.  They determined to power wash away the graffiti.  Weeks later they realized just how great the need on the reservation and how very, very busy they were going to be.  It just didn’t seem like sidewalk Sunday School was making a difference and they were so busy they decided they would discontinue it.  One day, Mike couldn’t find Libby.  After quite a long time he found her, standing on the basketball court weeping.  They had not found the time to clean up the graffiti, but there amidst all the obscenities was some new graffiti –the words:  “Jesus Loves you” Side walk Sunday school was making a difference.  And one of those kids had a new case of “can’t help its”.  That child got so excited they just had to tell the good news of Jesus love in the best way they knew how:  spray painted graffiti on a basketball court.  In 2010 over 1000 children participated in the ministry of Sidewalk Sunday School.  Praise God.  Amen.