Week 12 a THE STORY
Reinbeck UMC
A year ago
last thanksgiving, Robyn and I went to Chicago for a little weekend getaway. We
saw a show and went to the Holocaust Museum in Skokie, which I highly
recommend. On the way out of town, we set the GPS for home and started
following it. We didn’t really care which way we went as long as it was toward
home. We got to the West suburbs and the GPS said very politely, take the next
exit on the right. So I did. As soon as I did, it came back “recalculating.” By
the time I got to the top of the exit it said, take the next exit to the right.
So I did realizing that that would send me right back to Chicago but still
wanting to believe that the GPS knew where I wanted to go.
As soon as I took the exit, it came back
again “recalculating.” By that time, Robyn was laughing uncontrollably, and I
was getting frustrated. Then… you guessed it “take the next exit to the right.”
Now you have to picture a cloverleaf to realize that every time I take an exit it
is turning me 90 degrees and after 4 exits, I would be right back where I
started. There I was, following the GPS in this infinite loop and telling Robyn
“Get the map out, just get the map and tell me where to go.” All she can do is
laugh. Let me tell you, we are lucky we aren’t still on that cloverleaf taking
the next right over and over again.
I can’t explain what the GPS was trying to do, or why it
was off track. I can tell you, however, that this was not the first time in my
life I have been off track. It was not the first time in my life I have been
caught going the wrong way. It was not the first time in my life that I seemed
to be stuck going nowhere. Nor was it the last.
Unfortunately, each of us has a tendency to get
off track and be stuck in an infinite loop of sin, excuses, lies, and more sin
to cover up the first. Trying to cover our sin with more sin is futile.
I read a story from a
preacher this week explaining how she learned that our own cover-ups don’t really
do a very good job. It seems she had a grandmother who was quite a large lady. So
large in fact, that it was hard to buy clothes. So she made her own clothes. This
lady would cut a bed sheet in half, sew the edges together so there was still a
hole for her head and arms and that was her cover-up. It was crude, but served
the purpose, sort of. One day when the preacher, at that time a little girl,
was visiting, her grandma got up to put another log on the fire. As she bent
over she discovered that Grandma’s sewing skills apparently weren’t as good as
they needed to be. The preacher said that the age of 6 is a tender time to
discover that grandma didn’t know how to sew herself any underwear.
Usually our cover up jobs are no better than
grandma’s. Somehow, we always end up being exposed, at least to God, but often
times to the people around us.
·
I
don’t suppose Adam and eve’s fig leaf fashion statement was any better at
covering them than grandma’s bed sheets. We know that God saw right through
them.
·
Cain’s
excuse “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Didn’t cover up his sin of murder.
·
No
matter how much Noah’s cohorts made fun of old Noah for building the ark, there
was no covering up their persistent sin.
·
Then
there was Abraham and Sarah’s servant Hagar trying to make up for lack of faith
having a child. That didn’t turn out as Abraham hoped.
·
Joseph’s
brothers tried to cover their sin by putting the animal blood on Joseph’s
favorite coat in order to convince Jacob that Joseph had been killed by wild
animals, when in fact they had sold him into slavery. It worked for a while,
but eventually (years later) their sin was exposed.
·
Moses
fled to the desert to cover up his sin of murdering the Egyptian slave master.
·
When
Moses came off the mountain with the 10 commandments and found the people
worshipping the golden calf, Aaron tried to cover up by claiming that the calf
sprung from the fire all by itself.
·
During
the conquest and time of the judges, the people had 101 explanations for
worshipping other gods. But God saw right through every single excuse.
·
Saul
was disobedient and saved some of the best cattle and sheep from the Amalekites,
and tried to cover it up by saying that he intended to keep the best as an
offering to God. God didn’t believe that did he?
As we saw in today’s story, even Good king David had a
problem getting off track and tried to cover it up.
I say good king David because he was. David was
essentially a good king. He won many battles over Israel’s enemies. He expanded
the territory. He united the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. During his reign,
there was more security, more prosperity, and more faithfulness than there had
been for a long time in Israel. David was really a pretty good king.
UNTIL. Until
one spring. When he didn’t go to war with the troops. It doesn’t say why but it
is clear even as the story begins that David should have been in the field with
the Ark of the Covenant and his generals and army. But he wasn’t. That is the
first clue that something is wrong here. Then David is not sleeping well. For
whatever reason he gets up in the middle of the night and goes for a walk on
the flat roof of the palace from which he could probably see the whole city,
including Captain Uriah’s back yard. That is important because in that back
yard was Mrs. Uriah. Bathsheba.
I don’t blame her. It was the middle of the night. It
was dark. Everyone was supposed to be in bed. I don’t think she was doing
anything wrong. She was just purifying herself, minding her own business when
David got a glimpse of her. If it would have ended there, there would have been
no harm and no foul. But David didn’t let it end there. He crossed into lust,
which crossed into covetousness, which crossed into kidnapping or stealing
Uriah’s wife. Before he ever crosses the Adultery line, he has committed at
least three big sins, two of which are on God’s top ten list.
So before he ever crosses the line to adultery, David
is already in trouble. Then he finds out that Bathsheba is pregnant and you
would think it doesn’t get any worse than that. But you would be wrong because
that is when the cover-up starts.
First his guilt says take the next exit toward manipulation,
recalculating. Then take the next right toward lies, recalculating. Then take
the next right toward plotting to murder, recalculating, and take the next
right toward actual murder. Recalculating.. And finally Uriah is dead and David
is caught in an infinite loop of sin and lies.
After a respectful week or so, that’s what the traditional
mourning period was; David took Bathsheba as his wife. Probably “as a favor to
his good friend Uriah.” But really to cover up his sin.
The good and faithful king had become a bad husband, bad
friend, bad neighbor, bad commander, and bad king.
And so I goes for all of us. We would like to say that
we don’t intentionally set our GPS for sin. We kind of accidentally step in it
like stepping in dog poo as we mow the grass. That’s what we would like to
claim. It happens on accident. But the truth is that is happens by decision.
Temptation is temptation and sin is sin and the line between is a big bold line
called decision. Only by deciding to give in to temptation, or at least not to
fight it, are we lead into sin. So really falling to temptation is less like
accidentally stepping in it, and more like following the dog around and doing
it on purpose.
There is a story
about a father and son and temptation. "Son," ordered a father,
"Don't swim in that canal."
"OK, Dad," he
answered. But he came home carrying a wet bathing suit that evening.
"Where have you
been?" demanded the father.
"Swimming in the
canal," answered the boy. "Didn't I tell you not to swim there?"
asked the father.
"Yes, Sir,"
answered the boy.
"Why did
you?" he asked.
"Well, Dad,"
he explained, "I had my bathing suit with me and I couldn't resist the
temptation."
"Why did you take
your bathing suit with you?" he questioned.
"So I'd be
prepared to swim, in case I was tempted," he replied.
What props do you have just in case you want to sin? Get
rid of them. What settings are you in when you fall? Avoid them. What tempts
you to sin? Eliminate it. What people are you usually with? Don’t hang out with
them. The biggest lie Satan wants us to believe when we are being tempted is
“just once won’t hurt.” But surely, it does.
But surely, once we have sinned we don’t intend to
stay there and sin again. Maybe we don’t intend to, but we don’t often intend
not to. Every excuse we make, every rationalization, every justification, or
explanation digs our hole just a little deeper. A little self-deception here
and a little white lie there. A trick here and a deception there. A little
manipulation of the facts here and suddenly we are trapped in a hole so deep we
can never get out.
Or can we?
The Zulus of Africa
have a wonderful way of catching howler monkeys, which are notoriously hard to
catch. Their trap is nothing more than a melon growing on a vine. The seeds of
this melon are a favorite of the monkey. Knowing this, the Zulus simply cut a
hole in the melon, just large enough for the monkey to insert his hand to reach
the seeds inside. The monkey will stick his hand in, grab as many seeds as he
can, then start to withdraw it. This he cannot do. His fist is now larger than
the hole. The monkey will pull and tug, screech and fight the melon for hours.
But he can't get free of the trap unless he gives up the seeds, which he
refuses to do. Meanwhile, the Zulus sneak up and nab him.
Because we refuse to give up our sin. Because we
refuse to let go of the satisfaction, or pleasure, or benefit, of sin we are
trapped.
Unless… unless we are willing to let go of
the seeds of sin. If the monkey would just let go it would be free. If we would
stop justifying, and excusing, and explaining, and rationalizing, and defending
our sin we too could be free. But we won’t. Just like David, we can never dig
ourselves out of the pit of sin. We can only emerge by using the ladder God
provides. The cross shaped ladder provided through the ultimate forgiveness of
Christ’s death and resurrection is the only way out of the pit of sin. And if
we just turn around we’ll see it right there behind us. 
We all know Romans 3:23 all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We treat
that as a done deal that we will sin. But look again it is in the past tense. All
have sinned. It is describing where we are now not providing an excuse for
tomorrow. We all know Romans 3:23, Do you know 3:24? They are now justified by his grace as a gift, through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a
sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.
They are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
I am now justified by his grace as a
gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
YOU are now justified by his grace as a
gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Thanks be to God for the forgiveness that comes
through grace that is a gift through the
redemption of Christ Jesus.
Next time you follow your internal GPS and find
yourself in sin, turn around and run as fast as you can -- not toward sin this
time, but toward Christ who is the gift of salvation given to each of us.
Let us pray
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