“Getting an A+ in
Jesus’ school of prayer: ADMIT”
August 16, 2015
Reinbeck UMC
The
Lord be with you… That’s the way a certain Lutheran pastor always started each
service. He said, "The Lord be with you." The people would then
respond, "and also with you.”
One
Sunday the sound system wasn’t working very well. The pastor stepped up to the
pulpit and said, "There’s something wrong with this microphone."
The
people responded, "AND ALSO WITH YOU!."
The truth hurts!
But truth is a hard thing to come by in our
culture of blame. It seems like there always has to be someone to blame; politicians
blame the other party, patients blame doctors or drugs, rioters blame the
culture or injustice, or the lack of mental health care, or bad schools, kids
blame parents, parents blame the schools and the other way around, in law suits
lawyers blame anyone who has deep pockets, consumers blame manufacturers, manufacturers
blame suppliers,.. and around and around it goes. There are so many fingers
pointing so many directions. I don’t know who’s responsible any more, if
anybody. Perhaps we might characterize our culture as one of
non-responsibility. No one wants to be responsible for anything. And everyone
wants someone to blame.
Well let the buck stop here and let me say right here
and now that there is something wrong with me, and I take full responsibility
or full irresponsibility.
What’s wrong with me? Where do I start… but specifically it is the
same thing that’s wrong with you, and you, and you, and all of you. It is the same thing that is wrong with the
whole human race. It goes by many
aliases: greed, selfishness, lying, hurting or killing others, stealing,
putting others down, gossiping, adultery… well there are too many aliases to
name. The bottom line it is sin.
Sin is what’s wrong with me and what’s wrong with
you. It is the universal affliction of
the human race, Paul writes “ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of
God.”[i]
Not a few, not some, not everyone else, but ALL. Let there be no mistake about that.
That is why in the Old Testament there was a Day
Of Atonement when the sins of all the people were placed on a goat (called a
scape-goat) and it was driven away into the wilderness taking the sins with it.
With Jesus, came a different concept. Jesus taught that forgiveness is a
fundamental part of God’s nature and was available by asking. He told the Paralytic, “your sins are
forgiven.[ii]” Jesus taught , “forgive
seventy times seven”[iii]
Jesus said, “Forgive, and you will be forgiven;”[iv] Jesus said “her sins,
which were many, have been forgiven.”[v] Jesus said my
blood of the covenant which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins.”[vi] Finally Jesus said,
“repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all
nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are my witnesses.”[vii] Jesus taught of a
God was like the father in the parable about a son who went away and squandered
his inheritance and the father welcomed him back with open arms.[viii]
To Jesus, God was the father offering forgiveness
to his lost children because God is loving forgiveness That is a fundamental
part of his nature.
Of course in the grand scheme of things Jesus
died for our sins saying “Father forgive them.”[ix]
So our sins are forgiven by Jesus. Why does Jesus
teach us to pray “Forgive us our sins.”
In this 6th sermon in our series “Getting an A+ in Jesus’
School of prayer.” We come to the phrase
“Forgive us our sins,” or debts, or trespasses… whatever you prefer. So today we tackle admitting our sins to God.
So Today, I want to try to answer the question, “Why
we confess” but I also want to talk about the proper attitude for confession
and the proper response to God’s forgiveness.
So, Why do we need to confess? A man by the name of Val Patterson died on in
2013 due to cancer. He knew the end was coming, so he wrote his own obituary.
Because of the things he said, it went viral. One of the things that he said
was: "Now that I have gone to my reward, I have confessions and things I
should now say. As it turns out, I AM the guy who stole the safe from the Motor
View Drive Inn back in June 1971. I could have left that unsaid, but I wanted
to get it off my chest."
Notice he said, “I could have left it unsaid, but
I wanted to get it off my chest.” That’s
exactly why we have to confess and ask forgiveness. Sin sits on our chests like a 6 ton elephant.
Guilt will eat us up like a cancer growing from the inside out. We need to ask forgiveness not because God
needs us to confess before we can be forgiven…
remember we are already forgiven. We need to ask forgiveness because WE
NEED TO in order to live with ourselves.
Why does Jesus teach us to confess?
Because WE need to get it off our chest.
WE need to be reminded of our forgiveness. We confess because we NEED to confess.
So, what is
the proper attitude or approach to confession?
In his autobiography in 2004, Pete Rose finally
admitted that he bet on baseball games while employed as manager of the
Cincinnati Reds — an infraction that produced a lifetime ban from baseball. Not
too long after that, he began using his website to personally apologize to each
of the fans he had failed or offended. In fact, for only $350 (plus $4.99
shipping handling), Pete Rose will send you a personalized autographed baseball
that reads, "I’m sorry I bet on baseball."
Do you
think Pete Rose has the right attitude for confession? I don’t stand in judgment of him, but it
seems like he doesn’t. First he profited
by betting on the game he loved. Now he
profits by selling confession to any fan with $350 (+ $4.99 shipping and
handling).
True
confession is not the mere words that we have done wrong, for even a thief will
admit he’s done wrong in a bragging sort of way. No, confession means understanding
that what we have done hurt God and
perhaps other people. It is pouring out our shame and deep sorrow to the Lord
over the hurtfulness of our misdeeds.
We come to
confession with an attitude of repentance--that is turning around and -- we
come with an attitude of wanting to make it right with God and with others.
The late Dr. F.E. Marsh tell that on one occasion he was preaching
on this question and urging upon his hearers the importance of confession of
sin and wherever possible of restitution for wrong done to others.
At the close a young man, said "Pastor you have put me in a
sad fix. I have sinned but I am ashamed to confess it and make it right. He
said that we works for a boat builder who is not a Christian. He had been sharing his faith with the boss,
but he just laughed at him.
He said, II started building a boat for myself at home, but I am
using the expensive copper nails that I steal from work each night. If I confess this to my boss he will know I
am a hypocrite and it will ruin my witness to him. But I also know that I shall
never have peace until I put this matter right."
For weeks the struggle went on. Then one night he came to Dr.
Marsh and exclaimed, "Pastor, I've solved by problem.”
How did it go? Asked the pastor
He said, “When I confessed what I had been doing, my boss answered
“Oh, George, I always did think you were just a hypocrite, but any religion
that would make a dishonest workman come back and confess that he had been
stealing copper nails and want to make it right,, must be worth
having.'" And the boss soon became
a Christian himself.
Do you have
any copper nails pricking at your conscience today?
Jesus
teaches “23 So when you are offering
your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against
you, 24 leave
your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or
sister, and
then come and offer your gift. “[x]
In other
words, the proper attitude for confession is not to do your duty, or to get a
get out of hell free card, the proper attitude for confession is being truly
sorry and ready to make it right.
Then once you confess, leave it with God.
A
woman called in to a Christian radio program and said, "I had an
abortion seventeen years ago, and I have asked forgiveness from God every day
for seventeen years." She wanted to know if God would ever
forgive her and asked if she was going to hell for it.
The
talk-show host said, "How would you like it if someone who did something
wrong to you comes knocking at your door the next day to ask for
forgiveness. You forgive the person and everything is cleared up on
your part.
"But
the next day, the person shows up at your door and asks forgiveness
again. You remind her that you already forgave her the day
before. She leaves, but returns the next day, knocks on your door
and again asks forgiveness.
"Again
you remind her, 'I forgave you two days ago. Don't you
remember? Don't you believe what I said?'
"This
goes on day after day for seventeen years! Wouldn't you be
frustrated because she didn't trust your word?"
The
lady on the phone said, "I never thought about it that way before."
Once we confess or sins to God, we need to listen
and hear God reminds remind us that we
are forgiven. Instead we pull our laundry list out read them off and we are off
to another day of sinning and feeling guilty. We need to listen to God’s
assurance and then get up and walk away knowing that we are forgiven.
John 1:9 from our scripture reading this morning
promises, “If we confess our sins,
he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.”
A man told his pastor he had done a terrible
thing and could find no rest for his conscience. The pastor asked him, “Have
you confessed it to the Lord?” And the man replied, “Pastor, I’ve confessed
that sin a thousand times.” The wise pastor said, “That is 999 times too many.
You should confess it once and praise God a thousand times for his
forgiveness.”
The proper
response to confession and forgiveness is not picking up that elephant and
putting it back on our chest. Trust that God really has forgiven you and leave
it all the altar. It is no longer yours.
Trust that God has forgiven. We should “confess it once and praise God a
thousand times.”
So third,
when we confess we need to trust in God’s forgiveness and leave the sin behind.
I think GPS navigation
systems in cars can act as a great modern-day metaphor of God’s forgiveness. You can set in a course for home and take off. But if we decide to go a different way, it simply and matter-of-factly
says, “recalculating.” Then it comes up with a different direction
as if to say, don’t worry, we can still get home from here. We can ignore the instructions over and over, and the GPS
never gets mad, never gets upset, never judges us it just says gently “recalculating.”
Each time we come to God
and confess that we strayed off his path, God, in infinite love, simply says,
“recalculating.” God is not mad or even frustrated, but is consistent and and loving and wants to forgive..
Sure, God wants us to live like Jesus, but when we don’t, God forgivingly,
gently, and lovingly points us in the right direction and reassures us that no
matter how many times we screw up God’s loving goal never changes–get us home,
so he can be standing in the driveway with his arms wide open ready to welcome
us.
Jesus teaches us to pray “Forgive us our sins. Forgive us our
sins.” When we fail, because we all have and we all will… When we fail we have
a NEED to confess, we confess with the right attitude of being Truly sorry andwant to
make it right , and we trust in God’s forgiveness and leave the sin behind. In return God says, “recalculating” and assures us that we can
still get home from here. He removes the
chains of guilt and shame and we rise forgiven loved and free… forever.
AMEN
No comments:
Post a Comment