Christ United Presbyterian Church

June 16, 2013

Sermon:       “Your Sins Are Forgiven”

Galatians 2:15-21; Luke 7:36-8:3

Here's the link to the audio file:https://www.box.com/s/c6xvf3khmx3m4w5eflp5

“Then he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’

And Paul, writing to the congregation at Galatia says, “We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners.”

And that great 20^th Century hymn writer, Billy Joel, admits:

“They say there's a heaven for those who will wait.
Some say it's better, but I say it ain't.
I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints,
the sinners are much more fun.”

In my brash, younger days I used to say that the wrath of God was nothing more than God allowing people to reach the logical conclusion of their pride.  God forgives sinners but fools must face the condemnation of their own actions!

We readily fall prey to a dualistic view of the world and the compare and contrast nature of “saints and sinners” is part of that simple-minded dualism.  Not only that, we’ve lost the meaning of those words as they were intended.  We’ve transformed them into words of self-congratulation and condemnation.

Perhaps next year on All-Saints Day we’ll talk about what it means to be a saint, but today we’re going to stick with sinners.  Understand this:  we – everyone in this room – are all sinners, yesterday, today and tomorrow.  There is nothing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that says you will ever cease to be a sinner.  Nothing!

There’s a sentence in the middle of today’s Gospel that I had to think about and read in several translations.  In our translation that we read this morning it says: “But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” What it means is that the person who thinks that they don’t need to have very much forgiven is someone who is unlikely to love God very much.  The one who doesn’t acknowledge their need for forgiveness is not likely to appreciate the enormity of forgiving love that God brings to us. 

Our love of God is rooted in gratitude, and it’s simple human nature that the more we receive the more grateful we are; the more loving our response will be. When we blind ourselves to the fact that we are and always will be sinners, we start to question whether or not we need God.

Martin Luther had a wonderfully earthy way of determining whether or not you were a sinner.  Brother Martin said you should take your thumb and your index finger and grasp the skin of your breast.  As he put it, “If perchance you feel flesh then you know you are a sinner.”  “If perchance….”

We are the assembly of God’s children called together by the power of the Holy Spirit.  First and foremost we are an assembly of sinners.  We sing “Change my heart O God, may I be like you.”  That’s the beginning of our journey once we have realized that we are sinners.  We turn our lives over to God in hopes of coming closer to the creatures that God created us to be, in God’s own image.  They are the words of those of us longing to be closer to God as we acknowledge the grace that we have received, the “grace that is greater than all our sin.”

I’m sorry to tell you that Jesus didn’t come to guarantee your financial success.  Jesus didn’t come to guarantee your physical health.  Jesus didn’t come to guarantee that if you find the right words to say your property will multiply. 

Jesus came because we have allowed our lives to wander from a right relationship with God.  He called that death.  Jesus came because we need to be reminded who God is and who we are.  Jesus came to annul the separation that we created between us and God.  Jesus came to forgive our sins and bring us back to life in God.  He called that life, and he called us into life eternal, life lived through an eternity in the presence of God.

What I have to say this morning is not directed to any of you who believe that God is lucky to have you on God’s side.  I’m not talking to those who reject God’s forgiveness because they don’t know why they need it.  I’ll let you and God settle on that. 

What I have to say this morning is for those of us who wonder why God would ever love us; for those of us who feel that we have disappointed so many people including ourselves so often; for those of us who believe that we are a disappointment to our fathers and mothers and especially to God.  What I have to say this morning is for those of us who have trouble accepting God’s love and forgiveness because we have a hard time believing that God could love us.

It’s we who face the real challenge of faith in Jesus Christ.  It’s we who can’t understand why God would love us; why God would forgive us.  For us to believe in the all-powerful, unchanging, prodigal love of Jesus Christ requires a faith, a trust in God that is as reckless as the love God gives to us.  The greatest miracle in scripture is not that God created the universe out of nothing; it’s that God wants to recreate our lives so that we may return to God’s loving presence.

We never cease being sinners, but we are forgiven.  As we say in the words of the funeral service we are sheep of God’s own flock, sinners of God’s redeeming.

When Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened," He assumed we would grow weary, discouraged, and disheartened along the way.  As one who shared our human weaknesses, Jesus had no romantic fantasies about the cost of discipleship.  He knew that we would stumble, and He will always be there to help us get up and continue on our way.  Following Jesus is as demanding as love can ever be.  To love us, to forgive us cost Him everything.

We are sinners, and Jesus says, “Your sins are forgiven.”  To believe that requires more faith than belief in all the physical miracles God carried out through Jesus.  For many of us it’s easier to believe in the resurrection than in the fact that God loves us and we are forgiven!  But you see, the fact of God’s love is what all the rest is about. 

You can believe in the miracles – even the resurrection – and perhaps not change anything about your life or your heart.  When you believe in the enormity of God’s forgiving love, everything about you will change.

Your true journey of Christian faith has not begun until to are ready to acknowledge that God loves you.  Your true journey of Christian faith has not begun until you have accepted the fact that God’s love includes the forgiveness of all your sins, yesterday, today and tomorrow. 

When you believe in God’s love for you, then you have come to the beginning of a whole new life.  When you believe in God’s love for you then you realize that you have not reached some distant goal. Belief in God’s love is not a stopping point; it’s the starting line of new life. It’s the doorway into God’s new creation.  From there you will begin a journey into a new life that never ends.

When you believe in God’s love for you, our gratitude will be as enormous as God’s love.  In Galatians Paul says: “And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  In other words Paul is saying, “I’m still here. I’m still living in human flesh, but by faith in Jesus I am living out the love of God for all of you.” 

Can you live that life and still stumble and fall?  Absolutely!  But we are condemned to the love of God.  We are condemned to a life of forgiveness in which we are free to pursue the incredible journey that will take us nearer and nearer to God. 

We are free to follow the way of our Lord recognizing that we are not perfect only forgiven. We are still sinners – still in the flesh – even as we by faith walk in the way of our Lord.  We are free because God through Jesus has forgiven so much and all that we can do is respond with all our hearts to the grace that is beyond our understanding. 

Amen.