|
Temptation
and That Other Guy I cannot remember where I first heard this, but I used to work for a construction company that specialized in wastewater treatment plants, so maybe that's why this stuck with me. If you have a barrel of wine and put in a cup of manure, you've just ruined the wine. If you have a barrel of manure and put in a cup of wine, you are not going to change the manure. Unfortunately, that is what came to my mind when I was trying to figure out what Paul was saying about the universal effect of Adam's sin. This isn't exactly "clean-cut" theology, but this is radical, amazing, mind-boggling good news that Paul was trying to proclaim. Namely, that Jesus was the cup of wine that purified the barrel of manure called humanity. Theologically speaking, Adam's disobedience caused condemnation. Logically then, the cumulative effect of human sin over the eons would have intensified the punishment. It stands to reason that, if God was angry at the first sin, adding more sin would have made God angrier, resulting in steeper punishment. Instead, God put a cup of wine in themanure-the righteousness of Jesus-and came up with justification-"looking good to God." Instead of God and humanity accelerating the separation caused by Adam's sin (separation being the real meaning of death), Christ's act caused reconciliation with God (the ultimate meaning of life). In a nutshell, we'll be talking through Lent about what this means. In theology-speak, the questions are, who we are by nature, who we are by God's purpose, what we can become by divine grace. In ordinary-speak, what we will be doing is telling the truth about ourselves and the reality of God, claiming the hope that God is doing something different in our lives. I hope these sermons will be good news to you, and not more things to feel guilty about. They should be good news, because they are based on the premise of gift. God's righteousness is a gift-so we can't earn it. It's a matter of "receiving" it, but there is no "receiving" until we can tell the truth about who we are-and who we are is "separated from God by sin." And man, if there is anything we would rather not do, it is to tell the truth about that. You know what I say about the first two sins. If the first sin is second-guessing God-taking and eating the fruit-the second is not taking responsibility for doing it. Just as an experiment, on Ash Wednesday, I read the newspaper for examples of humans avoiding personal responsibility for their sin. I got to page one. Enron was the lead, so I read about Kenneth Lay taking the Fifth Amendment. I chuckled over that, because I hadn't thought of our Constitution as legally sanctioning the second sin, but even Kenny Boy says that the purpose of this amendment is to protect the innocent. In the most visible local trial, Karen Huster denied responsibility for the murder of her daughter, because she was crazy. School board, city council, and legislative debates were about someone else's responsibility for budget problems. In business news, bad economic conditions and bin Laden were responsible for falling profits. I hoped for some relief in the Science pages, but what I found was the government blaming their decisions in the Klamath basin on someone else's "bad science." I turned the page to Dear Abby and found letters from spouses blaming their partners and teens blaming their parents. Even the cartoons got in on it. Doonesbury featured a an executive leaving the country for off-shore tax shelters. Who are we by nature? I'd be pretty good, if it weren't for all these other folks getting me into trouble. This used to drive me crazy in construction. A new trade would come on site, and right off they would explain why they would not be able to do a decent job. It was always the shoddy work of the previous trade. On one of my last big projects as an inspector, the general contractor left the rock blasting out of his bid. This was no small mistake. It was to the tune of many tens of thousands of dollars. Making mistakes, leaving things out of bids, and whining about it is such an integral part of construction that there is an actual process for doing it. On this project, the contractor saw the enormity of his mistake, admitted it, acknowledged that a simple "we're sorry to hear that" was all he deserved, and then he got on with building the building. That was it. It was the most refreshing approach to a problem that I'd ever seen. He admitted it, took responsibility for his mistake, and then went on. Jesus does that and more. The cup of wine turns the barrel of manure into wine. It is not without cost, but the cost was willingly paid. Who we are by nature is "separated from God." But that is not and never was God's purpose for us. Even in the Garden of Eden, God created humans with a plan. Through three simple mechanisms humans would learn to live in creation on God's terms. God put humans into the Garden with vocation (they were to work the Garden) and conditions. There were things the humans could do (eat freely of the trees) and there were things they could not do (don't eat that one tree's fruit). Permit and prohibition. Yes and no. Where is the good news here? Generations of Protestants learned about their faith from the Heidelberg Catechism. The Heidelberg takes another crack at the good news. The first question of the Heidelberg asks, "What is your only comfort, in life and in death?" The answer is "That I belong, body and soul, in life and in death-not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins." The second question asks, "How many things must you know that you may live and die in the blessedness of this comfort?" The answer is "Three. First, the greatness of my sin and wretchedness. Second, how I am freed from all my sins and their wretched consequences. Third, what gratitude I owe to God for such redemption." Who we are by nature, who we are by God's purpose, what we can become
by divine grace It's so simple. And it's so hard. This Lent, engage yourself
in these questions. By nature we are all sinners, separated from God.
That's the good news. None of us are exempt. Which means that you are
not special. We are all sinners. This should take some of the pressure
off you. Now you are freed up to acknowledge and accept the blessing of
forgiveness, the blessing of God's righteousness. What a grace! What a
gift! The enormity and incredible detail with which God forgives us could
take your socks off on a daily basis. It should!
|
| Return to Sermons |