Sermon April 15, 2012

1John 1.1-2.2 1We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us— 3we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. 5This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; 7but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 2My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. “But…If…Then…” Some 40 years ago, the great psychiatrist and Presbyterian elder Karl Menninger wrote a small book entitled, Whatever Became of Sin? in which he lamented the loss of the word sin from the modern vocabulary. More than the loss of the word was the loss of the concept--the idea that we are people who sin against God and against each other--and therefore are in need of some outside intervention in our lives. Perhaps this started as early as the 1920s, when the story (almost surely apocryphal) is told of President Calvin Coolidge returning to the White House from church one Sunday morning to be greeted by Mrs. Coolidge, who asked what the sermon was about. Coolidge, who was known for his brief utterances is said to have responded with one word, “Sin.” Mrs. Coolidge pressed him, “well, what did he say about it?” The President answered, “He was against it.” Perhaps it’s better told through the eyes of Norman Greenbaum. Norman Greenbaum is a Jew, who in 1969 was a young rock-n-roller. One day, Greenbaum was watching Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner sing a gospel song on the television. He thought to himself, “I could do that!” Greenbaum wrote and recorded an iconic gospel/rock song entitled, “Spirit in the Sky,” which became a huge hit and still gets airplay today. Now you know me well enough to know that I do not disparage our Jewish brothers and sisters, but Brother Greenbaum got it all wrong about sin. One of the prominent lines in the song is, “Never been a sinner. I’ve never sinned.” Obviously, Norman had never read Romans 3 which declares that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” He certainly had never read our lesson for today which states in verse 8 of the first chapter of 1 John, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” One of the great privileges I have as a minister is preparing young people for church membership through baptism in Pastor’s Class. Just a few weeks ago, we addressed the question, “what is sin?” The answer that we worked with is fairly simple and not original. Sin is anything that comes between us and God and each other. Paul described it as falling short--as in falling short of the goal of perfection. Of course, none of us can achieve perfection in this life, and so we all, by definition, sin. But we don’t like talking about it. Not as a nation and not as a church. In the first proclamation of a National Day of Prayer in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln called on the nation “to confess our sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon.” 100 years passed. In the early 1950s, Congress passed a law that the president should henceforth and every year after that should designate a certain day in May as a National Day of Prayer and he should issue a proclamation so designating that day. President Eisenhower, in the first year, went back to Abraham Lincoln’s declaration, borrowed much of the language and used the word “sin” in that first declaration in the early 1950s. Dr. Menninger points out that in all the succeeding years, President Eisenhower left the word “sin” out. He points out that as of the early 1970s, in the 20 years that had passed, no American president, in issuing his call to prayer, used the word “sin” again. Eisenhower didn’t, Kennedy didn’t, Johnson didn’t, Nixon didn’t. Now 40 years have passed again from the publication of that book and, so far as I know, no president since then has used the word “sin” in his proclamation. Think about that. President Lincoln used the word “sin” in 1863. President Eisenhower did the same in the early 1950s. No president since then has used that word in connection with the National Day of Prayer. Dr. Menninger adds the interesting insight that Republican presidents talk about pride and self-righteousness, while Democratic presidents talk about shortcomings and mistakes. But no president actually has the courage to call Americans to repent of their sins. And we’d like to use Calvin Coolidge’s take on sin in the church. Admit we’re against it and be done with it. But it’s one thing to stop talking about sin and another to stop the practice of sin. That’s why Dr. Menninger wrote the book Whatever Became of Sin? His thesis is correct. We are living today in a society that has lost the concept of sin but not the practice of sin. We have forgotten the concept of sin but the practice of sin continues unabated. Years ago, a young woman named Rhonda came to see me in my study. She’d done something awful years before, and her pastor at the time told he it wasn’t her fault and that everything was alright. But it was not alright. She carried around with her a massive sense of guilt, which turned into a burden of shame. There’s a difference between guilt and shame and it is an important distinction. Guilt says, “I have done something wrong.” Shame says, “I am something wrong.” Shame is toxic, but guilt can be useful. After letting Rhonda talk for a long time, I asked her if the activity she’d carried around with her for years was sin. Sinful. Something which had come between her and God and others. She cried and said yes. I then read verses from today’s lesson for her. “8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 2My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous…” We prayed together--confessing the sin which had weighed her down for so long and asking for God’s forgiveness. Rhonda walked out a different person. Our Catholic neighbors are onto something with the sacrament of confession. Admitting that we have sinned and seeking God’s forgiveness is a powerful thing. But, I don’t see myself sitting in a little booth waiting for you come by and confess your sins. And so, our best effort can be a corporate prayer of confession--not to make us feel guilty, but as a means of unburdening ourselves of guilt by way of letting go of the things that separate us from God and from each other. To give structure to the process of seeking forgiveness from God--that’s what it’s about. Our Revelation class has said that the Prayer of Confession and Assurance of Pardon--can’t have one without the other--are good things and that we should continue them beyond the season of Lent. And so, we shall. “Whatever Became of Sin?” asked Dr. Menninger. Well, sin is alive and unwell. But God’s gracious forgiveness is greater than all our sin. Don’t let sin eat at you and tear you apart like it did to Rhonda. Confess your sin to God and accept his forgiveness--whether you do so on your own or as we pray on Sunday Morning. Sin is only a dirty word if we bury it. God’s grace can bring it out into the open and wipe it out. And that is good news for us, good news for Mansfield, and good news for the world. Amen.