I have a little story, the end of which goes to the heart of
what I want to express today in sharing some thoughts with you
about sin.
A farmer had a beautiful horse. One day he tied the animal
outside a store in town while he shopped inside. Two thieves came
by and figured a plan to steal the animal since it was such an
outstanding horse. One thief untied the animal and rode it out of
town. The other waited till the owner came out. When he did, and
found his horse gone, he was about to call for help to the Sheriff
who was inside the store. But the thief immediately spoke to him
and made a confession, "Sir, I am your horse. Some years ago I
sinned, and to atone I was changed into a horse. Today my penalty
was lifted and I am again a man. So you now own me and I am your
obedient servant. The farmer was devastated at the loss of his
horse, but he was touched by the story. "No, I don't believe in
slavery. You may go, and good luck!" A few weeks later the farmer
attended a sale at a nearby town, and there he spied his beautiful
horse. He went up to the animal and whispered in its ear, "So-you
sinned again."
Today's sermon is entitled "The Happy Sinner." You need to pay
attention closely, not because we're all sinners, not because
we're all happy, but because this sermon is one that Mark Twain
would have liked because it has a beginning, a middle and an end,
and the end, as he thought it should be, is close to the
beginning.
Although all the lessons today deal with the topic of sinners
in one way or another, I chose to focus on the Gospel. It's only
in the Gospel that we get a hint of the joy that sinners can feel.
The end of the story I told a few moments ago is a good
illustration of how we repent of our sins, but still seem to
repeat most of them. We don't have any trouble repenting of the
'big sins' we see in our lives, but it's the ones that we get
caught in daily, the ones that are part of our lives and how we
live our lives, they're the ones that we often don't recognize as
sin, or choose to overlook them (like, say, listening to or
repeating gossip; or not thinking the most positive thoughts about
folks; or making judgments about others just by how they look or
act or dress).
We used the version of the confession we did today because it's
pretty specific in that it brings to our attention the sins
related to things we ought NOT to have done as well as the things
we OUGHT to have done.
Sometimes folks get pretty self righteous. They pride
themselves in the good they do and consider themselves religious
folks because they attend worship and help out at church, maybe
even attend Adult Sunday Church School, maybe even Bible study,
maybe even read a devotional in the morning or evening, or both.
And there's no doubt that they DO do good and are helpers and are
folks who know where their Bible is in their house because they
use it. But not even THEY are free from making judgments about
someone or gossiping, or speaking negatively of someone. And even
worse is when they get to thinking they are BETTER than someone
else because of what they do for the church or to help others,
compared to what someone else DOESN'T do. That's a terrible sin to
get caught by, and an easy one to fall into, and an easy one not
to recognize as a sin.
But listen to how what I said changes when I add one vital
element. I was speaking about folks who do good things and help
out and attend Sunday School and worship. Here's the added word,
"Even worse is when these folks get to thinking they are a better
SINNER than someone else." Now of course I didn't mean they were
in competition to see who was a better sinner, though sometimes I
wonder about folks because that is indeed just what it seems like.
I meant that every one of us is a sinner. So where does any one of
us come off as a sinner judging another sinner? When we fall into
that self-righteous pattern, we tend to forget that we are no
better than anyone else whom we see fit to judge; we're a sinner
just like they are. And here's a further rub; most folks who are
self-righteous aren't very happy.
But here's the great news. We don't HAVE to compare ourselves
to someone else so that we can feel good about who we are and what
we do. God knows us as sinners and still loves us. God only
expects that we will repent and ask for forgiveness. The repent
part is important. Some of you might notice that I add that word,
'repent,' to the introduction to the confession when we use the
LBW. To simply ask for forgiveness, yet make no attempt to turn
around and go in a different direction, a basic meaning of the
word 'repent,' is not really asking for forgiveness at all. It's
like a brother who hits his brother and gets caught by a parent
and immediately says, "I'm sorry," which infers "forgive me," but
has no intention to stop punching his brother in the future when
he'll be more careful not to get caught.
Very often we don't confess the sins that we commit because we
haven't been caught (like when we lie about something and only
regret it when it comes back to bite us and we are caught in the
lie) and so we just go on our merry way 'white-lying' our way
through life.
But you see, God knows how we are. God knows who we are. And we
can be sinners and still loved by God. God just wants us to repent
and ask forgiveness because it changes us in that it opens us
fully to God's love. An unrepentant heart is a closed heart; a
hardened heart that isn't open to fullness of God's blessings and
love and forgiveness.
Many people just muddle through life. God's blessings fall on
the good and the evil, the repentant and the unrepentant. But
folks who have hearts that are not fully open have no idea what it
means to be blessed by God. They have no idea of what they are
missing. And all it takes is a repentant heart. A heart and mind
willing to give up that which causes us to sin, willing to say to
God, forgive me, God, and I promise I will do my best to go in a
new direction.
So, we don't have to pretend we're good. We're not. Yes, we can
do good things for others because that's what God asks us to do
with the talents and gifts we've been given. We can attend worship
and thank God and praise God because that's what helps our
attitude and our relationship with God. We can be sinners and be
happy.
God rejoices, all heaven rejoices, when a sinner repents. In
the lesson it speaks of the righteous who don't need to repent.
That means they have already realized they are sinners and have
repented, which puts them into a right relationship with God.
That's what it means to be righteous-to be in a right relationship
with God.
And as a little added dimension to this, you have heard me say
before that Scripture tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is
within us, and this Kingdom is a new way of thinking, a spiritual
way of thinking. So when all heaven rejoices, that means that all
those wonderful things that God planted within each one of us
sinners and that Jesus brings to fruition through his teachings
and his love and his sacrifice for us, all that is released within
us when we repent because we are taking down the blocks to the
fullness of our relationship with God. When we repent and ask
forgiveness we head in a new direction and begin a journey into a
new, a spiritual way of thinking.
So, happy sinners we can be. And for those who repent and are
forgiven, happy sinners we are.
To close, I want us to sing two songs. You know the words and
tune but I'll refresh your memory. The first is "I've got the Joy,
Joy, Joy, Joy down in my heart." We're just going to sing two
verses. The second has the words "I've got the love of Jesus, love
of Jesus down in my heart." Let's try it now.
Great! And to end the sermon we're going to sing, "If you're
happy and you know it clap your hands, (clap, clap) if you're
happy and you know it clap your hands, (clap, clap) if you happy
and you know it, then your life will surely show it, if you're
happy and you know it clap your hands (clap, clap)." Now we're
going to sing that same verse 3 times, and let's sing it as loudly
and happily as we can. Let's stand and sing this. And since this
won't be a very good lead-in into our hymn of the day, "Softly and
Tenderly Jesus is Calling," which is a beautiful hymn in its own
right, I think we will NOT sing that hymn today, and sing it
another Sunday when we won't be doing it an injustice. AMEN.