New Testament Scripture--Luke 5:17-20
Responsive Reading--Pg.571
Eighth Sunday-First Reading
"A Prayer of Penitence."
In order to reach Jesus, a palsied man was let down through the roof by his friends. Our Lord confronted the patient with an unexpected greeting. He said, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."
That situation is deeply suggestive for our own day. The crowds still gather wherever there is hope of health or help. Yet with all the worthy effort put forth to lift the burdens and banish the fears and worries of men, I believe Christ would stand among us and say, to us as to the man at Capernaum: "Man, your sins are forgiven you." Too many of us are trying to feel good without first trying to be good. We seek Comfort before we seek forgiveness.
We bright modern people rush around too busy to bother about our sins, but the stubborn fact of sin remains. In our sophistication we may soften the old word "sin" with a new psycological term and call it a complex. Deep in our natures, passions seethe with sinful tendencies and often erupt with volcanic force.
The biggest business of our day is to keep the sin of war from utterly destroying our civilization.
It has been observed that, on cold wintery days at Niagara Falls birds will swoop down to take a drink from clear water. Each time they dip down for a drink a bit of ice forms on their wings until they are so weighted with ice that they can no longer rise up and they are swept over the Falls to death.
Sin is a deceptive as the sparkling water of Niagara's wintry rapids. Dip in to it once to often and we are not able to "Layaside every weight, and sin which clings so closely." (Hebrews 12:1)
We human beings are not sufficient unto ourselves in handling our sins. Martin Luther saw this when he said, "Forgiveness of sin is a knot which needs God's help to untie."
Confession of sin is not a very popular note in contemporary preaching. The last few decades have seen a decided change of emphasis in our presentation of religion.
Where the burden of preaching in our Grand-father's day was to save hearers from their own sins, our modern congregations seem to want preaching which will protect them from the evils which others may inflict upon them. We are not half so worried about divine judgement as we are about social dangers.
However, I would certainly not suggest reviving the kind of sermons that picture sinners in the hands of an angry God, dangling over the brink of a fiery hell. Jesus did not present fear as the motive of salvation.
God is a father, not hostile to us, not even angry with us, but rather eager for our reconciliation and redemption. What the gospel seeks to show us is that sin is a violation of love and not merely a violation of the law.
God is eager and ready to forgive the wrongdoer but he cannot forgive until the sinner confesses and repents. When a child in the home hurts his brother he hurts also his father, because the father suffers not only with the child who is hurt but also with the child that does the hurting. The father looks with loving compassion on both of them equally.
So also with our heavenly Father. He loves all his family, whether they live in America or India or Russia, whether their skins are white or black or brown. His heart aches over their quarrels and divisions and injustices. He suffers with those who do the sinning. He loves them and longs for their peace and happiness, he "gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
When we confess our sins, therefore, we are not trying to placate an angry judge and thereby lessen our punishment. We are responding to violated love and seeking to comfort a suffering Father. If we are not restrained by fear of hurting one who loves us--that wife who has been our partner in sacrifice and suffering, that child who looks up to us and bears our name, that brother or sister who was our comrade in play and our standby in danger--if we are not restrained by the fear of hurting our Heavenly Father who doubly suffers for us, if we are not sensitive to wounded love, then we are headed to hell.
When we see how deeply sin hurts both our fellowmen and our Heavenly Father, if there is any spark of decency in us we will confess our sins.
Romans 10:10 says:" For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved." There is great value in putting our sins before ourselves audibly. "Prayer is the soul's sincere desire uttered or unexpressed", to be sure we can pray silently. But just as the home relations of husband and wife grow slack without some words of affection, so our fellowship with Gods needs words to keep it vital. We need to be on speaking terms with our Lord. We need to unpack our hearts with words.
It is one thing to run through the Lord's Prayer, saying in chorus "Lord, forgive us our trespasses." It is quite another to pray, Lord forgive my meanness to Mary, my words of gossip about George.
In court of law conviction is not won on blanket indictments but rather on specific charges. Likewise, convictions of sin are best secured on specific confessions. This leads us to repentance, when the life and love and death of Christ really sink home in our hearts we advance from self-centered remorse to Godly grief over our sins.
Saint Paul drew the distinction when he wrote where lies the deepest hurt and also the highest hope. Love is one commodity which grows by consumption.
The Prodigal son discovered that though his sin had taken him away from his father's house it had not cut him off from his father's love. That love was waiting for him with outstretched arms. Prodigals down through the ages have found the same welcoming love. This same love of God awaits each of us today, the requirements are, repentance, faith and a contrite heart.
The question is not what will God do with us, but rather what will we do with Jesus?
He stands at our hearts door seeking entrance in order to cleanse us of our sins, but we must open the door.
What will you do with Jesus today?
Let Us Pray -
Our Dear Heavenly Father we acknowledge our transgressions; our sins are before us. Have mercy upon us, O God, according to thy loving kindness. Blot out our transgressions wash us and make us, whiter than snow. Keep us in the center of thy will, that we might be acceptable before thee, and bring joy to thee. Amen
Let us join together in the singing of the benediction
Hymn no 372
And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, the Communion of the Holy Spirit, Be with you all. --Amen
Used at Nottingham Methodist 8/26/1962
Used at Collinwood Methodist 5/5/1963
No comments:
Post a Comment