God’s Up to Something (2
Corinthians 5:20-21)
Ash Wednesday, March 1,
2017
When you’re around the house or hanging with
friends by the coffee pot, what’s usually the topic of conversation? The latest zombie apocalypse movie? Downton Abby?
Or is that so 2016? In this town, at this time of year, some
people expend energy talking college basketball? In your circles, what’s the rumpus? Has anyone approached you lately and asked,
‘Have you heard what God is doing right now?’
That’s what we’re going to get to
tonight. What is God doing? I’ll tell you one thing God is up to. God is making things right in the world. There is enough going wrong that this is not
always easy to see. But, there are signs, and tonight we’ll look to those
signs. First, though, we have to
acknowledge sin. Sin is at the heart of
what makes it so difficult to see God’s activity.
If you doubt humanity’s ability to think
creatively, just ask someone to explain his sins and then listen to the endless
litany of rationalizations. We don’t
want darkness in us. But, underneath the
impatience, the foul language, the judgmental heart, lurking below the
prejudice, the grudge-holding, the sloth, down deep, it is there. We have a sin problem.
The worst effect of sin is it cuts us off from
God. The solution to this separation is
what Jesus accomplishes on our behalf. The
theological term is ‘justification:’ humanity declared innocent of sin before
God because of what Jesus did on the cross.
We are justified because of Jesus and justification takes effect for
each one of us when we put our faith in Him.
We still sin, but before God we are found innocent because of what Jesus has done.
Still, even after we are saved, sin continues
to vie for mastery in our lives. The
more we give in to temptation, the less developed our relationship with God is
and the farther it is from what it could be.
We slip away into waste places. Relationship
with God is not rich, not a daily present reality, not a source of abundant
joy, not as full, not as deep as it could be; as it should be; as God wants it
to be; as we need it to be.
How do we get past our sins so that we have a
rich life in Christ, a life that is growing
in holiness and relationship with God instead of life under sin?
Theologian James McClendon wrote, “Authentic
knowledge of my sin, clear awareness that I am a sinner, comes only when and as
I am saved from it” (Systematic Theology:
Doctrine, p.122). McClendon offers two categories which help us
see sin beyond simply misdeeds, disobedience, and bad behavior. He describes sin as refusal and as rupture.
“God is making all things new,” he
writes. And then he refers to 2nd
Corinthians 5:17 which says that in Christ, there is a new creation. Thus for McClendon, sin is whatever “opposes
entry” into the new world Jesus creates (130).
We refuse to receive the new life he offers, drink the new wine he
produces. We willfully resist becoming
the new creations he desires to make of us.
We don’t mean to refuse God’s good. It is just that we turn to other things –
relationships, possessions, professional success – for the satisfaction that
only God can give. In this, we sin. Even people who have confessed and believe in
Jesus, in daily life settle for the world’s pleasures while neglecting God’s
blessings. We marginalize the place God
has in our lives and thus reduce His influence on our character while at the
same maximizing our own vulnerability to sin’s devastating consequences for
us.
Sin as rupture is McClendon’s second
category. This is the refusal to live by
Jesus’ second great command to love our neighbors as ourselves. Divorce; bigotry; verbal abuse; deceit;
gossip; refusal to welcome those different from us; dividing people into ‘us’
and ‘them;’ this is not headline-making stuff like terrorism or school
shootings. Here we are talking about
everyday relationship failures that 21st century American culture
considers normal in the course of human life.
God is not happy with the state of
affairs. We are called by our Heavenly
Father and prompted by the Holy Spirit to be a part of the body of Christ, the
church. To be Christian is to be unified
with other Christians. Yet, as Ron Sider
points out in Scandal of the Evangelical
Conscience the social ills that make the world a broken place exist in the
lives of people in the church almost as frequently as they do in the lives of
the unchurched. Based on divorce rates,
spousal abuse statistics, and a number of other categories, it would be hard to
tell between two groups of people which was the church and which was a
gathering of strangers in a restaurant. How
can the body of Christ show the world the way to the Kingdom of God when our
own relationships are so broken?
Sin as refusal is a rejection of God’s
blessings, an unwillingness to trust God with our desires and our
happiness. Sin as refusal is violation
of the greatest command – to love the Lord our God with all the heart, soul,
strength, and mind.
Sin as rupture is a violation of the second
great command, the command to love our neighbor as ourselves. We treat people with contempt, not grace, and
the world is marked by hatred and death.
We have a sin problem.
Of course, when we look to the cross, we know
Jesus has conquered God and humanity’s enemies – sin, death, and Satan. The question we face daily is do we live in
God’s victory or in the old life, the life of sin, the life that has been
nailed to the cross. Which life do we
live?
The first steps to move from death to life are
confession and forgiveness. We come
before God in complete honesty. We do
not hide anything from our heavenly Father.
We stand before God exposed in our mistakes. Doing that, we discover how much God loves
us. We receive the complete forgiveness
God offers in Christ. We know we sin,
but we also know what God sees when God looks at us: the innocence of
Jesus. We come to trust that we have
been made new in Christ.
After that, how do we live in the new life
we’ve been given and are being given daily? Here is the spiritual practice I propose for
Lent 2017 for the HillSong Church family.
First, participate in worship. Don’t
miss it. If you can be with us, be
here. Note the worship songs that lead
to confession and the pronouncement of forgiveness. Take communion – the body and bread of
Christ. As you participate in the story
of the Gospel in this act of worship see that Jesus on the cross means God
loves you and you are made new – one who is forgiven and pure. Participate in the church’s worship of God.
Second, focus on the good things God is doing
in the world. Second Corinthians 5:21 is a curious verse. The first half of the verse says, “for our
sake, [God] made him (Jesus) to be sin.”
Jesus is sin and on the cross, sin died.
That makes our confession and full forgiveness possible. Sin cannot cling to us and cannot kill us,
not when we have been born again in Christ.
The latter half of the verse says, “In Christ
we become the righteousness of God.” In
other words, we are made right. I hear
that phrase – so and so needs to ‘get
right with God.’ Well guess
what? Jesus has done it. You and I, the church, as a forgiven people,
are signs of God making things right in the world.
The spiritual practice I propose for us this
season of Lent is to list specific examples of ways God is making the world
right. We’re going to put poster board
up in the sanctuary and keep a running list.
Starting tonight and then every Sunday during the mission moment, we
will invite the church to come and write down things you see that are
indicators that God is at work, making things right in the world.
There is plenty wrong too. Jesus won the final victory on the cross, but
though the outcome is certain, it won’t be complete until He returns. As the world waits for the fulfillment of His
salvation, sin and death clamor to claim us all. The culture wars that are dividing America
are but one example of the ways the world is fallen. Another example is how our news media feeds
on bad news, selling destruction.
The spiritual discipline I propose is that we
as a church body name the good that is happening in the world so that our focus
is on God and what God is doing. The
first example I write down is something I see every time our church gathers –
the little children who run the halls of our church. Four-year-olds, 3-year-olds, toddlers; these
children are little active witnesses to the goodness and presence of God at
work among us.
What are other examples? Do you know of someone who’s been forgiven
and is experiencing new life in Christ?
That’s worth writing down and celebrating. Has one of your prayers been answered? That’s worth writing down and
celebrating. Did you see all the food
our church collected for the Yates Association food drive? That’s worth writing down and
celebrating. Did you have a great
discussion in your small group this week?
You get the idea.
This Lent, if fasting is a spiritual
discipline that will help you grow close to the Lord? Do it!
Confession in worship is something we all need to do. So do it.
And along with these and other disciplines, participate with us in the
discipline of noting the work of God, making us his righteousness. See God at work, write down what you see, and
join the church as we celebrate together.
I know Ash Wednesday is not traditionally a
celebration service. We do mourn sin and
tonight we have some contemplative worship activities like the prayer labyrinth
and the imposition of ashes. We are
reminded of how much we need God. We are
reminded that in sin, we die, we return to dust, and we are cut off from the
Lord. But along with our mourning and
our acknowledgment, we are also called to tell God’s story. God is making things right in the world. That includes God’s work in our hearts,
making each one of us a sign of his righteousness.
AMEN
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