It was not so long ago that my family was gathered in the kitchen as Steve was making grilled cheese. He cut the cheese and counted it to prepare for each sandwich. I slyly, I thought, took a piece of cheese off one of the piles of cheese. Soon after, Steve asked who the cheese thief was. I jokingly asked Felicity, our three year old, if it was her. She dropped to the floor upset crying out, “I am not a cheese sinner.”
While you might not have the same words in your reaction, how quickly we are to proclaim that we are not sinners. There is no blame for us, nothing we did wrong. You must be thinking of someone else. Most of us are not murderers or thieves. Most of us have not committed felony offenses or faced legal action for our daily activities. We could easily find ourselves crying out “I am not (fill-in-the-blank sinner).” And we very well might find many to agree with us.
But in my mind, I hear Paul’s letter to Ephesus. Will you hear it differently than it was first read this morning? This is the Voice Bible – written in the form of a screenplay. Listen to the first verses: “As for you, don’t you remember how you used to just exist? Corpses, dead in life, buried by transgressions, 2 wandering the course of this perverse world. You were the offspring of the prince of the power of air—oh, how he owned you, just as he still controls those living in disobedience. I’m not talking about the outsiders alone; 3 we were all guilty of falling headlong for the persuasive passions of this world; we all have had our fill of indulging the flesh and mind, obeying impulses to follow perverse thoughts motivated by dark powers. As a result, our natural inclinations led us to be children of wrath, just like the rest of humankind.”
Our natural inclinations lead us to indulge our minds and our flesh, to fall headlong for the persuasive powers of this world. While this certainly includes murder and lust, violence and robbery, Paul is also calling us to accountability when we forget that our neighbors are brothers and sisters. When we no longer treat others as if they too bear the image of God. When we act as though others are not worth our time, effort, compassion, or love. When we think and speak of others as disposable or disregard their situations as inevitable. When we think we don’t need God to walk this journey called life. When we convince ourselves that we can do it all ourselves and don’t need the village around us, and certainly don’t need Jesus. When we are just existing and corpses, dead in life. When we who are made by God and for relationship with God, fall short and sin. When we need new life..
I posted the incident with Felicity on Facebook. It was equally interesting to the reaction of people. Through the post, I ended up confessing that it was I who stole the cheese. Aside from some slight ribbing, no one was concerned about my sin. But folks were concerned about the ill effect on Felicity. One friend noted that they hoped she was easily comforted. Another, a colleague wrote, “and then mom quickly reminds her that Jesus forgives sinners, cheese and otherwise!” A punny colleague tried out her wit with the comment, “Cheesus forgives you!”
And indeed, Jesus does forgive us. Jesus’ forgiveness is abundant and complete, even for a cheese sinner like me. This forgiveness, not only blots out my transgressions of the dairy related thievery, but also calls me to a new way of living. Not merely eliminating an offense, but drawing me into a holistic way of emulating Christ. So, that in emulating Christ, I, we, might participate in God’s way, “For we are the product of His hand, heaven’s poetry etched on lives, created in the Anointed, Jesus, to accomplish the good works God arranged long ago.”
New life given without cost, offered to me and to you, so that we might fully embody and point to God. An offer so incredible who could imagine that it is turned down?
Our Gospel lesson encompasses one of the most familiar and memorized verses in all of the scripture. I wonder how many of us memorized this verse throughout our walk. Let’s try an experiment, I’ll start the verse and see if you can finish it: For God so loved the world… (that he gave his only begotten son, so that whoever believe in him should not perish, but have eternal life). Many of us, we know that verse well, but the context, we are less sure of. This verse comes during Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus. Nicodemus is a Pharisee, one of the Jewish leaders, and comes at night to engage Jesus in conversation after Jesus turned over the tables in the temple. He wanted to know more about Jesus. Nicodemus sees God in Jesus and wants to know more. Jesus tells him that he must be born again, and then encourages him with the familiar John 3:16 and following. God did not send the Son to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. We leave this part of Nicodemus’ story not knowing if Nicodemus will embrace this new life that Jesus offers or return to the life that he already knows.
New life given without cost, offered to Nicodemus and to us, so that we might fully embody and point to God. An offer so incredible who could imagine that it is turned down?
As the snow melts and the temperatures creep up the thermometer, we notice green shoots and brown bulbs in our flowerbeds. Many of us are looking forward to spring. The freshness and new life seem poised for us in a season of more daylight and flowers, Rita’s water ice and uncovering grills. Every time, we see a purple crocus poke itself head through the still harsh and often frozen earth, we are reminded that new life comes at a cost. The bulb had to force its way through the inhospitable ground in order to bloom and blossom. It is just as likely that bulbs do not bloom, but rather make the appearance of shredded greens and dug up bulbs.
So, ultimately, we have a choice. The God of us all comes to us, made us, loves us, care for us, and redeems us. We have a choice whether to live a new life in ways of God or to continue to live in the cover of night. Making questionable decisions and defensively declaring that “I am NOT a sinner” is indeed one outcome. We can turn away from the source of life and find ourselves like shredded greens and dug up bulbs without our source of forgiveness and love. But like Nicodemus, we are given another, better choice. The God of the universe comes to each of us, cozies up and invites up to leave the deadly ways of the world behind, so that we might more fully embrace life and life eternal.
Where is God calling you to confess your sins this morning? Where is God reminding you that you have been just living, instead of thriving in Christ? Where is God inviting you to a full and blooming life, if you will notice the areas of brokenness, disconnection, and pain, confessing them and asking Christ to transform your life?
God offers us an incredible gift, the gift of life, new life, born again Christ. Will you accept God’s gift this morning?
This is the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.
Ephesians 2:1-5, The Voice Bible.
Ephesians 2:10, The Voice Bible.
New Testament Lesson Ephesians 2:1-10
You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
Gospel Lesson John 3:14-21
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”