We are Sinners. We are also Children of God.
My friend Lew called me this week. I was at the gym on the rowing machine when he called thinking it would just be a light call and I could take it even in the midst of my “workout”. Lew began, “Jen, I was calling because I have a question”. “Ok I said, what is it?” He said, “Why did Hitler hate the Jews?” I stopped rowing.
No one knows why people feel the way they do about certain things - no one but the person involved can answer why they do or don’t do anything - or feel or don’t feel anything. Sometimes we ourselves may not even know why we have done something or feel a certain way about something.
We can become known for things unintentionally through our words and actions, or we can choose to be deliberate about those things. These things shape our identity.
So many things go into making our identity. Our gene pool, where we went to school, who we went to school with, where we grew up, our friend group. The things our parents taught or didn’t teach us. Our own personality.
Things define us and as we grow and age, identity is formed and we become known for certain things.
“Well, you know so and so said….” “Oh yeah, I know so and so”… You don’t even have to complete the stories often because when people know you and your identity is known - people can often imagine how the story is going to go.
One of the themes that connects todays texts together is the theme of sin. Sin is a funny word that we don’t speak of it often. Even priests and theologians don’t speak of it often. In fact I can’t remember a clergy gathering where I have heard the word used. We have become accustomed to sweeping it under the rug because we do not want to offend anyone - and fire and brimstone preachers have weaponized the language of sin so much that those of us who do not preach in that way have distanced ourselves from that way of being because we do not want to be included in that way of being, or shepherding, and we choose to not lead our people out of fear. My desire for you as your priest is that you grow with a healthy view of yourself and humanity.
So I walk a fine line of building you up and holding you accountable in areas you may need to grow.
In moving away from regular preaching or speaking about sin, our ability to name what is wrong with the world diminishes.
The world of self help books abound and I confess, I love to read them too. Some new way to be that will help me. People write books about how to fix things and how to fix yourselves, without ever naming what real problem is.
Confronting sin is uncomfortable and unsettling, but it is part of the Christian story. An essential part. The texts today when taken together tell us something profound about the nature of sin.
The first thing we see in these texts about sin is that sin is corporate - or communal. All were guilty. Sin can be and is done at an individual level, but when Peter addresses the people in Acts he uses the plural - “You rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you…” “You killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead” (Acts 3:12-19)
Who knows who from the crowd of Israelites he was speaking to had actually been at the crucifixion and were there when Pilate handed over Jesus - Peter does not single out an individual from the group - he includes all of them in failing to do the right thing.
We are a communal people. We form groups and clubs and sets of friends, and parishes. It is beautiful and it helps us to flourish in this world - but also mobs and “group” think can lead us to not speak as individuals. We need to be aware of remaining true to ourselves in groups and knowing that our voices do matter, and not allowing ourselves to just being caught up with what is happening around us.
I am reminded of the poem by Rudyard Kipling, IF
(I am paraphrasing this poem greatly)
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too; ….
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings -nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
…..you’ll be a Man, my son! (Rudyard Kipling, IF, edited)
The poem speaks to the ability to distinguish yourself, to have your own identity in the midst of being in the presence of others.
Sin, besides being corporate and making everyone guilty, is individual. And sin is without law.
1 John today says, “Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness”. (I John 3: 1-7)
We all, anyone who commits a sin is guilty. And our sin is lawlessness - which is why Jesus was revealed, to take away our sins.
Sin is what separates us from God, but through our redemption in Christ, our sins are wiped out.
Which is good to know.
Jonathan Edwards, preached his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”; any good evangelical church history student will read and be exposed to it early on in their studies (I think they thought it was the most important thing- for I was exposed to it early in my studies of Early American Church History), enforcing the idea that we are sinners.
We are sinners, this is true.
But that is not the full picture. Or even half of the picture.
1 John is clear about who we are. We are the children of God. “Beloved we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed…”
We do not know what we will be, but we do know who we are - God’s children. The world does not know us, because it does not know him.
In the gospel reading from Luke, Jesus tells his disciples after his resurrection, “Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
We know who we are. And we know what we are to do. Be witnesses.
Proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins.
When we embrace our identity as Children of God, when we understand sin and how it affects us and our world, the lens from which we see and view the world shifts. Our relationships with the world and others also begin to shift and change.
We begin to extend mercy as God has shown us mercy.
We will make mistakes as we stumble through this world together. As individuals, as the church, and as groups - we will make mistakes. But those mistakes do not have the final word on who we are. They are just part of who we are. God’s love for us and through us - God’s proclaiming us Children of God - is who we are.
“We should be called children of God. And that is what we are.” 1 John
That is what we are.
I couldn’t answer my friend Lew on why Hitler chose to do the things he did. What drove his hatred of the Jews.
But I do know what drives me. I do know what should drive you.
You are a child of God.
Move into it. Embrace it.
Amen.
No one knows why people feel the way they do about certain things - no one but the person involved can answer why they do or don’t do anything - or feel or don’t feel anything. Sometimes we ourselves may not even know why we have done something or feel a certain way about something.
We can become known for things unintentionally through our words and actions, or we can choose to be deliberate about those things. These things shape our identity.
So many things go into making our identity. Our gene pool, where we went to school, who we went to school with, where we grew up, our friend group. The things our parents taught or didn’t teach us. Our own personality.
Things define us and as we grow and age, identity is formed and we become known for certain things.
“Well, you know so and so said….” “Oh yeah, I know so and so”… You don’t even have to complete the stories often because when people know you and your identity is known - people can often imagine how the story is going to go.
One of the themes that connects todays texts together is the theme of sin. Sin is a funny word that we don’t speak of it often. Even priests and theologians don’t speak of it often. In fact I can’t remember a clergy gathering where I have heard the word used. We have become accustomed to sweeping it under the rug because we do not want to offend anyone - and fire and brimstone preachers have weaponized the language of sin so much that those of us who do not preach in that way have distanced ourselves from that way of being because we do not want to be included in that way of being, or shepherding, and we choose to not lead our people out of fear. My desire for you as your priest is that you grow with a healthy view of yourself and humanity.
So I walk a fine line of building you up and holding you accountable in areas you may need to grow.
In moving away from regular preaching or speaking about sin, our ability to name what is wrong with the world diminishes.
The world of self help books abound and I confess, I love to read them too. Some new way to be that will help me. People write books about how to fix things and how to fix yourselves, without ever naming what real problem is.
Confronting sin is uncomfortable and unsettling, but it is part of the Christian story. An essential part. The texts today when taken together tell us something profound about the nature of sin.
The first thing we see in these texts about sin is that sin is corporate - or communal. All were guilty. Sin can be and is done at an individual level, but when Peter addresses the people in Acts he uses the plural - “You rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you…” “You killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead” (Acts 3:12-19)
Who knows who from the crowd of Israelites he was speaking to had actually been at the crucifixion and were there when Pilate handed over Jesus - Peter does not single out an individual from the group - he includes all of them in failing to do the right thing.
We are a communal people. We form groups and clubs and sets of friends, and parishes. It is beautiful and it helps us to flourish in this world - but also mobs and “group” think can lead us to not speak as individuals. We need to be aware of remaining true to ourselves in groups and knowing that our voices do matter, and not allowing ourselves to just being caught up with what is happening around us.
I am reminded of the poem by Rudyard Kipling, IF
(I am paraphrasing this poem greatly)
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too; ….
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings -nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
…..you’ll be a Man, my son! (Rudyard Kipling, IF, edited)
The poem speaks to the ability to distinguish yourself, to have your own identity in the midst of being in the presence of others.
Sin, besides being corporate and making everyone guilty, is individual. And sin is without law.
1 John today says, “Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness”. (I John 3: 1-7)
We all, anyone who commits a sin is guilty. And our sin is lawlessness - which is why Jesus was revealed, to take away our sins.
Sin is what separates us from God, but through our redemption in Christ, our sins are wiped out.
Which is good to know.
Jonathan Edwards, preached his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”; any good evangelical church history student will read and be exposed to it early on in their studies (I think they thought it was the most important thing- for I was exposed to it early in my studies of Early American Church History), enforcing the idea that we are sinners.
We are sinners, this is true.
But that is not the full picture. Or even half of the picture.
1 John is clear about who we are. We are the children of God. “Beloved we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed…”
We do not know what we will be, but we do know who we are - God’s children. The world does not know us, because it does not know him.
In the gospel reading from Luke, Jesus tells his disciples after his resurrection, “Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
We know who we are. And we know what we are to do. Be witnesses.
Proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins.
When we embrace our identity as Children of God, when we understand sin and how it affects us and our world, the lens from which we see and view the world shifts. Our relationships with the world and others also begin to shift and change.
We begin to extend mercy as God has shown us mercy.
We will make mistakes as we stumble through this world together. As individuals, as the church, and as groups - we will make mistakes. But those mistakes do not have the final word on who we are. They are just part of who we are. God’s love for us and through us - God’s proclaiming us Children of God - is who we are.
“We should be called children of God. And that is what we are.” 1 John
That is what we are.
I couldn’t answer my friend Lew on why Hitler chose to do the things he did. What drove his hatred of the Jews.
But I do know what drives me. I do know what should drive you.
You are a child of God.
Move into it. Embrace it.
Amen.