Pentecost 7B 12/07/2015 John the Baptist, made the connection that many people fail to make. He connected the coming of the messianic Lamb of God with the need of the people of God to confess their sins. “It is high time to straighten up your lives by repentance,” he was saying in effect: “ ‘Pretend time’ is over.” People often pretend that they aren’t so bad, others are worse, or they really are good by nature. John the Baptist was saying: “It’s time to really get real. It’s time to turn from your pretence and hypocrisy and turn back to God.” You can imagine that the people didn’t like or enjoy this confrontation with reality. That was especially true of the religious leaders. Jesus called the Pharisees and scribes “white-washed sepulchres,” which look beautiful on the outside, but inside they are full of bones and decay (Matthew 23:27). A whitewashed grave with a thin coat of paint over the outside does not hide the reality of a decaying body. John the Baptist and Jesus the Messiah were both forthright when they spoke about sin from which we need to be saved. So were Peter and Paul. Peter pointed out the sinful cultural tendencies from which the people needed to be freed by Jesus Christ. On the day of Whitsunday /Pentecost, Peter preached boldly: “Repent, and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” (Acts 2:38-41) In pointing out sins, Peter was crystal clear. So was a little old lady who came home from church on Sunday morning with these words burning in her mind, “Repent, and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven.” The priest had preached on Acts 2:38. She had memorised the passage. When she got past the front door, she discovered a burglar in her house. She looked him straight in the eye and said, “Acts 2:38.” He froze. She called the police. As the police were taking the burglar away, they asked why he stopped what he was doing when she quoted the Bible passage, Acts 2:38. “Bible passage?” he responded. “I thought she said she had an ax and two .38s.” Like Peter, Paul elevates the same double emphasis of human sin and salvation through Jesus Christ alone. That double emphasis is called the law and the gospel. In Philippians 2:14-16, Paul writes: “Do all things without murmuring and arguing, so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation in which you shine like stars in the world. It is by your holding fast to the word of life that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labour in vain.” 1 of 3
Holding fast to the word, like John, Peter, and Paul, we point to Jesus, not ourselves. We are called to point to Jesus, but we are also called to point to the sins of our culture, our own sins, and those that surround us. John the Baptist pointed out the sins of the culture in which he lived. Then he pointed to Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That sets the standard, not only for sermons by Christian preachers, but for the witness of all of God’s people today and the future. It is law and gospel! There have been times in history when the emphasis of Christians has been distorted in favour of law. In these times, hell, fire, and damnation sermons by the clergy have distorted the Christian message. Rules and regulations, when considered alone, cause the grace of God in Christ to be marginalised. Today, however, the emphasis has shifted so that what is offered in many churches is a watered-down gospel without law, such as what Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his classic book The Cost of Discipleship (1) calls cheap grace. I recommend you read this brilliant book written in the midst of the rise of Naziism in Germany. Cheap grace is grace without commitment. An “anything goes, do as you please gospel” is no gospel at all. Without acknowledgment of our sins and repentance for those sins, there cannot be new life through Jesus Christ. That’s why we point to law and gospel. It is both sin and salvation through Christ, not one or the other, that form the paradoxical truth for new life. One emphasis without the other is an unbalanced half-truth. We are called today to point to sins, starting with our own sins. Beyond sin, we are called to point to Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. Stephen the first martyr in the Book of Acts turns in his speech to a crowd in Jerusalem from an historical description of Abraham, Moses, and the prophets to the current reality of sin: “You stiff-necked people, un- circumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do” (Acts 7:51). When they heard these words, Stephen’s persecutors were enraged. They picked up stones and started to throw them at him. While Stephen was being stoned to death, he looked up to heaven and saw an amazing sight. He saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56). We say in the Apostles’ Creed that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God. Why was he standing? Hold that story in your mind for a moment, this new story may help us understand this vision of Jesus standing. A boy genius was playing the violin at the Albert Hall in London. It was such a wonderful performance that the applause was deafening as he left the stage. The stage manager said, “Great work, young man. Now, go back out on the stage. The audience wants you back.” “I can’t go back out,” the young violinist replied.“Why not?” asked the stage manager. “The people want you back.” “I just can’t.” “You must. They are beginning to stand and applaud. They want to give you a standing ovation.” “No. I won’t do it.” “Why won’t you go back out? The people are all standing and applauding. They are demanding that you return.” “There is a man in 2 of 3
the back row in the balcony who is still sitting.” “One man? What difference does he make?” The boy sighed and said, “He is the only one who counts. He is my teacher.” Just then, the man in the back row stood and applauded vigorously and the violinist returned to the stage and humbly bowed. What if St Stephen, the martyr, saw Jesus not only standing, but applauding? What if Stephen understood what we often forget — that the only one who really counts is Jesus? What if, as we confess our sins and point to Jesus as the one who really counts in life, we see beyond what seems to be to ultimate reality in heavenly places, the way things really are? What if in our mind’s eye we see the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world affirming us, applauding us? If Jesus, our teacher and our Lord, is standing and applauding you for your pointing to Christian values of mercy and justice, to the Lord himself? Wouldn’t that be the most important thing that you could ever see? Wouldn’t that change you and the way you live? Fr Robert Newton
1) The Cost of Discipleship 1937. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. New York: Macmillan, 1966.
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