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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The text for this morning comes from the Holy Gospel.
A friend of mine wrote me a letter earlier this week, which was very appropriate for this Sunday. I asked him permission to share it, and he agreed. This is what he wrote:
"When she said those words to me, it felt as if my heart had been crushed. I could not erase the pain of her face, the tone of her voice, or the unbearable ache of my gut. Though the intensity of these revelations of my sin may dim with time, they nevertheless will stay with me until death. God has revealed me for who I am through her words. How I despise this nakedness before God, this inability to cover any part of my wretchedness, this humiliating writhing of my soul before the holy gaze of my Creator. I am emptied of myself. My pride and the value of my person have been burned to the ground. I am nothing without Christ. How can I cry out to God? It is He who crushed me. It is He who has smitten me. As a pastor, the feeling of hypocrisy burns through my veins for even calling upon Him for my much-needed forgiveness, but that is what He has commanded me to do. How frustrating it is in this life that God's child never escapes being a sinner, for that is what I am."
God had used his wife, speaking the Word of God to him to crush him, just as God used John to preach such words on the banks of the Jordan to crush those who would hear and believe…except for the Pharisees. The Word of God fell among the hardened soil, and the birds came and ate it up. John is the last great prophet of the Old Testament, the transition man, between all of the promises of old and their fulfillment in the One who would follow whose sandals he was unworthy to untie. And in this transition did John point to the One who has hope for this pastor who had been crushed, who had hope for the crowds, the tax collectors, and the soldiers here at this preaching of John, and for you, brothers and sisters, and for you.
"Bear fruits in keeping with repentance," were John's words. The Pharisees scratched their heads and thought, I am a Pharisee. I give my money. I tithe the things that I'm supposed to tithe. I pray at the appointed hours. I visit the sick, and the hungry I feed. I take care of the widow and the childless, the fatherless and those who are like them. What good fruits am I supposed to produce now? That is why Jesus spoke through John in speaking these words, "You brood of vipers," because they would not see what they really are.
The Word of God came to them, and they brushed it aside as if it had no application to them. How sad! But not you. No, that's why you are here. But you and I wrestle with what this pastor wrestles, with what these people wrestle, because always accompanying us, at every step of the way, at every juncture, at every triumph and every failure, there stands wringing around our neck our sinfulness like an albatross weighing us down, never leaving us.
Interesting statement...How frustrating it is in this life that God's child never escapes being a sinner, but that is what I am. The crowds that came to hear such words struck them to the heart and broke them, and they knew and believed. For what flowed from their faith were words that said, "What can we do now that we have received this great gift? What is it that we can do?" Jesus told those crowds to be faithful in the things that God had given their hands to do.
That was the response of many thousands of people when Peter preached the great sermon on Pentecost, and they asked him, "What shall we do?" And he said, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, for the forgiveness of your sins." John gives them a baptism of repentance to free them of that which binds all people, which continually hangs around our neck, which never leaves us.
It's interesting, this pastor visited people, married people, baptized babies, communed his people, preached his people, but he is still a sinner, isn't he? What should he do? Those were the thoughts running through this man's head…how should he respond? Create a whole bunch of new things to do that he wasn't doing before? The tax collectors thought that. That's why they asked what they asked. The soldiers asked that because they knew God's forgiveness.
John did not give them a whole litany or list of things to do but remain faithful to the things they had been given to do. Especially for the soldiers, we don't have an idea of tax collectors too much; although, we can liken them to the IRS, but soldiers are different in that they are God's vocation that He has given to the state to preserve it from chaos and to ensure the safety of the inhabitants of that state, who deal with death, having killed and seen death. If ever there is someone who is struggling with guilt, it would be some of these men and women. And Jesus tells them through John, "Be faithful in those things that I have given you to do." He did not make a litany or list of things to do now that they have turned.
What shall we do? That's our temptation, isn't it? Having tasted that the Lord is good, having seen that the Lord is good, we wish to create a brand new list of things we have not yet done before. The Pharisees got that right in one way except their hope was in their own righteousness, not in Christ's righteousness and what He Did for them. Like water off a duck's back did those words flow in one ear and out the other, but that is the difference, isn't it?
It is a difficult thing, this Christian faith in this life. Two of our beloved fellow redeemed…Ernie and Elaine have had that albatross lifted from their neck finally...finally they are freed of all the things that this life drags us down and they no more have to wrestle with the things that you and I will daily until we are called home, until that is lifted from our neck. And in the meantime, we wrestle with strength and peace. For Christ did come and fulfilled all.
That is why you're here. You, like this pastor, know this is where you have to be. This is where dirty sinners are found and hypocrites abound. God be praised that He has brought you here to nurse you back to health with the fruit of immortality, to bind up your wounds like the Samaritan, to send you on your way, the path that He has chosen, to be faithful in those things He has given your hands with which to be faithful.
Finally, he said, "Yet in these most fragile moments of my person, when I can truly feel my sin pressing hard upon my heart, burdened with overwhelming guilt...at that moment is my loving Father the most gracious and the most merciful to me." He did not come to save righteous pastors, but sinful pastors. He did not come to heal healthy pastors but dead and dying pastors.
God would have me as a sinful pastor and only on His terms, and this means that I cannot escape who I am without Christ, but this means that I cannot escape who I am in Christ, and you are no different for that is who you are, and you and I will wrestle until the day we die with who we are without Christ and who we are with Christ, and that's why you come and feed regularly here...to be nourished, to be bound up, to be healed, and to be sent out again in the name of a loving Jesus who came for you, Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting, Amen.
