“Making Sense Of Our Sinful Nature?”

Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – August 30, 2015

Centenary United Methodist Church

Psalm 45:1-7; James 1:19-27

 

    This morning we are going to discuss how our sinful nature can actually be understood as a result that comes from our innocence.  The Church has always characterized our sinful nature as an evil aspect of our lives.  Actually, the word sin is an archery term that references what happens when an archer misses the bull's eye.  That's all sin means.  We miss the mark.  This is almost an automatic response until we learn a better way to conduct our lives.    

    Every morning I walk into the farmer's garden behind the parsonage to feed a young, female, feral cat.  One morning I ran into a large strand that supports a spider web.  Each day, I broke that strand.  After the spider learned that I planned on walking that way every day, she learned to secure her web with a different architecture that prevents me form disturbing her livelihood.  I now can walk under it.  It is amazing how she learned what she had to do by facing what was not working for her.

    People who choose to learn from life behave the same way.  From the time we are born, we are learning how best to live.  People that rely only on the first response of anger that they learned as a baby, grow up seeing everything from a victim's point of view.  This week, we saw an example of this in the U.S. when a disgruntled employee that was terminated from a TV station two years earlier, returned to murder two news reporters from that station. 

    However, most people mature and learn to prosper in the material world by discovering what works for them and what does not.  Jesus came into our world to teach people that there is an invisible aspect of life that they could access if they knew of its existence.  This dimension of life would help them to have more control over the quality of their lives.  Jesus came to offer humanity that there is more to life than being guided by self-interest.

    In our lesson this morning, James was not writing to teach his readers a new orthodoxy, obedience to rules or an inner discipline that promises to produce goodness, truth and beauty.  He was writing to newcomers to the faith.   James substituted the ingredient of love rather than self-interest as the guiding energy. 

    Many people can be guided by self-interest very well until something outcrops in their behavior that reveals a hidden value.   In recent times, we have read or know of people that have risen to the peak of their career but their personal achievements stumbled over something hidden in their human nature. 

    The number one news anchor in the United States fell from grace this year.  He was replaced some months ago because he had made exaggerated claims about his experiences during his coverage in the Iraqi war zone. 

    Last year a highly respected 62-year old rabbi in Washington, D.C. was caught filming women as they undressed in preparation for a ritually cleansing bath known as mikvah.  The personal and public humiliation that resulted from this discovery cannot be measured.  The sentence for voyeurism in the U.S. is a year in prison, a fine of $2,500 or both. 

    All of us have clay feet.  We can blame our responses on having a bad hair day, getting out on the wrong side of the bed, hormonal changes or whatever.  Whatever the reason we provide, we are not a walking advertisement of what being a follower of Jesus looks like. 

    If the truth were known, it is our vulnerability that makes us so loveable!  When we see people becoming their own worst enemy by their responses, we want to reach out to them.  Since we all participate in repeated failures in this department, this is why the church keeps reminding us that we are all sinners. 

    Years ago, Maharishi Mahbesh Yogi was visiting in the United States on a lecture tour.  He was the Meditation and Spiritual Guru for the Beatles. He may have been capitalizing on the musical group's notoriety.  Maharishi was known for his universal love for all humanity.  During one of his lectures, someone asked, "With your vast understanding of the human spirit, what is it that separates the righteous people from the sinners?"  Maharishi thought for a moment and then he responded, "I find that sinners tend to be more interesting people."

    People who are not afraid of public exposure do tend to be more interesting people.  Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Donald Trump has attracted such a large following during these early days of the Presidential race in the United States.  He likes to play and is not the least bit troubled by what people think about his character qualities.  He displays no fear of rejection.  He is definitely one of those that could say, "What you see is what you get." 

    Jesus knew this quality about sinners and this may be one of the reasons he chose deliberately to associate with them.  He by-passed the religious people that seldom missed the mark when it came to fulfilling the Laws of Moses.  Jesus was never concerned by what people looked like in a public setting.  He was concerned about what was going on inside of them.

    James knew he was writing to new believers in the way of Jesus.  They had chosen to follow a new orientation toward life.  Using love as a guiding energy transformed their choices and the overall spirit by which they lived.

    If a mechanic stayed with installing tires, changing spark plugs and windshield wiper blades, he would never learn how to replace a car engine or a muffler system.  If a paramedic did not want to move beyond starting IVs for victims at the scene of an accident, she might never desire to become a medical professional.  This is the same with our spirits.  If our gaffes, our failures and our questionable values do not lead to growth, we are telling ourselves, "I am content to remain just as I am."

    James was describing to his readers what happens next after their decision to open themselves to the dimension of spirit.  He wrote, "Be quick to listen but slow to respond with anger."  "Grow beyond habits and conduct that are geared toward gratification of self."  "Nurture what God has planted within you because it is your most valuable possession."  "If you cannot control your tongue, your loving spirit is not fully engaged."

    Just as the spider in the farmer's garden changed her pattern, we become transformed by changing the architecture of our lives.  Some of us may remember a time when people gave their testimonies in church.  They told stories of how their lives had changed since meeting Jesus.

    After Jesus had left his disciples to carry on his ministry, we can imagine Peter teaching and preaching about the time that he tried to walk on water and sank, about the time he took a sword into the Garden to pray and used it, about the time he fled from that Garden in fear of losing his life, and about the time that he denied knowing the Master three times.  Peter's past may have inspired James to write:

Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to spiritually enriching words, put them into practice.  Pay attention to the spirit by which you live.  Make Jesus' teachings visible through your daily practices.  You will be blessed by God who will be working through you.  (James 1:22f)

    We also remember what happened to transform Saul of Tarsus into the Apostle Paul.  Saul of Tarsus was hated and feared by many of the early followers of Jesus.  He hunted them, and according to early traditions, Saul killed Christians because of their beliefs.  Saul was struck down by a light that caused him to lose his eyesight while traveling to Syria.

    The source of this light came to a man named Ananias and gave him instructions, "Go to the house of Judas and ask for a man named Saul.  He has had a vision of you healing his eyes."  Ananias said, "Lord, do you know who this man is?  He has done terrible things to your people in Jerusalem.  He has been given the authority from the chief priests to arrest your disciples in Damascus."

    The presence of Jesus responded, "I have chosen him to make my name known among the Gentiles, kings and to the people of Israel."  Ananias did as the vision had directed and Saul was healed of his blindness.  (Acts 9:10-19)  Paul used his background after that experience to encourage others.  In fact, once he referred to himself as the chief of all sinners.  (I Timothy 1:16)

    As the lives of these pioneers of the faith teach us, we are not saved from the numerous temptations of this life by anything that we do.  We will always make mistakes in our judgment and be hasty in our responses just like Jesus. (Matthew 17:17)  Our sinful nature is a given aspect of life until we leave this world.  

    We find ourselves breaking the rules of society.  We have desires to act aggressively in order to protect our loved ones and the values that we cherish.  We communicate attitudes that are not compatible with Jesus' teachings. All of us miss the mark.  This should not come as any great surprise to us.  We are all students of life with all its high and low moments.  God's love, however, will always have the last word.

    Our biggest mistake is to remain stuck where we are.  Recently, I was with an 86 year old who told me, "Dick, I am still growing."  We all display flaws in our character but that does not mean that we are untrustworthy to make transforming differences in the lives of others. 

    Always remember that we are the kind of people Jesus befriended and included among his circle of friends.  He could teach people like us.  When it came to religious people Jesus said, "They don't need me.  I have come to those who do."  (Luke 5:31)  Jesus knew that change and growth are always within our grasp.  Let us leave church today remembering that God loves us in spite of our sinful nature. 

    Never think to ourselves, "I am not good enough."  As flawed as we are, we are good enough in the eyes of God.  We are the kind of people Jesus was sending into the world to make a difference.  Let us go into that world confident that who we are is sufficient to do what needs to be done.  God believes in us.  Just knowing that should give us hope and perseverance.