Surrendering
our Little Secret Sins to Christ’s
Sermon for Sunday March 1, 2009
1. Good Morning. Let’s pray.
O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations
of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
2. Opening Comments: The season of Lent has begun with Ash
Wednesday just a few days ago. For the
next 40 days God is inviting you and me to take a journey into our spiritual
poverty – to become fully mindful of the fact that from dust we have come and
until dust we shall return. It’s only as
we remember that God is God and we are not that we become who we really are –
creatures of our Creator God and thus able to adore and worship Him for who He really is.
Lent is a very necessary time for all of us and if we lean in and
really open ourselves up to the Spirit of this season we will be blessed beyond
our imaginings!
3. Scripture Focus: I will to talk more about this soon but first
let me briefly review our Scripture readings as they will provide us with a
springboard into our reflections on this vitally
important season.
OT – In our Old Testament readings we were reminded of God’s
establishing His agreement or covenant with Noah after the Great Forty Day
flood – promising never again to destroy His Creation and using the rainbow as
a sublime reminder of His promised benevolence over all of His Creation.
Ps – In the Psalm we intoned the magnificent response – “Your ways, O
Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant” as we were reminded
of God’s infinite goodness and beneficence to us!
Epistle – In our Epistle reading we were given the deeper meaning of
the terrible flood – that it in fact prefigured our Baptism for just as a
remnant of the human race was spared the wrath of God so too are we who have
died to ourselves under the cleansing waters of Baptism are spared eternal
damnation!
Gospel – And finally in our Gospel reading we read about Jesus’ 40 day
sojourn in the desert before the launching of His public ministry of saving His
creation!
Ah! These readings are so full
of connection with what we’re about to experience in our Lenten Pilgrimage –
did you pick up on some of them perhaps?
40 Days of Lent – 40 days of Jesus’ time in the desert – 40 days of
rain and cataclysmic flooding over the face of the earth at the time of the
great flood – 40 days for new believers to come to terms with the covenant they
are going to make during the Easter Vigil prior to the Baptism at the sunrise
of Easter Sunday.
Can you see the rich symbolism we’re facing now at the beginning of our
40 days of Lent?
We’re embarking on a journey – a pilgrimage – into a time when we’re
being encouraged to look very carefully at ourselves. To allow the Holy Spirit to reveal our
imperfections – our sins – our obsessions, our addictions, our hypocrisies and
in so doing to give us a chance to choose to repent and turn away from these
deadening imperfections and to jettison some or all of them in the next 40
days.
You know what I’m talking about – those sins which you’ve confessed
again and again but they’re just too enjoyable to let go of. We all have them!
Can you think of perhaps just one of them right now?
It may be your private fantasy life?
After all no one knows what you’re thinking do
they?
Yes, as a matter of fact – God does – but, no worries, He isn’t going
to tell anyone!
You know, in His love for you and me, He probably won’t but it’s
because He knows that “it is what it is!”
If you’re living a lie the lie will “out” in some dart and unwholesome
way! It will corrode your relationships
– or pollute your integrity or harden your heart or deaden your capacity to
love.
You sins will “out” – you and I may think that we can hid them and
enjoy them in private but they “out!”
Darkness has no place with light!
It just doesn’t work.
Oh! . . . you and I can pretend that these sins aren’t with us but the
reality is they are and they will manifest themselves in some dark way and
because we haven’t faced them they will be the more difficult for you and those
around us to discover what it is that’s making things just go bad – sour –
crumble into dust in our hands!
Most of us have seen or even experienced this.
For example – It’s there when something has come between two friends –
an undealt with sin.
Until it’s dealt with it’s there right in the middle of our lives –
unnamed but real and it pollutes and corrupts our friendship!
It is what it is! If there is
some unconfessed sin in our lives it will out! Sooner or later!!!!!
If there is one reality that I’m absolutely absolutely
certain about it’s that fact – sin will manifest and the deeper it’s hidden the
harder it is to unearth and get rid of!
Some of us have seen this sort of hidden sin poison a whole
congregation and ultimately lead to its split!
Sin can be very obvious but also very very
subtle and it just seems easier to “leave it be.” Just keep it hidden and an occasional
dalliance in this hidden sin isn’t really going to hurt anyone as long as it’s
not “out there” in the open. As long as
it’s done in the shadows where no one can see it!
This really is about living with any sorts of secrets.
Now the key to
all of this is our Lord who sees all things in secret and who wants us to
become free from the seductive entanglements of our secret sins so it’s to Him
that we must ultimately confess and set things right again. He will then guide us to restore our
relationship with those around us but first we must set things right with Him.
He can handle our hypocrisies – others may not be able to but He – oh
yes, He can.
This is where
the great gift of the sacrament of confession and reconciliation is so precious
– so infinitely restorative - both to relationships and to families and to
communities.
4. The Economic Meltdown! I think it’s timely to address what’s
happening in our nation and in the world right now with the economic crisis!
If anyone has been reading the papers or watching CNN lately you’ll
have seen a lot of blaming going on. The
media pundits are blaming the Wall Street Fat Cats or the
We’ve – most of us at least – been spending beyond our means for far far far too too
long and we’ve lost any sense of value and this consumer cancer has ultimately
poisoned the entire economy of the world!
Make no mistake that’s what this economic crisis is all about – trying
to find a “real” sense of value!
As many of you know my friend Rich Schrader is a thought-leader in Merrill
Lunch and lately he and I have had a number of conversations on this subject.
The whole world is going to have to fast in all sorts of ways from OUR
uncontrolled consumption!
But it’s not
going to be easy – not easy at all!
In our modern psychologically informed world gentle permissiveness has
become the rule and obnoxious uncontrollable teenagers have become wayward
adolescents whose parents are to blame.
We have become a victim-nation blaming everyone else and claiming our
rights to choose whatever future we think is best for “ME!”
Some of us believe that it’s enough to confess our wrong-doing and
that’s it! I wish!!!!!!!
No – what
really stops us from doing it again is the memory of the pain of punishment –
or the humiliation of our being caught in the wrong
doing.
5. Another Way!
But there is one other way! It
can be found by drawing near to the One and only One
who “IS” the Way the Truth and the Life!
As we draw closer and closer to Him our sins will become more and more
obvious but His love will also become more and more obvious. His love will draw us through the valleys of
sins revelation to the mount of
It’s His greater love which has and will always overcome the seductive
titillating tug of our sins and our addictions!
It’s Easter that we walk towards over the next 40 days – it’s towards
our precious Lord that we walk. O Lord,
may You in the next 40 days reveal all of the sins
that separate us from you and then give us the courage and strength to turn away
from them and to walk unhindered towards You.
6. Imagine: I think it would be helpful right now if you
could think of one critical failing in your life that clearly spoils your
relationship with others and certainly with God.
Think about it. By the way, if
you can’t think about one thing then you will if you ask God to reveal them to you
– it won’t be pretty!
Now let’s not justify it, rationalize it, equivocate about it, play the
victim of it, or sentimentalize it or hide from it.
Let’s face it! Then let’s really
invite our Lord to reveal the stark horror of it to us and pray that you will
have the moral fortitude not to run and hide from this process!
Look at it – look at the full extent of its ugliness. Really mediate upon it!
But remember – never ever ever forget – the
Cross – take it now and in your mind’s eye and lay it upon the shoulders of
Jesus hanging on the Cross. Watch
carefully – as you give it to Him His pain increases visibly . . . terribly. But watch – He isn’t trying to get off the
Cross! He receives it! Look into His eyes, if you have the
courage. You don’t see hatred or anger
or even disdain – but what you see is love – infinite compassion and love! A love that will never ever say “stop – it is
enough! I can’t take any more!” His love is infinite! He will go all of the way to the end for
you!
And now as you apprehend His love for you – think – ponder – could this
love cause you to let go of your sins and reject them?
The answer for millions and millions of men and women throughout the
two millennial since Jesus’ advent into His world has been “O yes!”
He – His love – His Presence – can overwhelm the power of your sins and
addictions! He really can!
You see His love is what makes the difference and our honest and authentic
response to it!
You and I have an opportunity this Lent to get rid of some stuff that
has plagued us for too too long!
Please bow your heads and let us pray . . .