"I have good news. You are a sinner."
Advent 2 - Mark 1:1-8
During my first year as
a student at Virginia Seminary, I was elected to the high office of “class
t-shirt” chair. At the time it seemed
like a great way to get involved in a leadership role without getting too caught
up in class politics. This was supposed
to be a fun and exciting way to connect to my fellow classmates. Boy was I wrong. Some of the most contentious arguments during
my time in seminary were because of that class t-shirt. It got so bad a rogue group started their own
committee because they were so unhappy with the final product.
I did not design the
shirt itself. However, I was the one who
got all the nasty emails because I was “in charge.” Most of the ideas were rather innocent promoting
nice churchy themes such as God’s peace and love. But none of these won. Instead, the t-shirt that received the most
votes was also the most controversial.
The winning design
re-framed the popular slogan, “Virginia is for lovers” to “Virginia is for
sinners.” In place of the heart that
accompanies the lover’s slogan, we added a cross. The faculty and staff rejected the design at
first but ultimately approved it after we added these words from the psalmist, “as far as the east
is from the west so far has God removed your sins.”
The interesting thing
about this whole process was that when we finally received the box of t-shirts,
most of my classmates, including myself, never actually wore the shirt. One or two people wore it around campus but
let’s just say the shirt didn’t start a revolution. I don’t know about you, but I am quick to
avoid the label—sinner. I find it to be
a daily struggle to confess that I am a sinner.
According to the gospel
of Mark, the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ has John the Baptist, in
wilderness, proclaiming, “repent!” I
wonder how people 2,000 years ago responded to John the Baptist’s message of
repentance, to a message that called them “sinners.” How receptive were they to this “good
news”? Did his message cause
controversy? Did they actually take this
guy who wore silly clothes and who ate granola food seriously?
My gut reaction wants
to say that I need to remember that people 2,000 years ago weren’t as civilized
as we are here in 21st century America. A part of me wants to say, I am sure this
message of repentance was more important back then before technology and
medicine and democratic governments.
However, I know I am only deceiving myself if I believe these are the
answers to the world’s problems. While
technology, and medicine, and government can make a positive impact on society, they do not rid the world from the problem evil or sin.
Instead, evil and sin
are manifested in more sophisticated and nuanced ways through advancements in
technology and government. For example,
the United States boasts one of the most advanced countries in terms of
medicine, but we are one of the “sickest” countries in the world. I think C.S. Lewis was on to something when
he said the greatest trick Satan ever pulled was convincing man that he does
not exist.
Perhaps, now more than
ever, the message of repentance needs to be proclaimed in our midst. But I am not sure standing on the side of the
road with a megaphone in one hand and a sign that says “repent” in the other
hand will get the message across and neither will a shirt that says, “Virginia
is for sinners” for that matter.
I believe the biggest
obstacle to receiving the message of repentance as good news is a culture that
tries to avoid sin, a culture that tries to deny sin, a culture that tries to
cast sin off onto someone else, a culture looking for a quick fix. Ultimately, the consequence of rejecting the
good news of repentance is the burden of trying to be perfect or the burden of
trying to always be a winner. We all
know that at some point we will fall in pursuit of perfection. What then?
How can we ever get the strength to stand up and try again? How can we ever gain the courage to face our
fans again or even worse, our opponents?
In a book called The Reason for God, Tim Keller, reflects
on an encounter he has with a young man whose wife left him. The man came into Tim’s office and went on
and on about how he was a failure. The
man was angry at his wife for leaving him, and he was angry at himself for
failing to live up to his wedding vows.
This man came to his pastor looking for a word of hope. You know what Keller said? He told the young man, in a loving and gentle
way, I have some good news. You are a
sinner.
But this doesn’t sound so
good does it? But in reality, Keller is trying
to tell this man that his divorce doesn’t have to define him as a person. If this man can admit that he was imperfect long
before his divorce, then he can start to let go of this perfect version of
himself, let go of this idol that he has created in his own image, and be reminded
that he is defined by God alone. When he
makes this confession, he can start to discover that he is made in God’s image
and is made perfect by the blood of Christ.
For this reason, the
writer of Mark says the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ is a call to
repentance. The beginning of the good
news starts when we put our salvation in the hands of God instead of our own
hands. Unfortunately, as Verna Dozer
once implied, somewhere along the way the church settled for moralism when the
gospel clearly states that Jesus preached repentance.
The message of the
gospel is not go out in the world and “be perfect and be good”. The message of the gospel calls us to tell
others that “the Lord is good and so we thank the Lord.” The gospel inspires us not out of a place of
obligation. Instead, the good news
inspires us out of a place of thanksgiving for all that the Lord has done for us. The good news says that all good comes from
God. Even more, through Christ God is
telling us that good can come from even our failure.
So the fundamental
question for all of us this morning is, “will you let God redeem your
failure?” Can you trust that God can
take your broken past and turn it into something beautiful? Do you have the strength to open yourself up
to your imperfection and let God take that burden away from you?
Admitting to our
imperfection is hard because we want to be good. We want to be productive members of
society. We want to be seen as a good
person who does good for the world. We
want people to see us as strong and confident.
I have good news. Admitting to
your imperfection and brokenness is not a sign of weakness. It takes a lot of courage and strength to
admit when you are wrong, to admit when you have messed up. So when you find this God given courage and
strength, then you have found the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ.
How do we, the church,
proclaim this message of repentance? We
know that megaphones, signs, and t-shirts won’t do the trick. As Christians, I believe it is our job to
lead by example. I believe it is our job
to be the first to admit when we are wrong.
We should be the first to confess that we are complicit in the problems
of this world. Because when we admit
that we are wrong, we are also proclaiming a faith that says that God is making
all things new even our brokenness.
It is our job to reach
out to those who are falling through the cracks. It is not our job to judge them. Instead, it is our job to reach out a hand in
love and say, “I am imperfect too but the good news is that Jesus came into the
world to save us sinners.” Reach out
your hand and say, “I have good news. I
go to a church that is full of sinners.
It’s called St. Paul’s and it is full of love and compassion.”
We are only kidding
ourselves when we try to avoid the label sinner. Instead of seeing this label as something to
avoid, I pray that God helps you see this label as the beginning of the good
news of Jesus Christ. You don’t have to
let the burden of imperfection or failure weigh you down anymore. Instead, you can give thanks for what God is
doing with all of us “sinners.” If you
need some material for your prayers of thanksgiving, take a minute to look around at the congregation and reflect
on all the love and compassion that pours out of this church into Selma and the
world because of the goodness and mercy of God. Amen.
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