Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
One of the characters the show follows is a young woman named Nicole, who sees herself drowning with what looks like a person strangling her to death. In her flash forward, or vision, she thinks, “I deserve this”.
At this point, Nicole has no idea what she will do to make her feel this way, just that her actions in the future will leave her with tremendous guilt. So naturally Nicole goes searching for something to help her deal with her vision. She decides to start working at the hospital to help people, and to participate in more volunteer work.
In order to find more opportunities to help people, and improve herself as a person, Nicole decides to talk with the priest at what appears to be an Episcopal Church. The priest comes in, still talking to a rabbi on the phone, and immediately mistakes Nicole for her sister. He then tells her that they actually are booked up with volunteers because in a crisis, “well, people need to help”. When he asks her what “this is all about”, Nicole says “How do you atone for something you haven’t done yet?” The priest is so taken aback, all he can do is say “Well, it’s hard to believe there’s not a Divine Hand involved somehow.” He then gives her the number for the volunteer coordinator and a free Jesus t-shirt before leaving as quickly as he can.
Clearly, this is not how you do pastoral care. Instead, this is how someone who thinks that faith is no longer relevant in the world acts. Someone who thinks that all the church can do today is act as a sort of special community service organization that gives out Jesus t-shirts.
That’s not what the author of Hebrews tells us today. Instead, we are told that “The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two- edged sword.” This is really what I want to talk about: How God’s word is still active for us today.
You see, Nicole wasn’t just looking for a quick fix to her problem, or really to even volunteer. She’s looking for the answer to a truly profound problem:
What do we do in the face of our own sinful nature?
Because what Nicole is facing is the realization that she will, or at least is capable of, committing a terrible evil. Something so wrong, that she feels she deserves death.
That she, like the rest of us, is a sinful human being.
This is a powerful realization for all of us. I remember some of the first times I fully confronted my own sin. It was as if a divide had come in to separate myself from God, and all I wanted to do was feel his presence again.
So what do we do when we come to this realization? The realization that following our own wants and needs has separated us from God, the one our soul is truly longing for? Well, all our readings today answer that question.
In all of them, we see the search for God. In the Psalm, we even ask that he will return to us to teach us and show us his works. The Gospel tells us that we must leave everything behind and follow Christ. And we don’t just leave behind possessions, as the man who approached Jesus was told to do. We have to give up those things that draw our attention away from God. The things that trap us. And one of those things is our sin.
Amos speaks directly to the divide sin causes in the first line of our reading from him today. “Seek the Lord and live.” For the Lord is the “living and active” Word that will bring us back to God. In Christ, we have salvation from sin. From ourselves.
In Hebrews, we learn that we can’t hide our sins from God. That we are “naked and laid bare” before him. In Nicole’s case, and often ours, we can’t even hide it from ourselves. If we could, we would. No one wants to experience shame or despair (well, at least I don’t!). But I do experience shame from my sin, and I despair that I have done evil that I can never take back.
Hebrews tells us something else as well. That we have Jesus who will hear our sins and will “sympathize with our weakness”. Who will have compassion on us. Who loves us so much that he climbed up on the Cross and died for us, so that we could be free from sin and death. Who gives us mercy and grace.
And Thanks be to God that he sent His Son Jesus Christ to bear the sinful nature of us all so that we can have new life again. So that we can use the Cross to bridge the gap we constantly create between ourselves and God.
This is why the Word of God is active, and not dead or in great need of revision, as some will tell us. Because we all have to face the truth of sin at some point. And the more we reflect on that truth, the more we realize that we can’t escape without the help of someone else. Without the help of Christ.
That ultimately, we need Christ, and only Christ.
And this realization is transforming. Before Nicole had her vision, and wanted to atone for her future sin, she lacked drive. She did babysit for her neighbor’s daughter, but she would get there late, and was more concerned with boys than she was taking care of their child. After her experience, she started working at the hospital to help people, went out of her way to help a friend without expecting anything in return, and was genuinely searching for God. Honestly, she went from being a character I didn’t care much for in the show into one I had tremendous respect for.
People may say that we don’t need God. That is clearly not true. The realization that we are sinful is more than we can handle on our own. We need grace and salvation. We need a savior. We need Christ.
And as we see with Nicole, that grace is transforming. It leads us to possess a love and charity for others that we did not have before. And that transformation can only come from the recognition that Christ died for our sins so that we can move beyond sin to new life in Him.
God’s Word is what we all are really searching for. Because we all have to face sin. And like Nicole, we all have to come to the realization that we cannot face our sinful nature alone. If we face it alone, we only have despair and shame to turn to. That is why Christ is so relevant to us today. In Christ, we no longer have to despair. We no longer have to worry about how to atone for our sins, even those we haven’t even done yet. In Him, we have Hope.
And for that we can say, “Thanks be to God!”
So what do we do when we come to this realization? The realization that following our own wants and needs has separated us from God, the one our soul is truly longing for? Well, all our readings today answer that question.
In all of them, we see the search for God. In the Psalm, we even ask that he will return to us to teach us and show us his works. The Gospel tells us that we must leave everything behind and follow Christ. And we don’t just leave behind possessions, as the man who approached Jesus was told to do. We have to give up those things that draw our attention away from God. The things that trap us. And one of those things is our sin.
Amos speaks directly to the divide sin causes in the first line of our reading from him today. “Seek the Lord and live.” For the Lord is the “living and active” Word that will bring us back to God. In Christ, we have salvation from sin. From ourselves.
In Hebrews, we learn that we can’t hide our sins from God. That we are “naked and laid bare” before him. In Nicole’s case, and often ours, we can’t even hide it from ourselves. If we could, we would. No one wants to experience shame or despair (well, at least I don’t!). But I do experience shame from my sin, and I despair that I have done evil that I can never take back.
Hebrews tells us something else as well. That we have Jesus who will hear our sins and will “sympathize with our weakness”. Who will have compassion on us. Who loves us so much that he climbed up on the Cross and died for us, so that we could be free from sin and death. Who gives us mercy and grace.
And Thanks be to God that he sent His Son Jesus Christ to bear the sinful nature of us all so that we can have new life again. So that we can use the Cross to bridge the gap we constantly create between ourselves and God.
This is why the Word of God is active, and not dead or in great need of revision, as some will tell us. Because we all have to face the truth of sin at some point. And the more we reflect on that truth, the more we realize that we can’t escape without the help of someone else. Without the help of Christ.
That ultimately, we need Christ, and only Christ.
And this realization is transforming. Before Nicole had her vision, and wanted to atone for her future sin, she lacked drive. She did babysit for her neighbor’s daughter, but she would get there late, and was more concerned with boys than she was taking care of their child. After her experience, she started working at the hospital to help people, went out of her way to help a friend without expecting anything in return, and was genuinely searching for God. Honestly, she went from being a character I didn’t care much for in the show into one I had tremendous respect for.
People may say that we don’t need God. That is clearly not true. The realization that we are sinful is more than we can handle on our own. We need grace and salvation. We need a savior. We need Christ.
And as we see with Nicole, that grace is transforming. It leads us to possess a love and charity for others that we did not have before. And that transformation can only come from the recognition that Christ died for our sins so that we can move beyond sin to new life in Him.
God’s Word is what we all are really searching for. Because we all have to face sin. And like Nicole, we all have to come to the realization that we cannot face our sinful nature alone. If we face it alone, we only have despair and shame to turn to. That is why Christ is so relevant to us today. In Christ, we no longer have to despair. We no longer have to worry about how to atone for our sins, even those we haven’t even done yet. In Him, we have Hope.
And for that we can say, “Thanks be to God!”