Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
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Possibly the greatest modern rendition of a villain is Loki in the 2012 film The Avengers.
That is because Loki, while somewhat sympathetic, is truly villainous. We see this especially in his relationship with his brother Thor.
In each interaction with his brother, Thor gives Loki a way out. When they first meet in the film, Thor tells Loki to give up the Tesseract, a dangerous weapon, and his mad plans and return home. Loki pauses for a moment before smirking and telling Thor he has sent off the Tesseract, "I know not where."
Later in the film during a battle between the two brothers, Thor again offers Loki a way out. This time, Loki seems a little less certain, but ultimately says, "It's too late. It's too late to stop it." Thor's reply is "No. We can. Together."
But Loki is a villain, and traditionally the Norse god of mischief. So he stabs Thor with a dagger, jumps off the roof, and lands safely on one of his army's transports.
What makes Loki a villain is that he is unable to change, even when he's offered a way out.
The Scribes behave in a similar way in the Gospel this morning, not because they cause destruction and mayhem like Loki, but because they too are unable to change.
The Scribes in Jesus' day were the learned ones. They could read, so they could interpret the words of Torah for the people. God's words passed first through their lips.
Being knowledgable in God's Word should mean that they could recognize God's healing work through Jesus and saving people from the demons that afflicted them. But the Scribes couldn't look past themselves. They couldn't see God working anywhere but in themselves.
And in their anger and frustration, they claim that Jesus Himself is one of these demons He so diligently is casting out.
Now Jesus explains logically why this cannot be. But the main thing we hear from Him is that all sins are forgiven, except the one who sins against the Holy Spirit. That sin, as Mark tells us, is the sin of the Scribes claiming Jesus has an "unclean spirit."
The so-called unforgivable sin is a concept that has worried Christians throughout the ages. There may be many of you who have worried a great deal about what this sin is, or if you might have done it.
This is especially so because we have all denied God in our lives. We've all at one point or another turned our backs on Him. But Jesus does say all sins and blasphemies will be forgiven. He even tells a parable of a boy who strays so far to wish his father, The Lord, was dead: the story of the Prodigal Son.
My mentor, Heidi, always says that if you are worried you've committed the unforgivable sin, you probably haven't.
We should take a step back, and be like Jesus and get at the spirit of it all. The Scribes sin is that they cannot see God working outside of themselves. Their pride has made them deaf to what God is doing. It makes them unable to see that they themselves are sinful, that they need God's help, and that God is working through them, not because of them. Their pride, like Loki's, makes them unable to change.
Jesus says that the one who sins against the Spirit cannot have forgiveness, that that person's sin is eternal. The sin is eternal because that person, like the Scribes, cannot move away from it. The one sinning against the Spirit cannot be forgiven because that person do not accept or want forgiveness and doesn't see it as necessary.
The so called unforgivable sin is Jesus' attempt to shake us up. It's meant to open our hearts to realize that there is a way out for us. Not only do we need forgiveness, but Jesus is offering that forgiveness to us.
To receive forgiveness, we must first realize we need it. We must realize that we need God, and we mustn't let our pride get in the way. That is what Jesus is saying to us this morning, 'There's a way out, so take it.'
Will we? There are times for all of us where we stray and, in the words of Isaiah, turn everyone to our own way. Will we come back? Will we take the offer to come back to God or will we reject it?