Sunday, March 1, 2020. Rev. Dr. Scott Ramsey, preaching.Scripture Readings: Romans 3:21-26; Matthew 7:1-5Sermon Series: Sunday Morning, Monday Morning – Part 1: Sin & Forgiveness

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SERMON TEXT

Today we are beginning a Lenten Sermon Series that is

entitled, “Sunday Morning, Monday Morning.” You may have noticed that this is

also the title of our 2020 Lenten Devotional, which is not a coincidence. J

The goal of the series is to reflect on a number of what may seem to be

“churchy” words – sin, covenant, image of God, exile, Holy Spirit, and

sacrifice – words that we use on “Sunday morning,” and ponder their connections

with our lives during the rest of the week, beginning on “Monday morning.” Though

the church’s practice has sometimes gotten twisted to seem disconnected from

life in the real world, the faith of Jesus intends to have an impact on

people’s lives in the world. The Christian faith is devoted to the world –

after all, one of the most famous biblical texts begins, “for God so loved the world” – and so down through the

years, our tradition has developed a large number of themes and concepts, not

to get people out of the world, but to support, equip, and transform people for

new life in the world. It is our conviction that these terms and themes will

not only enrich our lives, they will deepen and enlarge our perspective, our

resilience, and our hope for the future.

We’re beginning today with the word “sin.”

At this point, some of you may want

to get up and head for the exits.

Sin is a starchy word. It is an old

word. And it is a word that has fallen into some disuse.

There are some churches that avoid

the word sin, avoid confessing sins, because they do not want to be seen as

depressing. Raising the awareness of sin is seen by some as a ‘downer,’ and

there is plenty in our world to be down about already, so why beat what may

seem like an already-dead horse. Better to look on the bright side of life.

Other people avoid the term ‘sin’

because they have seen this word used as a weapon, a stick to clobber people

with. “You’re a sinner!” is an accusation that has been too easily thrown

around to shame people. So much damage has been done by yelling at people about

their sins that some people think this is a word that we’re better off doing

without.

The problem is that the word ‘sin’

refers to a reality that is with us and in us and around us, whether we talk

about it or not. As Barbara Brown Taylor says in her exquisite book, Speaking of Sin (which would make for a

brilliant small group study), “Abandoning the language of sin will not make sin

go away. Human beings will continue to experience alienation, deformation,

damnation, and death no matter what we call them.”[1]

When the Bible speaks about sin, it

does so in 2 different ways. First, there are the sins that we commit, the

wrongs that we do. This is what many of us think of when we think about sin,

the things we do wrong. But there is a second way the Bible talks about sin

which is as a power that grabs us, that gets us in its grip, more like an

addiction that makes us, in the words of Romans 7, do the evil that we do not

want to do, and strangely unable to do the good that we want to do.

What is helpful about the first

understanding – the sins that we commit, the things we do wrong – is that it

conveys that you and I are morally responsible people, accountable for what we

do and for what we do not do. Moral

accountability is a cornerstone of biblical faith.

What is helpful about the second

understanding – the power of sin that has us in its grip – is that it

understands that, while our willpower and ability to make changes in our own

lives is real and significant, it is not total. You and I are in the grip of

social forces and addictions and powers that are bigger than our individual

willpower, and agains