"Renouncing Sin to Trust God" June 10, 2018

I Samuel 8:4-22 Mark 3: 20-35 Listening to the Confirmands last Sunday, like you, I was reminded of my own Confirmation years ago. They did a very fine job, not only professing what they believe, but leading us in worship as the Church! At that time in 1972 when I was Confirmed, and with each of the New Members and Baptisms, there have been 3 questions required in professing Christian Faith: 1) Who is your Lord and Savior? 2) Do you want to be his Disciple? 3) Will you give of your self in every way? The chief concern being that the highest authority in our lives, more important than Nationalism, more than quest for a Career or dollar, more than following a Hero, more important than anything else… is our Faith in God. AND that instead of asking “will you have perfect attendance, will you give a minimum amount throughout the year”; our hope is that you would be involved because you want to be; you give without reserve because you care and want to see change in the world. Suddenly, without debate, in the last year, a fourth question has been added, not to The PC(USA) Book of Order but Ecumenically to Book of Common Worship. Do you renounce Sin and Choose to Trust Grace from God? Oddly, instead of this being an added commitment, it is something of a pre-requisite. Before claiming faith in Jesus Christ, in order to give of your self, we first must consider and choose whether to Renounce Sin. What is it to renounce Sin? There was a time in the life of this Church, where the Session held heresy trials, because as “role models”, as Christians they were witnessed to be crawling in and out of someone’s bedroom at The Sherwood! Because they were so intoxicated as to be unable to walk home… because they had sworn profane language… or worked on the Sabbath… or made an idol of their politics, their houses or their car. As asked this morning, I want to suggest that Sin is our prideful desire for Control. Our desire to have what we want, to have recognition, in short to make ourselves God, denying the Lord that identity. SO, in order to demonstrate your faith in God, will you intentionally abandon trying to control your world, your own life? Will you instead trust the grace/love of God? This trust is not in something you can hold, acquire or merit, not something you inherit, or master in school or sports. Like “Job” can you accept all the opportunities, and tragedies of life, as being like the blessings of health and a new Day, unwarranted, undeserved gifts of God’s grace? We pride ourselves on Our accomplishments and believe that we have to work to create everything that happens in our lives. Trusting God, trusting that we are loved by God, so much that God will provide for us without our asking, that is a mind-shift. In ancient times, before our development of government or recorded history, our Ancestors demanded, “We want to be like everybody else!” Other Nations have Kings, we want a King! To which the Prophet Samuel replied “How dare you, there is One King, God and God only!” But God replied, if they want a King, let them have a King, but choosing this, recognize, a King is going to demand Taxes, your children for Soldiers, your daughters as his wives. Chose the Living God and you chose to trust, chose a King and you pay over and over each day from all that you possess. We have an historic advantage over the Bible Stories we read. The Wednesday Bible Study Group this week, listened to Paul’s explanation that Jesus was human until the point he suffered through death and was resurrected by God, at which point he became divine. We have Creeds and Gospels, to know Christ is God’s Son, Thousands of years later, we read of the people being tempted to eat the Apple they were told to not eat, and we know what will happen. We read of the People demanding to be like everyone else, with a King, and we know they were rejecting God. Before we even read from the Gospel, we know Jesus is the Son of God, we know he suffered and died and was resurrected for us as our Messiah; but the Scribes and Pharisees and Jesus’ own family, did not. They witnessed his performing miracles, they heard his wisdom, but they were not convinced to renounce the Sinful desire for control; to trust the compassion, grace, covenant commitment of God through Jesus Christ. We have been the Church of Christ in this place for the last 217 years! We came into this family knowing Jesus to be the Son of God, our Lord and our Savior, knowing God to be God, the Creator of everything tangible and intangible, knowing that God did not abandon us when Christ ascended, but ever since that first Pentecost has continued to blow through us. We have witnessed people who were infected with disease and as good as dead, who through faith/prayer have been returned to life. Marriages that were over, that shame/betrayal had broken, that have been renewed and reclaimed. Children that were arrested and incarcerated, who have succeeded and made both their parents and their community, proud. We have witnessed refugees of Civil Wars, whose own family “un-named as being a John Doe”, whom the world pointed to as being Lost, who not only found their families and brought to them resources they never knew, these refugees gave this Church new understanding of the Bible and of Christian faith, that we are survivors who never give up, and we call others to faith! But still we agonize and struggle. “I Want! I Need! Everyone else has, so I want”… To place our trust in the Grace of God, the love of the Church, is hard. Over the years we have known one another, we have baptized over 400 new believers together! As an installed pastor for 34 years, I have experienced the Church claiming over 900 persons, in an era when the Church has been hemorrhaging members and people have claimed to no longer be religious. There is an arrogance in Baptism... Having young parents bring forward their new born, and declaring you cannot do this alone! There has been a running joke in each of the congregations I have served, that whenever parents have difficulties, the Preacher will provide babysitting. There have even been Grandparents who were suspected of pinching infants, in order that we would carry them around. But the truth is that in all these years, we never tried and never believed that we could raise someone’s children better than they, only that when needed we could provide help better than being alone, trying to live, to raise children, as if there was no one other than you in life. The Great Uncle of our members Reinhold Niebuhr was a great theologian in the 1930-60s. Reinie described that Christian Faith involves REFLECTION and UNDERSTANDING of the Social, Political and Economic realities of the culture in which we live, faith is not abstract theory! However, he went on to say that with all our powers of thought, all our advanced human understanding, WE MUST NEVER CLOSE THE DOOR TO THE POSSIBILITY OF GOD’S INTERVENTION. Something different than we expect, different from what we can make happen, is always possible with God. That possibility from God, is what keeps Christian Hope alive! The people of Israel demanding a King, The Scribes and Pharisees, and Jesus’ own family his brothers and sisters and Mother Mary were not Evil, they were not Bad People. They were simply PEOPLE without HOPE. When God intervened in their lives, through Jesus Christ, they reasoned it to be illogical, they were afraid, they wanted to be in control. The Latin root of the word RELIGION = “ligare” means to determine what is legitimate, what is truth, what is right and wrong. Their thought led them to the conclusion that Jesus must be THE LORD OF THE FLIES, BEELZEBUB, and that he was calling on powers of evil, because they could not imagine something more, something given by LOVE instead of by making it happen.