Sermon - 2016-02-28

What do you think is the worst sin? How do you think sins are measured? For many of us, we put a value upon the sins of others. We value and place sins into a list or hierarchy in which one is worse than another.  However, when God looks upon our sins, he does not see them that way.  What God sees is that we are not producing the goodness and love for which we are intended.  

Let’s look at the parable that Jesus shares in the scripture for today to understand this more fully.  In the parable there are two main characters, the Master and the Gardner.  The Master is God the Father and the Gardener is Jesus Christ.  Now there is one other character that we should make note of, YOU.  You are the tree.  We need to truly identify everyone in the parable to fully understand it.  As we look at this parable, we hear that God saw that we (the tree) were not bearing any fruit. We were not producing the love and goodness that we had been created to do.  So the Master, God the Father, tells Jesus to cut the tree down. Remove it from existence and destroy it.  

However, Jesus defends the tree and wants to do the work of spreading manure and nourishing the tree. In this way Jesus is giving it a second chance, so that it can grow and produce the fruit that God had intended for it to produce. Jesus turns the soil and allows air, water, and nutrients to flow to the roots to allow the tree to flourish and have no barriers to stop it.  After Jesus has done this work for you (the tree), will you change and produce the fruit that Jesus desires to come forth from you? Please note that in the parable, the tree has no say in the matter.  The work that Jesus does, is done even without the tree asking for it.  Why the tree did not even ask to get planted in the garden in the first place.   

Ok now, let’s think about all of this. God has called for your destruction.  Yet Jesus Christ has interceded for YOU!!  Jesus has done the work, the suffering, the pain, and has prepared the path for you to travel down.  So how do we start?  How do we go from the path that we have been travelling down, the path that we have been walking, the path that we have been willing to take, to the path that Jesus Christ has prepared for us and for all people?  The path that God has intended for us from the very beginning of our life but we ran away from?

WE REPENT!! Repent?? What does that mean?  To repent means to turn, to change, to do something in a new and better way, the way in which we were suppose to live and be.  

Alright, so what does this process of repentance look like?  What is this new way that Jesus was bringing into the world? Actually, it is something that we do often, but you may not have realized it.  It is something that you may know so well that you actually do not even think about it anymore.  It is how we start every single worship service, Confession and Forgiveness.  

Open up your bulletin and take a look at the words.  “Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid.”  God knows everything that is on our hearts and minds.  God knows how they affect us, our life, and those around us.  However, God is calling us to be aware of them too.  Now for those of you who are saying, “I don’t have any sins, I am good person”.  Keep reading please, the next part is for you and all of us when we feel that we have our life together and we do not need God there.

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”.  When we say that statement about not having any sin and we are just fine, when we say that there is nothing that is in our life that needs to be cleaned up and we have it all together,  we are telling ourselves lies and we are ignoring the sins that are always present in our life.  

So we gather together as a people, in silence.  To reflect, to ponder, to think, to become aware of all that is in our life, the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between.  

Then we should pray and ask God to not cut us down and destroy us. We are reminded that we have sinned and we cannot free ourselves from this.  We need God!! We have done a lot, in our thoughts, in our words, and in our actions.  In the things that we have done and the things that we should have done but didn’t.  We didn’t love God with all that we are, instead we loved ourselves.  We didn’t care for the people around us like we are suppose to.  We feared them, we competed against them, so that we looked better and made them feel worse. Perhaps we only thought of ourselves in the midst of our whole life, and didn’t care what we did or said that affected others around us.  

Yet listen to this forgiveness: “Almighty God, in his mercy, has given his Son to die for us and for his sake forgave us all our sins.”  WE WERE SUPPOSE TO DIE!! But instead God’s son died.  Now before you pass over it and say, “ I know what the cross stands for, because God loves me.  I want you to understand the depth of that love and the path that God is calling you to live with that life.  

This love that you are able to hear about each and every week, is the love that gives you life.