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Monday, May 7, 2012

What Do You Mean By That?

The following is the message given in the Wheatland Parish Sunday, May 6.  The scriptures are Mark 10:17-27; Luke 18:9-14; and Romans 3:19-26



            In every occupation, there are certain words you use that are what we call jargon.  Jargon means words or phrases that people who are within the group use all the time and are familiar with.  People outside the group, though, have no idea what those words or phrases mean.
           
It’s really easy to start using jargon.  We do it without even realizing it.  Because we use those words or phrases are so common to us, we forget most people don’t know them.  It’s something I had to be really careful of when I was a lawyer.  Sometimes I’d be talking to someone, and I’d see from the look in their eyes that they had no idea what I was talking about.  I’d realize that I’d slipped into using jargon, and I’d have to step back and explain things better to them.
           
Well, we tend to use jargon in the church sometimes, too.  As we continue our sermon series called “Who is this God person, anyway” today, we’re going to answer that question in two ways.  God is holy, and God is righteous. 

That’s all well and good.  We’d probably all agree that God is holy and righteous.   The thing is that when we say that, we’re kind of using jargon.  What do those words really mean?  What do we mean when we say that God is holy and righteous?

Let’s start with that word “holy”.  We use it all the time in church.  We sang the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy” this morning.  But when I say the word “holy” to you, what comes to mind?

It could be a lot of things.  It could be some sort of object, like the cross.  It could be some type of act, like the act of praying, that we consider a holy act.  It could be a religious leader, someone we consider a “holy man”.  It could even be some person whom we consider a really good person that comes to mind when we think of the word “holy”.

None of that’s wrong, exactly, but there’s really only one thing that should come to mind when we use the word “holy”, and that’s God.  In fact, “holy” is in the name of the trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  In our passage from Isaiah, God is referred to as “the Holy One”.  It does not say the Holy Two or Three.  It says the Holy One.  God is the only one who is truly holy.

So, you say, okay, only God is holy, but why?  What does that word mean?  Well, here’s what it means.  It means “entitled to worship.”  Worship, in turn, means “honor and reverence paid to someone sacred.”  See now why God is the only one who is holy?  It’s because God is the only one entitled to worship. 

The cross is a wonderful symbol, but we don’t worship the cross.  We worship the one who died on the cross—Jesus, God the Son.  Prayer is a wonderful thing to do, but we don’t worship prayers, we worship the one to whom we say the prayers—God.  It’s fine to admire and respect other people, but we should never worship people.  We should only worship God.  That’s why only God can truly be considered holy.

So God’s holy, but God is also righteous.  What’s that mean?  What comes to your mind when I say the word “righteous”?  It could be a lot of things.  It could be something really positive, like someone who really tries hard to do what’s right.  It could be something negative, like someone who’s self-righteous and full of themselves and thinks they should be able to tell everyone what to do.  If you grew up on the music of the sixties and seventies like I did, you might think of the musical group the Righteous Brothers.  So what does it mean to say that God is righteous?

Here’s what the dictionary says it means.  It means morally right and virtuous.  That certainly fits God.  God is always morally right, and God is always virtuous.

You and I, on the other hand, are not.  That was the point Jesus was trying to make in our reading from Mark.  A man came up to Jesus and called him “good”.  He wanted Jesus to tell him what he could do so he’d be “good”, too.  Jesus tells him he cannot do it.  We cannot become good by what we do.  The only one who is “good”, by that definition, is God.  When we try to become “good” by doing things, we tend to become like the self-righteous Pharisee Jesus described in our reading from Luke.  God is the only one who is always morally right.  God is the only one who is always virtuous.  God is the only one who is righteous.

Notice, though, that Jesus does not leave us without hope.  Jesus would never do that.  Jesus goes on to say that, with human beings, these things may be impossible, but they are not impossible with God.  All things are possible for God.

That leads us to our reading from Romans.  Paul says no one will be found to be righteous in God’s sight by observing the law.  Paul is saying, in different words, the same thing that Jesus said—we cannot become “good” or “righteous” by what we do.                

Paul goes on, though, to make the other point Jesus made:  that all things are possible for God.  He goes on to explain just how it is that, even though we cannot be righteous, God can make us righteous.  Listen to what he says:

The righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.  He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

           Do you see what Paul’s saying there?  Paul says that even though we’re not righteous on our own, righteousness is given to us through our faith in Jesus Christ.  That righteousness is available to everyone, with no exceptions, because we’re all equal in God’s eyes.  Because God is righteous, there had to be some sort of punishment for our sins—God’s sense of morality demands it.  Because God is holy, though, God held off punishing us.  Instead, at the right time, Jesus—God the Son—took the punishment that should’ve gone to us.  When we accept that Jesus is our Savior, God, in God’s great holiness, takes away our sins and gives us the kind of righteousness that can only come from God.

           I’d say that makes God worthy of worship.  In fact, I think it’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard.  Here we are, the unholy, unrighteous, sinful people that we are.  There’s God, the Holy One, the Righteous One, the One who is without sin.  We deserve to be punished for our sins.  God knows that.  Yet, God does not punish us.  Instead, God takes our punishment for us and declares that we are righteous even when we’re not.  What an awesome, amazing, incredible gift.  And all we need to do is just accept it.

           A lot of us are probably familiar with the words of John 3:16.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  That’s a great verse, but the next verse, John 3:17, is great, too.  Listen to what it says.  “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

           The Son could’ve been sent into the world to condemn us.  As Paul says, we’re all sinners.  The condemnation would’ve been no more than what we deserve.  God, though, does not give us what we deserve.  Instead, the Son was sent into the world to save us.  God the Son accepted the punishment for our sins so that instead of staying the unholy, unrighteous people we are, we can receive God’s righteousness. 

           We cannot make ourselves righteous.  God can.  God will.  All God asks of us in return but that we accept that righteousness by accepting Jesus Christ as our savior.

           Who is this God person?  This God person is the one who is so holy, so worthy of worship, as to take sinful people like you and me and make us righteous.  We don’t deserve that.  There’s nothing we can do to earn it.  God knows that.  That’s why God does not ask us to earn it.  God just gives it to us, as an amazing, undeserved, incredible gift.

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