We All Sin -- So What?
Sermon
Renewal of the New
Sermons For Sundays After Pentecost
One day a young skeptic knocked on the door of a rectory. A priest opened the door. The visitor said, "Come out. I want to talk to you about a problem." "No," the priest replied, "You come in. I want to talk to you about your sins."
After Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, God came one evening and called to them, "Where are you?" Because they were afraid of what God might do to them for disobeying him, they hid themselves. At the end of the day God knocks on the garden door and says, "I have come to talk to you about your sins."
Today God comes again in our text to talk with us about our sin of disobedience. Why talk about sin? It is a fact of life. We all do it, as St. Paul said, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) John says to those who deny that they are sinners, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1:8) Today's society is marinated with sin, for it pervades every segment and level of society. It is human to err and we are all humans. So, why get concerned or excited about sin? Why is it so important that God would leave his throne to come to earth and discuss the problem with sinners?
The Bad News of Sin
When God comes to talk about our sins, at once we think of bad news in terms of guilt, accountability and judgment. No wonder Adam and Eve were afraid to confront God and tried to hide from him. But as they found out, and as we eventually learn, there is no hiding place from God.
One aspect of the bad news is that we haven't changed a bit since Adam and Eve. We are still the same old sinners doing the same sin of disobedience. The world may change, customs may change, conditions may change, but one thing is sure: human nature does not change. When a mission congregation was organized, the people had to meet in a tavern until their church was built. During the week the tavern retained its program of band, dancing and drinking. On Sundays, members of the church had to re-arrange the tavern for the worship service. The tavern had a speaking parrot. When the parrot saw the minister come forward to start the service, he said, "Hmm, a new bartender!" When the parrot saw the choir assemble up front, he said, "Hmm, a new orchestra!" Then the parrot looked over the congregation and screamed, "Awk! The same old crowd!" How true -- the same old kind of sinners!
The source of our sin has not changed a bit. Eve accepted the forbidden fruit because she was told by the serpent "You will be like God." At the beginning, as now, and probably forever, the basic source of sin is pride. The middle letter of sin is "I." The same is true of the word "prIde." In the conversation that Adam had with God, Adam uses "I" eight times. Today we would call this "egotheism" The self becomes that person's God. We reveal who our God really is when we want to be Number One. When personalized license plates were introduced in Illinois, the Department of Vehicles received over 1000 requests for Number One. The state official in charge of approving requests said, "I'm not about to assign it to someone and disappoint 1000 people." Then he gave the number to himself!
And we have not changed a bit since Adam and Eve when it comes to the kinds of sin we are guilty of. There are basically two types of sin. The one is the sin of commission. This deals with actual sins which we perform in terms of thought, word and deed. The other type of sin is just as deadly, the sin of omission. Eve was guilty of the sin of commission, for she took the fruit and ate it. Then she persuaded Adam to do the same. But Adam committed the sin of omission. Where was Adam when God needed him? When Eve was tempted, where was Adam to dissuade her from committing her act of disobedience? Why didn't he warn her of the consequences? Adam was not there. Not one word came from his lips. He said nothing; he did nothing. Consequently, he was just as guilty as Eve. She should not receive all the blame for the sin that started all our sinning.
Another aspect of the bad news of sin is the fact that we are still trying to hide our sins from God. We have not changed a bit since Adam and Eve. Symbolically they tried to hide their disobedience by making aprons of fig leaves to hide their nakedness. When God came, they hid themselves in the garden. Much later, we have a classic case dealing with David's affair with Bathsheba. When she reported to him that she was pregnant, David at once began to hide his sin from her husband, Uriah. At first he tried to get Uriah to go home and sleep with Bathsheba. When that did not work, he had Uriah put in the front line of battle, where he was killed.
And we are still trying to hide our sins. In 1980 former Televangelist Jim Bakker had a sexual escapade with Jessica Hahn. He tried to cover it up by offering her $265,000 to keep it quiet lest he lose his ministry. His fig leaves were not adequate, for he was sentenced to forty-five years in jail. It is said that chefs cover up their mistakes with sauces, architects with vines, and physicians with ground! But truth will come out eventually if not now. Our sins will find us out. Sin now and pay later. Recently a sixty-six-year-old man was brought back to Paoli, Pennsylvania to answer charges against him for strangling an eight-year-old girl near a carnival. The murderer had been living quietly in Nebraska. After thirty-seven years, his sin was revealed and he faced the judgment of the courts. The simple truth is: you cannot sin and get away with it. This is part of the bad news of sin.
Moreover, we have not improved on Adam and Eve's placing the blame for their sin on others. When it comes to blaming others, we have not changed a bit. Many continue to deny any responsibility for their lives and actions. When God asked Adam if he had eaten the forbidden fruit, Adam blamed Eve -- "She gave me the fruit of the tree." Then God asked Eve what she had done. She explained, "The serpent beguiled me." Each one passed the buck to another. No one had a sign on his desk, "The buck stops here!" And we are still doing it. We continue to find excuses for our sins. In the presence of witnesses a man recently shot his girl friend. At the trial he admitted that he shot her, but asked to be exonerated because he had taken cocaine. But, was he not at fault for taking drugs in the first place? We like to blame our failings on circumstances or the environment in which we were raised. We may blame our parents for failing to discipline us. The fault may be in our genes. It is an easy cop-out to blame others. How devastating it is to have no one to blame but ourselves!
Honesty demands that we acknowledge our sins. We alone are the guilty ones. A Psalmist did: "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned ..." (Psalm 51:4) King David had no realization of his sin of adultery and murder until the prophet Nathan said, "You are the man!" You have sinned, and it was all your fault. God comes to each one of us sinners and asks for an accounting. As in the case of Adam and Eve our fault-passing is not acceptable. The best thing we can do is to admit our guilt and repent.
The Good News of Sin
Can there be any good news of sinning? In today's biblical story, can you find any good news for Adam and Eve and for us? Consider the situation. Adam and Eve made no confession of their sin. There was no repentance on their part. They did not beg for mercy and forgiveness. In the end they were driven out of the garden of paradise. Is that good news?
The amazing thing is that we find grace in the very midst of sin. Paul saw this: "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." (Romans 5:20) It is only when we sin that we experience the grace of God. Luther shocks some people when they hear his words, "Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly." In other words, be glad you are a sinner because you will experience the sweet mercy of God's forgiveness and you will come in contact with the Redeemer. Some years ago a friend of the great pianist, Paderewski, invited him to attend a piano recital by his small daughter. He came, but his presence made the girl very nervous and, consequently, she made a mistake. At the end of the recital, Paderewski walked up to the tearful girl, said not a word, but gave her a kiss. If she had not made the mistake, she never would have been kissed by the master of the piano. In the same way, if we did not sin, we would never taste the goodness of the Lord's forgiveness.
In spite of humanity's worst, God does his best for his people. One aspect of the good news of sin is that God punishes, but does not curse us because we sinned. In our text we find that God cursed the serpent and the ground, but he did not curse the humans. Humankind does not live under God's curse. The human is not doomed to failure and death. God has only blessing for his sinful creation. He wills only the best -- health and happiness, peace and security -- for every person. No one can say, "A curse is upon me. I can't help but fail."
However, punishment follows sin. Eve's punishment was to bring children into the world through pain. Adam was to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. It is natural that this would be so. It is rooted in the nature of God -- his justice. If justice is violated, it must be satisfied. Where there are rules, there are always penalties for breaking them. This applies to football, baseball, and every other sport that has rules. It applies to sin, which breaks the rules of God. Dire consequences follow disobedience to God's law. The penalties of sin are shame, suffering, and death. Break God's laws and punishment follows as surely as the night the day. It is eternally true: "The wages of sin is death." Penalties may be tough, but they are nothing compared to God's curse. That is good news!
A second aspect of the good news of sin is the fact that God permits us to live even though we deserve to die for our sins. Our first parents deserved to die for their disobedience. God warned them, "The day you eat of it you shall die." Adam and Eve rebelled against God. They refused to obey. They expressed their lack of trust and gratitude for what God had done for them: he gave them life and paradise to live in. Above all, they were unwilling to be what God made them: human. They wanted to be God.
It is amazing that God did not keep his promise in this case, "You shall die." I suppose he could not bring himself to do it. Adam and Eve were the crown of his creation and his only hope to get and give love. No doubt, he was proud of his creation. Most of all, God's heart of love could not let them die. He was satisfied with penalties only.
Of course, Adam and Eve did eventually die. They died physically. To die is natural and normal. Humans were not meant to live physically forever. All of nature follows a rhythm of birth, maturity and death. Human beings are a part of nature. When the Bible speaks of death, it means spiritual death. Death is separation from God. To be separated from God means hostility, isolation and estrangement. The good news is that God does not desire the death of a sinner; instead, the sinner can turn to God, receive forgiveness and live. Jesus was sent to call sinners to repent and to give abundant life to all who believe.
The good news of sin continues in verses 20 and 21. Our First Lesson stops at verse 19, but should continue through verse 21 because of the wonderful good news the verses bring. The good news is that God provides clothes to live in a cold, sinful world. Adam and Eve were about to leave the garden of paradise for a hard, cruel world involving hostility, pain and struggle. Now they were naked and could not make clothing for themselves. And so verse 21 tells us that God in his mercy makes clothing for them out of animal skins. Out of love and mercy God himself makes clothing for the sinful couple!
And God is still doing it. He still clothes his own with a robe of righteousness. It was his Son Jesus who had the seamless robe of righteousness. The Bible tells us that by faith we can have the robe of righteousness made by Jesus' perfect righteousness. When we appear before God, he will see us in Jesus' robe of perfect righteousness which will hide our dirty rags of sin. For Jesus' sake God forgives and accepts us in his presence.
For our living Paul urges us to put on the clothes of love, goodness and faithfulness. For fighting the evil in the world, we are to put on the whole armor of God. Thanks be to God for the robe of righteousness that hides our sin and keeps us warm in the love of God.
Now we see that it's not so bad to be a sinner! That is, if you are a Christian sinner. A saint is a forgiven sinner and the church is a communion of saints. We have always sinned and will always sin. Unrepentant sinners die, but repentant sinners looking to Christ as Savior live. If our greatest need were information, God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need were technology, God would have sent a scientist. If our greatest need were money, God would have sent an economist. If our greatest need were pleasure, God would have sent an entertainer. But, since our greatest need is the forgiveness of sin, God sent us a Savior, Christ the Lord, who died for our sins that we might live fully here and eternally hereafter.
After Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, God came one evening and called to them, "Where are you?" Because they were afraid of what God might do to them for disobeying him, they hid themselves. At the end of the day God knocks on the garden door and says, "I have come to talk to you about your sins."
Today God comes again in our text to talk with us about our sin of disobedience. Why talk about sin? It is a fact of life. We all do it, as St. Paul said, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) John says to those who deny that they are sinners, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1:8) Today's society is marinated with sin, for it pervades every segment and level of society. It is human to err and we are all humans. So, why get concerned or excited about sin? Why is it so important that God would leave his throne to come to earth and discuss the problem with sinners?
The Bad News of Sin
When God comes to talk about our sins, at once we think of bad news in terms of guilt, accountability and judgment. No wonder Adam and Eve were afraid to confront God and tried to hide from him. But as they found out, and as we eventually learn, there is no hiding place from God.
One aspect of the bad news is that we haven't changed a bit since Adam and Eve. We are still the same old sinners doing the same sin of disobedience. The world may change, customs may change, conditions may change, but one thing is sure: human nature does not change. When a mission congregation was organized, the people had to meet in a tavern until their church was built. During the week the tavern retained its program of band, dancing and drinking. On Sundays, members of the church had to re-arrange the tavern for the worship service. The tavern had a speaking parrot. When the parrot saw the minister come forward to start the service, he said, "Hmm, a new bartender!" When the parrot saw the choir assemble up front, he said, "Hmm, a new orchestra!" Then the parrot looked over the congregation and screamed, "Awk! The same old crowd!" How true -- the same old kind of sinners!
The source of our sin has not changed a bit. Eve accepted the forbidden fruit because she was told by the serpent "You will be like God." At the beginning, as now, and probably forever, the basic source of sin is pride. The middle letter of sin is "I." The same is true of the word "prIde." In the conversation that Adam had with God, Adam uses "I" eight times. Today we would call this "egotheism" The self becomes that person's God. We reveal who our God really is when we want to be Number One. When personalized license plates were introduced in Illinois, the Department of Vehicles received over 1000 requests for Number One. The state official in charge of approving requests said, "I'm not about to assign it to someone and disappoint 1000 people." Then he gave the number to himself!
And we have not changed a bit since Adam and Eve when it comes to the kinds of sin we are guilty of. There are basically two types of sin. The one is the sin of commission. This deals with actual sins which we perform in terms of thought, word and deed. The other type of sin is just as deadly, the sin of omission. Eve was guilty of the sin of commission, for she took the fruit and ate it. Then she persuaded Adam to do the same. But Adam committed the sin of omission. Where was Adam when God needed him? When Eve was tempted, where was Adam to dissuade her from committing her act of disobedience? Why didn't he warn her of the consequences? Adam was not there. Not one word came from his lips. He said nothing; he did nothing. Consequently, he was just as guilty as Eve. She should not receive all the blame for the sin that started all our sinning.
Another aspect of the bad news of sin is the fact that we are still trying to hide our sins from God. We have not changed a bit since Adam and Eve. Symbolically they tried to hide their disobedience by making aprons of fig leaves to hide their nakedness. When God came, they hid themselves in the garden. Much later, we have a classic case dealing with David's affair with Bathsheba. When she reported to him that she was pregnant, David at once began to hide his sin from her husband, Uriah. At first he tried to get Uriah to go home and sleep with Bathsheba. When that did not work, he had Uriah put in the front line of battle, where he was killed.
And we are still trying to hide our sins. In 1980 former Televangelist Jim Bakker had a sexual escapade with Jessica Hahn. He tried to cover it up by offering her $265,000 to keep it quiet lest he lose his ministry. His fig leaves were not adequate, for he was sentenced to forty-five years in jail. It is said that chefs cover up their mistakes with sauces, architects with vines, and physicians with ground! But truth will come out eventually if not now. Our sins will find us out. Sin now and pay later. Recently a sixty-six-year-old man was brought back to Paoli, Pennsylvania to answer charges against him for strangling an eight-year-old girl near a carnival. The murderer had been living quietly in Nebraska. After thirty-seven years, his sin was revealed and he faced the judgment of the courts. The simple truth is: you cannot sin and get away with it. This is part of the bad news of sin.
Moreover, we have not improved on Adam and Eve's placing the blame for their sin on others. When it comes to blaming others, we have not changed a bit. Many continue to deny any responsibility for their lives and actions. When God asked Adam if he had eaten the forbidden fruit, Adam blamed Eve -- "She gave me the fruit of the tree." Then God asked Eve what she had done. She explained, "The serpent beguiled me." Each one passed the buck to another. No one had a sign on his desk, "The buck stops here!" And we are still doing it. We continue to find excuses for our sins. In the presence of witnesses a man recently shot his girl friend. At the trial he admitted that he shot her, but asked to be exonerated because he had taken cocaine. But, was he not at fault for taking drugs in the first place? We like to blame our failings on circumstances or the environment in which we were raised. We may blame our parents for failing to discipline us. The fault may be in our genes. It is an easy cop-out to blame others. How devastating it is to have no one to blame but ourselves!
Honesty demands that we acknowledge our sins. We alone are the guilty ones. A Psalmist did: "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned ..." (Psalm 51:4) King David had no realization of his sin of adultery and murder until the prophet Nathan said, "You are the man!" You have sinned, and it was all your fault. God comes to each one of us sinners and asks for an accounting. As in the case of Adam and Eve our fault-passing is not acceptable. The best thing we can do is to admit our guilt and repent.
The Good News of Sin
Can there be any good news of sinning? In today's biblical story, can you find any good news for Adam and Eve and for us? Consider the situation. Adam and Eve made no confession of their sin. There was no repentance on their part. They did not beg for mercy and forgiveness. In the end they were driven out of the garden of paradise. Is that good news?
The amazing thing is that we find grace in the very midst of sin. Paul saw this: "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." (Romans 5:20) It is only when we sin that we experience the grace of God. Luther shocks some people when they hear his words, "Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly." In other words, be glad you are a sinner because you will experience the sweet mercy of God's forgiveness and you will come in contact with the Redeemer. Some years ago a friend of the great pianist, Paderewski, invited him to attend a piano recital by his small daughter. He came, but his presence made the girl very nervous and, consequently, she made a mistake. At the end of the recital, Paderewski walked up to the tearful girl, said not a word, but gave her a kiss. If she had not made the mistake, she never would have been kissed by the master of the piano. In the same way, if we did not sin, we would never taste the goodness of the Lord's forgiveness.
In spite of humanity's worst, God does his best for his people. One aspect of the good news of sin is that God punishes, but does not curse us because we sinned. In our text we find that God cursed the serpent and the ground, but he did not curse the humans. Humankind does not live under God's curse. The human is not doomed to failure and death. God has only blessing for his sinful creation. He wills only the best -- health and happiness, peace and security -- for every person. No one can say, "A curse is upon me. I can't help but fail."
However, punishment follows sin. Eve's punishment was to bring children into the world through pain. Adam was to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. It is natural that this would be so. It is rooted in the nature of God -- his justice. If justice is violated, it must be satisfied. Where there are rules, there are always penalties for breaking them. This applies to football, baseball, and every other sport that has rules. It applies to sin, which breaks the rules of God. Dire consequences follow disobedience to God's law. The penalties of sin are shame, suffering, and death. Break God's laws and punishment follows as surely as the night the day. It is eternally true: "The wages of sin is death." Penalties may be tough, but they are nothing compared to God's curse. That is good news!
A second aspect of the good news of sin is the fact that God permits us to live even though we deserve to die for our sins. Our first parents deserved to die for their disobedience. God warned them, "The day you eat of it you shall die." Adam and Eve rebelled against God. They refused to obey. They expressed their lack of trust and gratitude for what God had done for them: he gave them life and paradise to live in. Above all, they were unwilling to be what God made them: human. They wanted to be God.
It is amazing that God did not keep his promise in this case, "You shall die." I suppose he could not bring himself to do it. Adam and Eve were the crown of his creation and his only hope to get and give love. No doubt, he was proud of his creation. Most of all, God's heart of love could not let them die. He was satisfied with penalties only.
Of course, Adam and Eve did eventually die. They died physically. To die is natural and normal. Humans were not meant to live physically forever. All of nature follows a rhythm of birth, maturity and death. Human beings are a part of nature. When the Bible speaks of death, it means spiritual death. Death is separation from God. To be separated from God means hostility, isolation and estrangement. The good news is that God does not desire the death of a sinner; instead, the sinner can turn to God, receive forgiveness and live. Jesus was sent to call sinners to repent and to give abundant life to all who believe.
The good news of sin continues in verses 20 and 21. Our First Lesson stops at verse 19, but should continue through verse 21 because of the wonderful good news the verses bring. The good news is that God provides clothes to live in a cold, sinful world. Adam and Eve were about to leave the garden of paradise for a hard, cruel world involving hostility, pain and struggle. Now they were naked and could not make clothing for themselves. And so verse 21 tells us that God in his mercy makes clothing for them out of animal skins. Out of love and mercy God himself makes clothing for the sinful couple!
And God is still doing it. He still clothes his own with a robe of righteousness. It was his Son Jesus who had the seamless robe of righteousness. The Bible tells us that by faith we can have the robe of righteousness made by Jesus' perfect righteousness. When we appear before God, he will see us in Jesus' robe of perfect righteousness which will hide our dirty rags of sin. For Jesus' sake God forgives and accepts us in his presence.
For our living Paul urges us to put on the clothes of love, goodness and faithfulness. For fighting the evil in the world, we are to put on the whole armor of God. Thanks be to God for the robe of righteousness that hides our sin and keeps us warm in the love of God.
Now we see that it's not so bad to be a sinner! That is, if you are a Christian sinner. A saint is a forgiven sinner and the church is a communion of saints. We have always sinned and will always sin. Unrepentant sinners die, but repentant sinners looking to Christ as Savior live. If our greatest need were information, God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need were technology, God would have sent a scientist. If our greatest need were money, God would have sent an economist. If our greatest need were pleasure, God would have sent an entertainer. But, since our greatest need is the forgiveness of sin, God sent us a Savior, Christ the Lord, who died for our sins that we might live fully here and eternally hereafter.
