Found

1 Corinthians 4: 1-5
Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself.
I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.
Then each one will receive commendation from God.
Sermon
When you play hide and seek with a one and a half year old you’re really not playing hide and seek. Our daughter Lily doesn’t like to take her bath, so when I go into the bathroom to fill up the tub after supper, Lily pulls her mama into my closet to hide.
As the water fills the tub I go try to find her so I can give her her bath.
Last month I started this ritual by saying something out-loud like, “Where’s that Lily? It’s time for her bath, but I can’t seem to find her. Is she in her mama’s closet?”
“No” escapes from the undisclosed hiding place.
“Is she under the bed?”
“No” again comes from my closet.
The poor girl just doesn’t quite understand the game. Either that or she’s just as excited about being found as she is hiding.
I want to be sure to enjoy this while it lasts, because wanting to be found won’t last forever, especially once Lily has something or has done something that she wants to hide.
The third chapter of Genesis tells that story: “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
It’s a silly question really – God knows where Adam is, but this question is just like the one I ask my daughter. I don’t ask it because I don’t know where Lily is, I ask it because I love to hear her want to be found. God knows that Adam is in the closet; Adam knows that Adam is in the closet, but for something good to come out of this situation Adam has to want to be found.
Wanting to be found doesn’t make that much sense to most teenagers and adults – if we wanted to be found we wouldn’t hide – so the words that we read in Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth understandably don’t sound like the Good News – “Therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.”
What could be good about that?
Uncovering the heart’s hidden purposes, selfishness shrouded in kindness, malice iced with benevolence, greed covered up with charity – no one wants to disclose the purposes of their heart and no one wants what they have hidden in darkness to come to light – what we do in the darkness is done there just so that it will not come to light – so no one will find out – so nothing has to change – so things can stay as they are and no one has to know.
Under the cover of darkness a crowd came to the jailhouse as Atticus Finch stood guard with only a book in one of my favorite movies, one of the only movies that do justice to the novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Mr. Finch is the kind of guy who seems to always be in control – in a Deep South courtroom full of people fanning themselves long before the dawn of air-conditioning he wears a three piece suit and never breaks a sweat. But in the dark of night as he is found by his daughter, son, and their cousin Dill a flash of plain fear goes out of his eyes.
A mob has come to the jailhouse, and a mob is one thing for a lawyer to deal with, it’s another for a father to deal with a mob while his children watch, but Scout, Jem, and Dill refuse to leave. Scout feels the tension of the situation, but she’s not old enough to understand it. She scans the crowd for a familiar face and notices Mr. Cunningham among the “sullen-looking, sleepy-eyed men.”
“Hey, Mr. Cunningham.”
The man did not hear me, it seemed.
“Hey, Mr. Cunningham. How’s your entailment getting along?”
Don’t you remember me, Mr. Cunningham? I’m Jean Louise Finch. You brought me some hickory nuts one time, remember?”
“I go to school with Walter,” I began again. “He’s your boy, ain’t he? Ain’t he, sir?”
Harper Lee, the author of this book, doesn’t explain why Mr. Cunningham ignores Scout, and she doesn’t need to.
“The Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
Not wanting to be found, not wanting to be known, for in being known by God we come to know ourselves, where we are, what we have done, who we truly are - The things now hidden in darkness, the unspoken purposes of the heart.
We would never choose to bring to light what we’ve left to the darkness, never choose to disclose what we’ve hidden.
Last week in the Daily Herald I read about Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker who was “duped into discussing his strategy to cripple public employee unions, promising never to give in and joking that he would use a baseball bat in his office to go after political opponents.” Walker believed he was on the phone with a conservative billionaire named David Koch, but was actually on the phone with a liberal blogger, and in the course of their phone call Walker described tactics he considered using to dishonestly discredit the protestors who stood in his way, and his conversation with Mr. Koch brought to light the governor’s fund raising sources, causing much speculation that Wisconsin policy is directed more by business interest than the wishes of voters.
Of course, this kind of peek into the true intentions of this governor won’t mean much to Union Leaders who figured as much or Wisconsin Republicans who won’t be surprised and may not be disappointed. This kind of peek into the governor’s heart won’t change how God feels about him either because God already knew. What matters here is that in such an instance one man is given the rare chance to take a look at himself, and to wonder if he likes what he sees.
This was the case with Paul, who before he was the great supporter of the church, the Apostle who wrote the letter that we read from today, writes of his life before his conversion: “You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it (Gal 1: 13). But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles…(Gal 1: 15). The way the author of Acts tells it, Paul was walking down the road, “still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord,” when suddenly, a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”
He was caught then, found out, but what comes is not punishment, disappointment, or condemnation, what comes to Paul along the road when he comes face to face with Christ, face to face with himself, is not judgment but commendation – not the end of life but the opportunity to truly live.
We read in our lesson for today that when we are found, when what we’ve hidden in darkness is brought to light and the purposes of the heart are disclosed – “then each one will receive commendation from God.”
The Church is quite a place – the pews in here aren’t much different than the pews of a courtroom. The difference is that when we come face to face with who we are and what we’ve become, when our motives and our actions come to light, God, who has every right to strike us down picks us up, calls us by name, and gives us the commendation that only God can give.
Why would anyone stay in the closet when God’s open arms wait on the other side – not calling us to deny who we are but accept ourselves as we are?
Why would we let our lies cover up our mistakes when the chance to do something different is an ever-present opportunity?
Why hide who you are, who you’ve been, and what you’ve done when the God who created you, who breathed life into you, who already knows what you have done and why you did it – doesn’t wish you harm, but calls you to the freedom of doing something different and the opportunity to be defined not by your past but by grace.
In a world where the internet won’t allow kids to escape who they were, know that according to God, what you’ve done is nothing compared to what you will do.
What is Christ, Christ who came to earth not to condemn but to save, if not but the sure sign that there is no reason to be afraid – forgiveness, acceptance, and love are yours.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.