Am I in the Place of God?

Scripture Lessons: Genesis 50: 15-21 and Romans 14: 1-12 Sermon Title: Am I in the Place of God? Preached on September 17, 2017 To me, one of the most powerful lessons from our Lord Jesus Christ is the one he taught us when a woman was caught in adultery. You know this one well. A woman, we don’t know how old she was. We don’t know what she looked like. There are few details, so we don’t whether she was caught in the act, or if this punishment has come after the fact, nor do we know where her partner in crime was in this moment of condemnation, but what I imagine, without really knowing, is that she was alone, cowering as a crowd of self-righteous men gathered around her, stones in their hands. The Lord kneeled next to her, wrote something in the dirt with his finger, and said with conviction but to no one in particular, “Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone.” This is a radical word, and here in lies a radical lesson for all of us who would stand in judgement of our sister, for he doesn’t argue for her innocence. What he argues for, is for us to recognize our guilt. That’s important to do. And in a way, here at this church, we reinforce such a lesson every Sunday. Today like every Sunday when we first gathered here to worship God we began by confessing our sins – recognizing our guilt – which is important to do. I wrote the prayer of confession that we used today, and we prayed this prayer together, out loud, for everyone to hear, so now I can assume that you, like me, have trouble with forgiving your neighbor as you yourself have been forgiven because you made this confession with me. You might have just been following along with what everyone else was doing, but I’m going to call it a confession because you said the words: “The Lord does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities, but I retain the sins of my neighbor, refusing to let go.” Maybe now you’ll think twice before reading along with what’s printed. Maybe you didn’t realize I was listening for a confession, but that’s exactly the point of the prayer. What is required of us, we who gather here to worship, is so similar to what is required of those who gather for Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. The first step in AA is: “we admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable.” And this first step towards sobriety is the same as the first step towards salvation – what’s required is not innocence, but confession. We admitted we were sinners in need of a savior, and we found one in Jesus Christ. We aren’t here because we’re innocent. We aren’t here because we’re good. No, what qualifies our membership here is a confession of sin, an acknowledgement of our need for a savior, and a willingness to admit that we cannot save ourselves. The Good News for our world full of people struggling to save themselves is that we don’t have to. That Jesus Christ died on the cross to save sinners, but the problem that Paul addresses for us today is that while we may rationally know and accept the truth of that statement in our hearts, we are too often like those men with stones in their hands, as though not being guilty today were the same as being innocent. Sometimes, we act like vegetarians. Not the kind who just don’t eat meat – I’m talking about the ones who don’t eat meat and like to make sure and tell you about it. Did you hear the one about the vegetarian who walked into a bar? In 15 minutes, he had told everybody. Paul says it like this: “Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgement on those eat; for God has welcomed them.” See the point? The point is not that vegetarians should eat meat. They’re just fine, and in fact, when you consider how our rainforests are so rapidly being depleted, not just by deforestation, but to make room for more and more grazing land for beef cattle, we carnivores who enjoy breathing would do well to thank a vegetarian every once in a while. Instead, we meat-eaters make fun of them. I saw a t-shirt for sale in a BBQ restaurant one time that said, “vegetarian” is the Cherokee word for “he who can’t hunt.” That’s not nice – and “who are you to pass judgement on servants of another?” Paul’s point here is that we are all the woman caught in adultery. Maybe we did less and she did more, or maybe we have even more to be forgiven for than she did, but that doesn’t matter. The point is – if you have been redeemed and forgiven than stop acting like you don’t need the same forgiveness that your neighbor does. “Why do you pass judgement on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgement seat of God [not the judgement seat of you or me or your daddy or your self-righteous sister] - we will stand before the judgement seat of God and if you’re judging your neighbor than you’re in the wrong seat. Get down from the judgement seat – that’s the point. That’s Paul’s point. And Paul must make this point because those who comprehend the grace of God should have no need to distract from their own guilt by pointing out the sins of their neighbor. Christianity can’t be about shaming or making someone feel guilty, but that’s the practice of so many who claim to follow Christ, so Paul has to make this point. Paul knows what motivates our finger pointing – we judge when we feel judged. We make others feel insecure because we feel insecure. We withhold grace from our neighbors because we withhold grace from ourselves, which is an awful thing to do in Paul’s mind for if we don’t enjoy the grace that God gives than to use his words, “Christ died for nothing.” That’s Galatians 2: 21: “I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.” And what does that mean? That means that we can’t save ourselves. We can’t be perfect. And if we go trying to be, if we go around acting like we are, then all that suffering that Christ endured for us and for our salvation was for nothing. We are saved by the grace of God – so don’t judge yourself or your neighbor by a standard of perfection. You don’t have to be perfect, because he was perfect for us. That’s Good News. And that’s the kind of Good News that changes things. Consider how it changed Joseph. There’s a picture of him on the cover of your bulletin. He’s there with his brothers, and you’ll notice that he’s in the judgement seat on the right, but on the left he is cowering in the shadow. If you were Joseph than most people would say that you had a right to be judgmental. Think about what his brothers did to him. Do you remember? They were jealous because daddy loved him the most, gave him the nicest clothes and the easiest jobs, and motivated by their jealousy they threw him down into a pit, which was better than their original plan which was to kill him, and then, they sold him to a caravan of Ishmaelite’s who took him away. The story gets worse. I like to think that older siblings will look after the younger ones, but these guys – they sold him, told dad he had been eaten, he ended up in Egypt, then was falsely accused of a crime and ended up in prison – any and all of these events are good justification for being angry with these brothers when they come to him, now looking for help, but how could he be angry when it was these events that led to Joseph to rise in power, for it was in the prison that he met Pharaoh, interpreted his dreams, and became his trusted advisor. Now, as these brothers grovel before him, on the one hand what Joseph must have seen were the big brothers who now weren’t so big – but instead, what he saw, were the men who were used by God to help him rise in power and status, now putting him in a place where he can save his family from starvation, and so Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.” Can you really get mad if everything turned out this well? Can you hold a grudge, when God took someone’s evil intentions and did something wonderful? Would you dare stand in judgement, taking the place of God, when you know that through the grace of God life for you is good? To quote the Frozen soundtrack: “Let it go.” Just let it go. Forgive them, because you have been forgiven. That’s the lesson. And if you take it to heart, then you won’t be a part of the self-righteousness that fuels so much division in our country and our world. It’s hard for me to watch the news these days. A lot of the time current events reminds me of that old Buffalo Springfield song: “nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong.” Just as Paul addresses this congregation all torn up over who eats meat and who doesn’t, we live in a country where family’s divide and friendships end over who gets elected and who believes what. There are Fox News people and CNN people. Red States and Blue States. Prolife and prochoice and in this day and age to me there’s been no more helpful advice than the 1952 speech by Mississippi state representative and judge Noah “Soggy” Sweat Jr. Addressing the contentious question of prohibition, Judge Sweat stood before the Mississippi State Legislature and said: My friends, I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, this is how I feel about whiskey: If when you say whiskey you mean the devil’s brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally take the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it. But, if when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentlemen’s step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life’s great tragedies, and heartaches and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, and pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it. This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise. We get so caught up in who is right and who is wrong – but are we not all wrong? And is he not the only one who ever got it right? So quickly we gather stones, but am I in the place of God? Knowing what is right and what is true? No, I am not. Thanks be to God, I am not. Amen.