The Forgiveness of Sins, preached on July 26, 2026

I’m not much of a golf fan, but I’ve been interested in the recent controversy. Have you heard about it? It happened during the second round of the British Open in Southport, England. On the 5th hole, DeChambeau’s drive sailed off the fairway and into knee-high grass, which some say he inadvertently stomped down just a little bit to make room to take his shot, while others say he did all but take a weedwhacker to the grass to make room for his back swing. Regardless of what he did to make it happen, his shot from the knee-high grass was perfect. The ball sailed from the knoll of knee-high grass onto the green, putting DeChambeau in excellent position to save his score after such a wild drive. However, hours later, the rules officials called him, showed DeChambeau a video of him stomping down the grass on the 5th hole, explained to him how his actions violated Rule 8.1a, and what I’d like to tell you happened next is that DeChambeau apologized, admitted that he was wrong, and graciously accepted his two-stroke penalty. That, of course, is not what happened. Instead, he made the officials drive him to the 5th hole where he waved his arms, argued his point, and defended his innocence, which got all the TV attention and held up the tournament for a full 90 minutes. That’s right. Bryson DeChambeau defended his innocence rather than accept his two-stroke penalty, which ended up holding up the golf tournament for a full 90 minutes, and seems to me like one of the most typical moments in sports that I have ever heard of. I have a new friend named Owen Farist. He’s a lawyer and serves as the general counsel for Tip Top Poultry, but on the side, as a hobby, he referees college basketball games. Last week, he was telling a group of us about how, after he referees a game, he often must be escorted from the sports arena to his car by security personnel, and that’s not because so many people are fighting to get his autograph. It’s because it seems that no one in sports wants to be held accountable by a referee, an umpire, or any other sports official, and that trend trickles down from professional sports to college, and all the way down to little league. I once attended my daughter’s basketball game where a father got so angry with the referee that he had to be escorted out of the gym. My wife, Sara, was so embarrassed. I’m just kidding. It wasn’t me. This angry father was escorted out of the gym for yelling at the referee. With him gone, there was peace at the basketball court until the little girl’s grandmother took up the cause, and soon enough, grandma had to be escorted out. I bring all this up because sometimes the world seems like the prison yard in Shawshank Redemption. Do you remember that movie? Early in the film, Andy Dufresne, the main character, introduces himself to the man they call “Red,” but Red already knows about Andy. “You’re the one who murdered his wife,” Red says to him. Andy says, “That might be what people say, but I didn’t do it. I’m innocent.” “You’re going to fit right in here,” Red replies, “because this prison is full of innocent men.” My friends, do we not believe in forgiveness? Do we not believe in the forgiveness of sins? Why, then, are we so practiced in denial? I tell you, so often Scripture provides us the account of normal people, shepherds and fishermen, becoming larger than life, saints of the church, but not because they defend their reputation. The sinners become saints when they confess their sins and dare to believe that they may be forgiven. You might imagine King David, who committed adultery with Bathsheba then tried to cover up the pregnancy by having her husband killed, singing the words of our call to worship: While I kept silence, my body wasted away. But when I confessed, God forgave the guilt of my sin. Do not be like a stubborn mule, determined not to change. For steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord. Do you trust in the Lord’s grace? Do you know that feeling of tossing and turning, not able to sleep, until you unburden yourself by revealing the truth to almighty God, who meets your confession, not with condemnation, but with compassion? Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins? I can remember it back in high school. I got into an argument with another guy on the baseball team. He was being a jerk. I called him on it. He got mad. The next day I threw a bunch of eggs at his car. Now, what’s so bad about the eggs is that the sun hit the eggs, so the eggs baked onto the car, messed up the paint job, and his father, who not only coached the team but taught science at the high school, wanted to know who covered his son’s car in eggs and damaged the paint job. “Well, I didn’t do it.” “Who would do such a thing?” I kept that act up for a couple days, until I couldn’t take it any longer, for happy are those who do not live in denial, but freely repent. If Bryson DeChambeau believed in forgiveness, would he have acted the way that he did? If we lived in a culture that believed in forgiveness, would we rely on lawyers to work all our mistakes out for us? I’m thankful to have a bunch of friends who are lawyers, and one of them whom I respect tremendously is Chris Harrison. Do you know Chris? He’s a member of our church. His office is on the Square. If you need a good lawyer, call him, but he’ll tell you that half of all the lawsuits in this country could have been prevented with a well-worded apology. “I’m sorry.” “I was wrong.” “It’s my fault. I’ll try to do better. I hope you can forgive me.” Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins? Now, I’ve just confessed to having thrown eggs at someone’s car. I have other sins to confess as well. One of my shortcomings is that, hard as I’ve tried, I’ve failed to fulfill all my commitments lately. Two weeks ago, Gaspar Rodriguez offered to donate two beautiful paintings to the silent auction tonight at Two Birds Taphouse, raising money for our Pantry on Church, but I failed to follow-up, so Linda Spears had to go and pick up the paintings for me. Yet, because I failed, a miracle happened. You see, some weeks ago, Linda Spears, who is our neighbor and one of the most active do-gooders in our community, witnessed a car accident. A young man ran out into the street where he was hit by a car, thrown to the side of the road, and there he lay, motionless. Linda parked her car and rushed to his side. She wasn’t the only one to stop. Others did as well, including the driver who hit the young man. This young man lay motionless on the side of the road while one woman prayed over him, another held his hand, and they all waited with him until police and paramedics arrived, and he was rushed off to the hospital. No one knew whether he’d survive. As you can imagine, this image is one that isn’t easy to forget. Linda worried about the young man, and she tried to track him down. Finally, she heard from the police department that he had died. She told the whole story to Gaspar Rodriguez when she went to pick up the two paintings for tonight’s fund raiser for the Panty on Church. I did not pick them up, so Gaspar called Linda, and Linda retold him this whole story. Because Gaspar is so active in the Marietta school system, it so happened that he knew the young man who had been hit by the car and knew where his mother lived. He offered to take Linda to meet the young man’s mother. The two of them knocked on the door, greeted his mother, and while Linda was expressing her heartfelt condolences, assuring her that in her son’s last moments he was not alone, the young man Linda heard had died walked into the room, on crutches, yes, but alive and well. Thanks be to God. Linda told me all this, and then she said, “It’s amazing the things that happen if you get up off the couch,” and I say, it’s also amazing the things that happen when your pastor never gets around to picking up the paintings himself. Now, I’m not encouraging you to neglect your commitments, but I tell you this story because so often, the real key to winning in life is learning how to lose. Learning how to be imperfect and trusting that God loves us, not because we are perfect, but because we are His. God is not like the father who was disappointed when you didn’t bring home the trophy. No. God is the Father who forgives sins, abounds in grace, and loves you, not when you are at your best, but every time you call out His name. I believe in the forgiveness of sins. I believe that His love is greater than my imperfection. I believe that we are at our best when we abide in His grace and rejoice in His forgiveness. I believe in the forgiveness of sins. Halleluia. Amen.

I Believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints, a sermon preached on July 19, 2026

A couple weeks ago, the Marietta Daily Journal called to ask how I’d be celebrating the 4th of July. Since I had volunteered to help with our parking lot fundraiser, I told them that I’d be spending the 4th sweating in the parking lot of First Presbyterian Church selling parking spaces. They didn’t put that part in the paper. What I said that they did publish is that “the Fourth of July means a lot to Presbyterians because more Presbyterians signed the Declaration of Independence than any other religious group. Only one member of the clergy signed: He was a presbyterian minister named John Witherspoon. But I’m also thinking about how wonderful it was that 13 colonies compromised to form a nation at the signing of the Constitution. Let us celebrate, not only declared independence, but the moment when our nation compromised and composed the laws that define who we are, for what we need as a nation today is not more people declaring independence but for a divided people to come together for a common purpose through compromise and mutual respect.” I’ve been thinking about the way we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, when maybe we should spend more time celebrating the signing of the Constitution because my friend Neale Martin planted that seed in my imagination over coffee several months ago, that there is value in celebrating independence. It’s a gift to shoot off fireworks and to remember the moment when the Founding Fathers of our nation broke away from the British Empire, but a nation was not born in that moment. No. The Declaration of Independence started a war. It did not found a new country. Our new country was born when the Constitution was signed, when a group compromised and determined the virtues upon which we would all stand. We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Those are the standards on which our nation was built, so while independence is wonderful and while declaring independence is noteworthy, “War is easy. Governing’s harder.” Do you remember that line from Hamilton? My friends, we are a nation of people who love declaring independence. We do not like to be told what to do or how to think. We will not be pushed around by the British Empire or by World Cup referees, but what about compromise? What about justice and domestic tranquility? What about a more perfect union? I’m thinking about these things as we continue this sermon series on the Apostles’ Creed, now focused on possibly the most misunderstood line of the whole thing. I can’t tell you how many times someone has asked me, “Why do we say that we believe in the Roman Catholic Church?” We don’t say that. Look at the words of the Apostles’ Creed printed in your order of worship and notice with me that we say, “We believe in the holy catholic Church,” which means that while, like our nation, our church broke away and declared independence 600 years ago, we’re not so bold as to believe that our tradition is the only one that matters. I’m sure you all know that the Presbyterian Church separated from the Roman Catholic Church much the same way our nation declared independence from the British Empire. The Presbyterians, along with the Lutherans, declared independence from Rome, and a new tradition was born, yet there are truths that we, along with every other church in this community and across the globe, hold to be self-evident. My friends, we are not the only Christians in this town striving to follow Jesus Christ, and that’s what we say we believe when we affirm our faith using the Apostles’ Creed. Jesus is at work, not only here, but at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church up by the hospital. There are causes that we all hold in common. We are not the same, but we are a part of the same body. In one Spirit, we were all baptized, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, Methodists, Baptists, Pentecostals, and non-denominational. Might Christians across this globe together serve the Lord by acting more like one body with many members rather than competing and condemning each other of heresy? My wife, Sara, and her sister were both raised Roman Catholic. Sara married me, a Presbyterian minister. Her sister married a Methodist minister. We arm wrestle to decide who will say the blessing at Thanksgiving, and I love my mother and father in-law all the more because rather than say, “There is only one church, the Roman Catholic Church,” they were bold to believe that the Spirit is at work in all churches who declare Jesus Christ as Lord. “I believe in the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints.” Some people don’t say that line because they misunderstand it. Others say it without understanding what it means. The word “catholic” just means universal. That the “c” is lowercase means that we’re not talking about the Roman Catholic Church; it means we’re talking about the Church universal, the living witness to Jesus Christ, that has expanded so far that ours is the largest religion on earth. Can you believe that what started with just 12 disciples, and not all of them highly qualified, became a movement that now claims 1/3 of the global population? And it seems like the harder it is to be a Christian, the more Christians there are. There are one million Christians in Iran. There are between 70-100 million Christians in China, where it’s illegal to be a Chrisitan. I was reading about the energy shortage in Cuba last week, and do you know who’s the most worried about it? The pastors. The pastors of communist Cuba are frustrated about the energy shortages in Cuba. Did you know that Cuba even had pastors or churches? You and I need to know because they are our brothers and sisters in Christ. They follow the same Lord you do. The Spirit is at work in them as the Spirit is at work in us. They are not your enemies, but are part of the same body, the body of Christ. That’s what we mean when we say, “I believe in the holy catholic Church.” Christianity is spreading across the globe. Followers of Jesus Christ are multiplying. Today, there are more Presbyterians in Seoul, South Korea than in the entire United States. Even if we’re divided by borders, we are one in the Spirit. We are one in the Lord. Yet, there’s a story I love to tell about a man who was shipwrecked. For years, he was on this deserted island all by himself. Thanks be to God, one afternoon he was saved. A team of rescuers came to save him, but before he left the island, he wanted to show them around. There were three dwellings built on the island. “That first one is my home. That’s where I’ve lived,” he said, “and that second one is my church.” “What’s the third one?” the rescuers asked. “That’s my old church. I don’t go there anymore. I couldn’t stand those people.” Friends, I want you to know that it brings me joy when I go to lunch with my friend the Rev. Brandon Owen, the pastor at First Baptist Church. Every time we go out together, he’s in a golf shirt with a collar, while I always wear a jacket, so his members compliment my outfit, and then I get to hear them say, “Brandon, why can’t you dress more like Joe Evans?” I love that kind of stuff. I love a little competition between the churches, but we are one body, for there is one Spirit and one Lord. Jesus Christ is the One we all follow. While there may be a time to declare independence, while there are moments in life when we must set off on our own, and while there are divorces in marriages and within congregations that have benefitted individuals, when churches declare war with each other, communities crumble. Conflict is inevitable, yet the righteous work towards unity and compromise so that people are not left isolated, but are welcomed into families of faith. I believe in the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints. I believe it is more important that the Gospel be proclaimed than whether the proclaimer has on a black robe, or whether the preacher is a man or a woman. I believe that while Christians are busy criticizing each other, the devil sits back laughing as we tear the Church of Jesus Christ apart. Did you notice in our second Scripture lesson that Jesus said to Peter, “On this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it?” That’s what Jesus said, and in his sermon on this line of the creed, Dr. James O. Speed calls attention to the reality that it is the Church that is marching right up to the very gates of Hades. The defensive gates of Hell are under attack because the Church of Jesus Christ is on the move. Stamping out injustice. Overthrowing tyranny. Bringing light to the darkness and hope to the afflicted. My friends, the hymn goes, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love,” not by our theological purity. Not by crosses we wear around our necks. Not by which church we attend on Sunday, but by the love that we have for one another. When we finally recognize our brothers and sisters in Christ as our brothers and sisters and not our enemies, nothing can stop us. Should the Church of Jesus Christ model unity to this divided nation, then perhaps our nation would follow our example. May it be so. Amen.

The Third Day He Rose Again From the Dead. He Ascended into Heaven. Preached on June 28, 2026

Outside a small Tennessee town is a cemetery filled with old tombstones. On the stones are names, dates, and verses of Scripture, but one unique tombstone bears the inscription: the fat lady has sung. Some think of death this way. As the end. The shadow falls. The light goes out. The fever of life is over. Our work is done. Once the fat lady sings, our bodies are laid to rest in the ground; six feet under we lie. It’s not over until the fat lady sings, yet once she has sung, we rest from our labor in the darkness of death. Death is permanent, some say. Final. At death, it’s over, many claim, and yet each Sunday, we stand in defiance of death’s power, boldly proclaiming aloud and together, “On the third day, He rose again from the dead. He ascended into Heaven.” That’s what we say each Sunday when we affirm our faith. Today, we are in the middle of a ten-week sermon series on the Apostles’ Creed. We recite these ancient words Sunday after Sunday, yet if we say the words without understanding what they mean, what’s the point? Today, let me tell you that when we say together, “On the third day, He rose again from the dead. He ascended into Heaven,” we rejoice in the truth that the grave could not hold Him. Up from the grave he arose. With a mighty triumph o’er his foes. He arose a victor from the dark domain, And he lives forever with his saints to reign. He arose. He arose. Hallelujah. Christ arose. That’s what we believe, right? There’s is a story about a man who took his wife and mother-in-law on vacation to the Holy Land. It was an expensive trip. It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip. It was a sign of just how much this man loved his wife that he included his mother-in-law in this trip and agreed to pay for her every expense, and yet his mother-in-law complained the whole way through. The food was too spicy. Outside it was too hot, yet because of the air conditioning, it was also freezing indoors. This mother-in-law went from way too hot to way too cold, and she let her son-in-law know about it. She also let him know that the linens on the hotel beds were too scratchy. The accents of the staff were too heavy to understand. It was hard for this man to endure all the complaining, considering how he had paid for the trip, and how he just wanted to take his wife, not both his wife and his mother-in-law. Why didn’t he want to take his mother-in-law? Because this is how his mother-in-law had always been. She complained. She nagged. She wined. Midway through the trip, just when he was sure he couldn’t take it any longer, the husband, his wife, and the mother-in-law were on a tour bus. Amid a fit of complaining about the driver’s inability to navigate the bus safely, this mother-in-law keeled over and died. The man tried to look disappointed. In a sense, he was. His wife was distraught. His wife was far too distraught to handle the details of death and burial with the funeral home. Meeting with the funeral home in Jerusalem, the man heard the estimates. The numbers were large. The largest number was the fee to have body shipped back home to New Jersey. That cost of transporting the body was so high, the funeral home director suggested she be buried there, in the Holy Land. “It would be too expensive to ship the body back home,” the funeral director advised, and yet this man insisted his mother-in-law not be buried in Jerusalem. “Why not?” the funeral director asked. “I heard about a man who was buried here. Three days later, He rose from the grave. I can’t risk that happening with her.” Death was not final with Jesus. The fat lady sang, and yet, it was not over. The shadow fell, and yet, the light was not extinguished. “On the third, day He rose again from the dead.” 40 days later, He ascended into Heaven. Notice the tense with these two verbs: rose and ascended. These verbs are past tense. After these two past tense verbs, the tense of verbs in the Apostles’ Creed shift to present. Jim Speed pointed that detail out in his book. We modeled this summer sermon series on a series of sermons our predecessor the Rev. Dr. James O. Speed preached on the Apostles’ Creed. Those sermons of Dr. Speed were published in a book that I’ve been rereading, and he makes this important point in his sermon based on the lines we focus on today. “He rose. He ascended.” These are the last past-tense verbs used in the Creed, Dr. Speed points out, because what our Lord does now is not confined to the past but impacts the present. That He was raised and that He ascended must impact our present as well, for this knowledge, this conviction, that death did not have the final word, changes the way we live and breathe in our daily lives. The truth of His resurrection and ascension changes the way we think of funeral services when those we love die. Many are in the habit of steering away from calling that service a funeral. Many prefer to call it a celebration of life, and yet, what life are we celebrating? The life lived and now over? Is the highest purpose of the funeral remembering the pleasant moments? Paying respect to the memory of a light now extinguished? Or is the funeral our opportunity to remember again the hope that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, that death has lost its sting, not only for Him, but also for us? That in the coming Kingdom, all our tears will be wiped away at the great reunion of generations passed there reunited? My friends, at every funeral service, we do more than grieve. We do more than mourn. We do more than weep at the life now ended: We rejoice in the promise that as Christ rose from the dead, so will we, and so we live, not as those who have no hope, but as those who know that the Savior broke the power of death and paves our way to the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet, we not only die with such hope; we live with such hope day in and day out. Last week, I stood next to Neill Blake to cut the ribbon of the new NAMI Cobb Drop-In Center. Have you heard about that? For years, our church has been proud to host support groups for those who deal with the reality of mental illness. There are groups for parents of children who are diagnosed with mental illness, as well as groups for those individuals who are in treatment for mental illness. Starting last week, should one of those people need a little support in the afternoons, they can drop by our church to meet with someone specially trained. Neill wondered aloud whether if her son David had known about such a place, things might have turned out differently. Some of you will remember that tragedy. Some of you helped look for David when he went missing. Others of you were at his funeral. To stand next to Neill as she cut the ribbon on the drop-in center, I knew that his death did not have the final world. No, hope did. Moreover, if death doesn’t have the final word, then why would failure? Why would disappointment? Why not pick up and try again? Why not stand up after falling down? Why not anticipate a tomorrow brighter than all your yesterdays? If death doesn’t have the final word, then why would the fat lady? I don’t care if you’ve heard the fat lady sing over your marriage, your job, your dreams, or your aspirations. Why listen to the fat lady singing when, after three days in the tomb, Jesus Christ rose again from the dead, ascended into Heaven, and sittith on the right hand of God the Father Almighty to remind you and all creation that the light may flicker but it will not go out, for death has lost its sting. So has failure. So has heartbreak. No matter how far you’ve traveled down the road of bitter tears and broken hearts, today is a day of resurrection. Today is a day of hope and of promise. Never give up. Never give in. Your strength may fail, but the Lord of Heaven and of earth has risen from the dead and ascended into Heaven, and He is the One who has a say over you, not the fat lady. Let her song be the background music to your victory in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.