Fourth after Trinity
[Ez. 18:30-32; Gal. 6:1-7; Lk. 6:36-42]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Repent and live!” God told the Israelites through the prophet Ezekiel, sometime in the 7th-6th c. BC.
Repent: turn away from your sin, don’t let it be your downfall, or perhaps today we would say, don’t let it be what defines you, what keeps you down and holds you back!
Live: it’s not just actions, it’s a change of attitude, of a position in your life and in the world, truly getting a ‘new heart and a new spirit’.
The prophet’s warning and admonition are as true today as they were all those centuries ago.
People sin. You, me, all of us sin.
And in some Christian corners there’s a lot of emphasis on sin and sinning and sinners, and damnation and eternal fire.
And it’s a fact: people sin. You, me, all of us sin.
But God is not a God of damnation!
Often the God of the Old Testament is portrayed as an angry, vengeful deity, wrongly set against the kind, forgiving Jesus of the New Testament.
But this is bad exegesis, this is bad theology and frankly it’s bad preaching.
Because what does the Old Testament of this morning tell us? “For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone.” declares the Sovereign Lord.
The God of the Old and the New Testament is the same God, a God that is just and honest, and sometimes a bit too frank for comfort, but He is the same God who forgives, calls us to Him and gives life, even life eternal!
So what about sin?
It’s not the easiest topic and not as straightforward as some Christian churches like to proclaim, because opinions about what exactly constitutes sin vary; that’s not an attempt to downplay it, that’s a historical and theological fact. Churches and Christians very often have different opinions about what is sin.
Murder, we can sort of all agree on that. But what about abortion or euthanasia, then opinions do vary widely. This is just one example, we get the idea.
In Lutheran theology we approach this with Law and Gospel:
The Law teaches us how to behave and it acts as a kind of mirror to reflect our mistakes, our sins back at us.
The Gospel declares us forgiven, justified through grace, by faith, because of Christ.
And here’s an interesting fact, which some Christians sometimes forget: there’s Gospel in the Old Testament –like our Ezekiel reading today- and there’s Law in the New Testament –like when Jesus says to the adulteress, “Go and sin no more.”
Also in Lutheran theology, people, human beings are considered both sinner and saint, each fully, a hundred percent, a bit like Christ is fully God and fully man.
This counts for everyone, it’s a great equaliser, if you will. This isn’t meant to be negative or depressing; it’s meant to be honest and then optimistic, looking forward. Yes Lord, I sin, we sin, all of us sin, but you, you forgive, recreate, regenerate daily (as we read in the Small Catechism).
People sin. You, me, all of us sin.
AND people are forgiven. You, me, all of us are forgiven! Freely, by no merit or work of our own.
Why?
“For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone.” declares the Sovereign Lord.
‘No pleasure’: God really cares, God’s really involved, God will take the first step, because unlike human beings God’s not too proud to do so, to do that for His children.
And God should be an example to us all, because we too are called to forgive.
Not an easy call, not an easy task, because people are people, and very often people aren’t very nice and people don’t exactly make it easy on you to forgive them.
And yet, we’re all called to do so.
But we have to do this in a what we today might call a right frame of mind.
We too need forgiveness ourselves, often before we can forgive others; the plank in our own eye has to be removed before we can tell our neighbour about the speck in theirs.
And we can’t ‘dish out’ forgiveness in a lofty, haughty manner; that too amounts to judging others, because we might fall in the trap of thinking that we ourselves don’t need forgiveness and that we’re the only ones in the right place, in a spiritual superior position to deal out forgiveness where and when it suits us, not out of love and care for our neighbour.
Again, this requires honesty and frankness. It requires for the Law to remind us exactly who and what we all are: sinners.
We’re all equal in this; before God there’s no differentiation, no distinction or division among people.
And it requires for the Gospel to tell us the Good News of new beginnings, of being a new creation, ready to go out into God’s wide world, in order to share that Good News, to share kindness and hope and love, and to serve our neighbour and to love them just as we’re allowed to love ourselves.
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Jesus told His disciples.
In the next passage, Jesus will teach them about the tree that bears good fruit.
In the forgiveness we’re given, lies our strength to do the same for others.
“Repent and live!” God told the Israelites through the prophet Ezekiel, sometime in the 7th-6th c. BC.
These words still ring true for us here today.
Why?
“For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone.” declares the Sovereign Lord.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Chr