Sermon – 10-29-23 – Proper 25 – Cycle A
Scripture: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 46; Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36
Sermon Title: “I Can’t Forgive Myself”

The cover of our bulletin is screaming “freedom.” It is freedom to be the best person we can be. The best person we can be is one who is in sync with Jesus Christ; with all that he stands for; with all that he is. If we as individuals are being the best we can be we can influence our families, our communities, our world.

You may be asking, “How do we become the best we can be?” Or, how will we know when we are the best we can be?” Part of my daily prayer is, “In your hands, we yearn to be the persons you created us to be.”

How do we know if we are being the best we can be or what God planned for us to be? Do we feel good about ourselves? Does it seem that we are helping people to be the best he or she can be or does it seem that we are making people feel worse about themselves? Do our regrets consume a large part of our thinking day? Do we wish we could relive an incident to get it right? Do we regret words that we have said – accidentally or with some malice? Did we make choices that happened to be questionable or simply wrong?

Let’s leave this soul-searching and think about today. It is Reformation Sunday. Something is reformed. What is it? It is the church, but this can also apply to our dilemma about whether we are being the best we can be. As the European world was emerging from the dark middle ages, the church, known as the Roman Catholic church, was a fallen body of believers with very little similarity to the church of the Apostles in the first century. People were instructed that they had to buy their sins away. Relics became a powerful force for the removal of sins.

The Bible was in Latin. Only very educated people could actually read the Bible. So this very determined German priest, theologian and author, named Martin Luther, started translating the Bible into German. Was he surprised when he came upon Paul’s writings! Money and relics had nothing to do with the forgiveness of sins. The grace of God is how our sins are forgiven. Our part is to have faith. We need to accept this grace of God, not work for it, not pay for it. Free, as many times as needed! We just need to believe and accept.

Accepting! What might this idea have to do with our regrets, with our sins which God has forgiven but we can’t get off the shelves in our minds and hearts? The omissions and commissions which keep us down, keep us from being greater than that. The goal is to see the light around us and not the dark around us. The things we wish we could change in our past lives like yesterday even. That is keeping us in the dark. And guess what! God does not want us to be in the dark. The Father and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are about light.

Saying all this is fine. But, how do we move into the light? Well, we can’t move into the light by ourselves. So subject closed. We will just need to continue punishing ourselves with our regrets that cause our hearts to jerk when our mind produces an incident for the hundredth time.
But, God does not want us to punish ourselves, to be in captivity. To be the persons God created us to be, we need to be released from the chains of our past sins. It is God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – who is waiting to release us. So when I think of a word I said that was hurtful or the help I did not offer to someone, or the deliberate breaking of any of the ten commandments, I do not need to find myself saying aloud, “I was so bad!”

What I can say is “God.” “God, you are the only one who can release my past sins from my mind. I know you have forgiven me. I believe that. I believe that you have removed my sins from your black book, in case you really do keep a black book. Now my sins are in your keeping. Take them, please.” And God does.

Are we going to keep seeing a glass half-empty, where worry about things we can’t change abide? That is like being in chains where we cannot be the persons God created us to be. The time and space in our brains can be free to think creatively and happily. God is in charge, not we ourselves. Giving God free rein in our lives is crucial to being “in the light.”

This Martin Luther from the late 1400’s and into the 1500’s was very excited. He felt that God had enlightened him to change the church from their obselete thinking and teaching. He wanted to reform the Roman Catholic Church. The church would not hear of it. The church excommunicated Martin Luther. Martin Luther could not keep silent about this revelation. He kept talking and preaching to anyone who would listen. The Gutenberg printing press was being invented and used in that era. Who do you think arranged that? A message to be broadcast and a printing press to accomplish the mission. Of course, preaching did not stop. We are still at it. But are we preaching the truth? Are we trusting God ? Do we have faith? Can we say, “God” when Satan wants to play games with our minds and hearts?

Remember, we are justified (that means made right) by grace through faith. Let us let go of our past sins and our present sins and the sins we will do tomorrow or later today. We are meant to be free. We base our belief on the word of God. Imagine being transformed by these mighty words that we heard read today.

From John 8,36, “If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” If we are not going to allow ourselves to be freed from sin, did Jesus die needlessly on that cross? Say, “Jesus.” Say “God.” Remember we are people of the light! Remember to think of the glass half-full and let us be free to allow that glass to be completely full and running over. It is never too late to change our ways. The more we live in Christ and invite Christ to live in us, the fewer regrets we will have. Our minds will be thinking of ways to be kind, of ways to be helpful.

Is your mind already free? Are you already living in the light? Are you already close to being the person God planned for you to be? Are you already a really happy person? Do the wonderful words from the Bible give you hope and faith? Hallelujah! May we gather around so your “Jesus light” may lead all of us to be transformed into free people in God’s kingdom on earth.
Amen.