Freedom from our Bad Decisions

July 26th, 2009
Proper 12, Year B
2 Samuel 11:1-15
Ephesians 3:14-21
John 6:1-21

This is a brief typed version of the sermon I gave...I did not write out a full text.
Last week, I had the privilige of being on a mission trip with 17 of our youth. We stayed at the Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Houston and served at several organizations around Houston, largely serving Houston's homeless population. The trip was a wonderful experience for me and the youth, and each day, at least one of the youth said the place we worked was their favorite one and he or she wanted to come back.

The trip was not without conflicts, as one might expect. Several of our youth had conflicts with one another, but they all saught reconciliation (sometimes with a bit of coaxing). They admitted their faults to each other, appologized, and were reconciled to each other.

We all make poor decisions in our lives which hurt others; that is part of being human. Even in our baptismal covenant, we state that we will fall into sin and then when we do, we will repent, and return to the Lord. The first part of repentance is admitting fault, saying we did something wrong.

I've been careful not to say repentance involved admitting a mistake. In an incitful article, Leonard Pitts Jr. points out the falacy of calling our poor dicisions, "mistakes". (see article - http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/1127813.html)

True admission of guilt involves owning up to the poor decisions we make. Saying, "I made a mistake", on the other hand, amounts to a denial of culpability. "The serpent made me do it," Eve said. "Eve made me do it," Adam said. "I'm sorry you thought I was insulting you," one might say. All such appologies deny our fault.

This is the problem we find with David in the reading this morning. He made an excedingly poor decision by knowingly having an affair with Bathsheba and then he denied culpability, trying to cover up his poor decision by inviting Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, home so he could be with her and think the child was his. He built up lie upon lie, finally choosing to have Uriah killed than admit his fault.

Let's say, for the sake of arguement, however, that David's ploy had worked. Let's say Uriah had been with his wife, had thought David's & Bathsheba's child was his, and they had all lived happily ever after. They would then have been livig in this false reality created by David. David would have in effect been placing himself as a god above Uriah (and everyone else). God creates the world. God creates reality. By lying, by creating a false reality in which we expect others to live, we are turning ourselves into idols, placing ourselves as gods above others.

One of my favorite bands, Metallica, states the problem with lying very will in the song "To Live is to Die". The words are:
When a man lies, he murders some part of the world.
These are the pale deaths which men miscall their lives.
All this we cannot bear to witness any longer.
Cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home?

The truth of these words strike me every time I hear them. By lying, we are killing reality for those we intend to deceive. By admitting our guilt, on the other hand, we can begin the difficult but blessed process of reconciliation. The youth on the mission trip who sought reconciliation did not find the process easy. The conversations were difficult and painful. In the end, however, they found themselves freed from the guilt and anger by which they had been enslaved. The end of admitting our guilt is not pain and death, but resurrection.

We don't come to Easter Sunday randomly, but first we prepare for Easter by the 40 days of Lent. Before Christ's resurrection and our reconcilliation with God is declaired, we do the hard work of admitting our faults and seeking to turn our lives around during Lent. God's forgiveness is freely given, but our acceptance of God's forgiveness requires work on our parts.

When we repent, when we acknowledge our guilt, appologize for the harm we've done, seek to rectify the situation, and turn our lives around, then we can receive forgiveness from God and from one another. Seeking reconcilliation in our lives, admitting culpability for our poor decisions is a painful process, but one that leads to resurrection and restoration of our relationships. Amen.