Sinners In the Arms of A Loving God

Brad Sullivan

Proper 22, Year B

October 4, 2015

Saint Mark's Episcopal Church, Bay City, TX

Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12

Mark 10:2-16

Sinners In the Arms of A Loving God

Jesus’ teaching on divorce was more than the Pharisees wanted to hear and more than Jesus’ disciples wanted to hear.  The disciples were even so miffed by it that they were kinda in a bad mood afterwards, so when some kids came up they were like W.C. Fields, “Go way kid, you bother me.” 

All they really heard was “divorce is bad, don’t do it,” and if that’s all we take from the Gospel today, “divorce is bad, don’t do it,” then we’re missing Jesus’ teaching.  It would also be easy to say, “hmmm, but we allow divorce; we allow for resurrection after the death of a marriage…I guess we’ll just put this passage out of our minds.”  Neither response takes Jesus seriously.  Neither response takes seriously Jesus’ teaching, his love for us, our broken and sinful nature, and the depths of God’s grace. 

Of course Jesus said not to get divorced.  In marriage, the two people become one flesh.  They are united body, soul, and life.  In adultery, that unity is ripped apart.  In divorce, that unity is ripped apart.  Flesh is torn, there is blood, and the unity made in the marriage is killed.  And so we need God’s grace.

We need God’s grace because some marriages should end.  Sometimes the unity has been destroyed long before there is a divorce.  Then we need God’s grace to heal after that tearing apart in divorce.  We need God’s grace to heal.  We need God’s to be reconciled.  We need God’s grace to eventually trust another if we’re going to seek remarriage after divorce, and then we need God’s grace to be brave enough to remarry. 

Is there any question that we need God’s grace?  I need God’s grace every day when I’m not the father my kids need me to be, when I’m not the husband Kristin needs me to be, when I’m not the priest y’all need me to be.  Every day, I need God’s grace.  Anyone else need God’s grace every single day?

We heard in Hebrews today, “What are human beings that God cares about us?”  Sometimes we might wonder, “why would he care for us?” 

-          We’re people that kill each other randomly.  We had another shooting at another school campus last week.  Yet again, young people were killed randomly, their parents never to see them again.  Yet again, social media was rife with people arguing for stricter gun laws and other people arguing for more guns in peoples’ hands 

-          We’re people who often seek our own temporary happiness at the expense of others.

-          We’re people with bad tempers who shout and get angry and have a hard time forgiving...I’m talking about myself here. 

-          We’re also deeply loving people who seek and desire connection with one another more than anything else on earth.

-          We’re kind people.

-          We’re people who need to cut things off or out of our lives in order to live the way of Jesus, to live lives in which we seek every day to love God and to love people.

-          We’re people who sacrifice at times our joy and fun for the sake of others.

-          We’re people who get so shaken and saddened by tragedy of people we don’t even know, that we cry to the heavens, “how long, O Lord, how long?”

What are human beings that God cares for us?  God’s grace tells us that we are people who are beloved.  God’s grace tells us that after a death, there is resurrection.  God’s grace tells us that we are fallen and broken and we hurt one another and we hurt ourselves, and God still loves us.  God’s grace tells us that he has redeemed our sins and our hurts, that Jesus has taken them all and redeemed them and turned them into his blessedness for our sake.  God’s grace tells us that we are sinners in the arms of a loving God. 

We try our darnedest to live well, to do the right thing, and then we mess up and sin and hurt each other, and God forgives us and blesses us, and offers us new life.  Then when we continue to sin and hurt each other, God continues to forgive and bless us and offer us new life.  God’s grace given to us through Jesus tells us that God is not interested in raging against us and killing us for our sins.  Rather, God wants to heal us from the pain and destruction our sins cause.  As Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber said, we believe in a God, “who from cross did not even lift a finger to condemn the enemy but instead said I would rather die than be in the sin accounting business anymore.” 

    

God is in the grace business, and so we need to take seriously our sin.  We need to take seriously our sin, because without doing so, we delude ourselves into thinking that we don’t especially need God’s grace, or that we only need it once we’re dead.  We don’t think that “were good” because we believe in Jesus and so we’ll go to heaven when we die.  That’s not taking sin seriously.  Simply saying “I’m good because I have Jesus,” leaves us blind to the pain we cause rather than leaving us healed and redeemed by God’s grace. 

In order to take grace seriously, we need to take our sin seriously.  It’s easy to take other peoples’ sin seriously.  We rally and rant, and rail, and know what the right thing to do is and know we’re on the right side of an issue, but I’ve found that sometimes, my being on the right side of an issue is more about me being right and guarding my own righteousness than it is about actually caring for and loving other people.  I may think I’m right and others are wrong, but as Bishop Doyle pointed out last week, Jesus didn’t say to cut someone else’s hand off if it causes them to sin.  He said cut your hand off if it causes you to sin.  Sever the behaviors within you that cause harm to yourself and others. 

Then rely on God’s grace.  Rely on God’s grace because God’s grace says that we mess up and harm each other, that we are broken and sinful, and yet God still calls us beloved.  God’s grace says the world is terribly broken with war, and tragedy, and terrible suffering, and God will ultimately redeem all of it.  God’s grace says he would rather redeem us and heal us from our sins that punish us for our sins.  God’s grace says his purpose is to restore all of creation, and he invites us to join him in that work of redemption.  God’s grace says that flawed as we are, we are beloved, and we are enough to join him in the work of redemption.  God’s grace says that unlike Jonathan Edwards’ 1741 sermon, we are not “sinners in the hands of an angry God.”  We are sinners, but we’re sinners in the arms of a loving God.  Amen.