Power in the Blood, 3.18

1 John 1:5-10

⁵This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; ⁷but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

⁸If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

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            One of the cool things God does in scripture is give us different ways of looking at things. If you have trouble connecting with Paul’s writing, maybe John will help you see things in a different light.

            In this section John is making two basic points: we’re all sinners in need of God’s grace, and our faith calls us to live differently, to leave sin behind. These two truths are woven together because following Jesus pushes us to do better, but it also reminds us how far we still have to go. The other connection that brings our sin and our calling together is that Jesus’ blood cleanses us from sin, moving us from darkness to light.

            John talks about lying a lot in this passage. If we say we follow Jesus, if we say we’re walking in the light, but we keep walking in the darkness of sin, we’re lying. Following Jesus means leaving the darkness behind and seeking Christ’s light in everything we do.

            At the same time, we’re also lying if we say we’re not sinful. Even while we follow Jesus and try to do the right thing we keep falling short. That’s a fact of life; even though Jesus changes our life and makes us new, we won’t be perfect until Jesus returns. Hopefully, we learn from our mistakes and get better at following, but the more we learn from Jesus the more obvious it is that we are not all the way there yet. So we’re only fooling ourselves and even making Jesus look bad if we claim to be sin-free.

            We’re lying if we claim to be innocent, and we’re lying if we claim to be disciples while continuing in our sin. Instead of either of these dishonest traps Jesus calls us to confess our sins and to trust him to cleanse us. As we put our trust in Jesus and honestly confess, Christ’s blood washes us clean.

            It’s hard for us to understand blood making us clean. Many of us struggle with the whole idea of Christ’s cleansing blood. On the one hand we struggle with why Jesus had to die because it seems so unfair. And on the other hand we wonder how his blood can make us clean anyway. We think of blood as dirty, even dangerous.

For people of Jesus’ time animal sacrifice and the blood related to it was a natural part of religious ritual, like singing or prayer. That was the case for most religions in the Middle East and it was true for Israel’s faith as well.

            When the temple was dedicated thousands of animals were sacrificed to make the temple holy to God. Blood was splashed against the altar to clean it and make it ready to offer sacrifice on. The Law of Moses goes into great detail about how many of what kind of animals would be sacrificed for different purposes at different times. The whole idea seems strange, maybe disgusting, to us now, but for our ancient ancestors in the faith sacrifice was a basic part of faith and life. The Letter to the Hebrews is the most detailed explanation of the ancient way of thinking about sin and how blood cleanses from sin.

            When we studied Hebrews in seminary one of my teachers explained it like this: The Temple was a special place that connected heaven and earth. During the year sin built up on the temple because it was close to the people’s sin. We can picture that sin was like a sludge that built up on the temple. Each year the sin had to be cleaned off by rituals of confession and forgiveness including sacrifices of atonement with blood.

            The author of Hebrews talks about how the sanctuary on earth was a copy of the true sanctuary in heaven. The sanctuary on earth had to be purified with animal sacrifices, but the perfect temple in heaven had to be purified with the perfect sacrifice of Jesus. The blood of animals could take away sin temporarily, but animal blood couldn’t deal with sin permanently; only the blood of Jesus could do that.

Don't be a mule, 1.15.12

Luke 6:31-38

³¹Do to others as you would have them do to you. ³²“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. ³³If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. ³⁴If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. ³⁵But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. ³⁶Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

³⁷“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; ³⁸give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

Psalm 32:1-11

¹Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. ²Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

³While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.

⁴For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

⁵Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah

⁶Therefore let all who are faithful offer prayer to you; at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters shall not reach them. ⁷You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance. Selah

⁸I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. ⁹Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding, whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not stay near you.

¹⁰Many are the torments of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord. ¹¹Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

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            Have you ever had a secret that ate you up inside? Have you ever had something in your life that you felt wasn’t right but you felt powerless to do anything about it? Maybe you were ashamed to say anything to anybody so you kept it locked up inside you. Maybe you didn’t even want to think about it yourself, but part of you couldn’t let it go.

            Maybe it was something wrong in your relationship with someone else. Maybe something someone did to you just stuck in your soul and kept you from moving forward with your life. Maybe it was something you did that you just haven’t been able to feel right about since. Maybe it’s not so much something you or the other person has done, but a gap in your relationship, something keeping you apart that has slowly built resentment even though you can’t remember what started the problem. You try to ignore it; you tell yourself you’ve forgiven yourself or the other person, but every now and then something will remind you and it’s like you’re back to square one.

            Many days you manage to avoid thinking and talking about it, but there’s part of you that feels stuck, like it’s sick and wasting away. You can’t find your way forward because the issue feels so big you worry if you say anything about it, it will totally overwhelm you and take over your life.

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            That feeling is what the psalmist is getting at in Psalm 32. It doesn’t matter if our particular problem is in our relationship with God or another person, or even if it’s just some hard to define feeling that something isn’t right inside us. These things we keep buried inside us keep us from growing and trap us in guilt, anger, regret and sorrow.

The psalmist remembers being there: “While I kept silent my body wasted away because of my groaning all day long. Day and night your hand was heavy on my; my strength was dried up like in the heat of summer.” There’s a heaviness, a powerlessness in feeling that something is just not right. When we keep it inside, when we keep silent we feel like God’s hand is weighing us down.

When we overcome our fear and confess, the sky opens up above us and the sun comes out. When we say to God, and possibly to the person we’re struggling with, that we’ve done wrong, the way is open for healing.

predestination and calling

Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24

¹   O LORD, you have searched me and known me.
²   You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
          you discern my thoughts from far away.
³   You search out my path and my lying down,
          and are acquainted with all my ways.
⁴   Even before a word is on my tongue,
          O LORD, you know it completely.
⁵   You hem me in, behind and before,
          and lay your hand upon me.
⁶   Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
          it is so high that I cannot attain it.

⁷   Where can I go from your spirit?
          Or where can I flee from your presence?
⁸   If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
          if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
⁹   If I take the wings of the morning
          and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
¹⁰  even there your hand shall lead me,
          and your right hand shall hold me fast.
¹¹  If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
          and the light around me become night,”
¹²  even the darkness is not dark to you;
          the night is as bright as the day,
          for darkness is as light to you.

²³  Search me, O God, and know my heart;
          test me and know my thoughts.
²⁴  See if there is any wicked way in me,
          and lead me in the way everlasting.

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

²⁴He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; ²⁵but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. ²⁶So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. ²⁷And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ ²⁸He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ ²⁹But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. ³⁰Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

³⁶Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” ³⁷He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; ³⁸the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, ³⁹and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. ⁴⁰Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. ⁴¹The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, ⁴²and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!”

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            This passage from Matthew always catches my attention. On the one hand, I’m not a huge fan of judgment and burning evildoers in the furnace. On the other hand, this is about the best example passage for our Presbyterian tradition of predestination, and I value that heritage. Plus, this passage inspired our first hymn, a classic Thanksgiving favorite of mine.

            Predestination is part of our tradition that we often sweep under the carpet. At the same time, it’s one of the beliefs Presbyterians are known for, so it’s important to be familiar with the basic idea. Predestination means that God knew and decided our eternal destiny long before we were born. Like the wheat and weeds in the story there is nothing anyone can do to change the outcome. No matter how you tend the plants, wheat is always wheat and weeds are always weeds.

There’s something about having our destiny fixed that rubs us the wrong way; it’s an insult to our sense of freedom and fairness. The problem with predestination is the judgment part. God judges people without any regard for what they have done. Some are wheat and some are weeds. It seems unfair and cruel.

            But the God we meet in scripture is loving, not cruel. The God we serve loves us so much that he sent Jesus into the world to call us back home. The God we know takes on our sin and defeats it once and for all. In the end, judgment is about redemption; God judges to save and redeem. God uses judgment to break human pride and selfishness so grace can flow freely for everyone. I believe that when everything is said and done God’s love will win and even the thorniest weed will be transformed in love.