The Church of the Redeemer

May 4, 2003

Third Sunday of Easter 

 Several years ago, I was invited to observe a Youth at Risk program.  This program was designed to take delinquent teens out of the city for a week of intensive counseling and a boot camp style experience.  All with the hope of breaking down the hardened exterior these young people presented in order to open them up to on going counseling and services once they returned home.  On this particular day, I observed one young woman being confronted for being late. As the group leader confronted her on her infraction of the rules, she began pleading her case to him, explaining that she was only a few minutes late and was therefore not really late.  The conversation between student and leader went on for at least five minutes as tears ran down the students face, she argued that it was not her fault, how she was delayed by other students in the bathroom, all the while the leader continued insisting that none of her excuses matter, the fact was, she was late for the session and therefore would suffer the consequences for her tardiness.  While observing this exchange, my heart cried out for this young girl.  I could hear in her pleading all the pain she had suffered throughout her life, but most of all the true reason she could not admit she was wrong, because if she admitted she had failed, then she too would have to admit what all the rest of the world around her had been telling her for years and what she had avoided telling herself, that she was in trouble and needed help. 

            Perhaps one of the hardest lessons we all must learn as we mature that at some point we all make mistakes and are accountable for our actions, and must being willing to accept responsibility for the consequences that result from our behavior no matter how minor the infraction. At first glance it would be easy to dismiss this young woman’s refusal of personal fault as an issue of adolescents, but when reflect more deeply, one realizes this child’s refusal to admit blame is a pervasive issue within American society today.  Just this past week, Judge Maria Lopez was admonished for her behavior and failure to properly sentence a child molester, even after being found guilty of misconduct from the bench, she refuses to admit she was wrong or even possibly made a mistake.  Our former president, for months denied any ethical wrong doing or misconduct in consideration of his relationship with Monica Loewinski.  Today, our court system seems to be clogged with frivolous lawsuits by individuals who appear unwilling to accept the possible consequences for their actions.  My favorite story, and I have no proof if this is true or just American myth, is that of the burglar who sued a homeowner for the injuries he received while breaking into their home.   I can’t tell you if he won or not.   And major companies on Wall Street, despite being fined 1.4 billion dollars refuse to admit or deny any wrong doing in the defrauding of American investors during the bull market days of the nineties.   As we distill of all what we are hearing on the news, of how few seem willing to admit to wrongdoing, and then couple that with what is currently happening in the civil court system, it appears that our society has entered into a phase of being a sinless society where nobody does anything wrong and it is always someone else’s fault. 

            This pervasive societal desire to deny sin in our lives is nothing new to modern times.  Even in the earliest days of human life, there was this problem.  Adam blamed Eve and then Eve the serpent for eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  Cain refused to admit to God his killing of Able by simply shrugging off the truth by asking, “ Am I my Brother’s Keeper”.  And even some of the earliest of Christians tried to deny the existence of sin in their lives.  It is this problem that St. John speaks out against in the early chapters of his first letter.

            Before I explore what St. John had to say to the early church on this matter, I think it is important to take a second and discuss who St. John was.  Tradition tells us the St. John was one of the original Apostles and author of the fourth Gospel.  And while we often think of Sts. Peter and Paul as the early evangelists of the Church, all the Apostles after the Ascension of Christ, spread throughout the known world developing the earliest of Christian communities. St. John’s letters are pastoral letters to the community he formed.  These letters provide pastoral advice and theological reflection for the community to follow.    In today’s passage St. John argues against the Gnostic philosophy that developed in his community that denied our sinful nature as an integral part of each of us. 

St. John believed, if we deny our sinful nature, then we deny our need for the redemptive work of Jesus in our lives, thus making his sacrifice upon the cross meaningless and by doing so we block the power of God from entering into our lives and working through us.  For the only way that God can enter into our hearts and souls, is when we admit to ourselves that we are sinful, and allow ourselves to acknowledge that we need God in our lives in order to find life and light.  This is what St. John means when he states, “If we say we have fellowship with God, while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true.”  Like so many of us today, many in St. John’s time claimed to know Christ, claimed to understand the Good News of Jesus Christ, but refused to recognize their own sinfulness which prevented them from truly enjoying the gift of grace in their lives. 

            In many ways, St. John’s letter to us this morning is a challenge, a challenge to look deep down inside ourselves, and to honestly admit to ourselves and to God that we are sinful, and that we need God in our lives.  We need to do this because as one friend pointed out to me this week, the first step of any twelve-step program is to admit that we have a problem.  The first step, to truly feeling God’s grace in our lives is to admit we need the redemptive work of Christ in our lives in order to be alive.  When we do this, we allow God to help us break down the walls of pride that quickly grow thickly around us.  The walls of pride that tell us, we need to be strong, self sufficient, and outwardly perfect in all that we portray.  The walls of pride, that isolates us from each other, that prevents us from reaching out when we need help and keeps us from walking in the light of God. 

            The young girl I spoke about at the beginning of this sermon, never acknowledged or took responsibility for her tardiness, instead, with her tears flowing down her cheeks, she ran out of the encounter room ranting descriptively about her discontent with the program leader. She was unable to accept the consequences of her behavior or open herself to the redemptive love that was all around her by admitting she was wrong.  St John asks us not to be like this young woman, he asks us to face down our wrong doings and to willingly pay the price for our actions.  We must be willing to accept the consequences for our sins and willingly make amends because Gods absolution of our sins is not, as is the case in Monopoly, a free pass out of jail, but an assurance, if we are truly repentant of our sins and are in love and charity with our neighbor, God will be our faithful companion who will love and support us as we openly work our way free of the quagmire our sins have entangled us in. 

            Thus, we find challenge and comfort in St John’s words to us this morning, “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say we have no sin, we make God a liar, and God’s word is not in us.  My little children, these things I write to you, so you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.” 

            Let us each this day and every day openly acknowledge our sins before God so we can walk in the light of Christ.  Amen

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