Nice Things

Proper 19C

All the Scripture Lessons for the Day

September 15, 2019

St. Matthias

           I looked at our scripture lessons this week and thought – Oh No!  They are all about sin and we don’t like sin.  Years ago, when I was a new, young, and very inexperienced priest at St. George’s in Germantown TN, I preached on sin and Mrs. Holland who been going to that Church for over 40 years, told me in no uncertain terms that sin was bad and I should only preach about nice things.  Usually there is at least 1 of the scripture lessons that works.  But not this Sunday.

           Then I remembered the time I got a makeover.  You see them on TV and in the magazines.  They take some person who looks pretty ordinary and by the end of the show or the article – they look totally different.  That happened to me at St. Thomas in Huntsville.  My hair was fixed, they put on makeup, and even painted my nails.  There was a fashion photo shoot!  Then my head was stuck up between 4 tables.  The doors opened wide, and I was introduced to the world as the talking head, one of the stars of the Parish Halloween party.  This was something I had never done before and haven’t since.  I had to talk nonstop for what seemed like hours and that is hard even for me.  I had a great time.  When it was all over, it took forever to get all the goo out of my hair and off my face.    And now, some 15 years later, whenever I go back to St. Thomas, at least one member must come up and tell me how they will always remember the night I was the Halloween Talking Head.

           There are any number of photos floating around of me and that evening.  There are other pictures of me looking equally horrid over the years.   I think the best part is when the day is over, and you can wash all that stuff off and feel really clean.  And that is what I want us to think about as we read and hear these scripture lessons this morning.  In Exodus, the Israelites had made their Golden Calf to worship while Moses was on top of Mount Sinai talking with God.  At first God was going to destroy the Chosen People, but Moses – in a moment of genius – reminds God that doing so would be a public relations nightmare – everyone would think for all of history that God had brought the Israelites out of Egypt and into the Wilderness just so HE could destroy them.  Instead Moses tells the people to repent and they do and the story of Salvation continues which should make us really glad because otherwise we would not be sitting here this morning or we might even be worshipping a Golden Calf!  Seems like a big waste of a lot of gold.

           And if Psalm 51 sounds familiar its because we say it every year on Ash Wednesday.  It’s kind of depressing to be told that you have been wicked from your birth and a sinner even in your mother’s womb.  1^st Timothy and the Gospel of Luke tell us that we are sinners and it would be easy for me to stand up here and preach all kinds of sermons that Mrs. Holland would not like.  I could probably even get away with pounding on the pulpit which I have never done before and never wanted to.  Sin gets a lot of press these days – too much.  Ministers all over Tuscaloosa and everywhere else are telling people all about sin and how OTHER people sin and what happens when we sin - which usually comes with a good pounding on the pulpit.  Sin can be stretched into 3 syllables and Jesus even more.  God is the mean old man glaring down from on high.  No wonder Church and God and Christianity often get such a bad reputation.  And I could understand it if that was all there was to faith.  But its not and all of our scripture lessons this morning tell us that one of the things we can always depend upon is FORGIVENESS because God LOVES us.

           Let’s break it down into parts.  All sin is – is forgetting that God loves us.  I mean let’s face it – if you break one of the 10 commandments or any of the other 603 commandments – it’s usually because we are not thinking about God or our neighbor.  This is why Jesus said the GREATEST Commandment is to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul and the 2^nd GREATEST is to love your neighbor.  If you are loving God and your neighbor – you will not be breaking any of the other commandments and so you are not sinning.  Now, REPENTANCE is remembering that God loves us and we love our neighbors.  And then we can live in all that love and I just don’t think you can get any NICER.  Plus there will be joy in the presence of all the angels of God as it says in the Gospel of Luke.  We will live in God’s mercy says the Apostle Paul and God will create in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit within you and me.  And finally, you get to keep all your gold and I don’t know where in here we would ever put a Golden Calf.

           Forgiveness is like washing all that goo out of my hair and off my face.  It is the Grace of a spring shower and the water falling down the side of a mountain.  I bet Mrs. Holland is still at St. George’s and I hope she would think these scripture lessons and my sermon are nice.  I’ve made it all the way through without pounding on the pulpit.  I am sure the angels of God are rejoicing.  AMEN.