I Hate to Tell You: We Can Still Get It Right
Photo by Miguel Bruna on Unsplash
When the history of this era is written I suspect historians will be asking the question, “How did you get so much so wrong for so long?”
Many get it wrong when they excuse the amoral behavior, or enabling thereof, by those in public office.
White people get it wrong that we are inherently deserving of better jobs, healthcare, education, property, and respect, and ignore the structures created to ensure it.
We get it wrong when we don’t wear masks or give other people enough space to protect them from a virus we might be carrying.
We get it wrong whenever we claim current climate warming isn’t created by human action, or that even if it isn’t (and I’m the one who’s wrong about this), that we can’t dramatically slow the rate and decrease its impact.
There’s plenty of blame to share. Why does it matter?
Because until we admit we’re getting things wrong, we can’t get them right. We will continue to dig deeper and deeper holes that are harder to get out of.
So why don’t we just admit it? How do we preach into this resistance?
Preaching Message #1: We’re Human
There are lots of reasons we don’t admit when we’re wrong.
Ignorance
The most charitable reason is ignorance. We didn’t have the right or complete information. We didn’t check our sources, dig into the nuances behind printed statistics, or search out multiple viewpoints.
We’re “Good” Folks
We also like to think of ourselves as good people. This is natural. We want to think we’re on the right side of history. We want to believe we are charitable, decent, god-fearing folks who would not willfully harm others.
Shame
Underneath everything, we’re ashamed—sometimes so deeply ashamed, we put on an air of bravado to deny it’s even possible to get things wrong.
We don’t want to admit to ourselves or others we’ve been fools. It alters our perception of ourselves as basically “good” people.
If we get things so wrong, then we may feel unworthy to keep relationships with family, friends, church members, or God, and we don’t want to end up alone.
Responsibility
If we’ve been wrong, then we have to take responsibility to fix it. Ugh.
Who wants to do that? We’ve already got plans for our lives!
Preaching Message #2: We All Get It Wrong
We’re not the only ones who get things wrong. We come from a long line of good folks who got many things drastically wrong.
King David sent an innocent man to his death on the front lines of a war so he could bed his wife. God was none too pleased and sent the prophet Samuel to publicly set him straight.
The Pharisee Saul who had rooted out early Jesus followers and sent them to their deaths (remember Stephen, the first martyr, for example) before his wake-up call on the road to Damascus. His conversion into a new identity was so complete he even changed his name to Paul.
Jesus got schooled in his mission when the lowest of the low among the caste system of his day, a Syrophoenician woman, got him to see that she, too, was worthy of God’s miracles.
And even God had some moments.
Moses, for example, had to talk God down from wiping out the Israelites after they got anxious during Moses’s private tête-à-tête with God on the mountain and went old school again by worshiping a golden calf.
Preaching Message #3: Do We Believe It?
We say Jesus went to the cross to forgive our sins—known and unknown, things done and left undone.
We repeat Jesus’s admonition to Peter that we are to forgive seventy times seven.
We sing this plea because we hope it’s true: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
And we trust Jesus, and pray we are included, when Jesus says on the cross, “Father forgiven them; they know not what they do.”
It seems Jesus meant that all things can be forgiven.
God didn’t give up on King David. He was forgiven and went on to rule long and successfully.
St. Paul, though he supervised the kidnap, torture, and murder of many early Christians, is also directly responsible for the conversion of millions. He clearly got moved inside Jesus’s inner circle of trust.
Jesus seems to have forgiven himself when he healed the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter and was more expansive in his ministry to outsiders thereafter.
Though God didn’t apologize directly for being willing to smite beloved children, God did change course. We have no record of God’s contrition, but I wonder if Jesus’s emphasis on love of neighbor, forgiveness and reconciliation was God’s way of correcting course again?
There is ample record that God meant it when Jesus preached and demonstrated love of neighbor, forgiveness and reconciliation.
But do we trust that? Do we believe it?
Do we trust that love of neighbor, forgiveness, and reconciliation are by definition what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ?
Because that’s what happens when we’re baptized.
To the extent we trust this primary truth about who God is, what Jesus was about, and what the Spirit transforms in our souls, is the extent we will trust we’re still loved when we ‘fess up that we got so much wrong for so long.
We’ll be OK. God already loves us while we’re getting it wrong.
God’s love won’t increase when we get it right.
Preaching Message #4: Amendment of Life
It’s one of the most courageous things we can do: change course.
As we have seen, the giants of the faith did it. Jesus did it. God did it!
So can we, with God’s help.
It won’t be easy. It’s going to take a long time, and we can count on getting flak from others while they’re still getting it wrong, so be ready, compassionate—and firm.
We can “get it right” by exercising “righteousness”: to literally love God with all that we are and all that we have.
We can get it right by honoring all God’s children by creating the structures in church, home, and society that support everyone’s dignity.
We can get it right when we confess the wrongs we have done and left undone.
We can get it right that Jesus forgives us seventy times seven times seven times seven times seven….
We can get it right when love one another through action as God acted to love us.
How are you feeling about the next few months
A contentious election. Holidays around the corner.
And a pandemic that just keeps raging.
Do you have the support you need?
The Collective+ is designed to help you not just survive this season but thrive.
A special election sermon bootcamp running 11/2-7 to help you craft a compelling sermon of Good News for the Sunday after the election.
Ongoing spiritual reflection and renewal sessions with The Rev. Mike Marsh twice monthly (these sessions have been receiving rave reviews from our members!)
A live, online advent retreat led by the Rev. Mike Marsh to help you enter the Advent season restored and inspired.
Seasonal Sermon Prep, which will look ahead to all texts for the Epiphanytide season in November. Sessions for both RCL and NL will be offered.
Christmas Sermon Bootcamp running 12/14-18 to help you prep your Christmas sermons with joy during this busy time of year.
Plus all the amazing, weekly sermon prep resources and support to simplify your sermon prep every week.
It’s time to care for yourself so you can continue caring for those in your keep.
All sessions are recorded.