The Guilt Remains

The Guilt Remains

Mark 6:14-29

It is a blessing to be part of a church where, when the pastor is gone, the work goes on. Thank you to Audrey for preaching last Sunday, and to all the people who faithfully carried out their tasks to prepare the service and lead it. Thank you to Diedra, and Risa, and Melissa, and all the others who did all the preparation work for our Vacation Bible School. Thank you to Debra, and Debbie, and John, and Tom, and all the others who make our office run to support our ministries.

Vacation was interesting. Pam and I went to a restaurant that delivered your food by little trains. We got to tour the Pro Football Hall of Fame traveling exhibit. We went to a Royals game, which they won, followed by a fireworks display. We went to St. Joseph twice – first for our daughter’s birthday, and then for a celebration of our 35th wedding anniversary.

In between the fun activities, we were working on our eventual retirement home. I cleaned out gutters, trimmed trees, and pulled lots of weeds. We also spent a lot of time with a plumber, who will be replacing all the water lines and updating the bathroom, which hasn’t changed since the 1960s.

Just because Ididn’t have to think about the work at the church doesn’t mean I didn’t think about the things of the church. When I cleaned out the gutters, I had time to pray and reflect. I gave thanks for35 years with my wife.I gave thanks for our two wonderful children, their loving spouses, and our two heart-melting grandchildren. I gave thanks for 37 years of serving as a pastor.

Please don’t take what I am about to say the wrong way, but while I was digging out the gunk and dirt and slime of the gutters, I particularly remembered those first two years as a pastor.

The first year I was the pastor for 4 little churches in Harrison County, up around Bethany, MO. Two met twice a month, and two met once a month. So, three Sundays I would have two services, and one Sunday I led justone service. I was starting to learn what it means to be responsible for sermon preparation, hymn selections, writing prayers, and all the details that go into leading worship.

I didn’t keep track of the hymns in worship then like I do now. One of the churches which met once a month noticed that we sang the same hymn every time I was at their church. We sang that hymn just a moment ago: “My Faith Looks Up To Thee.”

Until that mention, I hadn’t been aware I had been picking this one hymn so often. First, I was surprised they had paid that much attention to the hymns I picked, and then I was embarrassed that I had shown so little creativity in leading worship. But after further reflection, I knew that this hymn spoke to the state of my spirit at that time in my life.

I was 22 years old, in my first year of seminary, and I didn’t have a clue what life in a rural parish was supposed to look like. For example, I drove a bright orange Volkswagen convertible, and my congregations drove pick-up trucks. I was struggling with some food allergies, and my congregations grew those foods. I thought going to the city meant going to Kansas City, and my congregations thought going to the city meant going to Gilman City, which had a population of less than 400. I was a stranger wandering in a strange land.

And then, just to make sure I was completely overwhelmed and humbled, I was supposed to share with these life-long Christians a word from God. Some of them had been coming to worship and reading their Bibles for almost 4 times as long as I had been alive. The hymn, “My faith looks up to thee,” was pretty much my constant prayer, as I knew I needed all the help from God that I could get.

During this same time, just to keep it interesting, I was also preparing to be ordained as a deacon in the United Methodist Church. There were papers to write, background checks, psychological tests, interviews, and much more – all while trying to serve 4 churches and take a full load of classes at the seminary.

So, it was while I was digging out gunk and dirt and slime in the gutters that I remembered the sermon I had to submit as part of the process to become a deacon. (And yes, I know that may seem a little weird, but that’s how my mind works.) The connection may be that the committee that reviewed the sermon may have thought my sermon was filled with gunk and dirt and slime, since they recommended that I never preach it again.

They still approved that sermon as faithful and within our Wesleyan tradition. I think their concern had more to do with the distinction I was making between good advice and good news. This is a distinction that is lost on many preachers, then and now. That’s kind of sad, since this was a very important distinction to John Wesley.

The set up in the sermon was fairly simple. I read portions from letters written to Ann Landers and Dear Abby. I then shared the advice they gave to the problems stated. I concluded with how this advice always missed the point. Advice columnists always assume the problem presented in the letter is the real problem. They then give advice on how to deal with the problem as stated. Do this, they advise, and the problem will be dealt with.

But, I argued, the real problem was not dealt with at all. The anger, the envy, the hurt feelings, the fractured relationships, and all the other problems addressed weresimply manifestations, or symptoms, of the real problem. The real problem was sin – plain, ordinary, old-fashioned, affects-us-all, sin. And when sin is the problem, the only answer available to us is giving your heart to Jesus.

We don’t need advice on how to share, or how to ask open-ended questions, or how to clearly define boundaries in relationships. We don’t need advice, no matter how good it is, iftaking that advice means we think we can continue living in our sin.

The point I was trying to make then, and which I have tried to make ever since, is this: Unless our heart is right with God, it can’t be right with our neighbors – no matter how much we follow good advice. If we are not right with God, we will continue to be angry, and hurt, and jealous, and all the other things that keep us from living together in the kingdom of God. We may deal with the immediate problem before us, and it may seem that things are good. But all we are really doing is pushing the anger and hurt and jealousy down the road to the next crisis, or the next conflict, or the next competition.

Good advice, without the good news, is not good at all. That’s kind of the point the Apostle Paul was making in his letter to the Corinthians, especially in the 13th chapter. If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.Good advice, without the good news, is not good at all.

There is a place for good advice. There are godly reasons for Ecclesiastes and the Book of Proverbs to be in our Bible. Yet more than we need good advice, we need the good news of Jesus Christ. Without Jesus, we are left with Ann Landers, and Dear Abby, and Oprah, and all of the other advice givers,as the high priests for how we are to live together.

With their advice, we might be able to navigate a difficult situation and make it better for the time being. But without the good news of forgiveness, and mercy, and new life, and godly love through the grace of Jesus Christ, the guilt and power of our sin remains. It simmersjust below the surface, waiting to make its appearance later. It might seem that we are doing fine, and that everything is all right, but the guilt and power of sin remains. And it remains because we haven’t dealt with the real problem, which is sin.

This is a big part of what is going on in our reading for today. Herod may be the king, and he may be a tyrant, but he still has his advisors suggesting the best ways to deal with difficult situations. He had been groomed for this role by his father, who had given him advice all his life. Herod had access to the best advice, and he was willing to act on it. What he didn’t have was any good news.

These advisors were telling Herod the same things that tyrants have always been told. Mercy is for losers. Forgiveness is for failures. Take a life to save your life. Loving yourself is the greatest love. When you make a promise or a threat, always back it up. Cut down your opponents before they have a chance to bloom. Take what you want when you want it.

And that is how Herod lived. He wanted to marry his half-brother Philip’s wife, who was also Herod’s niece. Going after what you want is good advice. So he divorced his wife and married Herodias – problem solved. Philip didn’t like how the problem was solved, however, and open warfare broke out between the brothers and their territories. The guilt of Herod’s sin remained, and it spilled over with disastrous results into the lives of their people.

Herodwas moved by his step-daughter/niece’s dance at a party he had thrown, and he made her a very public promise. And when she asked for the head of John the Baptist, he kept his promise. Keeping your promise is good advice. So he had John arrested, and then beheaded – problem solved. It even seemed to solve two problems, as Herodias never liked what John had to say after she married Herod.

But now Herod hears that same hated message coming from Jesus. But since Herod has no reason to think he has done anything to Jesus to justify this kind of enmity, his only conclusion is that this is really just John the Baptist raised from the dead. The guilt of Herod’s sin remained, and it spilled over with disastrous results on Herod himself, because it kept him from hearing the good news of Jesus Christ.

Herod’s problem was not that he had failed to act on good advice. He did everything a tyrant is advised to do. Herod’s problem was that he had failed to act on the good news. Our problem today is not that we fail to act on good advice. We have coaches, and gurus, and trainers, and advisors for every kind of endeavor you can imagine where people want to be better at something. Giving advice is a growth industry in our world today – that is not the problem. Our problem is that we fail to act on the good news of Jesus Christ.

Too often, we wantjust enough faith to be saved, but not enough faith to live like Jesus. And that is why the guilt and the power of sin remains, because we do not trust that the grace of Jesus Christ is greater than the power of our sin.

So let me give you a little advice this morning. We have been given good news that the grace of Jesus Christ is greater than our sin. If you haven’t already, my advice to you this day is to give your heart to Jesus. When sin is the problem, the only answer available to us is giving your heat to Jesus.

UMH 365 “Grace Greater Than Our Sin”