The Ugly Face of Sin
Don’t go walkabout
Yesterday, I might think but it wasn’t, it was this morning, twelve hours ago, between services I was walking about after Sunday School waiting for the ten-thirty service. Spotting a loved one’s car stopping in front of the church, I headed in that direction but stumbled over something, maybe one of the car stoppers, maybe a brick, maybe my imagination, not unlikely my shadow, stumbled, couldn’t right it, fell smash down on my face on the sidewalk. What a schlemiel. Blood all over the place, a siren screaming. My blood, an ambulance coming for me.
The way to avoid embarrassment is to keep your eyes shut so people can’t see you. What goes through the mind? Mark Twain, wasn’t it, said of being tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail, if it weren’t for the honor of the thing, I’d rather walk.
Don’t mind me, that’s not me that’s pics of Father Bozo alive and well. CT scan showed nothing broken, brain in place, ugly as sin.
Stand over here, this is my good side.
Jimmy Durante the Schnoz. We were going back out to GulfCrest for the afternoon and evening while I sat out on the patio sipping wine and suffering through the five hours of Kristen’s drive back to Atlanta, but spent the afternoon in the ER at BayMed, where the attention and service were superb, then stayed home. Her "I'm here" came at 6:57, so I'm fine now. Thank you, Amy.
The eight o’clock congregation heard a homily on Joshua 24. Ten-thirty folks got a blank space. My sermon notes weren’t on the pulpit desktop because some years ago the sexton cleared up between services and I had to search frantically through trash cans for my sermon. Ever since that Sunday, I’ve put my notes in the drawer at the pulpit.
Up until this morning, my favorite worship services have always been the ones when I wasn’t preaching, and I wasn’t preaching at ten-thirty this morning, yet it wasn’t a favorite.
Alive and well, BP elevated slightly, not so pretty good, ugly as sin.
Every sermon or homily gets fleshed out in the pulpit during the preaching of it. This is the barebones:
Lord God of our Fathers: God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Joshua; God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Holy Place -- standing on this Holy Ground -- for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal. You may be seated.
I am standing today, under the clear skies of Canaan, the Promised Land, among the throng of the tribes of Israel gathered at Shechem, the holy sanctuary, as Joshua speaks. And in his words I find myself.
Why I do not always understand, but there are bits of Scripture that stir my heart, and today’s reading from Joshua 24 unfailingly does -- challenges anew as faith seems to be flagging, “Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief,” and Joshua speaks to me.
An Old Testament enthusiast and no disciple of the apostle Paul -- whom I find tedious at times as Paul worries over things that are beyond human knowing -- I love the faith of Moses -- of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, and of Joshua who followed God faithfully in the footsteps of Moses. God raised Joshua up, exalted him and made him a great general in claiming the Promised Land -- or, if you read the rest of the story into the Book of Judges, Joshua conquered much of Canaan, most of Canaan, but never all of it, Canaan was never totally subdued.
If you did not “get it” -- the Bible story that Joshua was great but not quite as great as Moses, the Bible seals that symbolically. Moses and Joshua were two great heroes of Heilsgeschichte, our holy history with God, but no one was greater than Moses and the Bible proves it: Joshua lived a hundred ten years; but Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eyes were not dim, nor his vigor abated, he was God’s own man, and for us Christians, only Jesus Christ was greater than Moses.
But here today is Joshua, finishing up his loyal service to the Lord, looking out over the assembly of God’s people Israel, knowing, as God knows, that they have failed in so many things, let God down in so many ways, so often rejected God and chosen sin and selfishness and the pagan gods of Canaan; and Joshua throws down the gauntlet: choose. Choose now, choose today whom you will serve. The people shout “Of course: we will serve the Lord,” but Joshua rebuffs them, “you cannot serve the Lord, you blundering sinners, because the Lord demands perfect loyalty and obedience, and your history with God is shameful.
This is where I am as a Christian and a priest of the Church: a blundering sinner dragging the shameful baggage of my life into God’s presence as Joshua says “you cannot serve the Lord, for God is pure and holy, and your very being is offensive.”
I have a theme that at your baptism every story in the Bible becomes your personal property, your gift, your inalienable right that cannot be taken from you; your inheritance just as each of the tribes of Israel have their inheritance forever, and here I am today standing in the throng of God’s people as Joshua warns us, “For all that God has done for you, you have shamed him with your sins and constantly turning away from God. You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God who cannot tolerate your nonsense,” and I clamor with Israel for another chance. Another chance to serve, another chance to be saved. And poor Yahweh, he’s such a lamb, he never gives up on me. Even me. And he takes me back again.
My prayer this morning is that, like me, you may take this story to heart, that Joshua chastising, and warning, and encouraging us may move you, as it moves me, to return to the Lord. A sinner from your mother’s womb, you will fail again and again in your service to God, but he always calls us back, his door is always open for us, he never gives up on us.
Ye who do truly and earnestly repent ye of your sins, and are in love and charity with your neighbors, and choose this day to lead a new life in the service of the Lord, following the commandments of God and walking from henceforth in his holy ways, draw near with faith, and claim your salvation.
In the Name of the Father, ...
TW+