The Brave Work

 

The Brave Work

1 John 1.5-10

 

 

Forgiveness is in our sights as we finish the rest of chapter 1 from 1 John this morning.

 

 Fundamental Theology

As we jump into this next section, the door is opened to the subject of forgiveness and what that means to us as Christian people. Right off the bat, I think it is worth making some distinctions between what people believe in different groups and, maybe more importantly, why people believe what they do. There is a notion within some well meaning churches we need to be very fundamental about what is taught about the Christian faith. What does it means to be fundamental? You will find in groups that bear words and title as such to be very rigid about what they put into practice. Baptism has be done exactly as Jesus would have done it. Jesus went down into the river, fully immersed under the water. "That's how it has to be for everybody. Because Jesus did it that way." Well, some groups put you all the way down in the water. Some pour a pitcher of water over your head. Some sprinkle. The really is no specific and preferred way to do it. The day of Pentecost can be a tricky subject to jump into with Charismatic, Pentecostal and Apostolic groups. We see twelve guys up on a balcony speaking and a whole audience down on the ground hearing their own languages and even their own dialects. It is a truly misunderstood moment in Christian history. From it has come so much rhetoric about what a Christian has to have in their life and on display for others to see and hear. So much of fundamental theology goes straight to some form of practice that we are supposed to be doing in front of others to show that we are truly people of Jesus. Very little of what I have read and studied from fundamental groups actually and simply lies in the basics about what we are to believe.  

Forgiveness is about as basic and fundamental as it gets when we are speaking about what we believe as Christians. What people really mean to say when they want to speak about the fundamentals of learning something is that "this is what we need to know in order to grow and understand something". Preschool and kindergarten teachers know this better than anyone. In order to send their students on to the next grade, they need to be able to understand and perform with certain basic forms of learning under their belt. We've been familiar with those since many of us were in grade school. Reading. Writing. Arithmetic. If you have the big three down, then you have a great chance of moving on to the next grade. If there was a big three in the religion of Christianity, then forgiveness would certain be a part of that. "The disciple whom Jesus loved" would have seen and felt the power of such mercy and giving from the Savior himself. Here is another reason John's opening words are so moving. Those beginning years of walking with Jesus culminated with a great extension of forgiveness. The washing of feet. A meal around a table. Being with him at the garden. It wouldn't be until later that they would look down at those feet and remember. When they did, boy it had to be a game changer for all of them. Such fundamentals are the building blocks where a foundation can be laid and then built upon.

Get in the Booth

How does it work? How do we obtain forgiveness? If there was a fundamental inside of a fundamental it might be considered a character trait. That one item here would be called confession. If we are to be people that know what forgiveness is in our hearts, then we are people who are not afraid to share with God (or with others. when needed) what needs to be forgiven. "If we confess out sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins". There are some who I would like to show this to and say, "If you want to get fundamental about something, how about this?" This only one way for salvation. In the person and name of Jesus Christ. There is one thing that makes Christianity distinct from many other world religions. That is forgiveness. You can't work your way into this. There is no amount of good work that can be done to make up for our sin. There is forgiveness and that is it. There is only one way to obtain that forgiveness. Confess your sins. Tell God all about it. Drag that stuff out into the light. Don't hide anything. Don't think that you can keep some stuff hidden or out of sight and no one, especially God, needs to know about it. "If we walk in the light as He is in the light" It's all part of walking with Jesus. The Christian faith is about following and doing what we know is the right thing to do. 

Confession has been a long standing part of our practice that has taken a very literal means in the way of Catholic branch of the Christian world. Frank McCourt was an Irish-American teacher and writer who passed away in 2009. McCourt tells the story of the day that lead up to his first Communion. It can be a very serious and nerve-racking experience depending on the strictness of your particular Catholic priest. Frank shares the experience in his memoir. He was late for the service that morning. He wound up coming home and throwing up in the backyard. Because of the very literal way Catholics view communion as the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ, Frank's grand-mom is worried that she now has Jesus all over her backyard. As part of his baptismal weekend, he went to confession the day before the service. Now it's Sunday and his grandmother wants to know how she should handle cleaning up the mess. So, off Frank goes to the confessional booth. "Forgive me father. It has ben one day since my last confession." To which the priest replies, "One day?? What could a boy your age have possibly done in one day?" Frank recalls the events to the priest. "My grandma wants to know how she should clean it up." His priest, rubbing his forehead, suggest that she simply "clean God off with some water." As Frank arrives back home, his grandma wants to know if it should be "holy water or regular water?" Franks soon finds himself back in the confessional booth. "Forgive me father. It has been about an hour since my last confession." The priest can't believe it. "An hour? What in the world?" To which McCourt relays the message from his grandma about how to "clean up God". The priest gruffly suggest that "regular water will be fine" with a stern suggestion to "tell your grandmother to quit bothering me!" 

Confession should be thought of as a moment of accountability. Accountability is big deal in Wesleyan circles. It is a major emphasis behind why John Wesley began meeting like The Holy Club, where pastors and elders could come together and share. The cluster groups we still have to this day are meant to be historical models of that kind of way to stay in touch and be supportive to each other in the clergy ranks. I am a part of the Baltimore-Lancaster group where I have been for the last 18 years. For the most part, it has been a good place to find help and prayer and a shoulder to lean on. Elsewhere in Paul's epistles to the church eh has visited, the Apostle would suggest to his audience that if they come into a situation where sin is evident that his readers should restore one with gentleness and meekness.

Here's the flip side to that coin. The way of confession requires a person to open up and share what is on their plate, what is in their darkness. There is a necessity to not hide anything. The consequences of our sin can make life difficult. Sometimes there are situations that require us to be verbal about what has happened in our lives. Sadly, with the way our society views certain crimes and matters, it might wind up being something that follows a person for the rest of our lives. Staying in the light can be something that becomes less than trivial. Depending on what sins have been committed, the idea of confession will be a practice that goes with us a long way into the future. I recall the first time I met my biological father. I was 30 years old in May of 2001. Oh, the stories I had heard. I wanted more than just stories, though. I wanted confession. I wanted honesty. All I heard for more than an hour were just wild ponderings and items that had no way of being authenticated. From being in some back alley in a gunfight in Florida to working for the government and being one of three operatives in a room just a few feet from Saddam Hussein. I got nothing that I wanted out of that evening. I struggle with the whole conversation still. Was it important that he confess his sins to me? Did he actually make peace with God? Truly, it is God he needed to confess his sins to and make things right, not me. I found out a year ago that he passed in 2013. Thought he was still alive. So many unanswered questions. So much left in the darkness. There is a need for truth and honesty. There is much to be desired from such openness and sharing. If we want God to be open with us then we need to be open with Him. We need to put our souls out there and share what we need to confess. It is the only way to find true forgiveness.

Dealing with the Crazies

My biological father was the son of a backwoods, truck-driving preacher man. My biological grandfather made his living early on driving truck for the Teamsters during the 50's and 60's. If you've ever seen the Netflix movie The Irishman, then you might be familiar with what I am referencing. You might also see my desire to have so many questions answered. The Teamsters were right in the middle of the long detailed history with the Mob. My grandfather drove truck for them. As far as I know, my biological grandmother is still alive and from what I understand, she still gets a retirement check from her husband's account. It's mind boggling to think where all that money came from and how the events during that time period would have gone down. I've got family lines that went right into it. 

My grandpa, My Poppaw, (My mom's dad) would tell me stories of growing up in that world. When my mom met my biological father, there were experiences to see that kind of church they were starting. My Poppaw would relay to me events of wild services and lots of tongue speaking and shouting and hollering. People down on the altar yelling as they prayed. My grandpa never had much of a stomach for church and religion. I know he believed. I witnessed it late in his life as he struggled with ALS - Lou Gehrig's Disease. It had taken his voice and his speaking. But, I saw him in the emergency ward at the VA in Cleveland with his arms lifted up, praying for all he was worth. I do feel he made his peace with God before he was gone. But, all the stories of my biological crazies still stick with me. So much weird thinking and personal inflection into what they did and believed. It was pretty crazy for people like John who is writing these scriptures we read. We made mention of the world in which he is crafting these letters when we opened this up last week. Yes, there were those who would suggest that they had some higher form of understanding about God than what these twelve men had who actually walked with Jesus. Usually, the explanation behind why they felt they had this higher and bolder way of knowledge came with some pretty weird teachings. The people doing this in the time of the Apostle John were suggesting that they had no sin. Usually, the way around the teachings of Christianity will take the course of finding a way to do without Jesus. These strange teachers are suggesting that they do have any sin. If they don't have any sin, then what did Jesus die for? Their silly attempt to suggest they don't need God's mercy and forgiveness is just one of many teaching our ears will hear when we jump into the world of trying to share this message of Jesus Christ with other people. 

The context here opens the door to it, so I'm going there. Dealing with strange teachings and a world that doesn't understand free forgiveness is one I don't mind walking around in. In fact, I find it engrossing, sometimes hilarious. I love talking with Jehovah's Witnesses. If you ever have some show up at your house and you don't want to talk to them, feel free to give me a call. I'll be right over. Here is simply another example of what happens when people try to eliminate Jesus Christ from the equation of salvation. It's the late 1790s and a Congregationalist preacher name Charles Taze Russell had developed a bad taste in his mouth for the teachings judgment and damnation. What he seeks to do about it is to eliminate those teachings and find a way to work around them. The number one thing they do is to find a way to eliminate Jesus Christ from any need or worth to their religious outlook. Even though they are walking around with a King James bible in their hands, what they are trying to offer is a different explanation about what happens in the scriptures. Jesus doesn't actually die on a cross for our sins. They was just a spiritual mirage for our eyes. It was actually the arch angel Michael with a spiritual shroud of sort over him for people to witness. If there explanation stands up, then the next step to focus everyone's attention on the name Jehovah from the Old Testament will hold because we never actually take the step into this New Testament salvation presented about Jesus. Jesus holds the keys of judgment and damnation in his hands, according to what we read in the scriptures. Jesus is presented as The Way, The Truth and The Life. If he is not actually who we believe him to be, then he doesn't actually have the power we say that he has. Out the window goes forgiveness. The group formed as The Watchtower Society now has the power to inflict whatever kinds of works and practice they want on the people who choose to follow their teachings. And, it only gets worse from there. 

As I shared, they are walking around with a King James bible in their hands. They don't have a definitive book of their own that they think they can pull their teachings from. Any Christian with a bit of faith and scriptural knowledge in their hearts can take that KJV and open it and share exactly what needs to be shared in order to refute what it is that a Jehovah's Witness is presenting. Until 1950. It is during this year that the Watchtower takes the KJV and makes their first word change. 

While we lived in Baltimore, we had many a JW stop by our house. I always welcomed them at the front porch. I have stood and talked with solo speakers and with duo pairings. It amazes me how insistent they are about the validity of what they are presenting. A big piece of me wants to believe that they already know the lie they are presenting. But, maybe their eyes are not open to it. Human beings are easily deceived. We are like sheep being led astray. And, so often we follow. This first change made by The Watchtower Society shows just how easily it can be done and then accepted. The Greek word for GOD is theos. Our JW friends have conveniently changed capital G - GOD -  to a lesser, small g - "a god". When someone comes to my front door to speak with me, I have no problem taking that NWT book right out of their hands and going straight to this verse. Every single person I have spoken with wants to tell me that the Greek word in this verse is logos. Logos means Word. The verse is supposed to read "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the word was God." They have tried to call him "a god". Not only have they complicated matters by creating another god, the word there is clearly theos. If we are to believe our Watchtower translators, then the verse would read, "The Word was The Word" instead of "The Word was a god". And I have looked back into plenty of blank stares from JW folks who can't get it through their heads the inconsistency they just created. It takes a lot of grace to keep it together and to try to restore a person gently as Paul would tell us to do in Ephesians. Its real easy to get bent out of shape and lose it arguing about theology with someone who is blinded from the truth. 

Confessing our sins is brave work. Trying to make things right with God and with other people is some the hardest work there is to do. Standing up for Jesus and trying to help people see the truth is even braver work, indeed. Forgiveness is not just something we should expect or even demand. It is something that is sensitive and empathetic. We open our hearts and we allow others to bear their souls, just like God would do for us. Trying to direct people to Jesus takes the same kind of grace. Many will not want to hear. Many will not want to be shown where they have gotten off track. We still have do the ministry of meeting their needs - whether they see the need for forgiveness, or not.