Tomorrow Sunday January 19th, 2014 at Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church of Irvine: “Who Takes Way The Sin” (John 1:29-42a)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
God chose to reveal different and distinct facets of a gorgeous diamond which is our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ revealed in the Word of God. St. Paul takes one approach, St. John another. They are complementary of course and combine for a powerful overall way of knowing that your sins cannot keep you from God; your sin cannot keep God’s love from you; and your sin could not keep God from saving you!
Tomorrow we are going to highlight John’s way of describing Jesus’ wonderful saving ministry for you. How is John’s approach unique? It is represented in the words of our Gospel tomorrow: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) Come and receive this powerful revelation from God to you.
We will also receive the Holy Sacrament so that even if the sermon is a complete flop, you will still be assured of the perfect forgiveness found in the body and blood of your Savior and Lord Jesus Christ! In the meantime, I’ll do my very best to make sure that the sermon is not a complete flop…but in the end, we’ll leave that to the Lord!
We are now thoroughly in the midst of the season of Epiphany which does not get nearly the fanfare as Christmas, but this is the season in which the Christmas Savior is made known as the Glorious Lord. May this season of light and of truly seeing Jesus for who and what He is be a season that is light for you…seeing Jesus for who and what He really is for you: your Savior, your Best Friend, your Lord, your King, your Counselor, your God…He comes to serve tomorrow morning in Divine Service.
I hope to see you in God’s house tomorrow morning. Invite a friend. This is a great way to share the faith even if you struggle on what to say…invite them to church…this even a child can do!
Here is an excerpt from tomorrow’s sermon:
“Who Takes Away The Sin” (John 1:29-42a)
Pastor Espinosa
Second Sunday after Epiphany, January 19th, 2014
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Introduction: The shame of stains!
A. On one occasion I was utterly and completely drenched in sweat after a divine service. After taking off my alb, I saw that my light-colored clerical shirt was a mess! I was left with an embarrassing spectacle and did not have another shirt to put on! And this was just in time for another congregational event after the service! Eventually, someone found an extra t-shirt from an old church fundraiser to cover my embarrassment.
B. Have you ever been in this sort of situation? Think of how we feel when we get dressed up and then “something happens”…something is spilled or splashed or rubbed against and all of a sudden we are made to feel as though the whole world can see the defect. These little things can make us feel terribly self-conscious.
C. And culturally speaking, stains really are a big deal. Think of all the cleaning products people invest in to deal with stains. There are stain removers, busters, wipes, sprays…there is an industry that zeros-in on taking stains away. Stains are embarrassing and they don’t look good. We can joke about it and tell ourselves “no big deal,” but in some cases stains are perceived as catastrophes when people have to get in front of others at weddings and other once-in-a-lifetime events. Stains have been known to bring some people to tears when trying to look their best for their “big days”…the psychology of dealing with stains is serious business.
D. But these superficial stains are nothing in comparison to the deeper stains.
E. In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the other women are condemning towards Hester Prynne. We’re able to listen in on their hard words: “At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead.” (Barnes and Noble Classics, 2003: 47) But there is no getting past her stain. Another says, “Ah, but…let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart.” (ibid, 47). Finally Hester Prynne appears: “When the young woman – the mother of this child – stood fully revealed before the crowd, it seemed to be her first impulse to clasp the infant closely to her bosom; not so much by an impulse of motherly affection, as that she might thereby conceal a certain token, which was wrought or fastened into her dress. In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm, and, with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbours. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A.” (ibid, 48). “It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and inclosing her in a sphere by herself.” (ibid, 49) The condemning stares of the people reinforced their ways “where iniquity is dragged out into the sunshine!” (ibid, 50) “Here, there was the taint of deepest sin in the most sacred quality of human life, working such effect, that the world was only the darker for this woman’s beauty, and the more lost for the infant that she had borne.” (ibid, 51-52) She stood there “under the heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her, and concentred at her bosom. It was almost intolerable to be borne.” (ibid, 52)
Part I: And in our sin, we are drastically stained and even more so than what Hawthorne describes.
A. I like Hawthorne’s ability to highlight the stain of sin. “It is almost intolerable to be borne.” But the actual truth of the matter is that this statement when it comes to sin is wholly inadequate in that it isn’t severe enough. For us, our sin is impossible to bear. It kills us. That’s how devastating the stain of sin is.
B. But this helps us to understand why people react to it as they do. Hawthorne conjectures as to how Hester Prynne will cope. Will she be brazen? Will she enter into an imaginary world so as to escape from reality? Will she scream out loud? Will she go mad?
C. And these remind us of what people actually do. With the stain of sin comes being convinced that all we can do is “live with it” so that we succumb to further temptation and sin; or we try to repress it and try to forget it, so alcohol and substances are used to dull our senses and our memories; or we let our conscience dwindle to the point of apathy and the loss of hope. Again, stains can be devastating. Stains that say we have failed. Failed towards God; failed towards those we love…just failed. Our scarlet letters take on many and various forms and the stains are overwhelming.
D. And they are devastating and overwhelming to the point of death, talk about what is “intolerable to be borne.” The Lord proclaims, “everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34) And the Word of God declares, “For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23a)
E. As part of my sermon preparation, I went to a unique book given to me as a gift when I left Texas. It is remarkable in that it is an extensive book of poetry that was published in 1876: A New Library of Poetry and Song…a huge book. There is a considerable section on “Bereavement and Death”…I wanted to share with you words of how distressing this stain truly is, but alas upon reading poem after poem, by Longfellow, Bryant, Vaughan, Milton, Shakespeare, and many others, the whole section was distressing not because of accurate biblical descriptions of death that I had hoped to find (and did not find), but because – in my opinion – none of the poems grasped the power of the stain. All of them were painfully optimistic – not expressing faith in Christ who is the Resurrection – but trying to spin some kind of emotional coping, negotiation, rationalization, unfounded optimism…trying almost desperately to deny the terrible effects of this stain that rises from sin, wanting to be friendly towards death and generate some kind of imagined bright side to the stain.
F. And I was reminded that some so-called “stain removers” don’t really work. It isn’t good enough to deceive oneself that the stain isn’t really there or really isn’t so bad when it is in fact terrible. And when we face reality, this is about the time when we are tempted to lose all hope.
Part 2: Enter our Gospel this day from John chapter 1.
[come and hear the amazing Gospel now from John’s Gospel addressing the great stain of sin and death]
In Your Service and To Christ’s Glory,
Pastor Espinosa