"Sin or Love: the Preacher’s Dilemma"

Sermon for 31st Sunday, cycle B

by Most Rev. Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Presiding Bishop, United Catholic Church

Let’s say you wanted to lose weight. Which of the following two strategies is more likely to work?

(1) Concentrate on food and the necessity to not eat it. Sit at the kitchen table with all sorts of goodies on it, telling yourself "Those deviled eggs are full of cholesterol. I ought to leave them alone. That slice of pizza with sausage, pepperoni, green peppers, three kinds of cheese, black olives, herbs and spices is full of fat. I really shouldn’t eat it. Those chocolate fudge brownies are full of calories. I’m supposed to pass them up."

(2) Get out and play some tennis, walk on the beach, do some gardening. Involve yourself in activities which burn calories, get you away from food, and engage your mind and energies on other things.

I think we’d all agree that the second strategy is much more likely to succeed. Well the same thing is true when we are trying to get rid of some spiritual excess baggage.

Let’s say you have a favorite sin you’re trying to shed.

If it’s greed and stealing, which of the following strategies would be best?

(1) Spend all day wandering through the mall wearing a big overcoat and carrying an empty shopping bag, telling yourself you shouldn’t swipe all the tempting goodies.

(2) Fill your shopping bag with things at home you like, but don’t really need, and wander through the poor section of town giving them away.

If your favorite sin is of a sexual nature, like coveting your neighbor’s wife, would it be better to spend your day watching pornographic videos or playing with orphans born of loveless sex?

Here again, the second strategy is better in each case. it’s better to concentrate on the positive good you can do than dwell on the sin you are trying to avoid.

No one knew this better than Jesus, who (after all) perfectly understands human nature. His mission on earth was to rescue humankind from its sin, so that people could again be united with God. How did he go about it? Well, first and foremost he showed us by example. And he taught. People called him "Teacher." What did he talk about?

The three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are basically records of the teachings and sayings of Jesus. Written within a generation of his death and resurrection, they are the most reliable record we have of what Jesus actually said. Did Jesus use the word "sin"? Yes, but he used the word "love" 26 times as often!

Yet we preachers tend to talk about sin more frequently than Jesus did. Sometimes we don’t sound like Jesus at all. We sound more like John the Baptist.

Now, don’t get me wrong. John the Baptist performed an essential function. He made people aware of sin and the need for repentance, and therefore more open to the message of Jesus about God’s forgiveness and love.

Maybe our hell and damnation sermons are also serving a useful function when we are preaching to non-Christians who don’t yet feel any need for God in their lives. After all, the first step toward becoming a Christian is acknowledging one’s sinfulness and dependence on God, throwing oneself on the mercy of God, and then accepting his forgiveness. And if one is a traveling evangelist or a revival preacher or a radio or television evangelist targeting the unsaved, then one can preach that way all the time.

But what do you do when you succeed and someone repents and becomes a Christian? You do what Billy Graham does, you tell them to go home and join a church where they can grow in their faith in the company of fellow Christians and learn to more closely follow Jesus.

But most of us are not traveling evangelists. We are pastors in a local church. We are preaching to the people Billy Graham sends to us, the people who have already acknowledged their sin and their need for God and have accepted Christ. They don’t want to be told all over again to do that. They want to know what they must do now.

They don’t need to hear the harsh words of John the Baptist. They need to hear the comforting words of Jesus. Oh, for about fifteen years, I was a traveling evangelist. I preached in churches of many faiths, all over the world. And I usually started my sermon with the same words, "Are you comfortable? Let me give you fair warning. Jesus came to comfort the afflicted. I came to afflict the comfortable." And I did.

But that’s not my role here (at least not all the time), though I still try to shake people out of their lethargy when I get the chance. No, my role here is to take you beyond your conversion experience, all the way to sainthood.

Billy Graham preaches to the unsaved in need of conversion. We preach to the already saved in need of perfection. Billy Graham preaches to the condemned in need of justification. We preach to the already justified in need of sanctification.

But every once in a while, we have to go back and make sure we haven’t missed something. Is there someone in our congregation who hasn’t really completed that first step? You see, you have been told that all you have to do is believe in Jesus and you are saved. Well, it’s not quite that simple. Even the devil believes in Jesus. The faith which saves you is not just an intellectual acknowledgement that Jesus exists and is the Son of God. Saving faith involves accepting Jesus as the Lord of our life, turning ourselves over to him, following him. And the result of that is rebirth, a changed life, freedom from sin.

Sure, we’re all sinners, and yes, we all fall short of the perfection we are called to. But once we are in Christ and he is in us, we no longer deliberately turn our backs on God to do things we know are sinful. If we are still habitual sinners, if we are still slaves to sin, then we have not really become Christians. God’s grace is real. It does change lives. If you have not experienced that change, then do so today. At this Mass, like all our Masses, we have an examination of conscience in which we acknowledge privately to God our past sinfulness. Then we have absolution, in which I assure you that God has done his part and has forgiven all your sins. Then we have an altar call, where you are invited to come forward and receive Jesus — physically in the bread and wine, and spiritually in your heart as your Lord and savior. If you do that, you are forevermore freed from the slavery of sin.

Then we can go on to preach about what we Christians do next. And that is the subject of today’s gospel reading: "Love God, and love your neighbor." The scribe was the perfect straight man. He gave Jesus the chance to give his best 30-second sound bite. "What is the most important commandment?" Jesus could have condemned adultery or stealing or whatever. He didn’t. "Love God and love your neighbor." That’s it. That’s what is all-important to Jesus. So that’s what we preach about. If we love, then everything else will fall in place.

Christianity is not a religion of sin-avoidance; it is a religion of love. It is not a religion of rules, but of relationships — with God and with each other. Once we have turned away from sin and accepted Christ, we are dead to sin and reborn to eternal life. No longer need we sit at the kitchen table staring at a plate of sins to be avoided. No longer do we wander through the shopping mall of life as if it were a red light district full of sins to be flirted with and resisted. Instead, as Christians, we go through life with a bag full of God’s blessings, seeking those less fortunate than ourselves on which we can bestow them in love. And the bag of love fills faster than we can give it away. And who can be tempted to steal when we possess an infinite supply of the most valuable of all gifts, God’s love. Love is priceless, because the more of it you share, the more you get to keep. Let us pray.

O Lord our God, you are Lord alone! We do love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We give ourselves to you completely, without reservation. And we resolve to love our neighbor as ourselves. Help us see you in others that we may more easily share your love with them. And thank you for accepting us as distributors of your love, and for giving us an endless supply. We know there are people out there you can reach only through us. We won’t let you down. Amen.

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