Dr. J. Lawrence Cuthill

March 14, 2010

Winter Park Presbyterian Church

Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity,

And in whose spirit there is no deceit.

While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;

My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

Then I acknowledged my sin to you

And I did not hide my iniquity.

I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.

Therefore let all who are faithful offer prayer to you;

At a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters shall not reach them.

You are a hiding place for me;

You preserve me from trouble;

You surround me with glad cries of deliverance. Selah

I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go.

I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

Do not be like a horse or a mule,

without understanding, whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not stay near you.

Many are the torments of the wicked,

but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord.

Be glad in the Lord and rejoice,

O righteous,

And shout for joy,

all you upright in heart.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some years ago, Peter Gomes wrote, “Why bother with Lent?” and then proceeded to answer his own question; “Because Lent allows for us a form of spiritual practice. Musicians understand this, particularly the good ones. You see, no musician will acquire excellence nor maintain it without regular practice. It is a discipline, a practice that enables freedom; not a freedom that avoids discipline. Horowitz [the great pianist] said, “If I skip practice one day, I know it. If I skip practice two days, the critics know it. And if I skip practice three days, everybody knows it.”

Lent is Christian practice time, though certainly tat is not limited to the Lenten season. It’s Spring Training; it gets us in shape, and Lent is not just a short sprint preceded and followed by resuming the usual indulgent attitude. It’s a much needed time to focus. . No one is so well off spiritually that s/he can offhandedly skip it. And no one is so bad off spiritually that Lent can’t be helpful.

So, Lent -- why bother? Because practice means we haven’t arrived. Because it is practical practice, and the word practical comes from the same root; because it intends our progress … and such focused practice works.

Speaking of practice -- partly as a spiritual discipline and partly due to the fact that I learned something new this past week, (which makes for a pretty good week) I am going to practice that new thing this morning.

Let me explain -- as an act of confession, a Lenten practice. For thirty seven years I have stepped into the pulpit of one of the six churches where I have served with a complete manuscript of the sermon I would preach in hand. At the very least, I had a full-fleshed outline. Noting that public speaking is at the top of the scale of anxiety-producing activities, that manuscript was my security blanket.

The fact is, I already know the sermon, but I didn’t trust me … God … and, honestly, you either! What if I blank? Opened my mouth and nothing comes out? The issue, as I’ve come to recognize, is trust. This past week I was challenged at a workshop to preach without notes; in effect, to work on the high wire without a net. I recall Garrison Keillor saying of his wonderful, folksy monologues, that sometimes he had to resort to doing like many preachers, “Talk until he thought of something to say.” Today, preaching without notes but with uncharacteristic courage, I will go home happy or humiliated.

And speaking of happy, happiness is pretty high on people’s list of priorities.

In fact, happiness is among the forces that drive human behavior and upon which we pin our hopes. So much of what we think and do is to capture the proverbial “blue bird of happiness.” The relation- ships we pursue, the careers we follow, the hobbies we love, the things we delight in buying. The bible uses happiness with a much deeper notion than what is usually meant by happy (which to me is too vulnerable to circumstance), is “Blessed.”

As you are aware, we have chosen to speak from the Psalms throughout our Lenten Season. In today’s Psalm, happiness or blessed-ness, comes not in the absence of pain, or the maximization of pleasure by the usual means. To the question, “What does it take to be happy?”

The answer proposed is joyful gratitude in response to forgiveness. It comes not from getting all the toys, bells or whistles -- nor from being important, accomplished, organized, optimistic or busy. For the Psalmist, happy, or blessed, is a matter of being free, having no remorse, no fear, accepted, righteous.

Righteousness is not some stuffy, pious word; righteousness is not a matter of being sinless, perfect pr even very well-behaved. It is, however, about the ego bruising emphasis of Lent; acknowledging who we are. not the public persona we project; the image we hope others will see and believe. the self we hide away, the narcissistic self, the prideful self, the shameful self. Righteousness is, rather, acknowledging, accepting and trusting forgiveness.

Abraham trusted God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Today’s gospel passage [the story of the Prodigal Son] speaks of a penniless, broken, humiliated son “comes to his senses” and goes home. He hasn’t done anything to earn his father’s forgiveness or make amends on the front end. He has just taken the chance, swallowed his pride and fear in one gulp and gone home … and while he is yet afar off, an old pair of eyes that scanned the horizon daily sees a shabby, but familiar figure which he recognizes. Then, one of the most poignant scenes in all literature occurs. In an undignified, jerky gait, the old man “ran and embraced and kissed him.” All fear, all shame, all the expectation of being berated or cursed vanished.

Who among us would decline such an offer? The answer is many of us, until we come to our senses. Most of us, if not all, think it would be like standing naked before the whole world. It would make our whole image of our self, indeed our world, crumble. The response is age-old: hide! Adam and Eve did it in the Garden. We would all hide … as if we could. And then offer excuses. We rely on that and several other common tactics including:

Blame – That is shifting responsibility to others to avoid accepting responsibility for our own faults.
Grading ourselves on the curve – That is seeking to comfort ourselves by saying “Everybody does it,” or “Well, I’m better -- on the average -- than most.”
Minimizing or Justifying – Anyone else would, in my position, have acted as badly.

There are those who do not evade, excuse or otherwise dodge responsibility; but who may take on way too much, then doubt that God is big enough to forgive their case.

They carry around a jury in their heads, composed of everyone who has accused or criticized them, and are quite sure God is repelled. In an imaginary courtroom scene, they envision being called to stand before a judge who opens the book –- a thick book, and reviews a long list of transgressions, real and imagined, thought, done or undone. Then with vengeance, resoundingly declares “Guilty as charged.” It’s not as uncommon as you might think. Were good theology to prevail; if the scene included the presence of Christ, then could those who feel such shame trust that God would hear the charges, then see the Christ steps forward and simply show his wounds – leading to the pronouncement “case for condemnation dismissed!”

We say the word here every Sunday. Forgiven! In Christ, we are forgiven. That’s the truth … the goal then is not some Mt. Everest of earned righteousness. It is to be transparent, not hidden, open, trusting God’s forgiveness. That is happiness.

Unfortunately – and not because God is vindictive -- there are consequences. You’ve heard of Truth or Consequences. An examination of them reveals they are not born of some desire on the part of God to punish. They are more accurately “natural consequences” of certain behaviors and beliefs. The Psalmist expresses it in vivid language. “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away … My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.”

It’s not a direct, “if-then” connection, but there is ample evidence of a relationship between hiding away our sin and shame and our physical/ emotional/relational health. It’s been shown to have an effect on our immune system. “The body doesn’t lie,” it’s been said. Now don’t conclude that all illness is a direct result of sin. Jesus dispelled that notion emphatically. But many of us know how we are made “sick” when we hide away the shame … and it poisons us.

Further, that vitality drains away as the “fever heat of summer” alerts us to a fact that slips out of consciousness. It takes energy to maintain a facade. It drains us to have to prop up an image when inside we know we really aren’t what we appear to be.

Do we get it? We needn’t hide behind a self-constructed prop of respectability. God is the only hiding place, the safe place where we (by confession) are surrounded with “songs of deliverance.” We needn’t be a horse or mule who need restraints/reins to keep us on the straight and narrow. Be free to be obedient, not fearful … not full of “I can do it myself” pride.

Be glad and rejoice. Give expression to your joy and freedom. It begs to be shared … and there are others begging to be free.

AMEN