Sermon for the second Sunday in Advent
As we watch the Lord
enter Jerusalem on a donkey,
we hear the shouts of
“Hosanna!”
“Save us!”
“Save us from death!”
“Save us from the judgement to come!”
But if we are innocent,
then we should not fear judgement,
because we shall be judged innocent
and not go to punishment.
If we are innocent
then we have nothing
to be saved from.
Are we innocent?
How do we know?
[PAUSE]
We think of ourselves
as innocent or guilty
because we think legally,
in terms of crime and punishment.
And because we think legally,
we see judgement in terms of
rewarding the good
and punishing the bad.
We see to it that
the good guys always win
and bad guys always lose.
That's a judgement but,
as St James says,
if we are guilty of breaking
one of the commandments,
then we are guilty of breaking them all.
The fact of the matter is,
that we are a race
which has been infected with Sin.
Our first parent Adam
is the one who brought
Death into the world.
He sinned and,
as St Paul tells us,
Death breeds Sin
and Sin breeds Death:
they are two sides of the same coin.
We are not born guilty.
God says very clearly that
He does not
punish the son
for the sins of his father.
But we are affected by
the consequences of
all the sins around us.
We contribute to
the ripples of sin
by adding in our own.
We cannot see God
because of Adam's sin.
We are unable to walk with God,
because Adam chose
his own will over God’s.
We have to bear
the consequences of that.
So, to see Sin as a matter
only of legal judgement
is to miss a significant part
of the problem.
God sees that we need salvation,
not through pronouncing
condemnation and sentence.
He see that we need salvation
through putting things right
– really right.
He sees that we need Salvation
through healing.
God judges, indeed,
but this is not entirely
the judgement of the law court.
There is also the judgement of a doctor.
After all, God creates man
to be immortal.
Man allows himself to die.
[PAUSE]
It is very easy for us Christians
to be judgmental about sin
and sinners.
If we think of sin as being
something legal,
then we put ourselves
into the position of seeing
in every case
“reward good,
punish bad.”
It makes us ready
to cry out, “sinner!”
But this is a naive view of sin.
It is a view of sin
that seeks to rob man
of the dignity he has
- the dignity that,
actually,
can never be taken away.
When Man falls
from the garden of Eden,
he does not die immediately.
It may come to an end,
but Man still has life.
And God is life,
actively present in our lives.
And God’s active presence
is His Grace.
In falling,
we lose the grace to see God,
to walk with Him,
to talk with Him,
and to know and love Him properly.
But, we do not lose
the grace of His image we bear.
That image may be blotched
scratched
and defaced by our sin,
but it is still there.
It is not indelible
because it is
the image of God.
[PAUSE]
As fallen human beings,
we are not in a position
to make things good.
Our judgement between good and evil
does nothing
to restore good
or take away evil.
We can't make good
where there is no good.
We cannot undo a murder.
But with God
all things are possible,
and in Him is life.
St Paul tells us that
the Holy Scriptures
are given to us
to give us hope.
They are not there
for condemning the sinner.
As Christians, then,
we must not judge
in the manner of a law court,
but we should discern
what is the good thing to do.
We can do nothing about
other people’s sins,
we can only seek
to repent of our own.
But we can seek
the good thing to do
for those who are in need,
who are in pain,
who are in misery.
We are not to judge others,
but we can discern what good
we can do for them.
Holy Scripture and the Church
together provide us
with the opportunity to learn
to discern the will of God.
Discernment is a virtue
that we must ask God for
with prayers,
tears
and fasting.
It stops us from judging
but rather draws us deeper
into the mind of God
Who does not condemn the world
but rather is born to save it.
[PAUSE]
Once we rid ourselves
of the compulsion
to judge each other,
we begin to appreciate
what is truly good.
The world around us
is becoming
more and more unforgiving
because,
not only has it lost sight
of the dignity of Man,
it refuses ever to see it.
Tweet the wrong thing,
post the wrong thing
on Facebook
and you are
the worst human being imaginable,
never to be forgiven,
never to be forgotten,
never allowed to repent or change
or even be a human being.
But we are Christians,
and we forgive
because our brothers and sisters
need love in order
to heal from whatever
is causing them to sin.
We cannot heal things
by sinning more through
judging them without all the facts.
[PAUSE]
God will judge
and His judgement
will make us right,
make us good,
make us better,
but only with our consent.
Love does not demand its own way.
This is why He comes
as a baby in a manger,
not as a conquering general
clad in the garments
of strength and war.
We need to learn to discern
the life, light and love of that baby
in ourselves
and in others
if we are truly to love them
and the Christ-Child
whose Nativity draws nigh.
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