SERMON 485
EPIPHANY 7, FEBRUARY 18. 19, 2006
ISAIAH 43:18-25, PSALM 41, 2 CORINTHIANS 1:18-22, MARK
2:1-12
BLOCKING OUT – SETTING FREE
Beloved in the Lord, grace
and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, and from the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life!
I came across this story the
other day: During the Vietnam War a sensitive young GI had seen more than his
share of death and suffering on the battlefield. Many of his buddies were dead,
many more injured or maimed for life. As the fierce fighting continued,
gradually the boy’s mind began to block out the ugly reality of his situation.
Finally he lost contact with the real world altogether, and was sent to a
military hospital in
In his room at the hospital
the young man would sit for hours, staring into space. Efforts of psychiatrists
and nurses to break through the barriers his mind had built up had failed.
One day one of the
psychiatrists working with him was going through the boy’s file and discovered
that he had played the trumpet in a dance band before joining the army. This
gave the psychiatrist an idea.
The next day he brought a
secondhand trumpet and placed it on the boy’s bed. There was no reaction. Over
the next few days the doctor tried getting him to touch it, but the boy still
showed no reaction.
The doctor did not give up,
he felt that the trumpet held out his only hope for reaching the young man.
The boy’s room was on the
first floor, his barred window overlooking a courtyard. Perhaps, thought the
doctor, if he heard a trumpet being played….? The doctor contacted one of the
trumpet players in the hospital band and asked him to sit on a bench outside
the boy’s window and play a few popular songs. The two of them stood outside
the building for several afternoons, the sweet tones of the instrument floating
through the window. But there was still no discernable response from the man
inside. He seemed not to hear it.
The doctor was discouraged
and about to give up, when suddenly he had another idea. He turned to the
trumpeter and said, “Play Stardust again, but this time put in some sour
notes.”
The man did as he was told,
then the two waited. A few minutes later from inside the room came the clear,
true notes of Stardust, played by a master trumpet player. A smile passed over
the wise doctor’s face.
A few months later the young
vet was discharged, healthy in both mind and body, ready to resume a normal
life. End of story.
As we examine our lessons for
this day we shall do so under the theme BLOCKING OUT – SETTING FREE!
In what we call the real
world, people who are healthy in both mind and body are those who are ready to
resume a normal life. There are many things that can distort the normal life of
course. Alzheimer’s disease for example is one that leaves people sitting,
gazing, and out of contact with people and with the real world.
But there is another
distinction that our lessons point to rather graphically. There is the world in
which we live, and then there is the other world, the world in which God lives.
And unfortunately it is entirely possible to live in this world, be healthy in
mind and in body, and be completely out of touch with the world in which God
dwells, the world of the Spirit, the world of forgiveness, the world of eternal
life. There are so many who lead completely normal lives in body and in mind
but who have blocked out completely the life in God and the life in the spirit.
In the lesson from Isaiah we
hear God complaining through the prophet that his people, the ones set aside by
God to be his servants in this world, have actually blocked out the world where
God dwells. They were actually offering sacrifices and incense to God and at
the same walking around without any regard for God and for God’s law. The
stench of their sinful lives was a terrible burden to God. God points out that,
“You have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your
iniquities.” The name of God was on their lips but they had blocked out the
reality of God from their lives, and sin and ignorance was the real world in
which they walked.
In the Gospel lesson we see
Jesus returning to his home base in
On this occasion a family
came with a paralyzed man on a stretcher. They were certainly people of faith
because nothing would stop them from bringing their family member to Jesus for
healing. They lowered him into the room where Jesus was teaching from the
ceiling above.
But again, in the middle of
the room, we find the so called people of God who had in reality completely
blocked out the world where God dwells. When Jesus told the paralytic that his
sins were forgiven, they pounced. They were not willing or able to recognize
the very one that God had sent into this world to forgive the sins of human
kind.
The people who had brought
the paralytic to Jesus were people of faith. And Jesus, being the good shepherd
that he was, ministered to the paralytic so beautifully. Jesus wanted the man
to hear the trumpet that God was playing, a tune which had no sour notes
whatsoever. Jesus wanted the man to be truly set free, in mind and body and
soul.
The man had been probably
taught that his paralysis was due to his sin. Many, in that time, believed that
sickness came from sin. Jesus wanted nothing to stand in the way of this man’s
healing. He played the clearest trumpet song that one will ever hear. He spoke
from God. He told the man, “Your sins are forgiven.” The ones who had blocked
out God complained. The man heard that trumpet solo, believed the message and
was ready for the healing touch of Jesus.
When God plays the trumpet
there will never be any sour notes. The word of the song that he plays ring out
with clarity that cannot be matched. “ I, I am He who blots out your
transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” Jesus
played it too when he said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” And Paul in our
lesson tells us very clearly that God never speaks to us with a “yes” and “no”.
When God speaks it is always with a “yes”. When God makes a promise it is
always with a “yes, yes, yes”. When God forgives our sins, Paul tells us, God
even gives us his Spirit in our hearts as a first installment of all that is
yet to come. With God it is always a “yes”! God will ever set us free with a “yes”!
BLOCKING OUT – SETTING FREE.
When we pray the Lord”s prayer we ask God to forgive our sins as we forgive
those who sin against us. I was talking with a dear friend of mine the other
day, as fine a teacher and theologian as one will ever find. He had just been
betrayed by some of the people in the institution where he taught and was
leaving now for a future yet unknown. He and his wife have suffered a great
deal in this process.
As we spoke on the telephone the
other night he told me that the most difficult thing that he was required to do
was to forgive those who had offended against him. Difficult as it is, God has
directed us clearly to do just that. God knows that as we learn to forgive as
God has forgiven us, we will suddenly be set free, free to live without rancor
and bitterness, free to serve as God directs, free to be led by God and filled
with God’s grace and love and Spirit.
On the contrary, those who
cannot forgive will block out the real world where God dwells and live in
bitterness and rancor and misery. We have all been given that challenge at one
time or another in our life. Let us never block out that opportunity to live in
forgiveness and joy and peace.
BLOCKING OUT – SETTING FREE!
We also mentioned at the beginning that there are so many around us who for one
reason or another have completely blocked out the world where God dwells. Some
have turned away because of trouble in their lives. Some have left the church
because they did not experience forgiveness and life in the midst of that
community, only fighting. Some have fallen away because of the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Some have never even heard
the message of salvation and that glorious trumpet sound announcing the
forgiveness of their sins in Christ Jesus.
We have an extraordinary task
set before us and a privilege beyond all others. By the power of God we can not
only be set free ourselves as we forgive others as God has forgiven us, but we
can set others free also by ensuring that they hear that pure sound coming down
from the Father of light. “I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my
own sake and I will not remember your transgressions.” “Son, your sins are
forgiven.”
What a wonderful task has
been placed before us. What a beautiful opportunity has come our way. When we
hear the sour notes of bitterness and anger and frustration, when we see people
captured by the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of
life, we can sound that clear beautiful promise, that “yes” from God.
Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes
Jesus loves me. Yes Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.
There are sour notes and the
blocking out of the life in Christ all around us. But we have been set free to
live in that real world of forgiveness and life and salvation and declare that
world to others. “Son, daughter, father, mother, brother, sister, friend, I
forgive you, and in Christ, your sins are forgiven!” AMEN!