No and Yes

When Cain was whining because there were consequences due to his murder of his brother, God assured him that he would not die but he would be protected by God's own mark upon him.

That is God's YES in spite of Cain's murderous NO.

When Peter in our First Lesson today points out the crowd's part of culpability in the death of Jesus when he says “you killed the Author of life”, their NO to God,

Peter holds out to them the opportunity to “Repent therefore, and turn to God....”

The word-picture to have in our head is to be making a complete change of direction when walking = repent.

And God's YES is then specified: “...so that your sins may be wiped out.”

So that the separation between God's intentions and our actions may be erased.

So that the community between Jesus and us, and us and each other, which has been fractured in so many ways with the cacophony of NO, may be put back in harmony.

The NO sounds so loudly around us.

That is why we quote those verses from 1 John in the Confession office each week:

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us....

That passage is not something which we hurry up and get over with so that we can get on with more fun things on Sunday morning;

it is a crucial element in our understanding of who we are and how we relate to God and each other.

“I'm on my own, I'm all grown up,” we say in so many ways, and it is simply not true.

The foul language, garbage, and behavior on TV, movies, in school, on the street, at work, etc. is turning us into garbage also, and we refuse to see that it is happening.

That NO kills life and community.

I came across a note I wrote down years ago in sadness about an acquaintance who was proclaiming that violent premarital sex was fine.

“I've done nothing wrong,” the person claimed.

“If we say we have no sin, we're fooling only ourselves....” we're saying NO to God and to each other as well.

So often, before we know the facts of a particular situation, we are ready to pronounce that a person does not deserve assistance, basing it on a prejudice or a whim.

We need to have a very large dose of humility and acknowledge the truth to which Luther pointed when he said “We are all beggars” before God.

Then we can be quiet long enough to hear God's gentle YES that endures when our NO finally dies away.

And of course it is our very casualness toward this Sunday gathering that is a very loud NO, and that is sad indeed.

God gives a YES of comfort to those who walk for hours in Ethiopia and other places in Africa to get to worship.

God gives the YES of resurrection hope to untold thousands who suffer brutal persecution and martyrdom this year for faith in Jesus Christ in Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria, Indonesia, India, China, Korea, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey, and dozens of other places.

For some years now we have been naming in the Prayer of the Church one or more Christians who is caught up in persecution in the present time.

I have a feeling that sometimes folks are thinking that these names are made up or exaggerated situations or from a long time ago or legendary.

The sources from which I derive them are the most reputable I can ascertain:an international journal called Touchstone, and an agency called The Voice of the Martyrs.

Both of them have long and distinguished histories of seeking the truth and getting aid to Christians in difficult situations.

They want us to know how Jesus has said YES to brave people in nearly impossible situations.

The NO in the haphazard attitude shown by so many of our brothers and sisters locally is in stark contrast.

“If we say we have no sin, we're fooling only ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

The Christians in Iran have to take the batteries out of the cell phones so that they can't be tracked when they come together as church in some out of the way corner.

A 7-year old son in Iran was listening to his parents talking about quitting a high-paying job in order to serve God better, the boy said “Abraham was ready to give his son for God, and you are only thinking about a job. It's just a job. “

The father quit the job, and recently made 30 new converts in one month.

A man in Iran was imprisoned and tortured for his testimony.

A judge told him, “How dare you become a Christian!

You are a blasphemer! You are dirty!

You are unclean!

The judge had the guards in court slap him in the face.

Later another judge whispered in his ear, “Tell me how I can become a Christian.”

It is only when folks run out of their own power and recognize that they are going nowhere by themselves,

then the word forgiveness has meaning.

God's YES can be heard as the good news of a fresh start.

We deserve nothing; we keep on saying NO

And yet Jesus faced every separation and bridges it.

He refuses to take our NO as the final word and again and again confronts us with his NO to our past and his YES to his future.

When that finally sinks into our hearts and minds, then there is the chance of joy for us as there is for Leodel in the Philippines who was supported and encouraged by Christian friends after her husband was brutally murdered.

This YES, this word of Jesus

is not just information about him,

it does what it says, it gives life

it fills us with joy , it forgives,

it renews the community of Jesus and his brothers and sisters, the body of Christ.

Oh, please, let there not be lukewarm singing!

We know that we are in the valley of the shadow of death,

but this is the very place that Jesus has promised to be present and support us to the very end.

Here is his throne.

In this valley he spreads his banquet table and bids us join his YES, his victory song. Christ is risen. HE IS RISEN INDEED. Amen. Alleluia.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.