For You!

We can mentally review the Ten Commandments and be reminded of the infinite-seeming ways and opportunities for us to deny the honor which is due to God, and the broken relationships with our neighbors as well.

Then it is time for confession, trusting that God's response will be to hear and redirect us.

Forgiveness is more than a mere pat on the head, with God saying “There, there now.”

The announcement of God's forgiveness literally changes our situation.

It sets for the proper basis for a new relationship where one has been shattered;

it is beyond anything which we can repair on our own.

“You have run away from me,” Jesus says.

“You've harmed your neighbor too.

Stop running, babbling, or complaining,” he says, “since I have heard all of the reasons and excuses.

Stop!, and listen:

given and shed for you, for forgiveness.

“I forgive you,” Jesus tells us, “I turn you around, right here and now.

I'm setting you on the right path again, even as many times as you have fallen off before.

I'm patient and persistent, even more than you can be willful and contrary.”

That is very good news for us all!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in 1938:

“At a time when I was God's enemy because of his commandments and how they hemmed me in, he treated me like a friend!

When I did him evil, God dealt me good.

He did not hold me accountable for my evil, but sought me unceasingly and without bitterness.

He suffered with me.

He died for me; there was nothing he would not bear for me.

...True, I do not understand why God loves me, why I was dear to him;

nor can I comprehend that he was willing to overcome my heart through his life;

but now I can say that I was met with mercy!”

For me, for forgiveness...

And now it is to be said not only in audible words but also in visible words, that is, in actions.

In our hands and mouths we receive not a vague promise but Christ himself.

As bread and wine are shared in the name of Jesus, they are the place of his very life with and for us, and in us.

Much ink and blood has been spilled over trying to understand how this can be so.

We'll never settle that until we gather around the banquet table in heaven.

What we can say now is that this is the word and action of the ever-creative God who brings something out of nothing, light from darkness, hope from despair.

This “for you,” this “forgiveness,” this “fresh path,” this “new day” are different ways of saying that God is continuing to create around us, in us, and through us.

Let's make up a situation:

Person A is mad at Person B and they accidentally come face to face during the Sharing of the Peace.

Averting their eyes, they kind of mechanically say “Peace be with you” to each other.

Then at Holy Communion, again by happenstance they end up next to each other at the Communion rail and they hear the words Given and shed for you spoken by the Pastor with whom they are both annoyed because of some perceived failing on the pastor's part.

Fortunately, the sacrament depends on God's promises, and not on how we feel about the speaker or each other.

Person A could think that person B is a bonehead, and vice versa, and they could both declare the pastor insensitive or whatever...and yet Jesus' word my body and blood given and shed for you, for forgiveness comes to all three of those persons.

And maybe, just maybe, this will be the time that those words really sink in, are digested in our minds and hearts as well as our stomachs, and begin to change all three of us from the inside out.

Oh Lord, may this be what happens with all of us this day, for we are twisted and broken apart in so many ways!

May the pieces of your body broken and scattered among us this day be what it takes to bring us together in a renewed walk with Jesus, not as individuals but as a whole company,

a whole church,

the whole body of Christ.

Many scoff, and have scoffed...

from Judas who wanted the kingdom of God on his own terms and timetable rather than on God's.

...to the soldiers who mocked,

...to the thieves who jeered in their agony,

...to everyone who ran away,

...to the multiple thousands right here in Williamsport who claim to have no time today, tomorrow, Saturday, Easter Sunday, or any day for that matter, to receive the precious Word of Christ Jesus in their ear or in their hand.

For those of us here gathered, part of acknowledging that we have in fact heard Good News is to be searching for ways to effectively pass on that Good News to just one person among the thousands.

Given an opportunity, that creative Word of God can bubble out in the most unexpected places.

It creates, it forgives, it renews.

Given and shed for you, for forgiveness.

It is pure Gospel for us this day. Amen.

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.