Creekside Church Sermon of February 4, 2001 "Only Christians Sin " Isaiah 6:1-8 Luke 5:1-11	Rev. David Bibbee
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We were taught from early on to be against sin, and as it is within our power, to resist it. Growing up I learned that sin was associated with certain behaviors. The people who stumbled out of Frank's Wonder Bar were sinning. A couple named Lyons lived next door to my grandparents. Mrs. Lyons was often visited by a "special friend of the family," as my grandmother called him, and it seemed that he only paid visits when Mr. Lyons wasn't around. Whatever was going on, the first conclusion was... it was sin. It was very clear cut back then. Cheating on a test was sin. Calling someone names was sin. Harboring impure thoughts was sin. Shopping on Sunday was a sin. Occasions for sin lurked in every corner and crevice. Christians walked a narrow, straight path, and didn't allow themselves to be lured down the well- beaten paths of sin.

Understood this way, sin is someone else's problem. Sure, we stumble now and then, but compared to those whose sin is severe enough to put them on the paper and the eleven o'clock news, we are not bad people. For instance, the sins of Bill Marcin are not those of Charles Manson. But the Bible draws no such distinctions, nor splits hairs. The bar by which we each are judged is not set to the height of another person. It is much higher. "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory, not of another person, but of God."

A quote by the Swiss theologian Karl Barth caught my attention. He said, "Only Christians sin." To non- Christians, sins are slip-ups... small potatoes, no cause for concern. But Christians know the issue is much bigger than coveting, conspiring, and carousing. The long list of sins, little and large is but a symptom of a bigger problem, and that is the great gulf between us and Almighty God. The greatest awareness of sin doesn't come in the hours after an offense. It comes from what we are doing right now, worshipping a holy and righteous God.

I want to demonstrate this by examining today's lessons. As was his custom, young Isaiah went to pray at the temple. Worship was always the same. I spoke with a man who was an associate pastor. It was the custom of the senior pastor to call all those involved with worship to meet in his study 15 minutes prior to worship. There was a number he called to get the exact time from an atomic clock at the Bureau of Standards in Colorado. He made everyone synchronize their watches so worship would start at precisely 10 a.m.

Isaiah knew everything to expect in the service, but he had no way of knowing what was about to happen to him. Inside were banks of candles. The air was thick with blue, pungent smoke from incense. But somehow this day it seemed different. Others sat and stared at the smoke and candles, but Isaiah watched as the smoke swirled and folded into a great robe. The burning candles made a golden hem. The people heard the choir, while Isaiah listened to the same music and heard an angelic choir shouting "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts." The others kept checking their watches in hopes worship would conclude in time to get to the restaurants before the rush. Isaiah felt the temple floor shake and sway beneath him.

The young prophet had been given a glimpse of God, and from that moment on nothing would be the same. And everyone in the temple looked at him as if he had gone mad while he cried, "Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips and I live among people with foul mouths."

A similar thing happens in our gospel lesson. Jesus was teaching the people from Simon Peter's boat. When he finished he ordered Simon to cast his nets on the other side of the boat. Simon told him there was no use since they had fished all night and got skunked, but if he insisted. You know what happened. Simon got the catch of his life. If it had been me I would have asked questions. "Why are the fish away from structure at this time of day? What are they foraging on?" But this shows what I know. Simon shouts, "Get away from me, Lord. I am a sinful man!" Did Simon want Jesus to leave because he was a better fisherman, or because Simon saw to the core of who Jesus was? To be in the presence of God incarnate, to behold his holiness and pure unbounded love, to see it with absolute clarity and then see his own mortal, limited, sinful self... well, it was too much. To all of this add the fact that Simon knew he was the biggest catch that day. Then we begin to understand his plea... "Just go away. I am a sinful man."

While receiving spiritual direction from Pat Hellman, she told me about a conversation she had with her director, Sister Maureen. Pat expressed the desire which had been at the heart of her prayer. She said she was praying for light. Just give me more light." Then Sister Mo offered a precaution. "Be careful what you pray for. Greater light can give you more insight into God, but the greater the light the darker the shadow. You will see more clearly, but you will also be seen more clearly. "Is that what you want?"

In I John 1: 5 we read, "This is the message we proclaim to you, that God is light and in God is no darkness at all." If Isaiah and Simon Peter could stand here and tell us their stories, they wouldn't do a good job of describing God. It was an ineffable experience which defied description. What they would be able to describe is the inward look they got of themselves. Before the shouts of, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts", pride and pretence evaporates. What they were left with was their frailty and sin.

Sin is not a word that is employed much these days. But without it and the condition to which it points, we cannot appreciate the love of God which bridges the gulf between us. I since learned about a book which studied the differences in the way Americans responded to the explosion of the Challenger in 1986 and the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. In 1912 the press spoke of lessons to be learned, the limits of technology, and human pride over its achievements. Scripture was quoted. "Whosoever exalts themselves will be humbled, and whoever humbles themselves will be exalted." Lurking beneath the disaster was the pervasiveness of sin.

When the Challenger exploded, however, the response was different. News anchors and reporters didn't know what to say. One anchor said, "Does this mean the Russians are ahead?" The problem was technological they said. Something about "O rings in cold weather." Something overlooked which could be fixed. No recognition of limits...just human error.

We have lost the language of sin. We talk about dysfunctional persons and families, environmental and cultural factors to describe what's wrong with us. When the theologian said, "Only Christians sin," he meant that we, more than others, know our sin because our lives are accountable to the God who loves and judges and forgives us. I often get the feeling, based upon the demeanor we bring to worship, that we have lost touch with the grand canyon that lies between who God is and who we are.

Sunday morning is more casual than it used to be. This is obvious by the way we dress for worship. But my concern isn't casual dress. It is casual attitude. We get our focus turned around. Worship isn't about us and our needs. It's about God and his desire for our lives. We worship to praise God's greatness and humble ourselves before God's holiness. I have been in churches where it seems like the conversation with God is a conversation among equals. When we sing, "Holy, holy, holy", I don't hear any of us crying, "Woe is me, I am a person of unclean lips!" I haven't heard anyone say to Jesus, "Get out of here. I'm a sinful person!"

We need to know the awe of being in the presence of the Almighty, mysterious God, and not, like the people Annie Dillard sees in churches who... "Look like brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute." In worship we become aware of how far we are from God's desire for our lives. Annie Dillard continues, "We haven't the foggiest idea of the power we invoke. Or as I suspect, no one believes a word of it. It's madness to wear ladies straw and velvet hats to church. We should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to the pews, for God may draw us out where we can never return."

But do you know something? The only way we could ever dare face God and admit our sin is with the confidence that God is a saving, forgiving God. Therefore, we can dare to be honest and face the truth about ourselves.

I came across a sentence that stopped me cold. It read, "If God can't have us, then anybody can." This is why God is determined to have us. Isaiah's unclean lips were charred clean. "Your guilt has left. Your sin is blotted out. God has something in mind for you." Peter pleaded, "Go away, Lord." But he didn't get what he wanted. Jesus didn't leave. He never does. He loved Peter, forgave him, and turned him into the rock upon which the church was built. As Elie Weisel has said, "It is a great privilege to be defeated by God."

As I worked on this message, Dick Colver came to mind. At his funeral last Friday I said that Dick could build an articulate case for the God he didn't believe in. But he also knew that articulating what you don't believe in isn't sufficient to carry you through life. The need was for knowing himself as he was, being loved despite all he had done and left undone, and then allowing himself to be embraced by the God he could trust.

The Sunday before Dick and Carolyn left for Florida, Dick did a first. He came forward for anointing. I didn't talk with him about it before or after. I'm not certain why he came. All that counts is that he came. Who knows? While you listened politely to my sermon, maybe Dick saw folds of smoke with a golden hem. While you sang, maybe Dick felt the foundations of the building shake and heard voices crying, "Holy, holy, holy!"

Whatever it was, he came forward, and knelt in a posture of confession and surrender. Dick could not have come, nor could any of us come to ourselves and to God, if we did not first believe in a generous, forgiving, loving God who reaches across the grand canyon of our sin to bring us where we belong.

Anybody can have us, but only God can do something with us. "It is a great privilege indeed, to be defeated by God."

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