April 15, 2012

2nd Sunday of Easter, Year B, April 15, 2012, Greeneville TN

Scripture Reading: Acts 10:34-43

"Forgiveness in His Name"

Did you know that Easter is supposed to last 50 days? It’s a season more than a single day, and the longest church season at that. We know about the 12 days of Christmas and the 40 days of Lent. Then, here comes Easter, the great 50 days, capped off with the celebration of Pentecost. Whoever came up with the church calendar must have thought Easter was big – the biggest news, yet – to give that much time to it.

I’ll say big news. The resurrection answers a huge question. Who will be our judge? Will it be someone out to get us, someone out to make us pay for our sins? Or will the judge have mercy? Guilt or innocence isn’t the biggest question hanging over our heads. The prosecutors have the evidence to lock us up and throw away the key. We need to know the disposition of the one behind the bench. Who’s the judge?

The resurrection means Jesus will be the judge. The one who will make the final assessment of our lives won’t be our parents, our teachers, the courts, your employers or your worst enemies, but your best advocate. God has raised Jesus, friend of sinners, to judge all people, the living and the dead.

In his sermon to Cornelius that we read this morning, Peter said the resurrection of Jesus was like a coronation service. By raising Jesus from the dead, God ordained him as the true Lord. There are now no other contenders for the throne. And because God has crowned Jesus Lord, Jesus has ultimate authority over our destiny. He can give us life or he can take it away.

But remember how this Jesus lived. He healed sick, desperate people; he freed folks from evil forces from within and without that wrecked their lives; he fed hungry bellies and filled empty hearts; he even forgave sins. No wonder Jesus has so many love songs written to him: “No One Ever Cared for Me Like Jesus”; “Jesus Is All the World to Me”; “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Sweetest Name I Know”. This Jesus who loved, welcomed and forgave sinners will be the final judge.

Big news indeed because I’m not so good at forgiving myself. It seems that the very nature of sin is such that we do more damage that we can fix. I have memories of being mean to other children when I was a child that I can’t seem to shake. I can’t think of how to rectify those relationships without doing more harm than good. I have said harsh words to my own children that I wish I could take back. Even when I have admitted as much to them, the regret and guilt still cling to me. I recall times when I wasn’t a good friend, moments when I failed to stick by those who would and did stick by me. My lack of courage and loyalty still stings. The shame I feel over these acts – and I could list others – persists. I tell myself to breathe deep, to not punish myself anymore. I preach in the mirror to let bygones be bygones. But the pain of not being the kind of person I want to be runs deep and sharp. And I’m ashamed.

But Peter says we have forgiveness in his name. The judge, as stunning as it sounds, knows how to be more gracious with us than we know how to be with ourselves. Our fate is in the hands of a forgiving Lord.

If anyone would know this, Peter would be the one. When Peter says we have forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ, he’s not rattling off a proposition he learned in divinity school. He’s speaking from his own experience. We’ve heard the story of Peter’s redemption so often you may have already switched your minds into neutral. Please don’t. Stay in gear with me. The fact that Peter is preaching forgiveness through Jesus Christ is almost unbelievable.

Here’s the man who sinned directly against the judge! On the night of Jesus’ arrest, you’ll remember, Peter swore loyalty to Christ. Everyone else might desert Jesus, but Peter wouldn’t. Then, just as Jesus had predicted, when the screws of official power began to tighten, and being a friend of Jesus became a dangerous liability, Peter broke. Fear got the best of him, and he blew every chance to confess his connection to Jesus. Three denials and one crow of the rooster later, Jesus was strictly on his own. He would suffer and die without a friend.

The Bible doesn’t tell us what Peter went through between the cross and Easter. Does it have to? If anguish were measured in tears, Peter might have cried enough to feed every stream in Galilee. You know he felt a weight on his shoulders, an acidic crease in his stomach, and a knot in his throat. How do you live with the truth of your own cowardice? How do you come to terms with letting down the person above all others who from all indications would remain loyal to the end?

But let me tell you about this Jesus. When he was raised, he appeared first to the women, then to Peter, who had abandoned him. And the risen Christ didn’t hold Peter’s failure against him. Instead, he undid the knot in Peter’s throat, relieved the pain in his stomach and took away the weight on his shoulders. The judge, risen above all other powers, the one with final say over Peter’s life, refused to reject him. So when Peter declared far and wide forgiveness of sins through the name of Jesus Christ, he spoke not only because Jesus commissioned him, but out of his own confidence and joy.

Easter is big news. It means we couldn’t have a more gracious judge than the one we’ve been given. All of us will have to give an account of our lives. No one escapes the Day, capitol D, as Paul phrases it. But when the chambers open and the gavel goes down, the one taking the bench will be the same one who loved us, even as we were turning away from him, Jesus Christ the Lord. We couldn’t have a more gracious judge.

Who else might need to hear this news? Can you think of anyone stuck in guilt? Do you know anyone who is so hard on herself that the joy and energy are sucked from her life? Paul Barrett wrote a book on the history of the Glock pistol, which is now a favorite weapon of law enforcement and Hollywood films. The Glock rose to prominence in the 1990’s and 2000’s and brought many who were in the company up with it. Paul Jannuzzo was an attorney and high executive for Glock, who became very wealthy, watching over the company’s growth and its inevitable battles with public image and gun control lobbies.

Even though Jannuzzo was wealthy, he skimmed from the top. He suffered a classic fall, losing his position in the business, having all his resources dry up, killing his marriage with abuse and heavy drinking. The last we heard, he’s awaiting trial in the state of Georgia for fraud and who knows what else. But everyone already knows what the verdict is going to be. Do you think Jannuzzo might need to hear about the other judge? That someone else has final say over his life, someone who is sheer grace? How would we get word to him?

But we don’t need to go to Georgia. There are plenty of people – some known to us, others not yet known – whose lives might be salvaged by this good news of who judges the living and the dead.

I’m thinking of the spouse who regrets failing to tell his wife how much he appreciated her before she died. And he keeps wishing he could tell her now, but the time is gone. He doesn’t know how to turn it loose. It might be a relief to learn the judge knows how to be more gracious with himself than he does.

What about the couple who realize now they could have given more? More money, more time, more energy toward God. They’re increasing their gifts, but what gnaws at them are the years that already have passed that they can’t get back. Wouldn’t it help to hear that guilt doesn’t have the last say?

Consider most, if not all of us, who live with a sense of incompleteness. We’ve decided we missed the mark, we haven’t been good enough, we’ve come up short of our potential, and secretly we’re dissatisfied with ourselves. Well, we don’t get to make the final judgment. How much freer might we live if we believed in the judge? How much energy and hope might we get back if we knew we had permission to start fresh like Peter?

If we would like to express our gratitude to the judge, there is a way. It’s not an anxious way in which we’re trying to get the judge to like us. The judge is already disposed in our favor. But if we would like to make the judge happy, to send back some joy to him who has released us from condemnation, we can. The judge is happy when we point to him, when we make ourselves available to spread the good news of his reign. That pleases the judge. We don’t have to be perfect to please the judge, but willing to be a means by which the judge will set other people free.

The one who died for us is the same one who judges us. We couldn’t have a more gracious judge. I don’t see how we can keep this news to ourselves.