Announcements
Sermon
Tonight let’s start off with a question. Have you ever heard “Love the sinner. Hate the sin.”? What does this mean to you? How does it make you feel? Positive? Negative? Neutral? Why? Did you know that this phrase isn’t even in the Bible? Love the sinner. Hate the sin.
If you’ve spent any time in church or around Christians you are bound to hear this at some point. But what always puzzled me was how can love be followed by hate?
In past sermons we have learned what love is. Can you remember how the Bible describes it?
”Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
-1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love “…keeps no record of wrongs…”
Just a little further in chapter 13 it ends with “And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.” How can we say we love? How can we be followers of Jesus and hate?
I remember when I was going to college at ETSU. There was a space outside the library that was treated as public space. Any person or group could reserve it. Many school festivals were held there. Us Elders use to be on the board of PFLAG Tricities. PFLAG was founded as a support organization for friends and family of LGBTQ+ people. I remember staying up late (the three of us) making a giant balloon arch. I remember Elder Curtis’ living room floor being absolutely covered in balloons.
We set up our booth outside in the public space at our college. Elder Chris was our intern at that time I believe. The event we were part of was all about love and support. Love. Not hate. No judgement.
However, I have another memory of that space. I remember a couple men coming each year. They held signs that had big bold letters. “God Hates” followed by a massive list. I never heard love come from their mouths. He shouted at students walking to classes. If anyone tried to chastise him this in his mind justified his faith. If he was pushed against he believed he was being discriminated against. “Persecuted”. He felt judged when he was the one doing the judging. He held an ideology obsessed with sin. He wanted to scare people into heaven. I wasn’t even a Christian at this point. But based on his screaming I believed Jesus hated everything. Everyone. I never heard about Christ’s love. I don’t believe he said Jesus loved us even once. Hate. No love.
“Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another speaks evil against the law and judges the law, but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor?”
-James 4:11-12
”So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor?” We as humans are not in the judgement seat. Jesus even gave us our guide post. He told us the greatest of ALL commandments.
“One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.””
-Mark 12:28-31
With that, then what is sin? The word used for sin in Hebrew is “Chet”. And it Koine Greek it is “harmartia”. It means to “miss the mark”. This imagery is of an archer or spear thrower aiming for their target with intention but missing the bullseye. Does that mean we write the archer off as a failure? Dirty? Corrupt? Toss them aside? No. It means the archer tries again. And again. And AGAIN. As many times as it takes to hit the bullseye. And to keep hitting it.
Elder Chris is the one who gave me tonight’s sermon’s main point.
”We’re taught at such a young age to be good and to follow the rules. And if you don’t then you get in trouble. Pair that with a perfect and holy God. Especially in this area…if you do anything wrong then you go to hell. We lose sight of God’s grace and endless mercy. And love. We’re taught not to miss the mark that we don’t even realize that Jesus is the mark!”
People have created a religion of shame when Jesus broke those chains! People try to hold you to your past. Past mistakes. Old choices. Even when you’ve proven time and time again that those chains are gone. You’ve been set free! You are NOT your missed marks!
I want us to finish out tonight with this final reading.
“Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds, but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.”
-2 Corinthians 3:15-18
Let us stop being sin obsessed. Hate obsessed. Let us follow the greatest commandment of love which is embodied in Jesus. He is our mark to aim our arrows. If we focus on him then the Holy Spirit will naturally transform us into his image.
You are free.
You are not your mistakes.
You are not your past.
Don’t let anyone sew the seed of hate in you. No hate for others or yourself.
No judgement for others or yourself.
Re-notch your arrow. Keep adjusting. And let it fly!
Amen.
