“The Two Most Deadly Sins"      Pent. 15 C, 1995,   September 2, 2007

A friend asked me about what we mean by sin. My first inclination is to ask, what’s going on that behind that question. Often there’s a problem where the person is in a no-win situation. You may have heard the saying, “darned if you do, darned if you don’t.” And the person asking me had one of those situations. I said, sometimes, we don’t have a good option. We can only try to chose the best of not so great options.

It’s helpful to lift up a distinction between sin and sins. Sins are those things we do which are not God’s will. They are the commandments we break. They include things we’ve done and left undone, and things known and things unknown. Those are our sins, which we confess, and that God forgives through Jesus Christ.

Sin (without the “s”) is living in the present human condition. It’s part of the world’s landscape today. Sin is our world’s rebellion against God's will. One passage that gives a clear understanding is Romans 3:23. In Romans 3:23 Paul writes (KJV), "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God..." Paul does not exclude anyone, even himself. All have sinned. All have fallen short of God’s glory. Paul asserts that we have all sinned. We can't help but sin; it is a part of being human.

I like this basic honesty about life. With this understanding of sin, the need for the love and forgiveness of Christ becomes the most beautiful thing God has ever done for us.

Today the title is “the Two Most Deadly Sins.” Now the church already has a traditional list of seven deadly sins. There’s even a movie called Seven Deadly Sins. Today, I take a fresh look. Today I want to talk about at human sin, singular, without the "s" on the end.

I like to look at all sins as fitting into two categories. The first is the sin of despair. It is the feeling of insecurity that you and I are not important to anyone (even God) and not loved. We all have that occasional feeling that no one cares, even God.

Last week, a friend of Mother Theresa who is writing a book about her released some of her personal writings. For much of her life, the letters tell us that Mother Theresa doubted her faith in God. It seemed to her God wasn’t listening. There was a time early on when she felt God’s presence, but it didn’t last. This despair made her feel depressed. The media had a field day. And I’m sure it really brought attention to the book.

The truth is, at times the most admired Christians have all felt despair at times. Martin Luther wrote that he had long struggles when it felt like God was distant and didn’t care about him. He wrote his prayer, “Dear God, I believe, help my unbelief!” He finally came to the conclusion that no matter how we feel about God’s presence, the promise of Christ is still true. He discovered that faith includes a struggle with unbelief and doubt about God’s promises in Christ. He came to the conclusion that regardless of his personal feelings and doubts, God was the same and Christ was still the same.

Many if not all of us fall into periods of despair, wondering if anything makes any difference in this world? When that continues for weeks on end, despair can lead us to degrade ourselves physically and spiritually. Despair can lead to clinical depression, substance abuse, or letting ourselves becomes victims of abuse. That abuse is often sexual. This list of problems haunts every family in our country.

The church is where we can work on the problems that flow from despair. All the twelve step programs begin with a confession of the problem, and they work if we will truly turn our life over to God.

Recently our congregation council expressed their solidarity with Cherish our Children. That’s an ELCA initiative in respond to the growing amount of sexual abuse including prostitution of our young people. You have been asked to pray for our children. That prayer is our way of saying, our children are important to us, and to God.

We have good news because the message of the gospel is that we are important to God. God loves us. There are other many other good groups that are making huge strides in helping victims of violence and substance abuse. As for clinical depression, doctors and researchers have found that for many, there’s a chemical imbalance which leads to clinical depression.

Despair is one side of a coin of human sin. On the opposite side of the same coin is the sin of pride and conceit. It is the feeling of superiority over others. It can infect individuals and groups and even nations. Consumerism, materialism, and racism all are sins of pride and conceit. They prevent us from allowing us to be loved and from loving others.

The way to heal the sin of pride is to learn humility. Today, Jesus is teaching the power of humility. Consider the scene in Luke 14:7 14. Jesus arrived at a party given by a prominent leader and Pharisee. It was like a black tie event. All the important people were there. Jesus noticed how everyone was trying to get near the head table. Then somehow Jesus was allowed to speak, and I’d venture to say, that made everybody nervous.

Jesus said, "When you are invited to such a party, take the seat at the lowest place." Did you hear what he said? Go to the party, go ahead and be in the company of kings and princes, of the rich and famous. Jesus did not turn down this invitation. Then he said, "Take the lowest seat." In other words, don't get caught up in those who are trying to get close to the head table. Jesus said, "For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who are humbled will be exalted."

In the first part of this teaching, "For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled,” Jesus is assuring them of God’s judgment on those who exalt themselves. Remember the story Jesus told and poor Lazarus and the rich man? The beggar Lazarus went to heaven and was in the bosom of Abraham, while the rich man went to hell? There is judgment coming for those who exalt themselves.

Then Jesus added, "Those who are humbled will be exalted." When we humble ourselves, we will be lifted up. When we talk about humility, we don’t mean what it means outside the church. Humility is taking our seat with those who have no power or influence. We know that God loves all people, especially the poor. In humility, we know that everything we have, everything we are able to do is a gift of God’s grace.

Today, the virtue of humility is rarely mentioned outside the church. Not too many people are hearing Jesus’ message about sinners and poverty. There’s a country song by Mac Davis makes a satire of says, OH Lord, it’s hard to be humble, when you’re perfect in every way. I like the song, because I consider it a satire, a joke against the conceit and pride.

For the most part, the world judges us on the basis of our wealth and power. But Jesus says that learning the way of humility and service is the way to peace, the way of God's Kingdom. That didn’t go over well with most of the people at the party Jesus attended.

Then Jesus really made them mad. He said when you throw a party, invite my friends. The poor, the lame, those whose are sinners and failures. Why? The value of humility is that it takes away our pride and conceit, and gives us the power of the Sprit of God.

Today, I’d like to say that humility gives us a healthy sense of self esteem. This happens when as we follow Christ in his humility; we adopt his profound conviction in the power of God. Here are some words I read somewhere that I found enlightening. "Humility and self esteem are not opposites; they are the results of the same thing. Humility is to know that God is God and I am not. God created, loved, forgave, and called me. Self esteem [God's empowerment for each person] is to know deep inside that I have intrinsic value and can trust God's promises for me."

Do you recall the last night of our Lord's earthly life, when he so longed to share a meal with his beloved friends? He gathered them for Passover in an upper room, and he instituted Holy Communion for the forgiveness of sins and the power to go in peace and serve the Lord. But before that, an awkward thing happened that night. You see, they had been walking all day on the dirty roads. Before dinner, Jesus became a servant to them and washed their feet. The next day, what we call Good Friday, Jesus humbled himself to the cross. Here God in Christ assumed the role of a humble servant who died so that we can live in him.

Now we have a dinner invitation from Jesus himself. Come, and receive forgiveness of sins, the sins of despair, the sins of conceit. Come, and you will receive the power that comes through the Holy Spirit, that sends un into the world to go in peace, and serve the Lord as Jesus has served us.

Amen