Romans 1:16-17; 3:22-28  “A Way Out of the Mess We’re In”  6/1/08

                Years ago I remember reading the classic, work of Jean Paul Sartre “Huis Clos” which means “No Exit.”  It described hell in secular terms as sitting around in a waiting room with no exit to the outside.  This is nothing but depressing.  The reason real existentialism did not last is that people can’t live like that.  Some of the leading thinkers advocated suicide because life is so meaningless.  There are people in the world that see the tremendous mess the world is in.  They see meaninglessness.  They see good people being hurt and bad people gaining ground.  They see evil around us.  They see politicians fighting over power and see lies, deception, spin, and hear of smoke-filled backroom deals being made.  Then they look around and think that there is no way out- no escape- no exit, and that makes it even more stressful and depressing.

                The Bible does not mince words about the mess we are in.  The Bible indicates that we are in a mess, and no person has avoided getting muddy.  It says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  This means the smartest person and the least intelligent; the richest of us as well as the poorest; no matter where we live; no matter what our profession is, no matter whether we go to church or not—we all sin.  We all are in this mess.  There is a sense in which corruption is everywhere. If you think you will not find it among the people we elect to be the best servants- our politicians- you will be wrong.  If you think you will not find it among church members you will be wrong.  If you think you will not find it in the universities, you will be disappointed.  If you think you will not find sin among little children- you will be wrong.  If you think you will not find it among people who’ve been brought up to know better you will be wrong. 

                We are corrupted.  It is pervasive.  You don’t have to look far to see that the world is messed up.  We aren’t what we are meant to be.  We turn against God- we rebel and we don’t even know why.  We don’t believe and won’t even try to believe and we don’t even question why.  Brunner pointed out that sin is always irrational- it just doesn’t make sense- but we do it anyway.  Paul even said, “What I don’t want to do – those are the things I do.  What I want to do- that is what I will not do.” 

                We live with guilt as well.  It shows in so many ways.  Some secularists who seem to be amused by the idea of original sin are the same ones who talk about our generation paying for the sins of our parents and grandparents.  They may not talk about the sins of Adam and Eve, but they might talk about the sins of holding slaves or the sins of pollution.  It is passed on from generation to generation- and as far as you can look back there is sin.  We are in a mess.  There also is individual sin that is passed on.  It could be we teach our children to deceive others, to covet, to lust, to break relationships, to be selfish and proud. 

                T.S. Eliot said that the final dilemma of life is that sinful pride can be cast out only by more sinful pride.  By ourselves we cannot get out of the mess we are in.  My seminary professor, John Leith, said this is the problem: the inability of a self-centered person to become unself-centered by his or her own efforts.  Self centered people cannot become God-centered by trying hard.  Anymore than a proud person can become humble by trying hard.   We our bound by our own environment- by our own makeup.  We are bound by who we are.  There was a book written in the 1970’s to point out that we don’t talk about the word “sin” anymore,  It was written by Karl Meninger- “Whatever Happened to Sin?”  The answer is we have tried to remove the spiritual, mysterious side of things in life and thus we rationalize everything away.  In doing this, we have taken away human responsibility for our own actions.  It is not the government’s fault.  It is not the other guy’s fault.  It is not your parent’s fault.  Who you are, in many ways, is a reflection of what you have chosen to be and whose you are. 

                The crazy thing is that we know deep down in our hearts things are not right, and people don’t do the right thing- but we look around us to see how we’re doing compared to everybody else.  That is like being on a sinking ship and seeing if anyone else is worried.  If they’re not moving toward the life boat, why should you?  It is like being on a plane whose engine died and hurtling from 10,000 feet and seeing if you are in the back or the front.  If they’re not reaching for the parachute, why should you?  We are like fish being flushed down the toilet and we’re seeing if we’re swimming as well as the other fish in the toilet bowl! 

                The other part of it is that we are consumed with making things better.  I believe in that too- this is our calling from God.  I want to make the world a better place to live while I am here.  It is possible to do this.  But we should also remember that even our best deeds will not make the world permanently wonderful.  Sometimes the good, wonderful, terrific work we do can be destroyed in a minute.  I remember one church fixing a roof on the house of a very poor woman and then the next year this house partially burned so that no one could live there.  There are definite limitations on our work here on this earth.  My point is improvement is good, but ultimately we don’t just need improvement- we need salvation!  We are not made whole by doing good things- we need salvation.  We don’t need to teach people only how to cope with the bad things of life—we also need to teach people how to be saved from the bad things of life!  Paul’s passage is not about how to put salve on while the house around us is burning- it’s how to get out of the house!  Paul’s message is not about how to swim in a tsunami- it’s how to get to higher ground to escape.  Christianity, you see is not just about being nice in a terrible world.  It does teach us to be nice because Christ has come.  But it is primarily about how to be saved from this world that we live in.  I’m not advocating an other-worldliness. I believe salvation comes in this life and we need to live like saved people.

                That goes with the other part of the lectionary text of today- “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God for salvation.”  God has given us a way out- it is time to tell the world about it, and not keep it to ourselves.  If you were in a drowning ship, and you saw the coast guard helicopter coming- and others did not, would you not tell them?  If you were in a burning house and you heard the firefighters yell, “Come this way”  would you not tell the other people in the house?  If you knew we were in a messed up world, and you found a way out of the messed up world- would you not tell people? 

                Calvin said to be in Christ is to be out of ourselves.  Christ can help us to not sin, but in this life, even Christians mess up.  When he said “all sin” that included us.  So when I see a sign in the paper that says that certain people are “sinners” implying that the rest of us are not, they are mistaken.  We are all sinners.  But the really, really good news is that there is a way out of the mess we are in.  There is a show on the Discovery Channel called, “Dirty Jobs.”  They have listed things like Sewer inspector, chimney sweeper, pig farmer, shark repellent tester (that’s a great one).  The good news about these jobs is that they do not last.  At some point the sewer inspector gets out of the sewer, the chimney sweeper brushes off the soot, the shark repellent tester gets out of the shark cage.  Thank God they do!  But in a way this life is full of dirty stuff.  The good news is that there is a time when the dirty stuff is through- and we get cleaned up, made holy, our sins erased- isn’t that great?  If there are some people who think we never can get out of our mess.  If there are some people who think we are stuck forever in our guilt, in our sin, in our perfect storm of corruption, wouldn’t it be great to tell them of a way out?  Jesus Christ is the way out.  Tell your friends, neighbors, family members- do not be ashamed!

                Communion is a reminder that Christ came to save us from the corruption and guilt of sin.  He has provided a way out.  When we take the bread to our lips- we are saying we trust in this way. 

everyone makes mistakes. Oh, yes they do Your sister and your brother and your dad and mother too;
Big people, small people, matter of fact, all people! Everyone makes mistakes, so why can't you?

If you spill a glass of milk all over the floor, Well, your mom and dad still like you just as much as they did before,
'Cause when Mother and Dad were just as small as you, I'll bet that they knocked their milk over too.