Fear is for Chumps

I've been preaching through John Wesley's 44 sermons. I read them through twice, picking them apart paragraph by paragraph and summarizing each, filling the margins of the Big Blue Book of Wesley Sermons with my scribbles. Then I exegete the primary text (ans surrounding text) that he bases the sermon upon. Once I've done all that I write it all down in quick notes on a yellow legal pad. Then I put it all together in using my own particular speaking style, illustrations, and observations.

YAWN.

(Just wanted to letcha know I'm neither plagiarizing nor reading JW's from the pulpit.)

Last Sunday I preached from Romans 8.1-8 and sermon 8, "First Fruits of the Spirit". I did something along the lines of talking about dancing with a partner or something like that (it wasn't good). Since I had been writing papers all week, pulled an all-nighter Friday, and played Santa on Saturday, I had little time to put quality work into refining the sermon. I relied heavily on my manuscript and just got plain lost while speaking due to shear exhaustion (I can't wait for the day where I don't have to try to preach in the midst of taking finals). I thought it was crap.

Afterward, I had four people (out of 26 in worship) thank me for the sermon. At first, I did the typical, "It was all the Holy Spirit, cause I just wasn't with it this morning," shtick. But now that I've had time to think about what I had preached and what others had said in response, I think I know what's going on.

One of the things Wesley hits hard in "First Fruits of the Spirit" is what it means to not be condemned for sins because of one's relationship with Jesus. The short of it is this: If we are forgiven, there is no punishment. If there is no punishment, we have no rational cause for guilt. If we're not guilty, then there's nothing to fear. And that past part is what did it for people.

How many Christians go through life afraid of sin? Worried about damnation and hell? Not assured of their salvation? Worrying if they had ever committed the unforgivable sin? Thinking they have to be prefect? From the reaction of folks at church, probably more than I can imagine. Now, I'm talking about people who earnestly do not want to sin, who attend to it in their own lives frequently, who try to avoid both inward sins of the heart and outward sinful actions, both of commission and omission. But sometimes we start to get that mentality that our slavation is dependant on our own actions. This can become quite stressful when you begin to realize how much we can sin due to our own ignorance, because of situations that we find ourselves in, or just because we're surprised by our own humanity. Jesus simply doesn't hold us accountable for honest mistakes and things that are out of our control.

Yet Wesley, always the pragmatist, reminds us that we're not to try to take advantage of this fact. Willful sins are what break our relationship with God--and willful neglect. A serious athlete who misses a point or is outperformed by another athlete or makes a mistake due to equipment or environmental issues can be surprised by their failing. A dutiful musician who misses a conductors cue or miss-keys a note can by startled by their error. Its not their fault that they made a mistake any more than its someones fault for feeling hungry, thirsty, sick, or lonely. But if the athlete skips practice, eats poorly, and doesn't work out--if the musician doesn't practice techniques, misses rehearsal, and doesn't maintain his or her instrument--then those mistakes are on his or her head.

You see, we get in trouble for willful mistakes, by our actions or by the fruits of our intentional neglect.

What was refreshing to those folks was this: If you trust that Jesus forgives you and makes things right between you and God, then you're not condemned for your sins. As long as you're human being you're gonna be prone to sin, temptation, and mistakes. You don't have to worry about the eternal consequences as long as you're putting forth genuine effort.

Reminds me of the immortal words of Jules Winnfield, "The truth is...I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm trying real hard to be the shepherd.