Sin – it sneaks up on us
and reminds us of our need for redemption!
A baker in a little country town
bought the butter he used from a nearby farmer.
One day he suspected that the bricks of butter were not full pounds,
and for several days he weighed them.
He was right.
They were less than a pound,
and he had the farmer arrested.
At the trial the judge said to the farmer,
“I presume you have scales?”
“No, your honor.”
“Then how do you manage to weigh the butter you sell?” inquired the judge.
The farmer replied, “That’s easily explained, your honor.
I have balances
and for a counter weight
I use a one-pound loaf I buy from the baker.”
Ah, yes, the baker was selling less than a pound loaves of bread!
Sin – not following God’s will
Sin – it sneaks up on us
and reminds us of our need for redemption!
In order to talk about redemption
we need to talk about sin first.
If we don’t acknowledge our sin
why worry about the need for forgiveness?
And where do we go to learn about sin?
the 10 Commandments
Stealing, cheating, lying, cursing, worshipping other gods,
coveting, gossiping, etc.
We don’t do the good we want to do
as Paul describes it in Romans 7
but we give thanks to God who takes away our sin.
That is what our gospel reminds us of today
the refining, purification, salvation, and redemption,
of our lives that comes through Jesus Christ.
Redemption
For those of us old enough
I could refer to S&H Green Stamps or Top Valu Stamps
You’d get stamps for grocery store purchases
fill the books with stamps
and redeem books of stamps for gifts.
But our youth
or even those under 40
probably don’t even know what I am talking about
But thanks to Apple and the “i” system
we have a new way to explain redemption.
go to the iTunes App
click on the word Redeem
and type in the combination fo letters and numbers
and voila
you have $10, $25, OR $50 to spend in the App or Music store.
Redemption meant something even more in the time of Jesus
Our gospel lesson
ends with Anna the daughter of Phanuel
Notice that it lists her as a prophet
How many female prophets do you know?
Not Jonah, Elijaah, Jeremiah.
In fact I don’t know of too many
Miriam, sister of Moses was
and Deborah, the judge was
and two other lesser known people.
So Anna has a special place in the Bible
a female Prophet – one who speaks for God
Notice that she was married for 7 years,
then widowed.
Marriage took place at an early age
so at age 84
she could have been a widow for 50-60 years!
What a feat that was in a day and age
where a woman had to be tied to a man
to have status and rights in the community.
Yet what was Anna doing?
worshipping and fasting and praying in the temple.
After Simeon had shared his prayer and warning
Anna came praising God
and telling that in this child
there would be the redemption of Israel.
That is,
Jesus would somehow redeem us from our sins
and make things right with God
Through Jesus
we would be able to cash in something
like our iTunes card or stamp books
and get something in return
That is
Jesus on the cross
is our redemption card.
When we come to God believing in Jesus as the one who takes away our sins
he does
redeems our sin
pays the price for our sin.
And in so doing
he brings light into our lives
The theme of Epiphany is Jesus as the light of the world
The lessons today
reflect the theme of Jesus as the Light of the World
who redeems us
Our OT lesson speaks of refining and purifying
When I went to Miriam Webster for a definition, it gave:
Refining the process of purification of a substance or form
I love it when they use the second term to define the first term
What does it mean to refine or purify?
Crude oil will burn in its natural state
but refined crude oil will burn better in your car
and not clog up the engine with all its impurities.
Refine – Purify
That is what God is doing with us
We sin
we know that
but through Jesus we are cleaned up – purified
so that we don’t clog up our lives with our sin.
Our second lesson says
Jesus made a sacrifice of atonement for our sins
Atone – break that down into two words:
At – one
the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross made us at one with God
The relationship broken by sin
has been repaired, atoned.
We have been freed from the slavery to the fear of death
by the great High Priest, Jesus
who died for us in our place
The wages of sin is death, says scriptures
and he died in our place.
If Jesus had not died for us
I would still be offering goats on this altar
scapegoats were goats
on whom the priest placed our sins
and died in our place.
That’s what the priest did in the OT.
We discussed this theme this week in confirmation
so one youth asked,
“Why don’t I (the pastor) still have to offer sacrifices anymore?”
Because Jesus died in our place
Jesus did die, once and once for all
and instead of a sacrifice
I refer to a cross
a cross on which Jesus sacrificed himself
and paid the last price for sin.
He redeemed us from sin and death.
Notice one sidelight in the lesson
Jesus was tested by what he suffered
and is now able to help us.
Jesus knows what it is like to be tempted
Jesus knows what it is like to deal with sin
Jesus knows what it is like to suffer for doing good
and he can relate to us
and strengthen and encourage us.
Jesus came to share our suffering.
Whenever we try to do God’s will
it might result in suffering .
Even Jesus was rejected for doing God’s will.
But because of Jesus
we can see that when God’s plan has come to completion
(through the sufferingof the cross)
the whole world will see God’s salvation.
(a new life for everyone who believes)
That’s what Simeon saw in our gospel.
Simeon has been waiting to die
but he had asked the Lord to live long enough
to see the one who was going to bring salvation into the world
And he shares the now famous hymn
The Nunc Dimittus
from the Latin for Lord, let your servant go in peace
We used to sing that song after communion
It has been replaced by Thank the Lord and Sing his praise
after Communion today
we’ll sing Lord, Now Let Your Servant.
Salvation
God has saved us
paid the price for our sins.
Redeemed us.
What does that look like?
A family took a vacation
and stayed at a cottage on a small lake.
There were lots of fun things to do.
There was only one rule:
No one was to try to swim across the lake.
One day the son decided
that he could swim across the lake anyway.
Halfway across,
the boys arms became exhausted
and he began to go down.
He struggled and screamed.
Hearing the screams,
the father dove into the water
without hesitation to save the son.
It did not go well,
and it occurred to him
that they might die together.
But he struggled on.
And finally they reached the shore.
