SERMON 9 - SUNDAY 10 JUNE 2012 - All Saints' Parish Church, Farley
Genesis 3:8-15 & Mark 3:20-35
Some time ago, I heard the story, whether it is true or not I can’t now remember, of a young vicar who, having arrived at his new parish, let’s call it Great Snoring-on-the-Hill; put a sign up outside his church which read “This church welcomes all sinners”. Shortly after that, the churchwardens were instructed by the PCC to write to the bishop to have the new incumbent removed. The reason, the letter explained, was that such a sign suggested that anyone going to that church was a sinner and that the good reputation of the regular churchgoers in that upstanding community of Great Snoring would thereby be compromised – besides which, the sign might attract real sinners, which was certainly not something they would wish to see happen.
This story,
be it true or not, got me thinking about how many people don’t come to church
because they think it is only for holy people who do not sin and are always pure
in body, mind and soul? - I certainly used
to - or if they were found sinning, would be labelled “hypocrites” or
“un-Christian”. For many years, let’s call them my “wilderness years” I thought
like that. I turned my back, not on God
- I’ve never done that - but on the institution we call church because I
thought it was a place where only the holiest of believers went. I felt that unless I was completely pure, I
would be struck down by lightening or something if I ventured upon holy ground.
I preferred to pray and read my bible,
whenever I got around to it that is, in the privacy of my home.
In our
readings today, we first of all heard of that first temptation which led Adam
astray, to eat of the forbidden fruit after having been told by God, that he
was not to do so. It’s also the first
occasion that the poor woman gets blamed for the man’s actions – but I’ll not
go further there – except that I’ve used the excuse myself before now – usually
when we are late for an event.
That event
in the Garden of Eden, known as The Fall, was the first of many occasions when
the God of the Jews was let down by his chosen people and we read throughout
the Old Testament of how prophet after prophet predicted the fall and exile of
the Jewish nation and also of the countless occasions when God forgave them,
entered into fresh covenants, and gave them another chance. Even the great
anointed king, David, who committed murder and adultery, was ultimately
forgiven and blessed with his son, Solomon who became a great and wise ruler. Our whole faith is based, therefore, on
repentance and forgiveness culminating in that great sacrifice upon the Cross.
As
Christians, the forgiveness of our sins through the Cross is at the heart of
our faith. So what is Jesus saying, then,
in St. Mark’s Gospel when he says “but whoever blasphemes against the Holy
Spirit can never have forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin”? Indeed, when in Matthew 18:21 Peter asks
Jesus how many times should he forgive his brother, Jesus’s answer is “not
seven times but seventy-seven times” meaning an infinite number. Yet here in Mark (and this passage is
parallelled in the other synoptic gospels, Matthew and Luke) he is saying that
there is an unforgivable sin which cannot be forgiven – something which seems
to attack the very heart of our faith – a faith based on Jesus’s own life and
teachings of repentance and forgiveness.
It must truly be something awful.
I am a
sinner! I’ll readily admit that. I doubt there is a day that goes by in which I
don’t do something, very often in thought, which God disapproves of. Earlier in the service we confessed our sins and
asked for forgiveness truly believing that if we are genuinely repentant those
sins will be forgiven. So what is an
“eternal unforgivable sin” and are we in danger of committing it and thereby
cutting ourselves off from God’s salvation.
I remember
having a discussion with a couple of Christian friends in Liverpool over a
rather good Indian meal and beer. We
wondered whether God had a ranking system for sins so that if we took a pen
home from work and didn’t return it that ranked much lower than if we committed
murder; and a single crime of passion murder ranked lower than genocide. Then one member of our group offered the view
that any sin against the Ten Commandments merited the same ranking irrespective
of its severity. That had me worried
that all the pens I had ever “borrowed” from work ranked alongside the genocide
of the Second World War!
Let’s look
again at what Jesus says in this and the parallel passages of the other
gospels. Numerous scholars down the
years have theorised and debated what the unforgivable sin is that Jesus talks
about. Christianity magazine’s
resident theologian, Greg Downes puts forward five suggestions (and I have some
copies of his article which appeared in this April’s edition for you to take
away after the service):
First of all
– is it a very serious sin? If that is
the case, then, as we have just seen, why were such biblical characters as
Moses, Joshua, King David, and Elijah forgiven and given such prominence? Indeed, Moses and Elijah were with Jesus at
the transfiguration. They all committed murder or genocide in their time
Secondly –
was it declaring God incarnate to be the devil incarnate? - for we read that
the scribes, the learned ones – suggested that only the devil incarnate could
cast out demons. But Jesus answers this
by saying that this is illogical as if a kingdom is divided against itself it
will fall. It makes no sense therefore, because if Satan rises up against
himself he will destroy himself. In itself it’s a stupid comment and not worthy
of further comment.
Thirdly –
was it rejecting the gospel? – the good news of Jesus Christ? - in
circumstances where the gospel has been clearly heard but then rejected. Well,
it has to be more than that because Jesus talks about blaspheming which implies
speaking against the Holy Spirit -
not simply rejecting Him. Blasphemy
comes from two Greek word – blapto – “to injure” and pheme “to speak”. So a modern day word might be “slander”.
Fourthly, is
it “backsliding” – a defection or turning away from the Christian Faith to some
other Faith or no Faith at all? That
seems to have no logic either, because everybody has a right of repentance and
we ourselves, ask for forgiveness every week, and very often we ask to be
forgiven for the same or similar sins we’ve committed. I know I do. Surely a loving God would not close a door to
somebody who wanted to turn back to the Christian Faith.
The fifth and
final suggestion is that it is the wilful slandering and rejection of the
ministry and work of the Holy Spirit as it bears witness to Christ.
To look
closely at this we need to understand the context in which Jesus’s words were
spoken in Mark’s gospel. We are told in
one of the parallel gospels that a man possessed of demons was brought before
Jesus to be delivered and Jesus performed his usual healing ministry. It was after seeing this display that the
crowd asked – could this be the son of David? – in other word were they asking
if Jesus was the long awaited Messiah?
The
Pharisees would have wanted to discredit this idea immediately and therefore
suggested that only somebody with the devil in him could do this – in other
words if he did have supernatural powers they did not come from God because
they didn’t want them to come from God through this man. It is only after these clear unequivocal
accusations from the Pharisees that Jesus uses the strong term that such words
are blasphemies against the Holy Spirit and therefore an unforgivable sin.
So where
does that leave us poor sinners. Can we,
as Christians commit the unforgivable sin?
Well, if we
accept the fifth suggestion then the answer should be no! Phew!
Because blaspheming against the Holy Spirit requires a failure to
recognise Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God who gave his life to
forgive our sins. We cannot commit that
unforgivable sin because by definition, a true Christian has received and not
rejected Christ.
You see, it was
not the sin itself that couldn’t be redeemed by Christ’s own redemptive work
but the Pharisees hardening of their position and their emphatic rejection of
Jesus’s status and ministry.
So,
miserable sinners that we all are, accordingly to the Book of Common Prayer, as
true Christians we cannot commit the unforgivable sin unless we consciously,
maliciously and wilfully reject and slander the evidence of Christ’s ministry
and our own conviction of the testimony of the Holy Spirit.
That doesn’t
mean that we can sin in other ways with impunity, we are still answerable to
God, but it does mean that we maintain a belief and a passage to God’s
redemptive spirit.
We therefore
should applaud what that young vicar did – the church is indeed here to welcome
ordinary sinners through its doors so that they may hear of God’s love and
forgiveness and never be in a position to commit that unforgivable sin.
Amen
