SERMON 9 - SUNDAY 10 JUNE 2012

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