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Apr 19, 2015

I Come with Joy – Forgiven, Loved and Free

I Come with Joy – Forgiven, Loved and Free

Passage: Luke 24:36-48

Speaker: Rev. Vivian McCarthy, Pastor

Keywords: communion, forgiveness, joy

We all sin, and we are recipients of forgiveness and grace. It is sometimes easy for us to forget that we are in need of forgiveness. Forgiveness frees us and brings us deep joy!

Two or three weeks ago, when I began working on today’s worship, I was really focused on the Holy Week services, and if I’m truthful, I was getting worried about having any inspiration for the 2 Sundays after Easter. It was one of those, “I’ve got nothin’” days. Bill asked me what he should be planning for the choir, and I told him it should be “something Easter-y.” Deeply theological, don’t you think!?! So, I turned to the General Board of Discipleship’s preaching planning page – and I read this: Throughout the whole of Luke’s Gospel, and all the gospels, forgiveness is God’s response to us when, as we saw in the reading from I John last week, we confess our sin and seek God’s help to break free of its continuing power in our lives. We do not offer sacrifices in order to be forgiven. We offer ourselves at the Lord’s Table in a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving precisely because we have already confessed our sin and, by God’s grace, have been forgiven. We pray the Great Thanksgiving, not cowering in fear, but standing in great joy because, just as the Risen Jesus was with his disciples at the Table that night, so we confess that he is with us when we gather around his Table, offering himself to us alive, and commissioning us to rise from this Table and resume our work in his name. I got to thinking about forgiveness. And I wanted a good story, so I Tweeted out a question and also posted it on Facebook: Looking for a few good stories of repentance and forgiveness. A few people wrote back, and the answers I got were most interesting – just not really what I was looking for. The answers did, however, get me to thinking. First of all, it struck me that all but one of the responses was about someone offering forgiveness. None of the stories actually told of receiving forgiveness. We are in the season of the year when we celebrate new life – grace – resurrection – a Savior who died for our sins. So, I have two questions for us today. Don’t worry, this time I don’t want you to answer me out loud. But I do want to start you to thinking deeply about this. • Why do you think it’s so hard for us to share about a time that we have been forgiven? • What does it feel like to be forgiven? That first question is worrisome. When I am the forgiver, I am in the position of generosity. In a sense, I am in control. I am not dependent on the one who has wronged me. In fact, I look really good when I’m the one doing the forgiving. When someone forgives me, I am in the secondary position. I am the one who has done the wrong. Let’s face it – I look really bad! I don’t often use the Invitation to the Lord’s Table when we have communion. One of our homebound folks just last week reminded me that communion is incomplete without repentance and how important the invitation is to her. The invitation has changed over the years, and I particularly like the old one that says, Ye that do truly and earnestly repent of your sin, and are in love and charity with your neighbor and intend to lead a new life, draw near with faith and take this sacrament to your comfort. Friends, it doesn’t matter who we are, we need a Savior. We need a God who forgives us. And we need to know that we are dependent on the grace of God as well as the grace of others, not just on our strength and abilities. We are so highly gifted and talented, and we are so independent. We get it done – whatever “it” is. It is SO tempting to forget that we are not gods – to hold ourselves in such high regard that we forget that we need God – that we need a Savior. Today we are going to take communion again. I know it’s not the right Sunday. But today’s scripture text is calling us to come to the Table. And we’re going to use the invitation and the confession and the assurance of pardon. I’ll give you a little extra time to consider what you want to get off your chest. Why? Because I am praying that every one of us will rise from our time of confession with the feeling that we have been freed – that we are forgiven. And the joy of that forgiveness will wash over each and every one of us as we come to the Table. I did receive one reply to my Tweet from an old friend of mine. He was a pastor and a leader whose leadership I have experienced in several different ways through my journey in ministry. He had a way about him, and many times I found him to have great insights and talents. He shared with me a sermon that he wrote recently, a highly personal sermon about what he called the demons in his life and how he needed grace. It was a kind of confession. He told how he had lost his job, lost his wife, and lost his passion for ministry. He is no longer a pastor. My friend wrote about how, at the lowest point of his life, filled with guilt, broken and empty, he began worshiping in a small UMC in the town where he now lives. Through the loving care and grace of that congregation, my friend found healing and forgiveness – forgiveness that he could actually feel, forgiveness that freed him. He was finally able to hear what God offered all along. In the last part of today’s text, Jesus tells the disciples that they are to be witnesses to repentance and the forgiveness of sins. That we, like that other UMC that healed my friend, are to be witnesses to redemption, and the new life it brings. So, let’s join together in confession. Let’s receive pardon – really! And then, come to the Table of the Lord: I come with joy to meet my Lord, forgiven, loved and free, in awe and wonder to recall his life laid down for me.