FIRST SUNDAY in LENT

March 6, 2011

Text: Romans 5:12-19

Pastor Dale G. Bauer 

Once very early on in my ministry, I was talking with a friend, a psychiatrist, and the conversation drifted into the topic of self-evaluation. He asked me, How would I assess my strengths and weaknesses as a person? The question caught me off guard. And I had to think. I stumbled around saying things like, I’m smart; I am a hard worker; I’m honest; I’m loyal. When it came to my weaknesses, I stumbled even more, saying things like, I’m sometimes arrogant; well, I don’t know really. His response: You really don’t know yourself very well. That stung. I thought I did know myself pretty well. That question launched me on a life-long quest to know myself as best I could.

Over the years, I have learned that some of the most important skills I have to develop as a pastor is self-knowledge (who am I?) and self-awareness (how do I interact with others?) One of the reasons Abraham Lincoln has become one of my great heroes is because, unlike most of the politicians and leaders of his day, he had unusual self-knowledge and self-awareness. It allowed him to focus on saving the Union and then attacking the institution of slavery.

None of us should be surprised that self-knowledge and self-awareness are key. In the sixth century B.C.—that would be 2,500 years ago—the man responsible for the first true democracy, Solon, is attributed to have said,

                                                            Know Thyself

It is self-awareness and self-knowledge that allow us to face the truth about ourselves. And then access the truth that is Christ Jesus. Jesus was clear about the power of the truth.

                                    ... you will know the truth

                                   and the truth will set you free.

What gets in the way of our facing the truth? A couple of things.

Sociology and Personality. Societies and cultures can blind us from facing the truth. Arnold Toynbee, an eminent historian, did a study of the major cultures and empires of history. His conclusion was that every great society had within it the seed of its own destruction. He called it the “schism in the soul.” Rome fell, he maintained, because, among other reasons, it was not able to see and correct its own moral rot. With detailed analysis, he looked at the “schisms in the souls” of the Eastern and Western civilizations. We can so fall in love with our cultures and our countries that we fail in national self-knowledge and awareness.

All of us, in one way or another, have dinged-up personalities. We have our fears and anger, our compulsions and addictions. Some people are severely damaged. These personality distortions affect our self-knowledge and self-understanding. And these distortions make it hard to face the truth. The young man who shot the Congresswoman and others in Tucson had little, if any, self- awareness or knowledge, let alone facing the truth. Because of these distortions, we need communities more than we imagine. Often friends, families, and faith communities can point out our distortions and help us face the truth. If this were not the case, how do we explain the success of groups like Alcoholics Anonymous?

Sin. Sin distorts self-knowledge and self-awareness. It leads to denial. It pushes truth out the window. Sin is so important to recognize because it is so much a part of us. It is Apostle Paul who reminds us that all have sinned since Adam and Eve sinned first. For him it was unavoidable and cureless outside of Christ.

                        For I do not do the good I want,

                        but the evil I do not want is what I do.

I know I’m talking to the choir, so to speak. All of us here probably consider ourselves faithful followers of Christ and work hard at it. I believe that. But that in itself doesn’t diminish the power of sin to distort and confuse.

As I’ve told you before, my first call as pastor to a church was to a struggling congregation in the mountains of Colorado. By the beginning of the second year of my tenure as pastor, it was clear that people were motivated, but giving wasn’t following that motivation. I tried persuasion to increase giving. Didn’t work. I tried visioning the future to jumpstart giving. Didn’t work. I tried a slick stewardship campaign. Didn’t work. So it got the better of me one Sunday. In a sermon I noted that giving isn’t what it needed to be. And then I blurted out: It’s not because you can’t afford give—it’s because you don’t want to. Sin has gotten the better of you. Was I in trouble. At the end of the sermon Donna came up to me and asked me how I could preach a sermon like that. Didn’t I know that this little church was doing the best it could? And didn’t I know that she was in church to get just a little good news, and instead was accused of being a sinner? Yikes.

During the week after that sermon, I got a call from Donna. She apologized for the aggressive tone of her comments Sunday and then told me I was right. The problem wasn’t that the congregation didn’t have the resources, but that sin was getting in the way. Donna dramatically increased her giving, but she also persuaded others to do the same.

The power of Lent is to face the truth that Jesus is Lord, who claims us as our own. We’ve got to exercise self-knowledge and self-awareness so that we can face this truth and focus our lives and resources. To get beyond our personal wounds and the straightjacket of our society and age.

It is also the time we do stewardship at Cross of Hope. I’ve always wondered why we approach stewardship so gingerly in the church. Apostle Paul had to raise money, especially for relief work. My conclusion is that we fail to face the truth, that all we have belongs to God. It does not belong to us, no matter how hard or wisely we have worked for it. (Talk about our society distorting truth.) The rub we feel at this time of year, as we contemplate our gifts—money, spiritual gifts, time, skills—is that we are called out of our comfort zone and have to face the truth.

Amen.