Sermon for March 9, 2003

Pastor Gunnar L. Anderson

"UH-OH!"

A sermon preached on Girl Scout Sunday, celebrated at St. Peter's Lutheran Church on March 9, 2003:

Believe it or not, I was never a Girl Scout; though, when I was younger, I did have hair longer than some of you young ladies. But, at your age, I was a Cub Scout! And this is the actual uniform shirt that I wore. See the badges, and the arrows, both silver and gold? I got them for merit. Merit Badges, they are called; for accomplishment, for achievement, for tying knots or for some service project, for doing something well! And I can see from your sashes that Brownies and Girl Scouts have the same things.

But, you see, it's one thing to stand before your scout leader and get a merit badge; it's something else to stand before God! In fact, some of the words we use here in church say:

"Almighty God, our Creator and Redeemer, we who are made poor by our sins, freely admit that we are by nature sinful and unclean; That by our thoughts, words and deeds, we have lived contrary to your will. Because of this we urgently come to you, seeking shelter in your mercy...and not because of any merit we might claim for ourselves."

"...not because of any merit we might claim for ourselves." We call these words the Confession of Sins, admitting our selfishness, our short-comings, our failures to God. As we have already done in this morning's service: "We have not loved you (Lord) with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves." Or these words might be part of a prayer; for prayers to God are more than saying, "I want!" For there are different types of prayers. I use the word "ACTS," A,C,T, S, to help remember. A is for adoration, or prayers of "I love you, Lord!" T is for thanksgiving, or prayers of "I thank you, Lord." S is for supplication, or prayers of "I ask you , Lord," and "I ask you, Lord, for others." But still, there is that "C!" And C is for confession, or prayers of "I'm sorry about that, Lord!"

If we can "not claim any merit for ourselves," if we have not loved God, nor our neighbors as ourselves, then we have much to be sorry about! And this season of Lent, of which this is the First Sunday, leading us toward Easter next month, is a time for standing before God, for understanding we have no merit, for admitting our selfishness and short-comings, for confessing our sins, for saying with all seriousness: "Lord, I'm sorry!"

And could there be a shorter confession or a simpler prayer than, "UH-OH?" "UH-OH!" Those two little sounds, not even words, really, say it all! "I've made a mistake!" "I've screwed up!" "Oops!" "I'm sorry!" "UH-OH!" describes, then, what we are doing here this morning; what we doing here in church all throughout this season of Lent!

Indeed, writes Robert Fulghum in his whole book entitled: "UH-OH!": "Often the most expressive words we use are not words at all, just those shorthand sounds that represent complex thoughts - grunts and moans and snorts and clicks and whistles compounded by facial expressions and physical gestures: 'Uh-huh...no-no...mmmnnn...huh...hey...OK...yo...ah...ha...humpf...and an almost endless number of others whose meaning and spelling cannot be conveyed with letters on paper..."

"'UH-OH' is not in any dictionary or thesaurus, and is seldom seen in written form. Yet most of us utter that sound every day. And have used it all our lives. 'Uh-oh' is one of the first expressions a baby learns. 'Uh-oh' or something like it has been used as long as people have existed. And it may be, writes Fulghum, "the first thing Adam said to Eve after he bit into the apple. (and) She knew exactly what he meant..."

For in the creation story, in the first chapter of Genesis, the idea of human beings is set in the beautiful garden of God's perfect intent. God and the man and the woman, Adam and Eve, walk and talk together. All is harmony. All is good. All is close. But then "the second and third chapters show humanity from quite a different perspective: We who have been made from the earth (as we were powerfully marked with ashes just this past Wednesday) are lowly, weak, and easily led astray, and therefore we deserve God's punishment." Adam and Eve disobey God. They eat of the wrong tree. God casts them out of the garden. Now, where once human beings were close to God, now we are separated. Things are no longer perfect according to God's intent. It's not a garden anymore. That separation - we call sin! "UH-OH!"

In a way, the rest of the Bible is God trying to fix this problem. First, God decides to start over again, by flood! And here is where we come in this morning in Genesis, Chapter 9:

"God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 'As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you...'"

As they bounded forth from that famous ark, two by two. But it was the same old story. People, us; we remained selfish and sinful. "UH-OH!"

Next God tries something else. "I will be your God," he said, "you will be my people." Here's how - obey these 10 Laws, these 10 Commandments. But could we? Do we? No! "UH-OH!"

Then the prophets came, spokespersons for God; like Joel whom we heard on Ash Wednesday: "Return to the Lord your God," return to God's way and will for your life. But could we? Do we? No! "UH-OH!"

So, here we are, "claiming no merit," sinners separated from God, deserving only of God's anger and punishment. What do we do? You want to know? Lean in. Listen! "Nothing! Nothing!" Cause God does it for us! For, finally, God realizes that his people, that we will never be able to fix the problem of sin all on our own. So God decides: "I'll have to do it myself, for them! I'll send my Son Jesus to a cross, to die, to forgive sin; to atone, or make up for sin; to reconcile, or to literally make friends again; to redeem, or buy us back; and as Martin Luther says: "not with silver and gold, like the arrows on my Cub Scout shirt, but with his holy and precious blood and his innocent suffering and death!" We call it gift! We call it grace! "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us!" Though "we claim no merit for ourselves," though we do not deserve it, God decides to love us anyway!

And the signs, God's "badges", if you will, have been around us all the time! "God said,

'This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds...'"

As the song goes, "God gave Noah the rainbow sign." Now, "Ancient people imagined that the bow was a weapon with which (God) shot lightning," in anger to punish, to destroy! But "Here it is hung in the clouds as a (promise) that God will not use it." "When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you...and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy."

God decides to love us anyway! So the sign, the "badge", that is always around to remind us is the cross! As many of us this past Wednesday were marked with ashes on our foreheads, linking us to that creation story when God made us from the "dust of the earth," linking us as well to the disobedience of Adam and Eve, to being cast out of the garden, to being separated from God, ashes, as we looked in the mirror, marking us clearly as sinners, "UH-OH!"; but marked upon our foreheads in the shape of a cross!

Indeed, this morning, on this Girl Scout Sunday, we find Jesus "driven" off into the wilderness, not against his will, but compelled by the Holy Spirit's "irresistible energy" to embark into the extreme of human experience; far more than a scout camping trip:

He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts...

And the beasts, on one level, signify and emphasize the desolation, the loneliness, the hardship of the wilderness, of sin, of being separated from God; like we are. How cold! How scary! "UH-OH!"

But Jesus, "driven" into the hardship of the wilderness, also previews, for us, his Passion, which at the end on this Lenten time, during Holy Week, will "drive" Jesus to his knees in yet another Garden, called Gethsemane, and to the cross! And as Jesus suffered in the wilderness, the author of 1 Peter writes:

Christ suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.

Back again! Close again! And it is like Jesus, from the cross, throwing his arms around you, wrapping you up in a big, warm, wonderful hug! And so these words:

I say to you that God freely forgives us all our sins. This he does because of Christ's death and resurrection and not because of any merit we might claim for ourselves.

And suddenly it is no longer "UH-OH!" that utters from our lips, but "uh-huh," "oh-wow,"...and "AH-HAH!"

AMEN

Copyright © 2003 Gunnar L. Anderson. All Rights Reserved.

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