Brent Kuhlman

+ Jesu Juva +

You are died for.  Redeemed.  Good Fridayed.  Free.

So now you can do anything you want.  Right?  Use Christ’s free forgiveness to live for yourself.  Like you’re everything and the people you live with, work with, and worship with are nothings.  Living as if Jesus never died and rose for you or nobody else.  As if Good Friday and your Baptism never happened.  Refusing to forgive as Christ has forgiven you.  For this you have been set free by Christ?

The apostle says “No.”  You are to use your freedom properly.  It is a life of love.  A life of living not for yourselves.  A life of love for others.  Self-sacrificial love.  That doesn’t count the cost.  That doesn’t keep score.  A love that throws out the record books and score sheets that you’ve been keeping. 

Know anyone here at Trinity who sins?  Whose life is broken by sin?  I can think of someone.  All I have to do is look in the mirror.  And so do you.  Sinners and sin are to be dealt with in the church.

But “watch out.”  When you’ve been sinned against or observed someone sin, the temptation is to be a Better Than Thou.  To become arrogant.  “I’d never do anything like that!  How horrible!  That person should know better!” 

Watch out.  Someone sins against you and you become manipulative.   Seek revenge.  Pay back’s a . . .!  Gain some leverage.  Puff yourself up.  Kick the sinner out of the family.  Give the sinner the silent treatment.  Hateful emails.  Tit for tat.  Quid pro quo.  Call for a voters’ meeting and get the excommunication process rolling.  Or if you’re not in the mood for that, just have the Pastor and elders send letters.  Put the sinner on probation.  Four weeks to get his/her act together otherwise we’ll remove their name from the roster.

Is that really how you, forgiven freely for Christ’s sake, should treat people?  Sinners need mending.  They need help.  Just like you and me as sinners always need. 

And so, you have a divine call.  And what’s that?  The apostle says to:  “Restore those who sin.”  And to do it “gently.”  Like the trusted family doctor that gently sets your child’s broken arm.  Like the fisherman that carefully mends his nets.  Or the mediator who brings opposite sides back together to be friends.

Someone in the congregation sinned against you?  Hurt you?  Unintentionally?  Intentionally?  Lied about you?  Put the worst construction on what you do?  Rubbed you the wrong way?  Ignored you?  Rude?  Seen anybody in the congregation sin like that?  How about in your family?  A friend perhaps?  Maybe someone who’s not a friend.   What do you do with these people?  What is your call from God?

Ignore them.  That’s the ticket.  Then we see no evil.  We hear no evil.  Don’t agree with that?  Maybe we should take the opposite approach.  Rail on them.  Read them the riot act.  Make threats.  Give them what they deserve.  NO!

Restore the sinner gently the Bible teaches.  “Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about,” says the blessed apostle Paul. 
Paul knows.  Chief of sinners he was.  Hunted down Christians.  Arrested them.  Jailed them.  Murdered them.  Took great pride in it.  Because Christians worshipped a Jesus that he couldn’t stand.  But then Jesus, the Friend of Sinners, showed great love.  Converted and restored Paul:    gently.  Oh sure, he was blind for a short time, but Paul was given a faith in Jesus the Good Friday Savior of sinners who rose from the dead on the third day.

And Paul had a friend named Peter.  Peter spent three years with Jesus.  And then one day in the week we call holy he decided to live as if he never knew Jesus.  Didn’t want to be seen with Jesus.  Hid from Him.  Denied Him under oath.  What a sinner.  On the Cross Jesus could have said:  “Bring me the Denier!  I’m getting down from here!  Let’s put Peter up here.  That’s it.  Drive in those nails boys!  The big ones.  How does it feel Peter?” 

Instead, Jesus prays:  “Father, forgive.”  And then after the resurrection Jesus restores Peter the sinner.  Gently.  “Peace be with you,” He said.  Showed Peter His hands and side.  And then later said:  “Peter, you’re forgiven. Feed my sheep.”

Restoration.  The gentle restoration of sinners is your divine call in the church and in your families.  This is one of the ways you live a life of love for others. The church does not live for herself.  She lives to love sinners.  To restore.  To forgive.  Gently.

We love fellow sinners that way because Christ first loved us sinners that way.  Died and rose for us all.  We love fellow sinners that way because that’s how we would want to be treated by the Lord.

To restore a sinner is to say:  “Dear brother.  Dear sister.  You’re caught in sin.  You’re letting sin be the lord of your life.  You’re a slave to your sinning.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I’m no better than you.  In fact, I’m probably worse.  Yeah.  I know I am.  But we both have a wonderful Savior.  He died for your sin.  He died for my sin.  We’re forgiven.  You’re forgiven.  We’re free.  You’re free.  Let’s boast in Christ’s cross for us.  We’re new creations in Him.  Let that be start of a new relationship between you, me and the rest of us."

Give it a try.  You’re free!  What have you got to lose?  Slavery to the power of sin that’s what. Forgiveness is what living in Christ and with each other is all about.  Happy living in the freedom of Christ’s forgiveness with each other. 

In the Name of Jesus.  Amen.