Marcia Sietstra:  Pastor

You may have noticed that I entitled my reflections tonight, "Yes, Lord, I have sinned, but I have several excellent excuses."  It’s from the title of a book by James Moore.  In it he tells some great stories about how we make excuses.  I believe it was in his book that I read an old joke that goes something like this.  A feisty old man who was quite ill said to his wife, "You know, Sarah, you’ve always been with me—through the good and the bad.  Like the time I lost my job—you were right there by my side.  And when I got that great deal on that car that turned out to be hot, you were with me.  Then when I inadvertently borrowed some of my boss’ money and spent 2 years in jail, you visited me every day.  Then when I didn’t win on that bet that sounded like a sure thing—you  stayed with me even though we were broke.  And now, here I am, sick as a dog with cirrhosis of the liver, and as always, you’re right beside me.  [Long pause]  You know, Sarah, I finally figured out why all these bad things been happening to me…you must be bringing me bad luck!"  

While this man’s conclusions may be pretty outrageous, he is very normal in one way.  And that is in his tendency to want to blame someone for his mistakes.  We humans seem to have an instinct to blame, even as children.   

Blaming is one of the ways we make excuses for our sins.  Now there’s a word I rarely use.  My generation doesn’t use the word sin much anymore.  We prefer words like error, moral lapse, maybe even dysfunction.  That’s because it’s hard to define sin.  Does it have to be intentional wrongdoing to be sin?  Sometimes what a conservative labels as "sin" is not what I would call sinful.  Sin is not always personal; for example, a whole society’s  neglect of children, might be called corporate "sin."  

So even though sin is hard to define, and a complicated subject, for our purposes tonight I would suggest we think about our individual failures…the failure to do the good we know in our heart of hearts, we could do.  Our own personal sin might simply be thought of as whatever we do that is outside the will of God.  It may be doing something  that causes harm; it may be not doing something we know we should do.  Tonight I want to talk about not only the excuses we tend to make for our sin, but about something that will help us a lot more  

My own favorite excuse is justifying my sin.  When I have hurt someone by my insensitivity, for example, I say to myself, "I’ve been so busy, no wonder I was insensitive."  That translates as, "Surely God, you’re expecting too much."  Or how about this excuse, "He is just as much at fault as I am.  Why should I apologize?"   

There are a whole host of excuses people make.  When my husband was in graduate school, we managed 100 student apartments, and when we first got the job my husband had to collect back rent from students behind in paying their rent.  One young black woman, who was behind several months, told us she shouldn’t have to pay rent because black people had been victims of discrimination in the past and society owed this to her.  My husband reminded her of the contract she had signed.  Much as he agreed that racism had resulted in past injustices,that did not give her a license to be dishonest.  She was justifying her failure to live up to her word by blaming past events.  

Here are some other common excuses:  the man who has beaten his wife and says, "It’s her fault; she made me so mad."  Not a valid excuse to do physical harm.  Or the teenager who says, "My parents are mean so I’m just getting back at them."  The dishonest business person who cheats his/her customers and says, "I’m just doing it because everybody else does."  Or here’s a classic excuse: "At least I’m better than that guy!" as if that’s all God expects, that we are better than average.  

There is a movie called Groundhog Day that stars Bill  Murray.  He plays an unpleasant, arrogant weather broadcaster who has all kinds of excuses for being rude to people.  It’s Groundhogs Day and he has been assigned to cover the ground hog popping his head out of his hole in Puxatawny , Pennsylvania .  The weird thing is, every time Bill Murray goes to bed at day’s end, he wakes up and starts the same day over again!  Each morning the radio alarm clock in his hotel room shows 6:00 am , and he hears the same  Sonny and Cher song, "I Got You, Babe," and he begins precisely the same day he has already experienced.  Finally, after reliving the same day over and over, he begins to change his rude, thoughtless behavior and discovers that the day improves, until eventually he is so changed in character, he becomes a sincerely good, nice guy.  And when that happens, he finally escapes the repetitive loop of reliving the same day.  He wakes up and it’s "tomorrow," a new day.   

I love that movie, because it demonstrates how changing one’s behavior a little every day eventually produces new life.  That’s what Jesus taught.  That our loving God wants repentance, which  means to not only feel sorry for one’s sin but to turn around one’s behavior.  The word used in the original Greek for repentance is metanoia which literally means to turn around.  

The interesting thing is that when we face up to our sin, that’s when we are empowered to escape the old loop.  Any counselor will tell you, admission of failure is the first step to change, to escape the patterns of sin we find ourselves repeating.  So here’s the thing about excuses.  Not only does God see right through them, we don’t need excuses.  We need to repent and begin again.  In that, there is forgiveness.  

Recently I heard a story about a little girl, age 4, who was playing church one day.   She had recently been in church when communion was served, in this case by the pastor placing a piece of bread in the cupped hands of each one who came forward.  And the pastor would say, "God be with you," as the bread was placed in the cupped hands.  Apparently this made quite an impression on the little girl.  She asked her mother to cup her hands and bend down, as they played church.  Then, taking a piece of bread from her sandwich, she placed it in her mother’s hands, and whispered, in her most angelic voice: "God will get you."  

I am here today to tell you, "God does not want to get you.  God wants to forgive you; that is the nature of a loving God."  In Jesus’ story, the Pharisee tried to excuse himself, covering his guilt with words: "Lord, I do this, I do that.  And I thank you, Lord, that I am not like this man or that man."  He blamed, he justified, he made excuses.  

Meanwhile, the poor publican beat upon his chest and cried, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner."  As the parable closes, it is clear that the penitent publican was justified, rather than the excuse-making Pharisee.  

I will close with a story about a minister who dreamed that he had died and was trying to get into heaven.  At the gates, Saint Peter told him he needed 100 points to get in.   

Proudly, the minister said, "Well, I was a minister for 43 years." 

"Fine," said Saint Peter, "That’s worth 1 point."

"One point?  Is that all?" cried the minister.  "Just 1 point for 43 years of service?"

"Yes, that’s correct," said Peter.

"Well, I visited shut-ins."

"One point," said Peter.

"I worked with the young people."

"One point."

"I led Bible studies."

"One point." 

"Oh, dear!" cried the minister, in a panic.  "I feel so helpless, so inadequate.  Except for the grace of God, I don’t have a chance!

Saint Peter smiled and said, "Repentance!  96 points!  Come on in!"  

What a loving God wants is not excuses, but penitence and commitment to change behavior.  Yes, we have sinned, and we have several excellent excuses, but God sees through them all and is not interested in them.  God is interested in forgiving us so we can begin again and have a better tomorrow.  Amen. [1]

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[1] This sermon borrows heavily from chpt. 1 of James W. Moore’s book, Yes, Lord, I Have Sinned, But I Have Several Excellent Excuses (Abingdon Press: 1991).