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Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766
Sunday, February 6, 2005
Sermon: “Nobody’s Perfect”
Scripture: Isaiah 58:1-12
Reverend Larry Gerber
Many medical centers are now encouraging their doctors to apologize for major medical errors — as a tactic for heading off lawsuits. But does repentance count if it is blatantly self-serving?
We all make mistakes.
But there are mistakes and there are mistakes.
If a barber makes a mistake, he calls it a new hairstyle.
If your boss makes a mistake, it’s not his mistake — it’s your mistake.
If a driver makes a mistake, it’s probably an accident.
But if a doctor makes a mistake — it could cost a life.
Apology as strategy is also practiced in some business settings. Have you ever had a problem with some electronic device that caused you to phone the manufacturer’s help line? Sometimes, when you finally get through to the customer rep and explain your problem, the rep responds, “I do apologize for that.”
Well, we may be glad the rep is saying so, but that “do” sure makes it sound as if the individual is simply giving a rote response or is reading from a script. From the manufacturer’s point of view, the apology, even if is canned, makes sense because it deflects a lot of customer anger. But if it is not a genuine apology, does it count in the higher scheme of things?
That is certainly a valid question to ask in the church, especially as we enter the Lenten Season, beginning this Wednesday.
There’s an old cartoon showing a father, mother and their young son exiting a church after a service. The father looks quite irritated and he is saying to his son, “I want you to stop referring to the church as the Repentagon.” But the boy was right, of course; repentance is a critical part of the church’s message. And we might think, at least when dealing with a God who can see what’s in our hearts, that our repentance is only effective when it is deeply felt.
Thus, pobody is nerfect reflects the fact that all of us are in need of repentance. Some of you probably have already made a note that you must call the office and notify them that they misspelled the word church throughout the bulletin. Save your call. We did that on purpose. The church is not as good as it could be when “u” are missing.
Some of you called it to our attention that the sign should read: “Nobody’s Perfect”, as if we did not know how to spell. We are always looking for someone to fail. If we can find someone else’s mistakes, then we can gloss over ours, perhaps. But you know – Pobody is nerfect!
Not too long ago, when some of our grandchildren were visiting us, not realizing it, I was walking through the house, putting a chair back in place, after one of the little ones ran past it and displaced it. It was pushed up against the wall and could easily leave a mark on the wall for heaven’s sake! But, our 12 year old granddaughter saw me straightening the chair, making sure it was just the right distance from the wall, and she said: “Grandpa, everything doesn’t have to be perfect you know.” I had a moment of awakening. She was right. I was being too fussy over the arrangement of the furniture, and not having the ultimate time for fun with my family.
Well, we don’t have to be perfect, no one is, but we sometimes need to repent for our misdoings. We need to realize that the church is the repentagon.
The biblical evidence gives us a measure of repentance. Rather than quiz sinners about the depth of their emotions when claiming to repent, God often seems more interested in their intentions and how that issues in changed behavior.
Our Isaiah passage is a case in point. God expresses his displeasure at the ritual acts of repentance performed by members of the prophet’s nation because the acts are empty and do not result in holy living. The act in question is fasting, a valid religious practice, but the fasting undertaken by the prophet’s contemporaries is the sort that has one eye open to detect whether the Lord is noticing how contrite the fasting appears. God actually quotes the people’s complaint with him: “Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” And then God answers: “Look, you serve your own interests on your fast day.” Concurrent with their fasting, the people are oppressing others. God says that the kind of fasting that is acceptable to him is the sort laden with true repentance, the kind in which the penitent not only asks for forgiveness but also moves to correct his or her sins and wrongdoing.
Using this passage as a guide, one finds it unlikely that apologizing to avoid a lawsuit really counts for much on God’s contrition scale, but if that apology also results in changed behaviors and new precautions to protect other patients from similar errors, then it has merit, whether it sidetracks the immediate lawsuit or not.
Our concern today is our relationship to God, and those times when we have sinned against him or others. Thankfully, God offers forgiveness and fresh beginnings, and repentance is the place to start. But as this passage from Isaiah shows, repentance is neither feeling bad nor performing pious rituals; it is intention and follow-through.
The traditional words of invitation to the Lord’s Supper call to the table those who “do truly and earnestly repent of [their] sins ... and intend to lead a new life ....” At that point, the intention is enough to make us welcome at the communion meal. That is probably because intention is a productive state of mind that causes results. Intention, in fact, is the energy of repentance.
Of course, what happens after we leave the communion table or arise from a penitent prayer or speak an apology determines the truth of our intentions. The steps we take to “lead a new life” determine whether for us communion, conversion or remorse is holy or sham. Follow-through is the enactment of intention’s energy.
Looking at the doctors apologizing for medical mistakes and knowing that it can have a beneficial effect on their malpractice insurance perhaps makes the apology suspect. But does that mean they should not apologize? No! Likewise, who can guarantee that our repentance from sin arises from totally pure motives? Fortunately, God does not ask for any such guarantees. Rather, God looks for our intentions and the follow-through that our intentions yield.
Right intentions without results is empty.
Results without right intentions is conniving.
But right intentions with appropriate results are what repentance is all about.
It is the way to live a holy life.
Prepare now, to break bread together. Receive the bread and the cup with intentions to give up, or give over, that which is burdening you. You are not the only one, in fact every person in this room and beyond, is in need of intentionally repenting, turning over to God, those things that are keeping them from having a fuller life. The church without “u” is not as good as it could be. Your life without intentional confession and repentance, is not as good as it could be. Be clear on your intentions, before you partake of the elements. Receive the bread; receive the cup; receive forgiveness to the extent that you give over, give up, or repent of your short comings.
Prepare yourself for intentional repentance, and God’s total forgiveness, as we break bread together.
On the night that He was betrayed, Jesus took the bread, he broke it……….
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Source: Zimmerman, Rachel. “Doctors’ new tool to fight lawsuits: Saying
‘I’m sorry. The Wall Street Journal, May 18, 2004, A1, A14.
Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766