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Sin is More Than a Choice

            Did you notice the blue lines in the skiing competitions at the winter Olympics? These patterns painted on the snow help skiers stay on course. When the sky is overcast with less light contrast to make shadows, the terrain of the hill looks flat, but skiers need to see and navigate the bumps as they speed down the slope. It’s a safety issue. Watch the lines. The pattern shows you where to go, when to turn, and what to avoid.

            Printed on the landscape of our lives are lines. Painted in the colors of history, these lines allow us to see more clearly the patterns of human behavior from the past. From strategies about sports or engineering, to health remedies, painting techniques and family recipes the lines of past human behavior can help us navigate more successfully today.

            The human behaviors reported in the three Scripture lessons today sound like the lineup of news stories I endure whenever I catch the top of the 10 o’clock broadcast. Violence and perversion must mean high TV ratings for networks, who would drool at the chance to report any of these Old Testament headlines. Rebels swallowed alive by man-eating earth. 23,000 die from disease after committing sex acts as sacrifices to pagan idols. Venomous snakes kill thousands who grumbled against God. Newscasts feature these stories to attract people as viewers. God’s Word features these stories to keep people from sin. To paint the lines for us. The pattern shows us where to go, when to turn, and what to avoid. Watch the lines. “These things happened as examples … and were written down as warnings for us … to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.”

            That means “I can’t help it,” is not an excuse in the Christian vocabulary. Today God says we can help it when it comes to sin. As a matter of fact, he takes it even further to say that Sin is More Than a Choice. It is entirely avoidable if we pay attention to the lines of past human failures and the present faithfulness of God.

Because of past human failures

            Would you feel privileged as an Israelite when you discovered that the angel of death struck down every firstborn in Egypt except yours and any Israelite’s? When Pharaoh’s world class army couldn’t capture you because a wall of God, in the form of a cloud, blinded the pursuing Egyptians with darkness but gave you light to escape? When your sandals pressed across the dry bottom of the Red Sea between two giant tanks of water held back only by the wind of God’s breath? When a dead, dry rock supernaturally gushed water for your parched animals? When manna from heaven miraculously covered the ground every morning to feed your family traveling in the desert? Moses once asked his fellow Israelites, all former Egyptian slaves, “What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us? … Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart” (Deuteronomy 4:7,9). But they did forget. They made and prayed to a golden calf, and practiced pagan sex with idol shrine prostitutes, and cursed at God for depriving them of shade. They were so privileged, “Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.”

            Few remarks of the apostle Paul are harsher than these warnings to the Christians in Corinth. As an expert in Old Testament history, Paul knew why hundreds of thousands of Israelite corpses littered the desert, and it scared him. As an expert in Corinthian culture, Paul knew why hundreds of New Testament Christians might soon suffer the same fate: arrogant self-assurance. “I do not want you to be ignorant,” Paul tells them – ignorant of both the facts of history and their implication for the here and now. But their ignorance had already turned to arrogance. They felt they were too privileged to worry about a little adultery, incest, sexual promiscuity, and a bunch of sinful foolishness that dabbled with pagan rituals. They needed to recall what happened to the Israelites who committed the same sins with the same arrogant self assurance. God’s fist of judgment crashed down with diseases, earthquakes, and snakes to put an end to those fools dragging his name through the dirt. The same could happen in Corinth if they ignored the pattern of past human failures.

            Haven’t the very moments we thought we had arrived in a spiritual sense been the moments when we, too, have fallen into sins because of arrogant self-assurance? If the Israelites of the exodus generation under the leadership of Moses failed, and if the first generation of New Testament Christians under the apostleship of Paul were failing, do we honestly think we’ve succeeded in avoiding sin? Arrogant self-assurance boasts in our church beliefs so much that we use right doctrine as a vicious weapon instead of a saving message. Arrogant self-assurance expects that being a member or a pastor in a church is a right received because of a confirmation certificate or installation paper from years ago, instead of a pursuit practiced through ongoing, faith-filled, Bible-based discipleship. Arrogant self-assurance sees the sins of others and thinks, “I’d never do that.” We have felt so privileged “nevertheless God was not pleased.” In the words of Jesus, who loves us, “Unless you repent, you too will all perish” (Luke 13:5). I do not want to know what it’s like to be swallowed by the earth or sucked under by the sea, to be stricken with a disease or stung with the deadly venom of a snake because God is so angry with me he wants me dead. Repent with me, and refocus on those lines and patterns of past human failures. Let’s learn from them and then navigate them.

            Here’s one way to put your repentance into action. Paul writes, “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.” Past human failures can teach us about dangerous tendencies for sinning. Look at the patterns, for example, in your family history. A book the Grace called workers are reading in our study time together comments, “The task of knowing where you come from constitutes an important developmental stage … Until this inquiry and analysis is done, [a person] runs a constant danger of not understanding personal vulnerabilities … Knowing where you come from frees you from making blind responses to forces you have yet to understand …” (McNeal, Reggie. A Work of Heart: Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, 2000, pp. 76-77). Blind responses to life forces such as family are as dangerous as a skier plummeting down the hill at 80 miles per hour blindfolded. Investigate the patterns that have shaped you, become more aware of your tendencies, and understand that Sin is More Than a Choice. It is avoidable.

Because of God’s present faithfulness

            According to the OSHA website (http://www.osha..gov/) over 5,000 workers died from on-the-job accidents in 2008. Reading through a scrolling report of recent fatalities brings one to the conclusion that OSHA believes most of them were avoidable with the proper practice of safety measures. If you’re in the construction or production business you know how constantly job safety is stressed – not just knowing how past accidents happened, but also practicing the safety measures presently available. They’re for everyone’s good. And they work.

            Here’s the number one safety measure for Christians who want to avoid sin-accidents: “God is faithful.” That means he’s present. God is working in your life. He’s around you. He’s even in your temptations with you. And on top of that, his most important work is already done. He has buried your sinful failures under the spiritual rock of Christ. Self-assurances turns to Christ-assurance as you stand forgiven on that rock, build your faith on that rock, and storms come but you don’t fall off that rock. And on top of that God now strengthens you to be more rock-like yourself through the spiritual food and drink of Christ’s own body and blood. Baptized into his resurrection strength, your sins are buried daily and Christ’s new life is your new life. With these safety measures God promises that he “will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear … when you are tempted … you can stand up under it.” Understand from this that temptations are certain for the Christian. “When you are tempted.” Not, “if you are tempted. But even more certain is God’s present faithfulness. Temptation is not avoidable, but sin is, because God limits temptation to your personal threshold of “what you can bear.” It is always within your ability to resist any temptation in your life. God knows what you can resist and what you cannot, and prevents you from experiencing temptation you cannot resist so that “you can stand up under it.” So Sin is More Than a Choice because it’s not only your choice, but also God’s choice, that you resist successfully.

            Like a good physical therapist or trainer, God will know and increase your threshold. He wants you to strengthen you spiritually. You may feel like your threshold is 20 push ups; he’ll push you to 30. You think your threshold is bench pressing 100 pound; he’ll put 110 pounds on the rack. You have never run more than 10K and he’ll take you on a marathon. You’ll struggle. You’ll sweat. You’ll think it’s bad. But it’s good. You can bear it. You can stand up under it. You can avoid sin because of God’s present faithfulness.

            God is faithful. When it comes to avoiding sin, we can be more faithful to God. I found it interesting that when the apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians and Colossians he addressed those Christians, “to the faithful … in Christ (Ephesians 1:1, Colossians 1:2). But he didn’t say that to the arrogant, self-assured Corinthians. They weren’t being faithful. So Paul pointed them to their only true assurance for faithfulness, “God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful” (1 Corinthians 1:9). Sin is a choice, but for us Sin is More Than a Choice. Pay attention to the patterns of past human failure to navigate life safely and notice the lines of God’s present faithfulness that make you strong. Sin is avoidable. Amen.

Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (http://www.gracedowntown.org/) on March 7, 2010

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Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church | 1209 North Broadway Milwaukee, WI 53202 | (414) 271-3006

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