SETTING THE CONTEXT

Many of us can probably think of people we would consider "lost causes." The following is one of three parables that Jesus used to describe how God's values "the lost."

Read Luke 15:1-7

The passage we are about to read is in the context of a discussion on worship. Clearly there are questions about whether the early Christians should pray for kings and others of the occupying government. In the midst of this discussion the writer offers a statement of belief about Jesus' saving work.

Read I Timothy 2:1-7

THE SERMON

I was struck some years ago by a term my parents used when talking about a ministry of their church. They spoke of a ministry to "throw-away" teenagers. These are children who were thrown out of their homes for one reason or another, runaways or teens who got too old for the foster care system and "aged out" into society. We have other throw-away people. They are the ones we try not to look at when we pass them on the street. People who are so entrenched in paths of disease or destruction that they seem hopeless. We even have entire societies of throw-away people, like the black Africans of Darfur or the abandoned street children in countries all over the world.

In the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus says very clearly that there are no "throw-away" people to God. The shepherd is willing to expend the energy necessary to find that one lost sheep even though there are ninety-nine left in the flock. Writing off that sheep wouldn't be that big a deal, it is only a 1% loss. Other business men and women would find a 1% loss more than acceptable, but not God. God wants all people to be saved. There are no "throw-away" people to God.

How far would God go to restore the lost? How far would God go to repair the relationship that is broken by sin, to bring wholeness to God's creatures that continually turn away from God? One couple was willing to mortgage their home to pay for therapy to save their son from drug addiction.^[i] What was God willing to give to save us all? God came in the form of a human, Jesus, living the joys and pains of humanity, dying a horrible violent death like so many before and after him and being raised to new life; and in that self-giving God bridged the separation, paid the price, and was victorious over the powers that pull us away from God. This saving work of Jesus is called atonement and the definition of the word is in the word itself - "at-one-ment." Jesus brings us into "at-one-ment" with God. I think all of us have been alienated from someone we care about and so we can well understand the gift of "at-one-ment", the gift of restoring a relationship that is precious to us.

How this "at-one-ment" or repair is achieved has been described in a number of different ways. Scripture doesn't give one explanation or a single text book answer. I don't see that as a problem at all for the Scripture's power comes from being able to speak to people of diverse experiences in diverse cultures at diverse times. And so we are shown a lavish, multi-faceted view of Jesus' saving work.

The most popular understanding of atonement today is the punishment substitutionary model from the Reformation; Jesus took the punishment that was meant for me. It was the message sent in the Mel Gibson movie "The Passion of Christ." However substitutionary atonement started as a different understanding. It started with Anselm of Canterbury in 1098 and it went back to the honor culture of the Middle East. Anselm said that sin dishonored God and God had to have "satisfaction" so that God's holy and righteous character was not compromised. Human beings were not equal to God so they/we could not pay the honor debt, so God came in Jesus, the sinless One, to pay that debt and Jesus offers the reward, salvation, to us all.^[ii]  This is the original understanding of substitutionary atonement. I'd like to look at some other Biblical images and see what they teach us about Jesus' saving work.

The other Biblical images of the atonement I want to look at today fall into five areas of ancient Roman life, areas the first hearers would understand intimately.^[iii] One area is the court of law. Jesus is the Mediator between God and humankind. We heard that in our passage from 1 Timothy, "There is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus …" As my friend who works with teenagers in prison said, "Kids who've been in the justice system know that when you are in court you keep your mouth shut and let your mediator or your advocate do the talking." Jesus' saving work is as a mediator between a weak and fallen humanity and a righteous, holy God.

The second area of life is the world of commerce; Jesus redeems us. How many of you ever collected green stamps or Coke rewards caps? Then you know what it is to redeem something for a prize. In Matthew 20:28, Jesus said, "the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many." People who were in debt would be sold into slavery if they could not pay their debts; this happened to many poor people in Jesus' day. To be redeemed or ransomed was to be bought out of slavery and set free. In today's economy it's not hard to understand this imagery. Imagine facing the loss of your home because you can't pay the mortgage when someone steps in to redeem your debt. They pay off your whole mortgage so that you can stay in your home and never worry about it again. When I watch the TV show Extreme Home Makeover, I catch a glimpse of the gratitude of someone in this situation. Jesus will redeem us from the various things we sell our souls to, things like money or power, like drugs or gambling, like any number of other gods. I think of Martin Luther King's famous words of hope, "Free at last, free at last thank God almighty we're free at last!"

The third area of Roman life is the battlefield. Jesus is the champion who triumphs over evil. Evil crucified him and yet God raised him from the dead defeating the powers of Satan. This model is also called the Christus Victor theory of atonement. In Galatians 1:3 Paul celebrates this saving work in his greeting, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age…"  Those of us who have been tempted or wounded by evil forces or evil people find comfort and strength in Jesus' triumphant victory. A woman facing the memories of her rape knew she could not face them alone. It was Christ's power and his saving grace that carried her through the pain and helped her to overcome the evil that was done to her. It was his power that healed the wounds that rippled out into all her relationships even her relationship with God.

The fourth area is worship. As Hebrews says, "When Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God." (Hebrews 10:12) Jesus was the sacrifice for our sins so we no longer needed the animal sacrifices of the Temple or the priests to gain access to God. At Jesus' death the curtain of the Temple that separated the Holy of Holies from the people was torn in two, so that we might have intimate access to God through him alone. No one can bar another from coming before God. I think sometimes we forget that in our tendency to be judgmental. Any sinner can come before God confess their sins, repent or have a change of heart and receive God's forgiveness. Ah, Jesus opens us to Amazing Grace!

The fifth area is interpersonal relationships. Jesus reconciles us to God. Our sins rightly cause us separation from God, but Jesus can bridge that separation. Another classical understanding of atonement is called the moral influence theory and it says that Jesus' life is so compelling that one just has to respond in kind. His love for God and for humanity is so powerful and unrelenting that he will not let us go until we do respond in kind. He is that shepherd tirelessly seeking the lost sheep. A devotional I've been reading is the witness of a man in prison.^[iv] As a teenager, he turned his life over to drugs and alcohol. They became the center of his life and when he started down that path one of the first things he dropped was going to his church. He turned his back on God for many years. It wasn't until he was in prison that he realized that he was spiritually dead and he wanted to change. Because of Jesus' saving work, because of the at-one-ment he brought, Bo was able to reconcile with God and become a powerful witness of God's grace.

In all of these images of Jesus' saving work, we see that God is for us. We see that God extended Godself in the ultimate sacrifice through Jesus to restore relationships that we severe. This precious gift is freely given, not just to the deserving as if any of us deserved it. It is given to all people even those some might consider throw-away people. It is just another sign of God's infinite mercy that so many images of Jesus' saving work are present for us to grab a hold of. As John Newton, the former captain of a slave ship, wrote, "Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me." Amen.

Sermon delived by Rev. Nancy Cushman on September 16, 2007.