LAF

Psalm 126
Philippians 3: 4b-14

Paul had a past. We all do. Paul’s past is one that most of us would envy because he could claim with absolute truth that according to all the laws in the Old Testament – he was a righteous man. The law often condemns us as sinful people, but Paul could claim to be righteous and good. He had been raised to follow the laws of God religiously and was an educated man who stood by his beliefs when they told him that these people who call themselves Christians were an abomination.

They considered this man Jesus to be God’s Son and for such an atrocity they must be put to death. Paul was within his rights as a Pharisee to condemn every Christian to death. He persecuted them and he slept at night the sleep of the holy and righteous. He knew he was right and they were wrong. He knew that he upheld God’s laws while they mocked them, and tried to change them to suit their own views. They deserved to be punished and he would make sure they were condemned for their attempts to change what had been sacred for thousands of years.

There is a lesson here for every generation of Christians that came after Paul. Paul, who knew he was right because he was following exactly what the Bible said. Christians were the evil ones who were corrupting what was holy and pure by calling this Jesus person God’s Messiah. Now we know what happens to Paul, once called Saul on the road to Damascus. He had a come to Jesus awakening. He was shown that sometimes we can follow the bible exactly, we can follow the laws of the land to a T, and we can be wrong.

Paul’s past is a cautionary tale reminding us that sometimes when we think we are most right, we are completely lost. As your pastor, I’m supposed to stand up here and reassure you I have all the answers. I’m supposed to tell you that I’ve read the whole bible and I follow it exactly. I can’t tell you that. I don’t have all the answers and I haven’t read the whole bible yet, and there are some parts I don’t follow. None of us do.

I believe the bible is a guide for us. I think it is here to instruct us and help us find Jesus, and keep us as close to him as we can be as we go through life. However, it is not the only source we have to find God in our lives, and we all know it doesn’t have every answer we need in life. The bible was written before global warming. The bible was written before we had illegal aliens. The bible was written before guns and gun laws. When I come across a problem that I know the bible doesn’t have an exact answer on, I look to Jesus. What did Jesus concentrate on in his life and his teachings? What does he constantly tell us to do when we are in doubt or scared or hurting?

The same thing Paul tells us in this passage of Philippians. We need to look to God, we need to pray for our answers, we need to have faith that God will deliver us not because of our faith, but because of the faith of Jesus Christ who died for us all. Paul is trying to remind us that despite our past, despite our lack of knowledge or understanding, that we are not alone. We are not here without resources or left without power. Paul reminds us we will not get to heaven through our own goodness. We will get there because of Jesus Christ; because God wants every person to be saved.

It’s too easy to condemn. We condemn ourselves, we condemn those around us, and we condemn the people that are different from us. We look at people with sin in our eyes instead of love. We look at ourselves the same way. We forget that Jesus wanted peace and justice more than he wanted anything else. He preached love and forgiveness, not only for others but for each of us.

Lent is meant to clear out the cobwebs and the dust bunnies in our souls. We need to take the junk out of our hearts and minds and put it on the curb to be thrown away forever. Junk like thinking its okay to hate someone because of something they did. Cobwebs like old memories that keep you from forgiving someone in your life. The dust bunnies that are half baked ideas on what God wants from us and expects from us.

You know what God wants from you? Love. It is absolutely that simple. Love God. Love your neighbor. Love yourself. If we could take out all of our insecurities and misinformation, all of our doubts and anger that accumulates as we live our lives, we would be children again. Children who only know how to love. Children don’t learn hate and fear and anger until we teach it to them. That’s a sobering thought. We teach our children how to put up stumbling blocks that keep them from God.

Then we spend the rest of our lives trying to unlearn it by pointing to the Bible and Jesus. Paul’s past reminds us that we can only be certain of one thing - Jesus. In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. IN Jesus Christ, we know God’s love and acceptance. In Jesus Christ we have eternal life.

That’s all we can say for certainty. Where in the bible does it say that we have to put up purple altar cloths during Lent and to wear white at a wedding? Where does it say that Lent should be forty days and has to be before or during Spring? Where does it say that we must sprinkle water on babies or dip adults in streams for baptisms? Where does it say that we should not allow women to be pastors or that children cannot take communion to the people in the pews? Where does it say that we should hate Muslims because of what someone else did or where does it say we should deny equal rights to gay people?

The Bible is a great guide for us. It’s going to show us the way a lot of the time and help us to sort out our hearts when things get tough and crazy. But according to the Old Testament, Paul once called Saul was a righteous man who was allowed to persecute Christians. The Bible is not God. It points toward God. When we find ourselves condemning people. When we find ourselves hating each other and even our self, we need to remember Jesus and what he constantly taught us. Love. Acceptance. Forgiveness.

Those three words make the acronym LAF. Laughter is given to those who are happy. Happy people are the ones that have learned to love, learned to accept differences, and learned to forgive others and themselves for not being perfect. If you do not remember anything else from this Lenten season, remember to LAF. Love, Acceptance, Forgiveness.

Amen.