The "S" Word
A sermon by Brent J. Eelman
November 19,2006
Abington Presbyterian Church

Hebrews 10: 11-18
    And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. ¹²But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, ‘he sat down at the right hand of God’, ¹³and since then has been waiting ‘until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.’ ¹⁴For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. ¹⁵And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying,
¹⁶‘This is the covenant that I will make with them
   after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
   and I will write them on their minds’,
¹⁷he also adds,
‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’
¹⁸Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.*
 

When I was growing up, we raised the art of being a tattle tail to a new high. Be it at school or at home, one of the things that we did was to "tell" when someone used profanity and said one of the forbidden words. Of course we had to relay the message to our teacher or parents without repeating the word, lest we be guilty of a similar offense and so we would say something to the effect: "Bruce just said the "d" word!" or "Dean just said the "S" word!." These were the words that we dare not say at home or at school. Uttering these words was a sure ticket to punishment, ranging from having our mouths washed with soap to detention. They were words that we dare not say.

I am sure that we could list a host of words that we should not say in church, and they include many of the words that we should not utter anywhere else. But there are also some words that we should be saying in church, but don't. For some reason, during the last 30 years, these are words that have fallen out of favor... words that either embarrass us, or words that remind us of things that we would rather forget. That is what I want to look at today. The sermon is a bit different in style than others I have preached. When I was studying the text from Hebrews for today there were three words that jumped out at me. All three words begin with S. They are "S" words, and though they are perfectly acceptable words to say, we don't. It is almost as if we treat them as naughty words. Three words:

I

The first "S" word is from the 17th verse: sin. There is a story about Calvin Coolidge, the president who was known for his terseness. He went to church one Sunday and on returning home was asked about the sermon. "What did the preacher speak about?" He had a one word reply: "Sin." Looking for a little more information, the questioner asked: "What did the preacher say about sin?" Coolidge replied: "He was against it." Most of us would agree with Coolidge and would not say much more about it. Sin is bad and we are against it. "But please don't talk about it!" If we do, we define sin as "what other people do."

My third year in the ministry, I had a very prominent individual in the church talk to me about worship. She was involved in the presbytery, synod and general assembly and was an extremely active lay-person. She told me that she objected to the prayer of confession in the worship service. The prayers of confession that we used at that time were liturgical prayers that were part of the worship book. I asked why. "I don't sin like that." I asked: "How do you sin?" and as we danced around the subject realized that she did not believe that sin was a part of her life. A colleague of mine removed the prayer of confession from the worship service. I asked him why and he told me that he had run some "focus groups" on the worship service and one of the things that he learned was that the members of his congregation did not like the prayer of confession because it was "a real downer". They didn't like to think about their sin. So he took it out. The other thing he learned was that the congregation did not like the scripture readings, (but that is another sermon.)

Sin is an "S" word. We don't like to think about it or talk about, except when it is describing other people. But sin is primarily about us. I don't think that there is any progress or any hope for society or for the world without a recognition that each of us is by nature a sinner and in need of God's grace and forgiveness. There is something about each of us that messes up despite our best intentions. I fear that all the talk that we have heard about "self esteem" has inoculated us against an honest appraisal of ourselves and the sin that we do. Here is the rule: whenever we talk about sin, we should do so in the first person. Sin is the first "S" word.

II

The second "S" word is Sacrifice. Verse 12 states the Christ offered for one time a single sacrifice for our sins. We seldom hear the word sacrifice mentioned, except in athletics. At the heart of our faith is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. In the spirit of Christ, we are called to live lives of sacrifice. Paul, writing to the Romans said, "I implore you to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God." But we don't like the word.. Perhaps we want an easy religion: a comfortable, and undemanding faith. Sacrifice has also dropped out of our national rhetoric. Tom Brokaw wrote a best seller entitled the "Greatest Generation." It was about my father's generation, or the WWII generation. One of the things that made that generation great was that they understood the importance of sacrifice and were willing to make them. I fear for the soul of a nation that is in the midst of a war without a call for all of us to sacrifice. Sacrifice is the “S” word, and yet it is at the heart of our faith. We are called to sacrifice for God and for others, because Christ sacrificed his life for our sins. Sacrifice is the second S word. We know it is important, but don’t ask it of our faith.

III

The third "S" word is service. It is right there in verse 11. Jesus taught that the one who wants to be greatest, must be a servant of all. At the heart of the message that Jesus taught was service to others. It is the theme of the Sermon on the Mount. It is the message of many of the parables. Jesus' last words to his disciples were about serving others: "I was hungry and you fed me, naked and you clothed me, in prison and you visited me. When did we see you like that. In as much as you have done this to the least of these, you have done it to me." The ethic that Jesus taught was that we exist to serve others. It goes to the heart of what it means to be a Christian, and what it means to be human. We were created to serve God and others.

Some have called the 1980's the "me decade". It was a time when we thought about ourselves and wondered, "what is in it for me." “Self esteem” was the mantra. During this period Christian faith, as we practice it, began to change. It made a subtle shift from being about serving others to focusing on how can God help me. Churches became less interested in mission and service and more interested in self-improvement and personal growth. Ironically, Jesus taught that if we want to find ourselves, we need to lose ourselves. In other words, we grow, and find meaning and purpose in our lives through serving others. That is the meaning of the cross! And so “Service” is our third S word….

These three S words are not profanity, but we sometimes act as if they are, because we seldom use them. I believe that joy is an essential part of our faith. I think that self esteem is vital to a healthy happy life. I believe that we should think positive, but these things are a reality when we acknowledge the importance of these three “S” words. These words are not profanity, they are words of faith: words that Jesus calls us to use, but more importantly, to live by. Let us acknowledge our sin and shortcomings. Let us offer our thanks for the Christ’s sacrifice that forgives our sins. Let us with joy, serve God and our fellow human beings, as a way of giving thanks for the freedom and hope we know in Christ. Three words: Sin, Sacrifice and Service: this is the good news.. Amen.

 
*The New Revised Standard Version Bible, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.

Abington Presbyterian Church, Abington, Pennsylvania,  www.apcusa.org