Sunday
07/09/17 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s
Sermon Title: “Our Humanness”
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 45:10-17
New Testament
Scripture: Romans 7:15-25a
Gospel Lesson:
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
My brothers and sisters, again it is so good to be back
with you this morning. Generally speaking, I plan my sermons weeks, if not
months in advance. I truly believe that God had pre-planned for me to give the
sermon I am going to give today, however. I chose the title of this sermon
weeks ago, and it is called “Our Humanness,” which is taken from the scripture
from the Book of Romans from this morning.
You see my brothers and sisters, I am a Christian, I love
Jesus Christ, I believe in the Bible, but just like the Apostle Paul was, I am
entirely human. While some might think that I am bullet proof and without
fault, this is far from the truth. I think of the song of the song Amazing
Grace, were the songs says, “Amazing grace that saved a wretch like me!” (UMC
Hymnal, no. 378).
I don’t mean to say
wretch in that I am a bad person, but without the grace of God through Jesus
Christ, I am terribly incomplete. On my own, I am but a sinner, and while I can
try to be “a nice guy,” only through Jesus Christ can I be made complete. For
it is “Amazing grace that saved a wretch like me!” (UMC Hymnal, no. 378).
So often many of us look at the Bible, and we see many of
the characters in the Bible in an almost perfect sense. We might think of the
Apostles for example as perfect people, but when we begin learning about them,
we then realize just how broken they were. For it is “Amazing grace that saved
a wretch like me!” (UMC Hymnal, no. 378).
The characters in the Bible, King David, Moses, John,
Joseph, and etc., are not unlike us today. These people are human, and they had
their sufferings to be sure.
During my time off, I watched a good sermon of an older and
a wiser pastor than I. He said of the Book of Psalms, which most people
consider to be written by King David, that some of them have a quite depressing
tone to them. That it would appear that King David was horribly depressed and
overcome with grief when he wrote some of the Psalms. In fact is says in Psalm
22:1-2:
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping
me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest”
(Ps.
22:1-2, NRSV).
Now King David
is the great king that united the Kingdom of Israel, whom God told that his
lineage would have no end. Jesus Christ himself was and is a decedent of King
David, yet when I read Psalm 22, King David seems like he is in emotional
distress. Perhaps he was depressed or something else.
Sometimes in “Our Humanness” we suffer of grief, and
sometimes God allows this to happen, so that we might learn, grow, and trust
Him more.
In the gospel of Matthew reading for this morning, we have
Jesus speaking one of my favorite scriptures. In Matthew 11:28-30 it says,
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and
humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy,
and my burden is light” (Mt. 11:28-30, NRSV).
My sisters and brothers, I believe these words with all my
heart, but sometimes in “Our Humanness,” we just can’t see the forest through
the trees in a particular situation. Imagine a mother that just lost a child, or
someone who just lost a job, or some other great lose. Certainly these word of
Jesus Christ are true, but sometimes in “Our Humanness” we suffer. King David
had great faith in God, but still had times of great suffering. Many of us can
think about times in our own lives when we have suffered, yet we still believe,
we still love Jesus. Brothers and sisters, we are just so human. I know that I
am, for it is “Amazing grace that saved a wretch like me!” (UMC Hymnal, no.
378).
This morning in our reading from the Book of Romans, which
I am preaching on this morning, the Apostle Paul is very honest with his
brokenness. Now remember, the Apostle Paul wrote more than 50% of the Christian
New Testament, and he had great faith. Even so, the Apostle Paul, like us all,
had times of great struggle.
The Apostle Paul says once again in Romans 7:15-25a:
“I do not understand my own
actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate. Now
if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no
longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing
good dwells with me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I
cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is
what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but
sin that dwells from within me” (Rom. 7:15-20, NRSV).
It would seem that Apostle Paul is being very honest with
the church in Rome, or the Romans, that he is struggling in body and spirit.
The Apostle Paul is admitting here, his “humanness”. He is saying that he
sometimes he does things that he shouldn’t. He says that sin dwells with him,
and with Christ he can do nothing. The Apostle Paul is also conflicted about
following the “Law,” or the rules laid down in the first five books of the Old
Testament, or the “Torah,” versus the “Law” of Christ. Jesus told us that we no
longer do not have to eat shellfish, or pigs, and that we no longer have to do
a host of other things. Yet the Apostle Paul is struggling here with his past
identity as Jew, and now as a Christian. He is also struggling in general.
The Apostle Paul is also saying, that the “Law” laid down
in the first five books of the Bible, or the “Torah” is impossible to follow.
He is saying I think, that it is not possible to be that perfect, and to never
make a mistake. The Apostle Paul is admitting his “humanness,” and is telling
the Romans that he is struggling to live according the teaching of Jesus Christ
and the bible.
What are the specific things that the Apostle Paul is doing
that he shouldn’t be doing? Well he doesn’t really tell us in this scripture.
We do know that the Apostle Paul discussed having a “thorn in his side,” as we
knew he suffered greatly. What was this thorn? We are never told. Perhaps it
was a physical problem, or an emotional problem. Maybe it is good that the
Apostle Paul never tells us what this “thorn in the flesh” was, as it enables
us in our sufferings to connect with the “humanness” of the Apostle Paul. It
then reveals our sufferings, and our own “humanness.”
The Apostle Paul goes on to say that when he serves God,
serves Jesus, that sometimes bad things can happen. You see the devil wants to
break us down and destroy us, and he constantly will try to discourage and
deride us.
In fact the Apostle Paul goes on in this reading from the
Book of Romans by saying:
“So I find it to be a law that when
I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of
God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law
of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be
to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:21-25a, NRSV).
It would seem that the Apostle Paul knows what is right,
and knows what he should do, but in his “humanness” he struggles sometimes to
do and even say what he is supposed to.
How human are all of us brothers and sisters? Have we
suffered? Are we suffering now? Have we done and said things, knowing that we
shouldn’t? How different are we really from the Apostle Paul, or others in the
Bible?
For me, admitting my brokenness, and my humanness has been
part of my journey in growing closer to Jesus Christ. Like the Apostle Paul,
like all of us, I am broken, and constantly in need of the grace offered to me
through Jesus Christ.
Sometimes we struggle to admit that we are indeed
vulnerable and struggle without God’s grace, yet the great Apostle Paul did it
publicly this morning. The Apostle Paul said that he struggles sometimes to do
and say what God wants him to say and do. The great Apostle Paul said this
morning that he is human, as he struggles, just like the rest of us.
I think that there are times when we have all been guilty
of this, and admitting this to each other, or at least to God is really part of
us being human, and showing out need for the grace of God through Jesus Christ.
So how human are you? How much are you like the Apostle
Paul? Amen.
