We’re almost finished with our journey through the Apostle’s Creed, and along the way we have gone through controversial lines, misunderstood lines, historical lines, and confusing/impossible lines. And it seems to me at first glance that “the forgiveness of sins” seems to be in the wrong place. Shouldn’t it be in one of the first two articles? Doesn’t it better describe the world of the Father Almighty or Jesus Christ? Aren’t they the one who handle forgiveness?

Instead it comes near the end in the section about the Holy Spirit’s work in the context of the Christian community. And it’s placement here means that those of us who recite these words are part of the church because we are forgiven. We declare the forgiveness of sin because without such forgiveness we would not be here, we would not be confessing this faith, we would not be part of this company.

Through the action of the Holy Spirit, the church is the community of those who have experienced – and continue experiencing – the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness seems to be a trademark of the church, the communion of saints, an aspect of what it is to be holy. Leaving the forgiveness to God doesn’t appear to be an option.

And so, this week we come to a simply difficult line…something we basically understand and probably where we have at least a gut level of agreement. When it comes to the forgiveness of sins, however, it can terribly difficult to actually do.

When we say, I believe in the forgiveness of sins, we are making a powerful statement about the nature of God. Sin is simply an offense against God. We know in our earthly dealings that to offend the boss or the company president often means painful consequences. We might be written up, denied a promotion, or fired. To say, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins” is to say that I believe the nature of God is so kind and loving that God will not hold me eternally accountable. That is pretty remarkable.

There are really two parts to forgiveness: God’s forgiveness of us, and our forgiveness of one another. And they really need to be considered in that order, because, as I said, our ability to forgive one another comes from our understanding God’s forgiveness of us first.

All across the Christian church we believe that God can and does forgive sins. We all believe that forgiveness follows honest repentance and confession of sin. And because Jesus asked for forgiveness for those who tortured and executed him saying, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing,” we also leave room for forgiveness for those who are ignorant of their sin.

Both Protestants and Roman Catholics believe that good works follow forgiveness, but we differ significantly in why we think that is. Those of you who began life as Roman Catholics know this well. After you confess your sins and forgiveness is given, you must do penance…that is the priest will tell you what good works you must do to balance out the sin you have committed. In the Roman Catholic system of belief, you participate in your forgiveness by working off your sins, in a way.

For Protestants though, it looks different. We believe that God’s forgiveness is a free gift of love…we don’t need to pay for it or activate it in some way by what we do. We believe that good works will naturally follow forgiveness for two reasons. First, as an outpouring of gratitude for the gift we have received, and secondly because if we are truly sorry for what we have done we will actively try to be better the next time around.

Maybe we would be well served by responding to the news of our forgiveness with saying the Lord’s Prayer 10 or even 50 times. It might shape us in a positive way. But I don’t think that God requires such action in order to forgive.

Forgiveness is an act of love, and love is not love unless it is freely given from the heart. To pay for it with our works takes away the gift and makes it an earned wage. It is no wonder that in the medieval church, the notion of penance came to exactly that sort of abuse, so that people were literally encouraged to pay for forgiveness for themselves and their loved ones. Such money built St. Peter’s in Rome, and such abuses finally pushed the monk, Martin Luther, to the place of splitting with his church and beginning the Protestant Reformation.

But that doesn’t mean our works don’t matter. The only actual judgment criteria taught by Jesus is in Matthew 25 where the people are judged on whether or not they fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and visited those sick and in prison. Works matter. But we believe that those good works are only truly good when done as a grateful response to God’s free gifts to us…the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of love, the gift of forgiveness, which we call “grace.”

Garrison Keillor once said that the church should really quit preaching about forgiveness. The whole church is kept running, he said, by people who are trying to work off their guilt, and if they knew they were truly forgiven, there would be nobody left to serve on committees! He was speaking tongue in cheek, but if you’re around churches long enough, you see the piece of truth that makes his statements funny.

Because I think even as Protestants, we have, somewhere along the way, taken on the mantle of guilt and the need to work it off.

Truly “good” works are about the other person, not about ourselves, and I believe that we can’t get to a place of performing such truly selfless acts unless we have first freely received the gifts of God…the Spirit, the love, the grace. Then we are not only capable of truly good action, but it becomes the desire of our hearts.

And that is why all invitations to the Christian faith begin with sin. The beginning of our worship is a confession of sin and pronouncement of forgiveness. Old evangelical systems like the Four Spiritual Laws or the Romans Road begin with the recognition that everyone sins. We have all sinned.

In some way or another, all of us who have lived to the age of making choices have made choices that are offensive to God. Sometimes we have done so knowingly, sometimes unknowingly. Sometimes our sins have also harmed others and have been obvious. Sometimes they have harmed only our souls.

But we all share the same affliction – we can’t help but sin. We don’t come together to judge the specks in the eyes of others, we come to acknowledge the beams in our own. Christian faith begins where all 12-step programs begin, with the acknowledgement that each of us has sinned.

The Christian walk starts with our own sin, because the most basic level of good news that Jesus brought is that God is so eager to be in relationship with us, that He will forgive all offenses so that we can keep working at love. Once people thought sin was an impassable obstacle in our relationship with God, but Jesus came to say that love will trump our sin.

God would absorb our sin…blow by blow, nail by nail…no matter how much it offended the overflowing love God has for us. He would not let it become an obstacle to our relationship.
God would rather die than have that happen.

That is what the Communion table is about. It is about recognizing just how far God will go in order to stay in loving relationship with us. We have offended God…all of us, in some way or another…but God will not drop us. We’re not going to be passed over for the promotion or sent to the lowest job. We’re not going to be fired…any number of Biblical characters can show us that.

God’s judgment of us is like Jesus’ judgment of the woman taken in adultery in John 8. Jesus helps all those who have come to stone the woman to see the sin in their own lives. They drop their rocks and leave, one by one, until only the woman and Jesus are left. “Neither do I condemn you,” says Jesus. “Go, and sin no more.” Her works are important…she should try to be better…but Jesus, like God, does not come to condemn. Jesus, like God, comes to forgive.

All the rest of your life as a Christian hinges on understanding that Jesus came to show us the nature of God, and the nature of God is to forgive sin…believing that, receiving such love, will enable us to turn around and give it away to others. At the Lord’s Table this morning, I invite you to really receive that gift…maybe for the first time, maybe for the hundredth time. You don’t have to work for this meal…Jesus is offered freely to all. If sinners couldn’t come, the Table would be empty.

Whatever you have done in your life, God would like to simply wipe it away. You don’t need to carry it with you anymore. You don’t need to work it off or beat yourself up for it. You might need to make things right with others you have harmed, that’s part of it too. But God invites and welcomes you to His heart no matter how far along you are on that journey.

There are lots of things you can do for yourself by working hard, striving, struggling and competing. But being forgiven and set free aren’t among them. Being forgiven, when we’re messed up or broken up, isn’t something we achieve by our own strength or steely resolve. In fact, it isn’t something that we get at all. It is something we are given. We can only receive it as a gift, as grace.

Because forgiveness is a lifestyle – not an event!

That’s what we’re saying when we say we believe in the forgiveness of sins. Amen.