PRAY Like Jesus: Repent

February 23 & 24, 2019, was supposed to be the second week of my “PRAY Like Jesus” series. Unfortunately, due to absolutely ridiculous Iowa winter weather including a blizzard warning, we cancelled worship for this weekend. That did give me the opportunity to try a live-streamed “Blizzard Worship” on Facebook from the kitchen table here at the parsonage.

I’m posting my entire manuscript for the live-stream here, as well as the video itself. I wasn’t yet done writing my sermon when we made the call to cancel worship, so this is a shortened version of a not-entirely-complete sermon. I think it turned out pretty well!

The texts for the week are included in the sermon. You can find part 1 of the “PRAY Like Jesus” series on Praise here.

Good morning, and thanks for tuning in to blizzard worship! I hope you enjoyed a little extra sleep this morning. I’m going to share with you a shortened version of the sermon, two of the readings, we’ll pray and then I have a couple announcements.

If you were here last week or if you watched online, you know we’re spending five weeks talking about prayer. We’re using the model P-R-A-Y: Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield, and Listen to look at the example of prayer Jesus gives us in the Lord’s Prayer.

Last week we looked at the P in pray: Praise, and we talked about gratitude. The Lord’s Prayer begins “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” Jesus starts by establishing who God is and our relationship with God, because when we comprehend that the creator of the heavens cares about us like a good parent cares for a child, we can’t help but give thanks.

In my prayers this week, I’ve been actually writing down some things to give thanks for, and it’s been powerful. There’s a lot to give thanks for. If you’ve never tried writing down your thanksgivings to God, give it a try this week.

Today we’re moving on to the second letter in pray, R for repent. In the Lord’s prayer, it’s the line, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

I sometimes stumble over that word, “trespasses.” Other translations put it as “Forgive us our sins,” or “forgive us our debts.”

I kind of like trespasses, because when I hear it, I think of a big red “No Trespassing” sign posted on a tree or a fence. In the modern sense, trespassing means to stray onto someone else’s property, straying beyond the boundaries. That’s what sin is: Crossing the lines of how God tells us to live. The Bible sometimes talks about the faithful life as a narrow road – trespassing is when you stray off the narrow road, when we try to find our own way apart from God.

In the New Testament, the word “repent” comes from the Greek word “metanoia,” which means to have a change of heart. If you’re walking down the wrong road and you have a metanoia, a change of heart, you turn around and go back the other way.

In the ten commandments, the first sin is worshiping an idol instead of worshiping God. As Christians, we know God is the source of our life, but we’re constantly tempted to find our meaning and purpose in other places. Sometimes we look for life in sports, or in our jobs. For some, it’s an addiction, or maybe it’s finding your purpose in your kids or your spouse. Anything can become an idol if it moves into God’s place as the source you look to for life. When we put something else into God’s place, that’s trespassing, and we need to repent of it.

We all do it—Listen to our scripture reading for today, from First John chapter 1.

God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Basically, if we can’t be honest about our sin, if we deceive ourselves into thinking we don’t need God as our source of life, if we make ourselves into our own gods, then we’re walking in darkness. On our own, our lives lead only to death. Repentance is turning around and confessing the truth: We need God’s help.

And when we ask God for help, when we ask God for forgiveness, God hears our prayer. The reading continues:

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

So what does it look like to repent? The short version is repentance and confession is admitting what you’ve done wrong and turning back toward God.

We confess our sins in a general sense just about every time we worship, but when you pray, when it’s just you and God, it’s a powerful thing to confess more specifically.

God already knows your sins. Obviously. You’re not going to surprise God by saying “I’m sorry for not returning that extra change the lady at Casey’s gave me, or I’m sorry for snapping at my wife last night.” God already knows. But the more specific we can be at remembering and confessing our sins, the more we appreciate God’s forgiveness, and the more we’re able to forgive others.

I often think the Catholics have this right with the sacrament of confession and penance, where you name your sins out loud to another person and then hear a personal promise of God’s forgiveness.

Now, you can go too far in a ritual of confessing, to a point where you start worrying about forgetting a sin and then God won’t forgive it. Martin Luther famously aggravated his confessor Johann von Staupitz with how much he confessed. Sometimes he’d finish confession and immediately turn around to confess new sinful thoughts he’d had while confessing. Confessing can slip into an obligation, to something you control, like it’s a prerequisite before God will forgive you.

That’s a misunderstanding, and I suspect it’s why we Lutherans rarely do individual confession, although it’s certainly still part of our tradition. If you have something you want to confess individually and receive individual absolution, that’s one of the things I’m here for.

But without getting to the point where it’s trying to manipulate God, confession is powerful. One thing you might try when you pray is writing down your sins, writing down what you’re sorry for, maybe as part of a longer prayer, and then crossing it out, erasing it, and writing a prayer of gratitude for God’s forgiveness.

I’ll close with part of Psalm 103:

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.

Repentance is about being honest with ourselves. God knows our trespasses. God knows where we’ve strayed off the road. But to turn around, we need to admit we’re going the wrong way. We need to keep hearing the promise that God does forgive us our trespasses.

On the cross, Jesus has taken the sins of the whole world into himself and put them to death. That includes your sins. You are forgiven.

So when you pray, begin by giving thanks to God. Acknowledge the gifts God has given you. Then continue with I’m sorry.

Let’s pray right now.

Dear God,
Thank you for all the blessings you give to us. Thank you for the ability to worship even in this winter weather. Thank you for the blessings of technology, and help us to use it wisely, to grow closer to you and to each other, not to separate ourselves or to fuel fear and hatred.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Loving Father,
We are sorry for all the things we’ve done wrong. I’m sorry for turning away, for not forgiving others, for looking for life without you, God. Forgive us for all the ways we’ve trespassed against you. Help me to believe you have forgiven all my sins, that you’ve taken them away as far as the east is from the west, and help me to follow your example of forgiveness.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Healing God, we pray for all who are sick or in need, in our community, our congregation, and our families. Bless those working in social services and medicine to help others. Protect those traveling and working to clear the roads.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Gracious Lord, we pray for our sisters and brothers in the United Methodist Church gathered this week in St. Louis for general conference. Send your Holy Spirit to guide them that all they do may be done in love.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

All these prayers, and whatever else is on our hearts, O God, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

First, we have 22 youth and adults going on a mission trip to Houston this summer. That’s about twice the size of the group last year, which is fantastic, but costs quite a bit more. So, we’ll be doing a few fundraisers between now and July, the first of which is this Wednesday, February 27, at Pizza Ranch. The deal is that if you come out to Pizza Ranch in Waverly on Wednesday between 5 and 8, Luther League students will be there helping bus tables and serve and we’ll get 10% of the profit. So this Wednesday, come out to Pizza Ranch in Waverly for supper.

Second, it turns out that cancelling worship services does not save the church any money. In fact, all this snow has been really hurting our church budget so far this year with plowing costs and fewer people able to make here to give offering. Fortunately, we now have an online giving option! Please go to stpetergreene.com/giving or look for the Give Plus app for your phone and help pay for the ministry we do the rest of the week.

Finally, assuming no more blizzards, we’ll have our regular worship services next weekend at 6:00 on Saturday and 8:30 & 11:00 on Sunday, with Sunday School in between. I hope you can be here in person as we continue with the Ask part of the Lord’s Prayer.

As you go forth today or stay safely at home, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May God’s face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace.
Amen

Continue to week 3 of the “PRAY Like Jesus” series here.