Don’t Be Afraid to Say I’m Sorry”

 

1^st John 1:8-9

Seminarian Alex Ogden 

Introduction: When little children make a mistake, they often are hesitant to admit that they have messed up. Often, especially with young boys, when something is broken, it seems as they plead the 5^th until the bitter end. No one ever seems to know how that ball broke the vase or pane of glass. The stain on the rug has always been there. No, I didn’t intentionally ruin my Sunday best so that I didn’t have to wear the uncomfortable collar. Nope, No, Nada, Nothing. No one knows who did it, so why own up? It is better to stay in the proverbial shadows, hopping that this situation gets swept under the rug. Right?

In this, it’s perhaps fitting that we think of children when they make mistakes, intentionally or otherwise. Whether it be your own children, grown or still small enough to hold, or if it be found in you remembering the days of your youth. This image of childhood is an affective one. In fact, St. John in his epistle consistently calls his readers “little children.” And children must have a father, right? As Believers, our Father is God. He is the good Father who we can repeatedly run to when we scrap our knees with sin.

God who is truth and love will forgive our sins. He is to be feared, but He is also to be loved.

It is when we have fallen, we run back to the Father, asking for His forgiveness.

As if we confess our sins, we know that God is faithful and just, and will forgive us, cleaning us up, and wipe away all tears and terrors, all sin and unrighteousness. Therefore, it is imperative that we do not lie to ourselves or the God of truth.

Rather, we are to always run back to God, crying out, “Abba, Father, forgive me and have mercy on me.”

RETURNING TO GOD REGULARLY, WE ASK FOR FORGIVENESS, TRUSTING IN HIS TENDER MERICES, WHICH ONLY A FATHER CAN GIVE TO HIS CHILDREN.

I.                    Without truth there is no forgiveness from the Father.

A.    When it comes to sin, there is no one that is without sin. 

1.      Scripture is extremely clear about this fact. Think of the woman caught in adultery from the John chapter 8. Not only has the woman sinned, but the scribes and Pharisees surround her, pointing fingers. They cannot wait to start throwing stones. But Jesus, writes in the dirt, and says “Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone at her” (Jn. 8:7). This is exactly the point, and the scribes and Pharisees get it. They all leave. We are no different. Whether we want to throw the stones or are the one awaiting the verdict of our sins. One either side of the stone’s throw, we are sinners. 

2.      The Psalmist says this much as well. In Psalm 14, it is the foolish man who says there is no God. Likewise, this foolish man is corrupt, doing abominable deeds, and have turned aside, turned away from God. Thus, the Psalmist concludes this statement with this fact, “there is none who does good, not even one” (Ps 14:3). The foolish man, is one who lies to himself and to God. In denying God, you deny truth. In denying sins, you deny the ability for absolution. In denial you become worse than a fool, you become a liar, and you make God a liar. And God cannot lie. To do so would to break His very nature, His very essence. To make God a liar would to be strip Him of His divinity and make us little gods in His place. All you have to do is ask Job how well it goes to try and deny God of His sovereignty, you’ll get put in your place real quick. Therefore, we know that we cannot bend God to our wills or whims, it has to be us that are foolish, denying God.

3.      St. Paul picks up on this exact Psalm as well in the 3^rd chapter of Romans. There he says, “for all have fallen short of the glory of God” (Rm. 3:23). You catch that?  Everyone. Not one. All have fallen. This is pretty absolute. There’s no getting around this. Paul knows it, there is no distinction. We are all equal in our sinfulness. Aside from God’s intervention, we merely just wait punishment. You can’t do it on your own, its not gonna work. Not through the Law, or being a good person, or because once you bought a stranger coffee behind you in the drive through line. Or because once a year you volunteer for a few hours at soup kitchen. It’s not gonna cut it. Just like David, you too were “Brought forth in iniquity, and in sin [your] mother conceived [you].” Your sinful condition is your birthright, passed down from father to son, mother to daughter since the Fall. You can’t escape it, out run, it or free yourself from it by yourself. 

B.     Anyone with sin is accountable for them. 

1.      Again, Scripture is quite clear about this. You probably have already guessed what verse I’m going to quote. And you’re probably right. It’s Romans 6:23! St. Paul again. He informs us that “the wages of sin is death.” You reap what you sow. If you plant little acts of death in your life, if you live a life that is “dead” to God, that’s what you’ll end up with.

2.      You might as well embrace the life of Ecclesiastes’ Preacher, who tells us to “Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that [God] has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life” (Ecclesiastes 9:9). Likewise, our whole lives will be devoted to nothing else but “Our toil at which you toil under the sun. [As] whatever our hands find to do, [we are to] do it with [all] our might” (Ecc. 9:9-10). For apart from Christ “there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which we are going” (9:10).

3.      It is in our lying, our vain toils, and attempts to hid the truth of our ways from God that we become like the ancient Israelites who in the time of Hosea are called people who are “without mercy,” and “not His people” (Hosea 1:6,8). Apart from God, and without Christ’s death and resurrection we cannot rightfully be called Children of God. Rather, we are like the Prodigal Son before his return, feasting with swine, in a foreign land, wracked with hunger, poverty, strife, and sin. Without God, we are left to dwell in the tents of the wicked.

II.                 With God, however, there is truth, life, love, mercy, and forgiveness.

A.    We believe this, trust in God’s promises, and confess our sins to God. 

1.      The words of John’s epistle are our confession. These very words are found in the first two settings of the Divine Service, as our response and confession of sins. When we gather together in cooperate confession we speak these words together in unison, confessing before God and man that “we are by nature sinful and unclean.” We state that “we have sinned against [God] in thought, word, and deed, by [both] what we have done and what we have left undone.” We continue to confess that “we have not loved [God] with our whole heart; [likewise] we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.” Therefore, we acknowledge that “we justly deserve [God’s] present and eternal punishment.” 

2.      However, we plead to God, and “For the sake of [His Son, Jesus Christ, [to] have mercy on us. [To] forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in [His] will and walk in [His] way to the glory of His holy name.” In this confession, we admit our sinful ways, and “rub God’s ear with His promises” (Luther). And like Luther’s dying words that he penned just before entering into eternal glory, we know this one truth, “that we are beggars all.” We are to trust in God’s mercy and love all the days of our lives, until that final day when Christ returns or calls us home.

B.     With God as our Father we turn to Him to bestow all the gifts that only He can give His children 

1.      Like Christ’s words in Matthew chapter 7, “Which of one of you, if their son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for fish will give him a serpent?” (Matthew 7:9-10). And Jesus says this to make this point, “If you then, those of you who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to you when you ask!” (Mt 7:11). This is what we do when we pray the Lord’s Prayer. We, as a church, say together, “OUR FATHER.” This is a confession, a statement, a truth that we acknowledge every time that we say it. And, God as Father is inclined to give us good things. And just as the Lord’s Prayer says, we pray for our daily bread, to be forgiven of our sins, that we are not led into temptation but rather are delivered from evil, both temporal and eternal. 

2.      Because of God’s great mercy, we return to frequently, resting upon His grace alone. And we can do so because of the work of Christ Jesus. It is through the Father’s only begotten Son that we can call ourselves sons and daughters of the living God. We are like the Prodigal Son again, in that, while we are still far off, God sees us in the distance, and sprints to greet us, lavishing us with His divine love. We need not be afraid of asking for forgiveness, because it is only in doing so first that we can be forgiven. Unlike the child who is fearful of punishment upon confession of their crimes, God only gives freedom, forgiveness, and a place in His family to those who repent.

3.      So we are to turn to God for forgiveness, knowing that He is faithful and just. It is in the very act of confession that we may just be thinking on one sin that particularly troubles us, but God in our confession “will forgive it, and not only that one but all our sins” (Andreas, Catena). “For when a person repents and is baptized into the name of Jesus Christ, God forgives all his sins which has committed both against himself and against heaven” (Andreas, ibid). Thus, since we cannot by ourselves escape the reality of our situation and  “Since we cannot live in this world without sin, the first hope we have of salvation is through confession.” For our God is our Father, and He is love. He is perfect love, which knows no bounds. It is “in this love perfected within us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgement… [for] there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”

Conclusion: So, when you fall again, and scrape your knees with sin, return to the Father. Run to God. And He will meet you. He will bind up the wounds of His hurt children. Like the perfect Father that He is, He is faithful and just. He is slow to anger and quick to forgive. His love comforts us, and it is in the shade of the Cross that we rest. So like the little children that we are, let us go to the Father, time and time and again. For with Him, there is a divine, perfect, paternal love which knows no end, and gives us truth, forgiveness, and ever lasting life as members of His family.

In Jesus’ holy name,

Amen.