Looking Back on
Our Sins
Day
number one. This is day number one out
of 366 this leap year since February 29th is included in the
calendar this time around. 366 days of
2012 that we have to look forward to.
And 365 days of 2011 to look back on.
It’s natural at this time of year to look back and reflect on the things
that have happened in the 12 months previous as well as to look forward and
anticipate what might happen in the months to come. And, depending on the year, sometimes there
are enjoyable memories that you never want to forget and at other times there
are things you wished you never remembered.
There may be events that you eagerly anticipate in the future and there
may be some inevitable dates on the calendar that you would rather avoid if at
all possible. In any case, on January 1st
of any given year, you are standing on top of a high mountain peak in a
way. You can look back at where you’ve
been and see the bumps and the rocks and the beautiful grassy meadows where you
had walked, but you can also turn around and look to where you’re headed; and
although it’s a little misty up here and it’s hard to make out the exact
details of what lies ahead, you can see some possible summits that you might
like to get to as well as some dark and intimidating canyons that you would
like to get around somehow.
And
we’ve done a little bit of that already this morning, haven’t we? We’ve looked back at how the Lord has blessed
this congregation through baptism and through the Lord’s Supper and through his
powerful written Word. And I’d like to
do that a little more on an individual scale.
We’ve looked back as a group of Christians, but now let’s do so as
individual Christians. And after we take
a look back at our Christian lives this year then we can look ahead at the year
to come.
Let me
start with this question: How was this past year for you as far as your faith
was concerned? Was 2011 good for your
faith or did your faith in your Lord waver a bit? Do you think that your relationship with your
Lord grew stronger, or did you end up farther away than when you started? Is your faith the same? Maybe it didn’t go up or down at all but was
kind of static and unchanging? Here’s a
question to ask yourself that might help you measure the strength of your
spiritual life this past year: How would you describe your sins in 2011? More?
Less? New and unanticipated sins
or the familiar and the reoccurring sins that seem to pop up year after year?
Let me
ask an even more difficult question: If you were to guess, how many sins do you
think you committed this past year? And,
of course, remember that it’s not just your actions that count, it’s also your
innermost thoughts as well. It’s not
just what you do, it’s also what you don’t do that should have been done. It’s not just what you get caught doing, it’s
the very attitude you go about doing things.
It’s not just what you can recall, it includes everything you didn’t
even realize was a sin in the first place.
And also consider that the Bible says “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6), and “no one has done good, not even one” (Rom.
3:12), and “every inclination of the
thoughts of our hearts are only evil all the time” (Gen. 6:5). Realistically, we’ve committed more sins this
past year than we can count, haven’t we?
Which makes sense because if we can never reach God’s perfect standard
in what we do or say or think, then everything we do or say or think is
imperfect and, therefore, filled with sin.
It’s
kind of disheartening to look back on all of our sins, isn’t it? At least for me it is! I don’t really like looking back and
evaluating how many times I’ve gone against God’s Word. It’s embarrassing. It’s frustrating that I couldn’t have done
better. And it seems to be the same
thing every year. There’s never been a
January 1st when I’ve looked back on the year gone by and have
thought to myself: “Wow, I did pretty good this year! I’m proud of the level I reached! I have no regrets about any of the sins I’ve
committed!”
Looking Back on
God’s Name and his Word
King
David probably had that same guilty feeling at the beginning of quite of few of
the years he lived on this earth. Some
years were good for him, but some were not so good. And in the Psalms that he wrote he does show
his distress quite a bit about some of the things he had done in the past. But as he looks back and considers his
Christian life especially in Psalm138, there’s something else he notices as
well. “I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for
your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your
name and your word.” David
remembered his sins, there’s no doubt about that. He understood how ugly they were and how
miserable he had been. But what he also
recognized was that throughout the years the Lord’s love and the Lord’s faithfulness
had never failed. And no matter how many
sins David had committed and no matter how grotesque they may have been, the
Lord had exalted his name and his Word above them all.
God’s
name is something special. And not just
because it’s God’s name but because his name tells us exactly what he has done
for us. And he has a lot of names! He is called the “I AM” because he has always
existed and he always will. He is called
the Creator because he has hand-made everything we see, hear, taste, smell, and
touch. He is called the Redeemer because
he bought us back from the prison
cell of sin. He is called the Way, the
Truth, the Life, the Door, the Shepherd, the Vine, the Bread of Life. He is called Jesus because he saves his
people from their sins. He is called the
Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Resurrection and the Life. And notice how this small sampling of names
describes our God: they describe him as a patient God, a caring God, a loving
God, a forgiving God. These names
characterize our Lord as someone who is not a harsh judge that will pour out
his wrath on his children, but rather someone who will go to the extremes to
save his children from those punishments that we deserve. Our God has exalted his name, every name he
has, above all things - including our sins.
And the way he exalts his name is by exalting his Word.
His
Word, written down for us in the pages of Scripture, is the only way we know
about his name. It is the only avenue in
which we are brought to faith in a patient God, a caring God, a loving God, and
a forgiving God. We would still be depressed
about our sins and worried about their consequences if it were not for this
Word. And look back at this past year:
His Word and his name have always been there for you! He has provided you with countless
opportunities to hear his Word and read his Word and sing his Word and study
his Word. He has reminded you through
his Word about his name of Peace at Christmas, his name of Prophet at Epiphany,
his name of Priest at Lent, and his name of King at Easter. He has brought you back through his Word time
and time again to his name of The Sufferer and The Crucified and The Buried and
The Risen. He has not let you forget
about what he has done and what he has accomplished. So that whenever you were distressed by a
sin, his cross that you find in his Word was right there to overshadow it. Whenever you felt guilty because of your
inadequacy, the blessings of the Word in your baptism was brought back to your
mind. Whenever you were weighed down
with misery, his actual body and blood were given to you once again in the
Lord’s Supper to comfort your soul. His
Word and his name have been constant this past year. Which should not be a surprise for us since
his Word and his name have been something Christians have been able to depend
on for thousands of years. Yes, 2011 was
filled with sins and mistakes and disappointments and regrets, but God’s name
and his Word were made greater than them all.
Looking Ahead
to Our Sins
And that
bodes well for the year to come, doesn’t it?
Will you commit a whole slew of sins in 2012? Most definitely. Will you commit more sins than you did in
2011? I hope not! I really truly hope that I will be able to
cut down and cut back and hem in those awful things that I do and say and think
against God’s Word. Because that’s the
goal, isn’t it? To continually get
better and improve - not to gain the Lord’s favor of course but because this is
a way we can thank our Lord for his favor.
Of course, I know that no matter how hard I try and no matter how noble
my intentions are, there will be times that I will stumble. There will be situations that I will not
handle as I should. There will be
moments that get the best of me. And,
unfortunately, that will be true for you as well.
2012
will not always be pretty. In fact, 2012 will probably be a lot like 2011
as far as sinfulness goes. It will have
its share of setbacks and failures and frustrations. And many of them will happen because of
you. As long as you are on this earth
you will sin. You will break God’s
law. You will go against his Word. You will not measure up to every single
command in every single way. Welcome to
the club! But that should not discourage
you to the point of despair. Because as
you look ahead to this year we are beginning today, you know what else lies in
front of you. Not just your sins, but
God’s name and his Word that are exalted above them all.
Looking Ahead
to God’s Name and his Word
Inevitably
you will have a rough week sometime in this next year. But when you do, when you are physically,
emotionally, and psychologically exhausted from the seven days you spent dabbling
in your inadequacies, where can you go?
You can go to your God’s house and listen to his Word and be comforted
by his name. Inevitably you will have a
bad day this next year. But when you do,
when nothing seems to be going right, where can you turn? You can turn to your Bible in your own home
and read his Word and be lifted up by his name.
Inevitably you will struggle, you will fail, you won’t know what else to
do. But when those things happen, on
what can you depend? You can depend on
your Lord’s Word and his name that is proclaims. And when 2012 is over and done with and you
are standing on January 1st 2013 looking back at this year and looking
ahead to the next, what will you be able to say? You will be able to say exactly what you can
say today, exactly what Kind David said 3000 years ago, “I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for
your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your
name and your word.”
The
future looks bright, doesn’t it? I’m not
saying that life will be easy for you this year or that it will always be
enjoyable or that you won’t really have any problems simply because you trust
in your Savior to take care of things!
But I am saying this: when those problems do plague your life in the
days and the weeks and the months to come, when things aren’t so enjoyable,
when things are more difficult than you can handle, there will always be
something you can count on: God’s name and God’s Word. God’s name and God’s Word do not change with
the seasons. They do not vary with the
weather. They do not need to be modified
with the times. They do not need to be
updated with the trends. God’s name and God’s
Word remain the same. Cling to
them. Lean on them. Depend on them for everything in 2012 just
like you’ve always been able to do before.
Amen.
“May the LORD our God
be with us as he was with our fathers; may he never leave us nor forsake us.” - 1 Kings 8:57
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