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"WE ALL NEED FORGIVENESS" GALATIANS 2:15-21   An amazing thing happened at Annual Conference this past week. There was no fighting. I know that 1000 Christians, half of them clergy, should be able to meet, discuss their business, vote and go home without too much trouble. But in my 5 Annual Conference sessions, I have experienced and witnessed more resentment, hurt, anger, bitterness and pain being inflicted on one person or another, or on one group or another, than I care to recall. It has not been a pleasant experience. Until this week. As the United Methodist Church, as well as every other denomination around, tries to come to grips with some of the major issues confronting it moving into the 21st century, it seems like we are less and less able to find common ground and be the unified body of Christ that we are called to be. Issues such as homosexuality and abortion and the place or role of Scripture are threatening to split our denomination between conservatives and non-conservatives. Patience is wearing thin on all sides and over all issues. But an amazing thing happened this year at conference. Despite the major issues being presented, discussed and decided on, many of which were discussed last year and caused much emotional and spiritual harm, a new Spirit overtook us. Guided masterfully by Bishop Alfred Johnson, the Holy Spirit came among us and brought much needed healing and forgiveness for many. 2 men, one a pastor trying to return to biblical holiness and the other a self-proclaimed gay lay representative, had verbally clashed last year in a scene that was hardly Christian. This year they embraced and sought each other's forgiveness and agreed to try to understand each other better. This was an incredible time for many of us who feared what might happen at conference. What I really took away from this year's conference was not that it was good to merge the Northern and Southern conferences, or that one side of the homosexual issue lost and another side won. What I took away from this year's annual conference is that everyone is a sinner.

We all need God's forgiveness in order to be saved and that we can only receive that forgiveness through the reconciling act of Jesus dying on the cross and being raised up again. That is the cornerstone to our faith and believing in that is what makes us all Christians.

As I read our scripture passage today a few things struck me as interesting. I think they relate very well to today and how we think and act in the world. The first is that prejudice of all types runs deep and has been going on since sin entered the world. Jews and Gentiles had certainly built up a wall of prejudice between them. Scriptures like the Samaritan woman at the well who was shocked that Jesus, a Jew would speak to her and make himself unclean give us some insight into that prejudice. So does the referring to Gentiles as Gentile sinners in vs. 15 of today's reading. It was probably a common way of referring to Gentiles in that time but it was a way of excluding them from participation in the rewards of God's kingdom. At least until Paul came onto the scene and changed things.

Paul lets us know that it doesn't matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, you still need to accept Christ in order to be saved, and Jesus did not die for the Jew but for the whole world. We might listen to his message as we consider our own Judaizing practices, which exclude people from the fruits of Christ's labor. As we have said in the past, we are not called to hate the sinner, but rather the sin. It isn't easy to do that. When we call homosexual activity sinful, it matters immensely how we are perceived by the people engaged in that activity. Most times we are extremely judgmental of them, not their actions and by our words and actions we set up blockades which tell them they are not welcome because they are not one of us.

But Paul understands better than most, that we all need forgiveness. We all need to repent of our own sin and as Jesus said, we shouldn't be casting stones at other people's sin. Judgment is not ours but God's. Our responsibility whether it be regarding homosexuality, lying, stealing, greed or overindulgence is to love each other and spread the good news of Jesus Christ. We don't want to be soft on sin but we unless we find ways to better love the sinner and hate the sin, we need to be careful. When we say during the Lord's Prayer to forgive us our trespasses as we forgive the trespasses of others, I only hope we aren't condemning ourselves.

What are some of the sins that you see in others that you have a hard time forgiving? What things in the world upset you the most and make you want to throw stones? For me it is violence. I grew up a fairly violent person. My family has a military history. My Godfather was the youngest general in the marines. I grew up in a time when everyone was afraid of the Russians and nuclear war, and America was starting to use its muscle to bully other nations around the world. I was ready to kill the Russians, the Iranians, the Chinese, the Cubans, the Nicaraguans, the Sandanistas, the Japanese, the North Koreans, the Vietnamese and the Cambodians to name a few. I was literally ready to go and kill them for any reason if told to so.

As I became a Christian, one of the things God had to do was heal my violent nature. I believe he did. Not only do I no longer want to kill anyone or even fight anyone anymore, but now violence itself sickens me. I hear about wars and fighting going on in the world and I just don't get it. How could we kill each other when each of us is a precious gift from God? Even worse, I see Christians fighting other Christians in Ireland and other places and I think, what will it take for us to understand that something has gone wrong tragically wrong for us to be doing that to one another? So violence is the thing that I have a herd time forgiving. But the question is, how do I take a stand against violent activity without condemning or hating the person who is doing the violence?

How do any of us stand up for what we believe without casting stones at the sinner? I think the only way we can do that is to turn to the things we have in common and start from there. For Christians, we have Jesus Christ and the power of his salvation. We have forgiveness of sins as a cornerstone to our faith. We have the Holy Spirit which can empower us and give us wisdom to say and do the right things, the loving things instead of the bonehead and sinful things. The Spirit also transforms our own lives and gives us better discernment and insight into other people and what has made them the people they are. We also have prayer as a common bond that brings enemies together and has the ability to make them friends. And the cherry on top is that we have the hope of eternal life which we share with every Christian everywhere.

I think those are the things we focus on when dealing with sin in ourselves and in others. We find and use the tools God has given us and we go on from there. We treat each other lovingly and let God worry about judgment. We call sin, sin but we don't harp on it. We make everyone feel as though they belong in the church and we don't discriminate against anyone. Jesus did not tell us to go out into the world and make believers of few, or some, or to pick and choose. He told us to go out into the world and make believers of all people because he died for the homosexual, the murderer, the thief, the sick, the well, the poor and the wealthy. And to paraphrase Paul, he even died for me and you, the worst of sinners.

We all need forgiveness brothers and sisters. Whether it is for our actions or our thoughts, the things we have done or the things we have not done but should have. Our sin is the worst sin because it is ours. Our sin prevents us from being judge and jury, because that belongs to the only one who is perfect, God. Jesus died for us all and it is only by the grace of God that we are saved. If you know your salvation then you should be spreading it to others not keeping it from them because you don't like their sin. As I saw this week, the Holy Spirit is alive and well in our midst and in the United Methodist Church. Now it is up to us to take that Spirit and use it to lovingly convert all of God's creation. There are many who have not heard the Good News. Let us be the ones to share it with them. Amen.

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