“The Healing Path: From Guilt to Gratitude”    2011

Psalm 13         Romans 6:16-23

 

Psalm 13

1How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?  2How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

3Consider and answer me, O Lord my God! Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, 4and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”; my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.  5But I trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. 6I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

 

Romans 6:16-23

16Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, 18and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. 20When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

The Danish philosopher and Christian, Soren Kierkegaard

            told a parable one time about a community of ducks

                        waddling their way to their duck-church

                                    to listen intently to their duck-preacher;

               who spoke eloquently and with great passion

                        about how God had given ducks wings

                                    with which to soar and fly freely.

 

Their preacher described how with those wings,

            there was nowhere  that ducks could not go,

                        and that there was no God-given task

                                    or ministry that they could not accomplish;

              and that with those wings,

                        they could fly and soar into the very presence of God.

 

Shouts of “amen” quacked throughout the congregation,

            and at the end of the service the inspired ducks all left,

                        commenting on the wonderful message they had heard …

**                                             … as they waddled on back to their homes.

 

I think Kierkegaard has it right,

            that we can and perhaps do worship week after week,

                        we may participate actively in the life of a church,

                                    have a head full of theology and Bible knowledge,

                                                and believe all the right church doctrines …

           

            … and yet still waddle along with a fear-defined faith

                        that brings too little joy, transformation or peace;

 

            … or when facing troubles, difficulties & disappointments,

                        we forget who really is in charge,

                                    the power of God’s promises and to whom we belong;

                       … and so we suppose that it all depends upon us alone,

                                    on our hard-work, wisdom and efforts to make it so.

 

            After we have gathered for worship and fellowship,

                        how many of us waddle back out with little changed,

                                and leave about the same as when we first waddled in?

**         How has your faith grown or deepened during this past year?

 

I doubt that for many,

            the problem is that we aren’t trying hard enough,

                 or that we don’t desire for our faith to grow and deepen, à  

 

            but rather, it is that God’s grace à

                   is a bit too radical and irresponsible   for us to grasp,

                                    and it is so  very-against  the ways of this world

                                         that we struggle to believe it, much less live it…

 

    … and so   many of us live as if God really can’t quite redeem us

              without at least a little   help and effort from us.

 

That is the point Paul is making in our Romans passage today.

    vs. 22-23

            But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Paul’s message is not, “you better try a lot harder”,

            but, because of God’s free gift of grace through Christ,

                        you are already completely loved, held by God,

                                    and sanctification is now a real possibility.

 

Paul is describing God’s free gift of grace,

          as unearned and undeserved favor toward losers and sinners,

                   a gift from our faithful God who refuses to give up on us.

 

*        But sometimes   we trap ourselves on a spiritual treadmill,

                    as if God won’t ever be satisfied or pleased with us.

 

As a measure of

            how free we feel from the pressure of perfect performance,

                        how many of these statements ring true for you?

 

1.        I am pretty sure that God is mostly disappointed in me.

 

2.        When things are difficult or when something goes poorly,

                        first,   I try to figure out what I am doing wrong.

 

3.        It’s important to me that I have the right answer.

 

4.        I find it difficult saying no  when someone asks me,

                        and I feel guilty when I do.

 

5.        I focus more on what I did wrong than on what I got right.

 

6.   If my work is judged ‘typical’, then I feel like I have failed.

 

7.        I avoid doing things that I might not be good at.

 

These can be symptomatic of struggling with grace as God’s gift,

            and that we have not fully grasped and can’t quite accept

                        the amazing grace and peace that God wants us to have.

           

Ever consider, why you make the effort of coming to worship?,

            or what motivates you to serve and participate in the church?

                        And why do you give, serve and support this ministry?

 

The way we  would answer those questions

            is really a huge and critical theological consideration.

In fact, the ‘why’  that motivates us,   is possibly more à 

            important theologically, than the ‘what’ that we are doing.

 

Recently, I came across

            a fascinating website about health;  diet and exercise …

                        … that suggests feeling guilty about gaining weight,

                                    can stimulate hunger, and cause someone to overate.

 

A nutritionist and exercise physiologist suggests that instead,

            it’s far better to shift our focus from guilt to gratitude:

                        “Be grateful for the fact that we can eat such delicious food and that we can exercise at all. 

            There are roughly 4 million people in this country who will go hungry tonight.  Another 2 million who cannot move their bodies, and the numbers are astronomically higher overseas.  The fact that you can eat, should be enjoyed; and the fact that you can exercise, should be appreciated…

            ... When you exercise and eat properly out of guilt, it decreases your pleasure, and increases the odds that you will stop doing it.  While gratitude is a positive and encouraging motivation.  In this way, guilt drains and gratitude energizes."

 

That is a very helpful and even theological insight…  there is

            a huge difference between being driven by fear and guilt,

                  and responding to God’s grace & blessings with gratitude.

 

              Is it our guilt or our gratitude

                   that most motivates us as Christians?

            When we choose to do the righteous and faithful thing,

                        is it to make up for some prior failure, fault or sin?

 

            Is it to earn or justify God’s favor and blessings?,

                        or are we afraid

                                    that something bad might happen, if we are not?

            Is our faithfulness   primarily  about fear and guilt,

                        or is it the gracious fruit of our gratitude and hope?

 

When I was a young Christian,

            Hal Lindsey’s book, “The Late Great Planet Earth” came out.

                        It threatened that the end of the earth was imminent,

                                    causing fear and guilt   that pushed a lot of people

                                                toward religion and accepting Christ.

 

But as the 2^nd coming didn’t happen as Lindsey predicted,

            a lot of people I knew, who had been energized and fired-up,

                        become disillusioned, felt they had been manipulated,

                                    and then slipped away having abandoned their faith.

 

I have often observed that when faith is induced by fear or guilt

            it does not produce long-term or deep transformation,

                        or draw people into a meaningful relationship with God.

~          Fear can create an immediate and dramatic response,

                        but the effect generally fades  as the fear fades away.

~          Guilt can dramatically influence our behavior,

                        but generally not a positive, productive or healthy way.

                                   

Guilt and fear tend to separate us from God,

            crushing        the delight & hope that God intends for us to live,

                 causing us to wallow in the past, become rigid and harsh,à

 

            as our Christian service and our spirituality are turned

                        into a duty-driven set of 'musts, should(s) and oughts'

                                    rather than joyful privilege of walking with God.

 

In Psalm 13, the author writes about enduring a season

            of feeling unworthy, alone and abandoned by God ---

                        ---   which the pressure of fear and guilt can do to us.  vs. 1-2                                  How long, O Lord?  Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me?  How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long?

 

God answers the psalmist with grace,   steadfast loving kindness,

            which transforms  fear and guilt into gratitude.    vs. 5-6

                        But I trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.  I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

 

Yet fear and guilt can be useful in providing a sin-awareness

          in which by grace, God can bring healing and transformation.

That is the good news, that our sin is blotted out by grace,

            as our guilt is healed and converted into growth & gratitude.

 

There is a process of Christian spiritual growth and deepening,

            in which God brings healing and transforms the pain

                        of our guilt and regret into renewed hope and gratitude.

 

It is my experience that the Holy Spirit will bring to mind

            some regrettable and even shameful mistake of my past;

                        things that I said or did that were hurtful and wrong,

                                    and totally inappropriate for a child of God ---

            - and I have felt and experienced overwhelming sorrow

                        for the hurt and harm I caused, to others and my Lord.

 

The healing came when I acknowledged my hidden or forgotten sin,

            when I sought God’s mercy and forgiveness,

                        reconciled or corrected the things that I could ----

            - for then I received and experienced grace afresh,

                        as I gratefully realized that I had changed and  grown;

                                    and that if facing those same circumstances again,

                                               I would not handle it   in the same way today.

 

By God’s grace & purpose, I would not  make that same mistake

    because God’s gracious power to transform  is effective & real.

Grace is God’s gift of hope and promise that I can change and grow,

   for it turns out  that God is   accomplishing something in me.

           

The Christian life is not about feeling driven and duty-bound,

            but, gratitude and hope  make us more aware of God's presence

                        and  more attune to God's blessings and abundance.

 

We don't have to waddle in and out of church remaining the same,

            but responding with faith and joyful gratitude, we can be

                        empowered by God to soar in freedom, wholeness and joy.

As we are promised in   Isaiah 40:31,

            Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

**                Nothing there  about a stagnant faith that has to waddle.

 

Our call is to cultivate a spirit of hope and gratitude,

            and here are two practical suggestions that work for me.

 

1.                    Periodically I’ll pray an entire prayer,

                             of nothing but listing my reasons to that thank God.

2.                    I begin each day, regardless of circumstances,

                                    remembering blessings, and why I am grateful;

                                                as we are instructed in Colossians 3:17,

            And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

 

**   Guilt and fear  transformed by grace   into gratitude and hope.

 

Hear the truth, the promise and blessing of God: Rev. 1:5, Psa 13:5-6

            To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood…  I trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.  I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.