"Sin Boldly!"

¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”-Matthew 9:13


I heard a neat story from one of our church members the other day.  A woman and her child have been attending our church as visitors... sans the dad, who just doesn't like "church people" much.  The other weekend he went to a pool party with his family where a lot of our members happened to be attending to.  He got to meet them and socialize with them.  He later told his wife that if *those* were the kind of people that went to our church, he wouldn't mind going.  The next Sunday he got ready to go and joined his family at church!


The number one reason people give for not attending church is that church people are hypocrites.   Why?  It is because so many of us act differently in church than we do outside of it.  One of the best things about Holy Cross is that I can go to church and be myself.  I don't have to pretend that I'm a saint.  And most other people don't pretend that their saints when they are there either.  Our previous pastor use to borrow and paraphrase a saying from Alcoholics Anonymous;  "Christians are recovering sinners."  Why pretend otherwise?


Martin Luther said, "Sin boldly!"  We know we are going to sin and we know everyone else in the world sins... so don't hide it when you do.  Let everyone see you for who you are, a sinner.  Martin Luther added, "but let your trust in Christ be stronger."  That is the key.  Even though we are sinners, we trust that Christ has died for those sins and that he is working in our hearts to change us little by little, day by day.  We can thank God that we are not who we once were and look now that we are not yet who God is creating us to be.  But let us rejoice in who we are today and "Sin Boldly!"


Lord,
Help us to be authentic Christians... recovering sinners... and not some plastic version of what we think a Christian ought to be.  Let our light shine so that we may draw others to you.  Amen.


Joys:  Great VBS!; Cecelia and Raleigh's friendship; printer/computer issues fixed at church;