This is part of the worship series
"Are We Faking It?"
Introduction | Lent 1 | Lent 2 | Lent 3 | Lent 4 | Lent 5
FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT
A Squinting Confession
Call to Worship
Let us worship God
who reconciled us to himself through Christ.
We are new creations,
the old has gone,
the new has come!
Let us worship God as Christ's ambassadors.
Through us and through our worship,
may we announce the Good News to all.
Let us worship God in Spirit and in Truth.
Praise God!
We are reconciled, redeemed, renewed!
—Adapted from 2 Corinthians 5:16–21 NIV
Sermon Text
Luke 35:1–3, 11b–32
Sermon Ideas
Unlike Freud and Marx, who looked at broader religious movements, Friedrich Nietzsche hits closer to home by probing the believers heart. Nietzsche believed that actions, including apparently virtuous ones, are never what they seem and that people are always seeking after power, mastery, and fame. With narrowed eyes, Nietzsche would squint at even the most humble of acts and conclude, "He's not really self-effacing! This, too, is just a power play!"
Although he carried it to an absurd extreme, there is merit in Nietzsche's "genealogy of moral virtues." Where do our virtues come from? What is motivating us when we act morally? Christians have always acknowledged that self-deception is an exceedingly powerful player in our hearts. Hence Scripture's call to rigorous self-examination.
For instance, let's say an attractive (albeit married) coworker presents us with the temptation to flirt or be suggestive. But then let's say we resist. Later we may pat ourselves on the back for doing the Christian thing—even though our motivation sprang less from virtue than from sheer cowardice. Perhaps we feared rejection. Perhaps we feared getting caught. The most frightening question a Christian can ask is, "How much would I do if I knew I'd never get caught?"
Scripture clearly teaches that God has little use for right actions done from wrong motives, Wrong motives for the Christian can include social convention, fear, Nietzschian desires for power or acclaim, or the desire to make God love us so we can earn our salvation. And once we start thinking our morality is earning us points, we soon begin using our virtuous lives to elevate us above those who do not live so well. In any event, we lose sight of grace.
As Westphal points out, this is also the theme in New Testament clashes between Jesus and the Pharisees. This sermon and the next center on God's grace. This week we focus on how the Pharisees (represented in Luke 15 by the prodigal son's older brother) lost sight of God's grace and so had impure motives for even the most virtuous of their actions.
The older brother spent his life doing the right things. But to him it was merely a "slaving away" and not, as it may have appeared, a genuinely loving service to an abundantly loving father. By focusing on the older brother and what motivated him to do good in his life, the congregation can ponder what motivates many of us. When we act morally, are we expressing gratitude for grace or are we trying to earn it? Are we acting out of love or fear? Are we self-effacing or self-serving?
The sin that dwells in the fruit of the Spirit when our motives are bad is like a worm in an otherwise good-looking apple. This message calls for recognition of such sins. Of course, unlike Nietzsche, we believe that genuine, rightly motivated virtues are possible. Yet we confess that many times our deeds are not so pure. Squinting at even our own virtues should become a daily part of our confession of sin. No matter how glittering our lives appear on the outside, we are all finally prodigal sons and daughters who every day need grace—often for what's wrong even with what we do right! (Note: The next message will try to detail what should motivate our moral lives in the light of grace.)
Prayer
Righteous God, in Christ you became sin for us.
You took what we are so that we might become what you are.
But we confess that often we ignore our sin.
We confess that we too often do not confess.
We keep silent about the sin that clings to us.
But our sins are too great a burden for us.
Forgive us.
In Christ take away our iniquity.
You are our stronghold, our hiding place.
May we confess our sins
that we might then rejoice and be glad in you
and in the righteousness that flows over us as a mighty stream of grace.
In Christ, Amen.
—Adapted from Psalm 32
Psalm and Hymn Suggestions
Opening Hymn
"Amid the Thronging Worshipers" Public Domain
Hymn of Confession
"Out of Need and out of Custom" Medema
"How Blest Are They Whose Trespass" Public Domain
"Lord, I Pray" Keegstra
Hymn of Preparation or Response
"When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" Watts
"Have Thine Own Way, Lord" Pollard
"Lord, I Want to Be a Christian" African-American spiritual
Revised Common Lectionary
Year C: Lent—Fourth Sunday in Lent
