Transcript of the sermon preached by Rev. Shawn Coons on May 28, 2023

We’re on our final week of our Half-Truths series. This series is based on a book by Rev. Adam Hamilton called Half-Truths. In this series we are looking at common sayings that are often associated with Christianity and said by many Christians. And at first, they may sound OK, and we often mean well when we say them. But when we look a little closer we realize that these sayings aren’t as true or as Christian as we first might have thought. The final saying we are looking at today is “Love the sinner. Hate the sin.”

Love the sinner. Hate the sin. It sounds Ok, on first read. How can it be bad to love anybody? And doesn’t it sound really Christ-like to love sinners? And shouldn’t we hate sin? Especially if we think of sin as things that we do that hurt ourselves, others, or hurt God.

The phrase is not in the Bible, though. It is thought to have originated with St. Augustine several hundred years after Jesus. In one of his letters he called for early Christians to have a “love for mankind and a hatred of sins.” Over the ages, this saying has appeared in various forms, but they all mean basically the same thing. If we know of someone who is sinning, we should continue to love them as a sinner, but hate and condemn the sinful actions they do. And this does sound true, right?

Never stop loving someone no matter what horrible things they’ve done. But here’s the catch. Rarely, are we ever able to contain our hatred only to the sin. Ghandi once spoke about this saying:

‘Hate the sin and not the sinner’ is a precept which, though easy enough to understand, is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world.

Love the sinner. Hate the sin. If we practice this, we end up focusing much more on sin and the label of sinner, much more than we focus on love. Jesus never said love the sinner. Jesus said love your neighbor. Jesus knew that if he commanded people to love the sinner, they would begin looking people more as sinners than neighbor.

Think about it. If I said to you right now, I want you to love everyone sitting here in the congregation today, especially those who have been recently diagnosed with a highly contagious form of smallpox. Are you going to focus on loving your neighbor, or on who looks a little under the weather today?

Love the sinner. Hate the sin, doesn’t lead us to love, instead it leads us immediately to a place of judging who is a sinner and what sins are they guilty of. Love the sinner. Hate the sin, is often used as code for saying “I judge you. You are a sinner, you should be ashamed that you do _____, but even though I am better than you, I will love you anyway.”

This is a good time to read our second scripture this morning. Because it addresses this very topic.

Luke 18: 9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: 10‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. 11The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. 12I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.”13But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” 14I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’

In Jesus day, the Pharisees were certain Jewish scholars and authorities, who by all accounts, should be considered as righteous. They strictly lived their lives according to proper Jewish laws. And to many who first head Jesus tell this story, they would probably agree with the Pharisee’s self-assessment. He was a righteous man, especially when compared with the tax-collector. The tax-collector would have even agreed that the Pharisee was more righteous than he was.

But in a twist at the end of the story it is the tax collector who is justified by God, and not the righteous Pharisee. Seminary professor, David Lose says this about the story:

“Here is the essential contrast. One makes a claim to righteousness based on his own accomplishments, while the other relies entirely upon the Lord's benevolence. Rather than be grateful for his blessings, the Pharisee appears smug to the point of despising others. In his mind there are two kinds of people: the righteous and the immoral, and he is grateful that he has placed himself among the righteous. The tax collector, on the other hand, isn't so much humble as desperate. He is too overwhelmed by his plight to take time to divide humanity into sides. All he recognizes as he stands near the Temple is his own great need. He therefore stakes his hopes and claims not on anything he has done or deserved but entirely on the mercy of God.”

What matters to God in this story, and in our own lives, is not who is righteous, but who is judgmental and who is not. Not who lives a so-called perfect life, but who realizes their dependence on God and that righteousness is a gift from God and not our own doing.

So coming back to Love the sinner. Hate the sin. The problem with this saying is that it focuses us on the sins of others, on judgment of others, rather than on our own sin and being honest about where we are with God. Love the Sinner. Hate the sin, at its heart focuses on the sins of others and our judgment of them.

In the Half-Truths book, Adam Hamilton tells this story about Billy Graham:

Some time ago I read an interview with Billy Graham’s eldest daughter, Gigi. She was her father’s date to Time magazine’s seventy-fifth anniversary party, a banquet in Washington, DC. President Bill Clinton spoke at the event. He had just been impeached by the House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice. The charge of perjury involved what President Clinton had said, under oath, about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. At the banquet, her father sat with President and Mrs. Clinton. He was warm and gracious to them. After the dinner ended and Graham and Gigi were riding back to their hotel, the two discussed difficulties the president and First Lady were going through with so many people gossiping and judging. Gigi said her father’s simple comment was, “It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convict; it’s God’s job to judge; and it’s our job to love.”

It is our job to love. Not to judge. It is our job to love. When we label someone as sinner, we stop seeing the person and we start seeing the sin. Our job is not to convict but to love.

Should we keep silent about the problem of sin? Of course not. There are absolutely times when Christians must stand up and name sin and evil for what it is. We’ve lived through many moments in the life of our country when we are called to name the evil before us. We must name hatred, racism, white supremacy, and the failure to condemn them, as sin. Any Christian who engages in actions or rhetoric motivated by hate or racism, has ceased to represent Christ. Any Christian who remains silent in the face of racism, homophobia, and hatred, will have to answer to God for their complicity.

But we must resist the urge to judge, label, and dismiss those who perpetuate this evil simply as sinners or to think of them as lesser people. And that’s hard. But our job is not to convict but to love. In fact, Adam Hamilton says:

The truth in “Love the sinner, hate the sin” stops with the first word: Love.

Let me ask you this. Where have you most often heard the phrase Love the Sinner, hate the sin, used? I have most often heard it used in terms of homosexuality. For those Christians, who believe that Bible says that homosexuality is sinful, this verse has been used to explain how someone can condemn a large part of someone’s identity while still claiming to love that person. Ask someone who is gay, ask someone who is transgender, ask them if they feel loved by people who say love the sinner, hate the sin.

When we use this saying we are first and foremost defining that person as a sinner, rather than as someone we love. In Matthew, Jesus says that we should not be judging other people, we have enough sin in our own lives that makes us liable to judgement. The only person we should label as sinner is ourselves. Love the sinner, hate the sin should be rewritten and we should instead be saying, I love you, even despite the fact that I am a sinner. Or as Mark Lowry says:

Love the sinner, hate the sin? How about: Love the sinner, hate your own sin! I don't have time to hate your sin. There are too many of you! Hating my sin is a full-time job. How about you hate your sin, I'll hate my sin and let's just love each other!

Pentecost – a day of expanding the church beyond what people then thought possible

Including more and more people, that’s the arc of the story of God. We will hear more about that in the next 2 weeks

• Everything happens for a reason.

• God helps those who help themselves.

• God wont’ give you more than you can handle.

• Love the sinner. Hate the sin.

Four half-truths. So if I have done my math correctly, that makes 2 whole truths. And isn’t that better than no truth? If there is some truth to these why do we really need to be worried about saying these things? If we mean well, isn’t that enough. Unfortunately, that’s not enough. The reality is these half-truths can hurt people who need hope and healing. These half-truths can be destructive to someone in a time of need. These half-truths can discourage people and turn people away from God and Christianity.

And even more importantly, why would we give someone a half-truth when we could give them the whole truth of a God who loves them and is there to support and guide them every step of the way.

I am indebted to Rev. Adam Hamilton and his Church in Kansas that made the inspiration for this sermon series available to other churches and preachers, and so I’d like to close with his words today:

I’d like remind you of the “whole truths” we found behind the half truths we have rejected. We reject the idea that everything that happens is God’s will. Instead we say that whatever happens, God is able to able to work through it, to redeem it, and to bring good from it.

We reject the idea that God only helps those who help themselves. We recognize that God expects us to do what we can to help ourselves. We pray and we work. But ultimately the very definition of grace and mercy is that God helps those who cannot help themselves.

We reject the idea that God won’t give us more than we can handle. This is partly because we reject the idea that whatever adversity we face is given to us by God. What we do believe is that God will help us handle all the adversity life will give us.

We reject the idea that every verse of Scripture should be read, out of context, as the literal words of God. Instead we recognize that the biblical authors were people, influenced by God but not merely stenographers. Like all of us they were shaped by, and responded to, the historical circumstances in which they lived. And thus we believe that, when they are rightly interpreted, God speaks through the words of Scripture in order to teach, guide, shape, and encourage us.

Finally, we reject the notion that God calls upon Christians to “love the sinner, hate the sin.” When we choose to focus on the sins of others and speak of hating their sin, we violate the words and spirit of Jesus. Paul calls us to hate our sins, and Jesus calls us to love our neighbors, all of whom are sinners. When we demonstrate love and not judgment, we draw people to Christ rather than repel them from him.

Transcript of the sermon preached by Pastor Shawn Coons on May 21, 2023

We're going to dive right into our second scripture lesson this morning, and it's from Luke chapter 11, beginning with verse nine. And these are Jesus' words to the gathered crowd. And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. For a friend of mine has arrived, I have nothing to set before him.' And he answers from within, 'Do not bother me. The door's already been locked. My children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything.'"

"I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he's his friend, at least because of his persistence, he will get up and give him whatever he needs. So I say to you, ask, and it will be given you, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks, receives, and everyone who searches, finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there any among you if your child asks for a fish will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg will give a scorpion? If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" Says the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

So on week three of our series of half-truths, looking at sayings that Christians, we as Christians, often say. Many we think we can find in the Bible, but when we look a little bit closer, we find they're maybe not quite as true or don't mean exactly what we're trying to convey. The series is based on a book by Reverend Adam Hamilton called Half Truths. So far, we've talked about everything happens for a reason. We've talked about God helps those who help themselves. And this week, we are tackling God won't give you more than you can handle.

With each of these sayings, we acknowledge that many of us have said these things before. And when we've said them, we mean well. Often we might say "God won't give you more than you can handle" to someone who's dealing with a lot of adversity, with too much problem in their life, one hardship piled on top of another. And so when we say this, "God won't give you more than you can handle," what we're really trying to say is, "You are strong. You got this. You're tough. I know you feel overwhelmed, but you're going to make it. You'll get through this." All wonderful things to say.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to be encouraging. There's nothing wrong with wanting to give someone hope when they're going through tough times. It's very natural to say, "This isn't going to defeat you. This won't overwhelm you. God is still with you, and God loves you and won't allow you to be defeated by this." And we can even find support for this kind of outlook in scripture. If we look at 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13, "No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength. With the testing he will also provide the way out so you may be able to endure it."

So Paul writes, "God is faithful and will not let you be tested beyond your strength." And that sounds very similar to "God won't give you more than you can handle." But there are some differences. There's some nuances that I think are important. So let's explore this verse first little bit written by the Apostle Paul to the Christian Church in Corinth in the first century, just a couple decades after Jesus' death and resurrection. Corinth was a crossroads. Corinth was kind of on an isthmus, and there was even kind of a little dry canal there that they would sometimes pull ships from one sea to the other. So it was a very cosmopolitan place. It was a place with lots of different people from lots of different places, lot of activity.

The folks there for the most part would've been labeled pagans by our New Testament church, simply meaning they weren't Jews and they weren't Christians, and they would've worshiped, as many did in that region, a variety of gods and goddesses, especially of the Greek and Roman pantheon. And they would've worshiped them in a number of different ways. There would've been idols. Sometimes there would've been raucous celebrations with drunkenness. There were temple prostitutes. There were feasts. But it's these pagans that make up that church in Corinth. And in following Jesus, they were giving up their former religious practices that they might have done in these various temples.

The problem for them is that they were tempted. Just by being in Corinth, just by walking around their town, they saw the temples, they saw what was going on, saw where all of these practices were still happening. And so these particular group of Christians in Corinth struggled with these temptations to revert back to their ways in those temples, to the immorality, to the gluttony, to the drunkenness. And so this is what Paul is writing to. He's writing to this group of Christians who are surrounded by temptation where they walk. Reverend Hamilton in his book, Half Truth, writes about this passage. The context in this verse is self-discipline in the face of temptation with the hope of avoiding sin, particularly the sins of sexual immorality and idolatry. Paul is telling the Corinthian Christians their experiences not unique. Just as the Israelites were tempted, so too the Corinthians will be tempted. In fact, we'll all be tempted. Jesus himself experienced temptation.

This passage is not about God deciding to give you more burdens in your life than you can handle. It is about God helping you when you are tempted. And temptation is indeed a test of your resolve, your character and your faith. And that's what Paul was talking about here, not about adversity and the difficult circumstances that come into life at some point. So we do need to make this distinction between temptation and the adversity that happens in our life. There are things that tempt us to do things against God's will, to do things that hurt ourselves, hurt God, hurt others. Then there's adversity in life. There's tragedy in life. There's things that overwhelm us that may have nothing to do with temptation.

What Paul is saying here, at least two things he's saying, he's not addressing these tragic circumstances, the hardship we face, the loss, the pain, the suffering. He's addressing temptation to former practices that led us into bad places. And Paul is not saying that God is the author of all hardship and all tragedy and all temptation, that God makes bad things happen to you, that God puts things in your path to test you. To go back to one of our earlier things, Paul is not saying that everything happens for a reason and that reason is God.

When I was in middle school, in high school, I was very active in my church youth group in my Presbyterian church, and it formed me in some very important ways and some very positive ways. But in this particular tradition that my youth group kind of embraced of Christianity, I received some messages about Christian faith that weren't so helpful. And one of these messages is that that God uses, God causes, trials and tribulations in our life to strengthen us, to refine us, to make us tough. The image is like a blacksmith who purifies metal by heating it up, putting it in the fire and taking the big old blacksmith hammer and hammering it until it's strong and in the shape it needs to be. And I was told that the hardships we sometimes face may be God just strengthening us, testing us, toughening us up.

I think there's several problems with that as I reflect on it now, but let's just say that metal doesn't suffer. Metal doesn't feel pain, and God doesn't treat us like objects with no feelings. Paul is saying that temptation is real. We are tempted to do things that are not good for us or for others, often for both. But those aren't tests from God. Those aren't from God, and often they're usually kind of from ourselves, of our own doing.

Really simple example, which is almost trivial, when I go grocery shopping, I don't like to go grocery shopping, so I like to reward myself. I don't know if anyone else does that as well. A candy bar, a cookie, a bag of chips, and there's nothing wrong with that. Often though I'm tempted to do maybe more than just a candy bar. Oh look, there's a eight-pack of brown sugar cinnamon Pop-Tarts, something for my childhood that I really love. Cheese Pringles. Let me get a whole can of cheese Pringles. And I will tell you, I am the target consumer. You know how Oreo puts out these new flavors, like five a week? I am a target for every single one of those. I look at it go, "Oh, that would be really good." And of course you can't buy just an Oreo to try it. You have to buy the whole pack. So I go there and I see Swedish Fish flavored Oreos, and I'm like, "Yes, please." They were good. I'll tell you that.

But I'm also telling you, God didn't put Swedish Fish Oreos into my life to test me. God wasn't sitting around saying, "Well, there's war, there's poverty, there's racism, there's greed. What should I do now? Shawn's going shopping. Let's get the new Oreos out." I was the author of my temptation there, or maybe Nabisco was the author of my temptation. And God had actually already given me what I needed to deal with it. As I said, that's a very small trivial temptation. But unfortunately at one time another, we are all prone to giving into those bigger temptations, those bigger temptations that lead to hurt for ourselves, for others. Maybe we're tempted into drug or alcohol use, unhealthy practices at home, cheating at school, self-harm, infidelity, dishonesty at work, silence or apathy in the face of injustice.

When we are tempted to these destructive choices, we hear in scripture that God provides us assistance in those moments of temptation. Paul is saying we're not on our own in those moments. Even it doesn't feel like, we have a choice and we have the strength to get through it. There are times when we do seem powerless to choose what's healthy for us, and that the destructive choice is just too strong. But even in those moments, God gives us an alternative. If we feel no, we can't deal with this on our own, sometimes the only choice we have is to ask for help, is to admit our powerlessness and say, "Yes, I need your help. I need someone to help me," to admit that we cannot help ourselves and that we need God and we need others in our lives.

This asking for help is often portrayed as a weakness. We want to be seen as self-sufficient, pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps. But there are times in our life when asking for help is the bravest thing that we can do. If you go to any Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, Narcotics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, every person there begins their road to recovery by admitting their need for help, that they cannot do it on their own. In our scripture lesson from Luke, Jesus says, "Ask and it will be given to you. Everyone who asks shall receive."

And we heard the story right before that about a man who needs something late at night and he goes to his neighbor's house, he bangs on his door, and the neighbor doesn't want to help him at that late hour. The scripture says he's not going to help him because they're friends. He's going to help him because the guy keeps banging on the door. He's persistent. The guy helps him not out of altruistic motives but out of selfish motives. But he still gets what he's asking for. And Jesus says, "Even if this guy can help grudgingly, what about God who loves you?" What about God who loves you is the ultimate good. Surely God's going to take care of you more than this neighbor. We all need help at various times in our life, and God wants us to ask for help. God wants us to cry out in prayer. God wants us to turn towards each other. We are here as God's answers to prayer. We are here to help one another.

I received a phone call here at the church once from a woman who was in some pretty hard straits and as I listened to her, I could tell that she probably needed more help than I could give. I said, "I'm happy to listen, but I think you might benefit from talking to a therapist, a mental health professional." She replied, she didn't need that because she had God. And so I asked her, if God's help was all she needed, why was she calling me? She realized she needed help, but it was just harder to take even one more step. But we've been put here for one another from the very beginning.

In that second creation story in Genesis 2, God makes Adam out of dust, breathes life into him, and then says, "It's not good, Adam, for you to be alone." It is not good for any of us to be alone. We are created to help each other. God doesn't give us more than we can handle, but that doesn't mean... Well, we say God doesn't give us more than we can handle, but sometimes we get more than we can handle even though it doesn't come from God.

Adam Hamilton writes in his book, Half Truths, about a conversation on this subject, the woman, and she said, "For years this statement helped me when I was facing difficult things. I kept telling myself that God wouldn't give me more than I could handle, and it reassured me that somehow I was going to make it through. Then one day I was at my therapist's office and I mentioned it to him and he laughed. And he said, 'Are you kidding me? Surely you don't really believe that. I can tell you plenty of stories about people who had more than they could handle. In fact, my profession consists of helping just such people.'"

The counselor reminded the woman that in her own case, she had come to him because the emotional pain and difficulty she was facing had been more than she could handle. In addition, the woman's mother had committed suicide because life had become more difficult than she could handle. Now, first, the one was angry that her therapist had called her belief into question, but the more she reflected, the more she concluded he was right. We will face adversity in our lives and we will experience hardships. We or someone we love may face terminal illness. We may struggle with debilitating depression, suicidal thoughts, grief so heavy we'll feel we'll suffocate. We may walk through financial circumstances where it seems there's no way out. We are like every human being. At some point, we will absolutely face things that are more than we can handle.

And the promise of scripture is not that we won't go through hard times. What scripture does promise is that all times good or bad, God wants to be our help and our strength. It's not that God won't give you more than you can handle, but that God will help you handle all that you've been given. That's the message. That's the important message. It's not that God won't give you more than you can handle, but that God will help you handle all that you've been given.

One last word I'd like to give you. It's possible someone is sitting here today and they absolutely feel like they have more than they can handle. If that's you, if you are facing a challenge that has overwhelmed you, addiction, financial difficulties, relationship challenges, depression, mental health issues, grief, pain, whatever it is, please ask for help. You can start this moment by asking God for help, but don't stop there. Talk to someone. Talk to a friend here, talk to me. Talk to a teacher, a family member, a therapist. God has already put people in your life that can help you. It's not that you have been given more than you can handle... No, sorry, it's not that God won't give you more than you can handle, but that God will help you handle all that you've been given.

Transcript of the sermon preached by Pastor Shawn Coons on May 14, 2023

So here we are on our second week of our Half Truths series, where we look at sayings commonly associated with Christianity and said by well-meaning Christians. But sometimes when we look closer at these sayings, we find that they may not be as true as we think they may be. Last week we talked about "Everything happens for a reason," and this morning we're moving on to "God helps those who help themselves." Now, there was a survey done by the Barna Group and they asked a whole bunch of people, "Is 'God helps those who help themselves' found in the Bible?" And 8 in 10 Americans said, "Yes. We're pretty sure that's found in the Bible." Half the people in that survey were very strongly convinced that this was a strong, major message found in scripture.

When we do a little bit of historical research, we find that this saying or similar sayings actually predate much of scripture and can be traced back to Greece and some Greek mythology five centuries before Jesus. God helps those who help themselves has been said a number of different ways throughout history. Probably the most famous that we know is by Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard's Almanac. And I would guess a number of us here have probably said it at one point or another, and often what we mean by it is, well, you can't just sit back. You can't just be lazy. You can't just do nothing and expect that God's going to take care of everything for you. If you want a job, then put together a resume. Get out there and look for a job. Don't just hang out at home, pray for a job, then hope the phone will ring. Or I guess nowadays your email will buzz with that job offer. God helps those who help themselves.

When we mean this, we sometimes mean don't offer prayers to God for something unless you are willing to put forth your effort for it as well. Maybe sometimes we'll say God answers prayers like that, but sometimes God's answer to prayer is, "I've given you everything you need to accomplish this. Go out there. You have the brains, you have the strength, you have the resources to get it, so go for it." There is this saying that I came across on Facebook one day. "I dreamed I was face to face with God, and so I asked God, 'There's so much suffering in the world, so much poverty, so much violence, racism and sexism. People are treating each other so horribly. God, why don't you do something about it?' And then God looked at me and said, 'That's interesting. I was just about to ask you the same thing.'"

Adam Hamilton, in his book, Half-Truths, which this series is based on, he writes this. "We don't sit around waiting for God simply to miraculously write the wrongs in society. Scripture reveals over and over again, God works through people. We are the instruments God uses to change the world." Our times of prayer are meant to empower us and guide us into action. Those who fought for civil rights did not simply show up at church and pray. They prayed and then marched, knowing they were likely to be beaten and arrested, but that God would somehow see them through.

Okay, that makes, I think, a lot of sense. But what about the people who seem incapable of helping themselves, who seem for any number of reasons helpless to get out of a situation? What about someone trapped in circumstances that have gotten out of control? Will God help them? Well, just a moment ago, Randy read from Psalm 18, he read, "The cords of death encompass me. The torrents of perdition assail me. The cords of Sheol entangled me. The snares of death confronted me." That sounds to me like someone unable to help themselves. So what does God do? What does God say? "Well, it was your choices that got you there. You'll have to figure out how to get yourself out."

No, it says God reaches down from on high. It says, "God delivered me for my strong enemy." God delivered me. Think about that language. God delivered me. When I think of deliveries these days, I think of the UPS driver. The package gets delivered. The package doesn't contribute any help to the delivery guy. The package doesn't lift itself. The package is passive. So when we say God delivers us, that's not "Okay, we did our part. Now God's going to do God's part." That means God does the delivering. God does the rescuing. God does the saving.

Let's turn to the gospels for a second lesson this morning and we will look at it in this lens of does Jesus only help those who help themselves? And we'll be reading from Mark chapter five, starting with verse one. "They came to the other side of the lake to the country of the Gerasenes, and when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. He lived among the tombs and no one could restrain him anymore, even with a chain, for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart. The shackles he broke in pieces, and no one had the strength to subdue him.

Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him and he shouted at the top of his voice, 'What are you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.' For Jesus had said to him, 'come out of the man you unclean spirits.' "Then Jesus asked him, 'What is your name?' And he replied, 'My name is Legion for we are many,' and he begged him earnestly not to send them out of him. 'Send us into the swine, let us enter them.' So Jesus gave them permission and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine and the herd numbering about 2000, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned in the lake." This is the word of God.

The word of God.

There's a number of things going on in this passage. I would be remiss if I didn't point out this was the first known known instance of deviled pork. Sorry, I know it's Father's Day, a little dad joke for you. No, we've got a guy here. He's in the grips of these demonic forces. He is trapped by forces beyond his control. He is trapped by forces beyond other people's control, as the passage says. They're making him do strange things. They're making him do destructive things. They're making him hurt himself, things that no one in their right mind would do by choice. Here is a man in need of help and he cannot help him himself.

We might talk about these kind of forces differently. We're probably not going to talk about demons in supernatural possession, but there are forces that people are in the grip of that are beyond their control. People trapped in poverty, in situations of war and violence and famine, racism and sexism. And while we may admit that people mired in their circumstances too deep to get out on their own, sometimes we want to nuance that just a little bit. And we don't quite say, "Well, God helps those who help themselves," but we say a little bit of a different version of it. "God helps those who don't get into that kind of trouble in the first place." We go beyond saying, "Well, use what God has given you to help yourself," and we move on to labeling.

We move on to judging. We move on to implying that there are people out there, yes, maybe they can't help themselves, but they had a chance to and they didn't choose it. And so they got themselves into this situation and maybe they don't quite deserve God's help as much as we think. So sometimes when we say, "God helps those who help themselves," we mean "Well, you made your bed and now you have to lie in it. You made some bad decisions. Maybe you deserve some consequences for your actions."

We see someone on the street corner asking for money, and we question whether they truly deserve our help or God's help, because surely they could have done something to get themselves there. Surely they could have went out and looked for work that day instead of standing on the street corner. Maybe they chose to do drugs. Maybe they didn't work hard enough, maybe they spent recklessly. If we think about this a little bit, it's probably somewhere at the heart of this is a desire for fairness. We want life to be fair. We want God to be fair. We don't want someone getting something they don't deserve, especially if it seems to be at our expense. We want people who do good things, who make good choices, to get good results. We want people who do bad things, who make bad choices, to get bad results.

To borrow from another faith. We want this sort of karma. And is it bad to want that? Is it bad to want fairness? Is it bad to want God to be fair? It may not be, but we have to be very careful. We have to be cautious. This idea that God is fair, by our definition, can expose some deeper unhealthy beliefs. George Barna of the Barna survey writes that "God helps those who help themselves. That belief exposes our theological cornerstone, that maybe we are the center of all things. That it is up to us to determine our own destinies, that God is merely our assistant and where we end up in life, not our foundation."

If we go further with this belief, it can allow us to labor under what's sort of an illusion, that you and I have earned every blessing we have in our lives, we have earned every blessing God has given us, while others, who are not as hardworking as you and I, haven't really earned their blessings. They're probably on sort of a divine welfare, if you will. Yes, we deserve every last blessing God has given us. We haven't done wrongs but those others ... But if we're honest and God is truly fair, there's a real possibility we might get what we deserve sometimes instead of what God has blessed us with.

I don't think it is a good idea to impose our idea of fairness on to God. God is not fair in that way. Not if it means being unmerciful or being without grace. Jesus didn't ask the man who was possessed, "Well, how did this happen? How did you get there? How did you let these unclean spirits in?" Jesus helped him. I can't think of a single story in the gospels where Jesus pre-screens somebody and then offers them healing, wholeness, help. "What did you do to become sick? What bad choices did you make to become hungry?" Jesus never says anything like that.

Jesus didn't ask those kind of questions. He did just the opposite. In John chapter eight, Jesus comes to a woman accused of adultery, the Pharisees, the stones in their hand, ready to convict her, ready to punish her according to the law, according to what's fair. Did she deserve help? She sinned, and so she must pay the price. She was helpless. She was defenseless before the law, but Jesus helped her, especially when she could not help herself. We see this concern for those in need throughout Jesus' ministry. It defines Jesus' ministry. It defines Jesus. It's a fundamental characteristic of God. God helps those who are in a hole so deep they can't get out, and that hole can be poverty, racism, war, homophobia, transphobia, violence, but like the woman caught in adultery, sometimes we do dig our own hole and even still, God comes to us.

Adam Hamilton again writes, "Thankfully, the idea that God helps those who help themselves does not capture the truth of the Bible." Sometimes we cannot help ourselves, not because we are poor or destitute or without resources, but because we've descended too deeply into sin or despair. God is the God of the hopeless cause, the God who loves sinners, the God who walks with us through the darkest valleys. He is the God who brings light into our darkness and helps us find peace amid our times of anxiety and despair. God rescues, God redeems, God forgives. We receive blessings from God even though we cannot earn them and we don't deserve them. Even when we have made a mess of things and cannot fix them, God extends mercy to us. There is a word for God's mercy towards those who cannot help themselves, and we call it grace. This concept of grace is central to the Christian gospel. It is the undeserved work of God in our lives, the unmerited favor of God.

Grace is not something we earn, buy, or work for. We cannot help ourselves into grace. We can only ask for and accept it. The essence of grace is that God helps those who cannot help themselves. The core message of our faith is God most certainly helps those who cannot help themselves. Paul writes in Romans that, "While we were sinners, Christ died for us." Paul doesn't write, "When we got our act together, when we repented, when we made whatever goals we're trying to make, then God, then Christ died for us." It's when we were helpless that Christ died for us. Those who are helpless, those who cannot help themselves, are the ones most in need of our help.

There are times when we can help ourselves and we absolutely should. God is counting on us to do the best we can to pray and to work, but there are times when people, including ourselves, cannot make it on their own, and God prompts us to help. We become the hands of God. We become God's answers to someone else's prayer. God's instruments of grace. You will find a time where you cannot help yourself. You probably already have. There are things from which you simply cannot save yourself, no matter how hard you try, and you will not have the strength or the resources or the knowledge. There may be times when you don't believe you deserve the help, because you know that somehow you are responsible for the situation you find yourself in.

In those moments we cry out to God, the one who can help us, the one who can put other people in our lives to help us, despite the fact we are poor and pitiable, weak and afraid, despite the fact that we may have made a mess of things, God reaches out and picks us up and makes us clean and whole. God says, "I love you. I will not abandon you. Put your trust in me. Together, we'll make this right." This is the message we find from God over and over again in scripture. "I am here," says God, "You matter to me. Your life has meaning and nothing, no matter what you may have done, what you have been unable to do, what has been done to you, can ever separate you from my love."

Transcript of the sermon preached by Pastor Shawn Coons on May 7, 2023

All throughout the month of May, we're going to be looking in this series at a number of what we're calling half truths, often said by Christians. These particular half truths, they're coming from a book by Adam Hamilton of that same name, called Half Truths: God Helps Those Who Help Themselves and Other Things the Bible Doesn't Say. And each week, we're going to explore one of these half truths and we'll try to find the truth in it, as well as explore what may not be so true about it.

If this sounds familiar, we did this series about five years ago, and I think it was important. I think it was very valuable. For a time, actually, it probably still is true, we posted the sermons on the website and it got shared in a newsletter somewhere. And for a time, we were getting about a thousand different visits to these set of sermons every month from all over the world. And so there was something in them that resonated with people. So we thought it would be good to revisit them again.

But before we go further, I want to say this. The goal of this series is not to offend anyone. Chances are that many of you and me, we've said these things and we've meant well. So I'm not saying that if you say these things that you're a bad person. It's just to explore a little bit what it really means to think through some of these things. It's important to talk about these half truths even if it makes us a little uncomfortable.

So if you do feel a little unsettled, that's okay. I promise that we're going to get through this together. But I want to start with the question, why then is it important to talk about these things? Why is it important to label half truths like, "Everything happens for a reason," or, "God helps those who help themselves," or, "God won't give you more than you can handle."?

I think it's important to address these. It's important to talk about these, because even with our best intentions, sometimes when we share these with someone else, they can be harmful. They can be hurtful to someone, especially sometimes these are said in people's hour of grief or an hour of need and it can make people more uncomfortable and, when we are just trying to help out and maybe help them draw closer to God, can maybe give them questions about God instead. So we're going to look at these half truths, the truth that is there, the truth that is not, and then we'll ask questions as to maybe what we should say instead and maybe how we can honor what we're trying to do in a better way.

So this morning, we're going to begin with the half truth, "Everything happens for a reason." And I'm guessing we've all heard this at some point. I'm guessing maybe we've said this at some point. And usually, when we say it, it's at a time when something bad has happened, right? It's at a time when someone is suffering and we're trying to help them through a difficult time. And so we might say, "Well, it was meant to be. It must have been that way all along. It was God's will. It was all part of God's plan. Everything happens for a reason."

And I think what we're saying at these moments, especially these moments of loss, we're trying to affirm that even in tragic circumstances, even in the worst of circumstances, that God is in control, that whatever the worst thing that has happened in your life, whatever the most awful thing that has happened, God has a greater purpose in mind. When tragedy strikes, it can be comforting to know that when we are riding through the storm, when the waves threaten to overturn that ship, we want to know the captain is at the helm and keeping the ship on course. So it's perfectly natural at times like that to look for God's loving hand, to look for God's strong hand to guide things through our darkest hour.

But let's look at just a little bit closer at this idea of everything happens for a reason and ask this question, "Does everything happen as part of God's plan? Is that plan immutable? Is that plan set in stone? Is that plan detailed down to every event in our life?" And this is a fundamental question.

If the answer to this question, "Does everything happen as part of God's plan?," is no, then we can't trace everything that happens back to God's immutable plan, then everything does not happen for a reason, at least not a reason that is according to God's will.

Think of it this way. Imagine that you're watching the news, you're reading the newspaper, and every story that you read, every story that you see on the news, you're watching it, shootings, war, famine, terrorism. And then after every story, you say out loud, "Everything happens for a reason. That was part of God's plan." How does that feel to see a story of a murderer and say, "Everything happens for a reason. That was part of God's plan."? The war in Ukraine, "Well, everything happens for a reason. That was part of God's plan."

When Carrie and I were pastors serving in our church in Florida, there was a four-year-old boy named Mitchell there. Mitchell was not a member of this church. His family wasn't a member, but he went to our afterschool program. They lived a block away from the church and we saw them frequently. One Halloween, Mitchell and his mother were crossing a busy street to get to the Methodist church trunk or treat, and a car hit them and killed Mitchell. Mitchell's funeral was at our church and I spent a lot of time with the family at this time, and it was awful. And I heard things, "Well, I guess God needed another angel. It must have been Mitchell's time," and other versions of, "Everything happens for a reason."

And then and now, I have a hard time believing that. I don't believe God has a plan that causes four-year old children to be killed. I don't believe God has a plan that causes anyone to be killed. So if everything happens for a reason as part of God's plan, then somehow God is responsible for Mitchell's death, for war, for famine, for the Holocaust, for terrorism.

And I don't think that sits well with any of us. I don't think it lines up with our experience either. I don't think it lines up with the whole witness of the Bible.

So I want to read a passage this morning. I want us to go to Genesis chapter two. This is the second creation story. This is where we are introduced to Adam and Eve. And I want to see how this helps us understand our topic this morning.

"These are the generations of the heaven and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no urban of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth and there was no one to till the ground. But a stream would rise from the earth and water the whole face of the ground. And then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground, the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food and the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."

"And the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die."

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Thanks be to God.

So this is from the second version of the creation story. The first one, you find in Genesis 1. The second one starts in Genesis 2. And we see things from the very beginning. God is with Adam first, and then later Adam and Eve. And God creates Adam. God creates the garden, and then God puts the forbidden tree of knowledge in the garden and he tells Adam, "Don't eat from that tree. You can eat from everything else here, just not that one."

And then God gives Adam one more thing. God gives Adam a choice. God doesn't say, "I'm going to make it so you can't eat from that tree.: God says, "The tree is there and you can choose whether you eat from it or not. But I'm asking you not to, to obey or disobey, to choose life or to choose death."

If everything happens for a reason, if everything was part of God's unchangeable plan, then is there really a choice in this story? God would've had to have made Adam eat the forbidden fruit as part of God's plan. If everything is a part of God's plan, then do we have free will? Do we actually have choices? If everything we do, if everything we say is part of God's plan, every action we take, every choice we make, has everything been predetermined by God as part of God's plan and we're just actors in a play? Including the evil that we do, including the tragic actions that we take, does that mean God is the author of these evil acts, that these evil acts are somehow part of God's plan, even if something better seems to redeem them?

So we said this is a half truth. What is the truth in, "Everything happens for a reason."? Let's talk for a moment about the concept of God's sovereignty. That's not a word we use often, although I've heard it a few days around King Charles' Coronation. Sovereignty basically means who's in charge, who is the ultimate authority. It means the boss, if you will. If someone is sovereign, there is no one above them. There is no higher authority.

In our Christian tradition, God is sovereign. The sovereignty of God is very important. We don't believe that anyone has power over God or that anyone can control God or have more control than God. And so when we say, "Everything happens for a reason," it's a way of affirming the sovereignty of God. God is still the ultimate authority, not the powers of hate, not the powers of death, not the powers of violence. God is supreme.

So then we're back at another quandary. If God is supreme and bad things happen, but God doesn't cause them to happen, who does? Well, there are a couple ways that Christians have answered this question. One way is to say, "Yes, everything happens for a reason. But often, that reason is because we are making bad choices. Everything happens for a reason, but it's not God. Sometimes, it's us that cause bad things to happen. Much of the suffering, much of the pain, much of the tragedy of this world, we inflict on one another and sometimes we inflict on ourselves. That's not a part of God's plan. Sometimes we make it part of our plan."

When you read the beginning of one of the creation stories in Genesis, where later on in that same story, God speaks to Adam and Eve and he tells them, "You are caretakers of this garden. You are caretakers of all creation, of the land, of the sky, of the water, of the plants, of the animals. You have dominion. You have authority over it." "I'm giving that to you," God says.

God remains in charge. God remains sovereign, but delegates, if you will. And furthermore, God gives us all sorts of instructions and guidance for how to choose the right thing, how to take care of creation, how to take care of ourselves, how to take care of one another.

But time and time again, just like Adam and Eve, we choose to do wrong and someone gets hurt. Does that mean that God just said, "Okay, Adam and Eve, you're in charge. I'm going on vacation. I'm checking out."? No. Are we on our own? God created everything and then gave us the tools, the keys to make everything work and then moved on? No.

There's a fancy name for this kind of thinking though. It's called deism, and it was actually very popular with a number of the Founding Fathers of America. It was sometimes called the watchmaker God. God is like a watchmaker that makes the watch, winds it up, and then it just goes on its own and the watchmaker doesn't need to do anything anymore.

But we don't believe in a watchmaker God. We reject this idea that God is no longer here, God is not active in our life. We believe God does not abandon us.

So we've said that God doesn't control and script every last part as this internal unchangeable plan. We've rejected the idea that God got creation started and then went on vacation. So if God isn't in total control of every last event in the world, if God isn't completely hands off, then how do we understand that balance of how God works in our life?

Ray Firestone is a Methodist in Kansas City, and he lost his wife in a car accident. And he shares these words, "Suffering is not God's desire for us, but it occurs in the process of life. Suffering is not given to teach us something, but, through it, we may learn. Suffering is not given to punish us, but sometimes it is the consequence of our sin or poor judgment. Suffering does not occur because our faith is weak, but, through it, our faith may be strengthened. God does not depend on human suffering to achieve God's purposes, but sometimes, through suffering, God's purposes are achieved. Suffering can either destroy us or it can add meaning to our life. God is present at all times, in all places, even when tragedy strikes. Maybe especially when tragedy strikes, God is with us and can bring healing and comfort and, in time, maybe new perspective and insight."

And think back to the most painful times of your life. With time, do you now see God working at places in that tragedy, not as the author, not causing the tragedy, but coming to you when you are vulnerable, when you are in need, lifting you up, teaching you compassion, showing you love?

I want to close with a story this morning, and then I'm sorry, this is another tragic story. This is about parents Todd and Kathy. Their son Austin was three years old when he died. And it was a horrible time for them. But through it all, their faith in God emerged stronger. And this is how Kathy reflects back on that time.

"At the time, I had people tell me that it was Austin's time. And I was having a hard time believing in a God who had planned to take my child at age three. I learned that tragedies weren't necessarily part of God's plan, but God gave us free will and bad things sometimes happen. Understanding this helped me to turn to God instead of away from God."

"Since Austin's death, I believe that my faith has grown and continues to grow. His death changed the way I view God and my faith, and I no longer have a naive childlike faith where God protects you from all harm and makes everything okay. It's a deeper faith that has been tested through tragedy. I know that God doesn't promise me a pain-free life, but God does promise always to be there, to love me, to comfort me and guide me."

Does everything happen for a reason? That's not what our faith teaches us. Does God have this immutable plan that scripts everything, good and evil, that will ever befall us? No. But we believe God has a plan, and that plan is to love us. That plan is to be with us no matter what. That plan is a promise. We hear it over and over again in Scripture, and I want to close with where we hear that promise from the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans.

"Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship or distress, or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? No. I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor death, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord."