Don't miss the rest of the message

It's a common human malady. And there is no escaping it. Furthermore, we are all slaves to it, with little hope of rescue.

Yet we deny that it exists, refusing to believe it has any power over any of us, let alone all of us, as if by denying it we can overcome it.

It doesn't work. It can't.

I've asked the question before. I'm going to ask it again. In the parable of the wheat and tares, where the farmer sows good seed only to see tares rise up with the wheat in Matthew 13, does the tare know it's nothing but a weed? Does it know that it was essentially created to be a hindrance to a disobedient people as they struggled for daily bread? The creation of weeds and the bane they brought is found in Genesis 3:17 and 18 "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you..."

I don't think the weeds know. I think they, like the wheat surrounding them, respond to sunshine, warmth and moisture in exactly the same way, but with a decidedly different outcome. When the harvest is taken in, the tares will be separated from the wheat and burned up. It wouldn't seem fair at all, except that we're talking about weeds here. Not sentient beings, not people who reason, learn and ponder deep and meaningful issues -- and sometimes silly ones, like whether or not a weed knows that it is, indeed, nothing but a weed.

Yet, in the parable, the Lord compares people to the tares and the wheat, saying in fact that "the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared."

So, we must ask ourselves, am I wheat or am I a tare? And how can I tell the difference? And does it matter?

It does. Weeds cannot become wheat. But created man has free will and therefore does determine his destiny.

In order to do so, created man must acknowledge truth. Sin entered the world and spoiled everything. Hence the weeds. Hence the strong penchant of denial that still runs rampant in the hearts of men. Denial doesn't change truth. It is through the Law that we learn what is sin and what is not. This is the issue before us in the ongoing debate about homosexuality, among other sins, such as abortion and adultery, that continue to plague modern man and make headlines every day. The issue is not about the rights of individuals to live as they choose. They can.

The issue is not about whether or not an adulterer or a gay man is capable of doing a good job, whether that be tending bar or running a city. They are.

The issue is not about whether or not it is acceptable to beat someone, fire someone or otherwise bring sanctions against someone because of their chosen lifestyle. It is not.

The issue is identifying, unapologetically, whether or not that lifestyle is sinful and what the consequences of that sin, and all sin, is. To do anything less is to become partners in denial, and worse -- to stand by and do nothing while another human being, created in the image of God, perishes. Because Paul tells us plainly, in Romans 6:23 that "The wages of sin is death."

Identifying sin however, is only a start.

Danny related a dream to me several years ago, in which he was seated in a church pew with several other men. His Bible was open on his lap and he was nervously fingering the pages because everyone was waiting for him to expound on one Scripture verse or another.

Suddenly, his attention was drawn to his pants. There was a smudge of dirt on them. Upon closer inspection he discovered that his shirt also was soiled. Immediately self-concious, he began brushing at the dirt, succeeding only in spreading it to the clean spots on his pants and shirt. In fact, the more he tried to brush the dirt away, the more dirt he deposited.

That was it. That was the dream. It ended in utter futility. He could not make himself clean. And the more he tried, the dirtier he got.

It doesn't take a psych major to interpret the dream. And at that time in his life, Danny freely admits, he was desperately trying to "clean up" his own act. It would be several years before he realized that there was no way that he ever could. There is no soap strong enough, no stain fighter tough enough, no vacuum cleaner powerful enough to clean any of us.

Danny had long since given up on denial. He knew fully and well what had caused the stain, but acknowledging it was only the first step in dealing with it. Raised to be self-sufficient, to tend to his own business, to face the music of his own making, he was determined to overcome it by sheer dint of will. And he spent years trying to do that very thing.

It's a common human malady. And there is no escaping it. Furthermore, we are all slaves to it, with little hope of rescue.

Yet, we believe that if we just try a little harder, walk a little straighter, keep a tighter rein on ourselves, it will lose its power over us and we can overcome it.

It doesn't work. It can't. And when we try, we are reduced to the same futile cry Paul utters in Romans 7:24, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"

This year, even this very day, as the carols ring out, as the packages pile up, as the tinsel wraps itself around your pant legs every time you walk past the Christmas tree, don't miss the rest of the message. Sin entered, yes. But our rescuer has come, first to a stable, then to a cross and now to the right hand of his Father, where he, who paid the cost of all sin, still pleads our otherwise hopeless case.

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." John 3:17 (NIV)