My fellow Pastors, It's time to do what we are ordained to do!

I sometimes wonder what happened to Christianity in these modern times.  I’m not talking people in the pews, new music or old, words on the wall or spoken only from the pulpit.  I’m talking about the ongoing rant of so many preachers who think it is their unique ministry to condemn sin.  So many of my contemporaries seem to think that we are called condemn sin.

Isn’t sin bad?  Yes.

Doesn’t it cause hurt and pain and suffering?  Yes.

Doesn’t God detest sin?  Yes.

Shouldn’t we repent of our sin and live for God.  Yes.  Absolutely, yes!

Then why shouldn’t we devote at least a significant amount of our time to condemning sin?  Because God already did that.  About two millennia ago on a hill called Golgotha, he who had no sin became sin for us and received the punishment for our sins.  Christ died for us.

But if God condemned sin, shouldn’t we follow suit and keep on condemning it?  No, he finished this work.  We don’t need to act is if God missed a few details.  It is finished!

So what are we to do?  Every Christian is to proclaim the good news.  We are commissioned.

All of us are called to live in grateful response to God’s grace—his undeserved forgiveness.

What do we do?  We trust God, obey God, and love God and each other. 

We are to be a light unto a very dark world. 

We are to be the salt of the earth—let people taste the goodness of the Lord when they encounter us.

As pastors, we are called to shepherd the flock in the way of the Good Shepherd not take on the role of modern-day Pharisees.

We are commissioned and ordained—set apart as ministers of word and sacrament—in response to God’s special calling to us.  If we are not listening to God, trusting him, obeying his commands, and walking humbly with him, then what can we expect of the flock?

If we are trying to be God or a better version of the God we find in the Bible, what can we expect of those looking to us of an example of following Jesus?

We need to stop sitting in the judgment seat and start living out our callings!  We need to do what God called us to do not what our human nature—the old self—wants us to do.

We must stop gratifying the old creature and start living as the new creation that we are.

But why would people—pastors—spend so much time condemning sin?  It’s addictive for one and it takes far less courage than doing what we are ordained to do for another.

God told Joshua to be strong and courageous.  That counsel applies to God’s pastors today.

We are told that perfect loves casts out fear.  We should be people of courage not cowards.

But it is so much easier to condemn sin than to love the unlovable.  It is much easier to throw penalty flags than to help someone carry a burden.  Pointing fingers takes less effort and requires less risk than humbly guiding someone to Jesus. 

There is no humility in condemnation.    That’s why condemnation is addictive.  We get a power fix.

Condemnation is cowardly.  Love takes courage.

Does that mean that we accept sin?  No.  It is still repugnant to God and to us.  We are to be holy as God is holy.  That’s our focus.

We are to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

We are to run our race of faith without being distracted by the trappings of this world.

We are not to stir up controversy but deal with falsehood and differences as a workman approved. 

We are ordained not only to lead people to Jesus but to help them seek and live in the Kingdom of God now.  We help them with their trials and even when they are persecuted.  We help them experience their gifts. 

We help them live by faith.

We help them receive the word of God so that it may dwell richly in them and that they may put the words of the Master into practice.

And so many other things—so many things on which we don’t have the time to spend. These are things that God has already taken care of.  To do these things that God finished mocks God.

He commissioned us and ordained us for very specific things.  When we ignore his instructions and replace them with what the sinful heart desires, God is not pleased.

We need to quit condemning sin and get in the rescue business by leading sinners to Jesus.

We need to quit condemning other pastors and start praying for each other.  

We need to shepherd our flocks.

We need to demonstrate what it is to seek justice but to love mercy.

We need to be examples of trust, obedience, and love.

You won’t get the same fix that you do when you condemn someone or something.  You will get something better.  The good deposit that lives within us—God’s own Spirit—can come alive and we can do what we are commissioned and ordained to do.

You might have made it this far, perhaps not if much of your ministry is vested in condemning what God has already condemned.  I might call that the ministerial version of beating a dead horse.

If you did, you might ask—and rightly so—does this short essay not condemn others?  I hope not.  My prayer is that it is an appeal to return to our commissions and callings and leave condemnation alone.

There is a line in the song, Jesus Friend of Sinners, that goes "Nobody knows what we are for only what we are against when we judge the wounded."  How did we go from proclaiming good news to being this century's Pharisees? 

It is an appeal to not cast our pearls before swine.  Our pearls in this analogy are our best efforts. 

 Let’s not use our best gifts, abilities, skills, and passion for what we are not called to do.

Let’s take our best and put it into what we are commissioned and ordained to do.

Amen!