Musical Prelude and Service.

Proverbs 8:22-31 & John 6:41-51
As I worked through some readings and reflections on these scriptures for today, my mind kept going
back to a book I open up periodically called, Preaching The Big Questions: Doctrine is not Dusty.
It’s written by United Church of Canada ministers and theologians Catherine Faith MacLean and John
Young. One of the book’s chapters focuses on the doctrine of Human Depravity. The chapter is an
urging for ministers like me to acknowledge that the capacity for humans to do evil is very real –
certainly on a personal level, but also as societies. Beyond that, all of us as individuals struggle with a
shadow self, that all too often we face temptation to negate the humanity of others or of ourselves.
How do we preach that? But also, how do we also provide a sense of hope and the understanding
that despite our worst impulses and humanity’s unending capacity for cruelty, we are beloved
creatures of God? How do we preach a convincing message that we live with God’s grace?
I have certainly met people in my journeys who struggle with demons – who all too often see
themselves as beyond redeeming. They see themselves as condemned to live outside of God’s love.
We can gather to celebrate God’s love on a regular basis, but it is also valuable to acknowledge that
there are very real questions about where we find God when we are struggling with the reality of the
intense cruelty human beings inflict on one another. In addition, is the estrangement so many of our
fellow human beings feel on a regular basis from their community and from that loving God.
That notion of human depravity, the acknowledgment that sin that is built into the human condition,
was written about quite extensively during the Reformation, by a variety of scholars and theologians,
including John Calvin. As is often the case, those ideas evolved over the centuries to include the
notion that we are born with a nature of depravity and are only saved by the sacrifice of Jesus the
Christ.
That is the essence of one vision of atonement often referred to as Penal Substitution.
There are many other views or theories of atonement, but that one is quite popular and possibly the
most talked about. Humanity was not created in a state of sin, but we are now living as sinful
creatures because of the original sin we read about in Genesis, as Adam and Eve ate from the tree of
knowledge, attempting to become like God. Christ’s sacrifice was necessary to overcome that sin.
One of the difficulties with that premise, is it can leave us with a very negative view of ourselves on a
personal level, and of humanity in general. Let’s not talk this morning about what it says about God.
What can it say about our view of humanity? It can lead to dismissing the humanity of others, which
I see as a sin or even the sin of self-negation. That we see ourselves as incapable of being loved.
We live in a world where the capacity for depravity is evident in so many different places.
Genocide in Gaza, as well as other locales, political violence and the accusations and threats of
retribution that are so much a part of our current news feeds. Violence and the threats of violence
against migrants and refugees, racism, white supremacy, nationalism wrapped in a cloak of religion,
misogyny and homophobia, and a growing surge of transphobia.
I could go on and on. My heart breaks on a regular basis in recent months.
We all too often attempt to soft peddle the notion of sin. We are afraid of offending people who may
think they are being targeted with that message. We desire a reassurance that God made us as an
act of love, and God’s love is constant. And I do believe that, but I cannot deny that far too often we
as human beings give in to temptation and inflict incredible damage on God’s creation. We miss the
mark of God’s desire for us. We lose sight of where God is actually guiding us. We exploit the gifts of
this world and view our fellow human beings as expendable or not worthy of our love, or outside of
God’s love.
If I haven’t made this clear before, I absolutely do believe that evil is a force in our world. It is, in
part, the dehumanization our fellow human beings and placing our own well being and pleasure
above the lives and needs of our fellow humans. If that in itself is not evil, it is where evil gets its
start. Dismissing the suffering of entire populations as a mere inconvenience can absolutely be
considered evil.
Which raises the question of how we respond when we feel completely powerless to act in the face of
such depravity? I think we start by reminding ourselves that we belong to God. That we are created
by a loving God who delighted in our creation. Proverbs offers us its own creation narrative that
begins with the creation of wisdom. That wisdom came first and was there beside God at the creation
of the world, and in particular, humanity. That Wisdom delighted and frolicked as she witnessed
humanity’s creation, and God smiled at that. Our creation was a delight. It was an act of love.
God’s love of humanity is eternal. And so, God’s heartbreak at our cruelty toward one another must
also be intense. But it does not negate God’s love.
Scripture is filled with stories urging us back to a narrative that we are beloved of God. All of us are
created in God’s image and loved. God calls us to love one another, and we are part of a broad and
wondrous creation. In John’s gospel, we are treated to another of these circular and somewhat
confusing descriptors of Jesus. I come from the father. I am the bread of life. We find an everlasting
life through Jesus. And that life is a gift to all of humanity. John calls upon us to believe in Jesus.
We can spend some time parsing what John means by believe, but my focus is on other things here.
What I am left with, is Jesus insisting that God desires life, a full and whole life for all of creation.
Jesus offers us the path to that life, that salvation. Jesus offers to nourish us, all of humanity.
God comes to us through Jesus; not as a sacrifice, although Jesus is sacrificed, but as the way to
offer us a more complete and everlasting life. Jesus offers us nourishment as the bread of life.
God so loved the world that they sent their only son. Not to condemn the world but to save it.
I’m afraid that all too often we are tempted to condemn the world. Perhaps to condemn ourselves.
While we often speak of God’s redeeming, steadfast love, we can be tempted to view the world as
otherwise hopeless, and therefore we feel hopeless to respond to the sin and depravity we witness all
around us.
Scripture reminds us, time and again that we are created by a loving God who delighted in and
delights in us still. Our creation was a delight. Wisdom finds us to be a joy. Perhaps we cannot stand
up personally to genocide and other cruelties that are outside our immediate influence, but we can
insist upon love and compassion in our midst. We can name the sin and cruelty we witness and
demand better in our communities. We can remember that we are called to be ambassadors of God’s
love, God’s justice, God’s mercy, and model that message in how we live in God’s world. Our lives,
our love, can be an act of resistance in an uncaring world that tells us our compassion is hopeless or
meaningless.
We can remember and proclaim that we are not alone.
We live in God’s world. We are called to be the church, to live with respect in creation.
While I often struggle with the notion of the substitutionary theory of atonement; I am well aware
that that image holds real power for those who have struggled with negative self image. That the
idea God is willing to go so far for our lives and our souls, offers real hope. I do believe Christ’s death
was a sacrifice, but it is not one I think God required. Humanity demanded a sacrifice and Jesus the
Christ was not ready to compromise his love and his message of God’s all-encompassing love to
avoid that sacrifice.
And God’s love could not be contained by death. We cannot let ourselves forget that.
We must remind ourselves over and over that we are part of God’s loving creation. We matter.
Our lives matter. Our actions matter. Our voices matter. Our decisions matter. Our love matters.
We live in God’s world. And so, we say together. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Warner Bloomfield

Music provided with permission through licensing with CCLI License number
2701258 and One License # A-731789