2 Corinthians 5:6-10,14-16

Primary Message: God's judgement is seen in the light of Christ therefore God's judgement is that is for our up building and can give us confidence.

Pastoral Issues: Low Self Esteem issues, God as angry judge, loss of a positive regard for judgement (Cheap Grace), forgiveness issues. American terrorist sentenced to death this week.

Introduction

This morning we hear these words from Paul's letter to the Church at Corinth, "For all of us must appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that we may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil." Words that Paul says should give us confidence in our living.

Does this image of appearing in front of the throne of Christ to be judged for the what we have done seem scary? Most of us don't like to think of God's judgement.

Difficulty #1: Wrathful God

A friend of mine was riding the bus one day to work. As he sat at the back of the bus reading from his Bible, he felt someone looking at him. He glanced up and a young man who was looking at him asked "What are you reading?" My friend said, "The Bible". "Oh ... I don't believe in God.", he said somewhat defiantly.

"Well, what kind of god don't you believe in." replied my friend. A puzzled look appeared on the face of the young man, "Well, a god ... who sits on throne waiting to zap us for doing bad things." "I don't believe in that god either ... I believe in a loving God. " replied my friend.

Too many people have been shown an angry wrathful God that is ready to "smite us". God's judgement seems frightening since we imagine being in front of a vicious God with on hand on a lever ready to pull it [BZZZZZZT!] and have us plunge into hell.

But Paul says God's judgement is something that fills him with confidence.

Bill Cosby or Barney god?

So then, does God not care that we do evil things. What about the harm that we cause or is caused to us. Is God some sort of Bill Cosby in the sky, a God who pats us on the head and says, "That's OK, you really didn't mean it."? Or like some cosmic Barney who says, "That's ok, what you did wasn't that bad. Lets just hug and forget about it!"

Difficulty #2: Cheap Grace

One day about a year ago, I was surprised to have my friend call me up and say, "My wife Jane has been working through some 'stuff' and she wants to talk with you about it." I wondered what it might be so I asked, "Why does she want to talk to me?" To which he said, "She wants to talk with you because your the only person she knows who is 'religious'."

So I found myself sitting across the table from Jane asking, "What is on your mind?" "Well, I was sexually abused by my brother for a number of years." "A few years later my brother joined a church and now says that he is forgiven for what he did and that I should 'get over it!' and he even said that 'it made me stronger". That's sick ... how could a Church just wipe away the harm that was caused to me. That is not right. I want my brother to take responsibility for the harm he caused and acknowledge it. I want him to realize the pain he caused me. Is that too much to ask for?"

<PAUSE>

Does forgiveness mean that there is no responsibility for peoples actions? Is this the kind of judgement that we will face? Is it that easy? That certainly does not sounds like "Good News" to those who have been harmed. This sort of marshmallow judgement does not instill much confidence in God does it? It seems like cheap grace. It seems like a stone to those who have been harmed. What is Paul talking about then?

Paul Zealot turned Apostle

Paul talks of a judgement that give's him confidence in God and in life. This sounds like a strange thing for Paul to say; former zealot who lead death squads against the Christian church for what he twistedly thought of as an act of faithfulness to God. Certainly Paul had a lot to account for in his life, a lot to be judged for. Until Christ chose him to be an Apostle for the Church, Paul had been someone that the Christian church rightly had feared.

Another Zealot

This week when I was thinking of Paul the murderous zealot turned Apostle, I could not help but think of another murderous zealot. Timothy McVeigh ... a man who was found guilty of murdering 168 people for what he twistedly thought of as an act of patriotism. What about this man? How is he to be judged? Have you listened to the members of the family on the TV or radio? Some of them angrily wished him quickly killed. Others wished him tortured first? There was lots of venom flowing towards this man.

But, there were a few other families that saw things differently. One man said, "Sure this man killed my daughter, but what purpose will be filled in killing him? None, one more death will serve nothing." Then there was a mother who after listening to Timothy McVeigh's parents plead for their son's life said, "I lost a son, I know what they must be feeling. No parent should have to lose a child."

How will God judge this man, Timothy McVeigh? This is an important question, since the Gospel is one that must face such difficult questions and such acts of evil. Maybe Paul, another zealot who murdered in another time has an answer.

Paul says, "For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. From now on we regard no one from a human point of view ..."

REPEAT: "Christ died for all", "we regard no one from a human point of view".

Jesus died not only for the little sins, for gossiping, for cheating on taxes, for swearing, but also for the really big ones, for murder, for warring, for life destroying acts. Jesus cross is big enough to encompass the worst we human beings have done.

God's judgement is therefore not like our judgement. A human judgement would have had zealots like Paul and McVeigh, and perhaps us too, assigned to hell. But, God's judgement is something other that ours. God does not see things like we do. And thank God for that.

Counterpuntal: We're not that bad.

But, I hear some saying, "Wait a second Jim ... we haven't done anything as bad as McVeigh ... aren't you blowing things out of proportion?"

True. There likely aren't very many people here who have committed murder, and for most people the wrongs that they have done do not seem on the scale of terrorists.

But, for some people the guilt of past deeds are a heavy burden ... they think "certainly God couldn't forgive me for "that!" could it be possible?" These are people who feel that judgement must mean condemnation. People who hold out only a little hope that when they face God they will be accepted. Perhaps Paul is speaking especially to these folks this morning.

Movement: looking at people in the past ... and us from the future

But, if we reflect, Paul is really speaking to all of us. That we all need to face God's judgement. In every age there is a tendency to see ourselves as "good people". We don't break the law, we pay our taxes, we don't rock the boat.

Yet, when we look back over history we see great horrors. We look back at "good people" of the inquisition trying to bring people to faith through "torture" and violence. We look back and see good Christian folk owning and condoning slavery. We saw Christians turning their backs on Jews in Nazi Germany.

Throughout history at each age we see people who thought what they were doing was OK, was legal, and was even righteous and faithful. But, through the lens of history we come to see that what they did was horrific.

The judgement of the future

But, one day we too will face the judgement of those in the future. What is it now that the future will condemn us for? What will people look on this time with horror and say, "How could Christian people even think like that?" Or with greatest condemnation say, "They weren't really Christians anyway". What will they say about us? Will it be our treatment of the environment? Will it be native land claims? Will it be child poverty? Will it be something we can not even conceive of right now?

Like all Christians we too perhaps have more unseen wrongs placed upon our heads than we would like to admit. Perhaps we are caught up in more evil that we could imagine. Perhaps we are not as "good" as we wish we were? Or, think we are.

But to this Paul would say, "Have confidence .... for the love of Christ urges us on ... he died for all".

Good News: Because of Christ God's judgement is Grace-filled

So, how can God's judgement be Good News. What are we to expect when we all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, for we all will one day. What about the good and evil we have done? What about the good and evil done to us?

Paul is unclear exactly what judgement means, but certainly it is a different kind of judgement than we are use to. Perhaps we can look to an unusual form of justice that is taking place in the world right now ... maybe it will give us insight into God's judgement.

South African Truth Commission

The South African Truth Commission. This commission set up in the wake of the oppression and brutality of apartheid, has the task of offering amnesty to those willing to come forward and confess to the crimes against humanity they committed during apartheid. To say publicly what really happened. To let the truth be known. South Africans wanted the truth be known.

Could it be that this is what Paul is talking about. That in the end the truth of our lives will be known, to us, to God, to each other. That in the end the twistedness and the complexity of our lives will be revealed? And sorted out. That those who did harm will come to fully know what the consequences of their actions were? That we will come to know fully the consequences of our actions and inactions, of the harm that we did, and the good".

Jesus said, "The truth will set you free." One day we will stand in front of the Christ who was willing to die for us, to die for the sin we knowingly and unknowingly commit. We will be judged by our God who loves us beyond our imagination. Then we shall know the truth, the truth about our lives, and we shall be set free.

We need God's judgement. it God's judgement and God's grace that will set us free. Thank God for Christ, bringer of judgement and of grace.

Thanks be to God.