Sermon Title: Restoring Our Relationship With God

Scripture: Luke 18:9-14

Summary: This sermon explores the theme of God's initiative in restoring the relationship between Himself and humanity, which was broken by sin. Using Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" as a starting point, the sermon emphasizes that God is the one who reaches out to us, both in creation and salvation. It contrasts two approaches to reconciliation with God: self-righteousness and humble repentance, ultimately highlighting that our reconciliation with God is achieved through Christ's sacrifice and received by faith, not our own efforts.

Key Points:

  • God takes the initiative in our relationship with Him, both in creation and salvation
  • Sin has destroyed the intended relationship between God and humanity
  • Our efforts to restore the relationship through self-righteousness only further alienate us from God
  • True reconciliation comes through humble repentance and faith in God's grace
  • Jesus restores our relationship with God through His sacrifice on the cross
  • We receive reconciliation as a gift, like children, through faith and baptism

Transcript:

One of the most well-known pieces of Renaissance art is a fresco that was painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo called "The Creation of Adam." I'm quite confident you've seen this, even if you don't like fine art. In the picture, you see in the lower left-hand corner, Adam kind of leaning back, arm limp, drooping, kind of pointing out towards God, who's in the upper right-hand corner of the fresco, and he is looking down at Adam, and he's pointing straight at him. And their fingers are close together. They're almost touching. Sometimes people have interpreted this fresco as God and man reaching out to each other, trying to connect with one another. But that's actually not what Michelangelo intended when he painted this. The fact that Adam's finger is held out limp and drooping, almost as though he had some kind of a palsy, and God's is strong and pointing directly at him, was Michelangelo's way of painting or illustrating that God first breathed into man his spirit, and that's how he became alive. That's really the thing that animates him, gives him life.

I think there's another way we can read this painting, too. Of course, God and man were meant to be in a relationship. This is how God created us in the beginning. But who takes the initiative in that relationship? Of course, it's God. God is the one who made us. God is the one who did indeed breathe his spirit, our life, into us. God is the one who came and pointed and touched us. We did nothing but receive it. That's true in creation. Without God's initiative, will, and work, there would be nothing. We would not be here.

Of course, we know that that relationship between God and man, of love and giving and creating and bringing us into this world, and our loving God and provider, was all tarnished and wrecked by sin. And what that means for us isn't simply that sin is a few bad things we've done, or things are just not quite what they should be. Above all, sin is a destruction of that relationship that we were meant to have with God. A relationship where he comes down to us, he points at us, and he touches us. He loves us, he cares for us, and he provides for us. Instead, that relationship is broken. We walk away from God. We run away. We hide. Think of the ways in the Bible that people responded to their sin. When Adam and Eve first sinned, God comes walking in the garden looking for them. And they hear him, and they hide. This was a joyous time. God's presence was among them. It should have been a time when they were eager to speak with him and to talk with him, for him to be their God and for them to be his children. It should have been a time like dad coming home from work. The children run to the door eager to tell him about their day, eager to sit on his lap, eager to read a book. And be in his presence.

Sin had destroyed that relationship. It's rather like when kids have broken the rules all day while dad was away. And now he's coming home for punishment. See Cain responds in our Old Testament reading for today after he sins. He murdered his brother Abel out of jealousy. And God, in punishment, said he will be a fugitive and wanderer on the earth. But Cain realizes that punishment isn't just that he has to leave his parents and go and live on his own. He recognizes that sin has wrecked the relationship with God. He says, "Behold, you have driven me away today from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden."

That's the real problem. It's one thing to be alienated from other people. That's bad enough. But to be alienated from God means death.

Today's gospel lesson is a parable of two men who want to restore the relationship with God and man. They go about it in two very different ways. Jesus says the first man, a Pharisee, prayed thus: "God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes all that I get."

This man thought that his relationship with God, broken by his sin, could be mended and restored if only he did the right stuff. So he got busy doing. He got busy going above and beyond, doing even what others wouldn't do. This is a man who, as Jesus said, trusted in himself that he was righteous. Yes, he saw that his sin had separated him from God, had destroyed that relationship. That was good and right. And his answer was to try to reach out his finger all the more. Try to bridge that gap to touch God.

But Jesus tells us that all of his efforts did nothing to reconcile him. He didn't go down to his house justified. He didn't leave the temple at peace with God. Because the truth is that all of our efforts to fix this situation, to reconcile us with God, all of our trust in our own good works and merit only further alienate us from God. They only make the relationship even more distant. Because trusting in our efforts to fix what is broken is itself a turning away from God.

How did God create Adam in the beginning? Not to be his equal. Not for this to be a relationship of mutuality. He created man so that he would be our God. To breathe his life into us. To touch us. To guide us. To provide for us. And to direct us. So if we try to fix that relationship by saying, "I will be just like you", we perpetuate what got us into this mess to begin with. All our efforts to fix it that way only further works sin and condemnation in us. We want to offer something to God. We want to place him in our debt. And all that just drives us farther away. The second man in the parable, the tax collector, also wanted to restore his relationship after his sin. Unlike the Pharisee, though, he knew that he had nothing to offer. He knew his sin was his own fault. His own most grievous fault.

He knew that even if he wanted to, he could not reach out his hand to touch God. That his sin had so turned him in on himself that he was spiritually crippled and lame and had nothing to bring. That he was a beggar in need of a savior. He knew that any reconciliation of this relationship had to come by God's own initiative. And so he prayed, God, be reconciled to me, a sinner.

He prayed that God would take the initiative. That God would reach out and give him life just as God had done when he created man in the beginning. He prayed that in this broken relationship, God would be the one to fix it, to recreate it, to bridge the gap, and to restore.

He asked God to do it because he knew that God alone was the one who could. We know what Jesus says at the end. "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled."

Now on the outside, this tax collector, of course, was a greater sinner. But not in the eyes of God. Sin, again, isn't fundamentally just the things that we do or don't do. It's a turning away from God. Every sin is a violation, first and foremost, of the first commandment. Because every sin is a way that we tell God, I want to have a different God. I want to be God. Decide what is right and wrong and what I can and cannot do.

And so repentance means giving that up. Confessing that we are not God and that in our sin we have tried to be like God. That we need him to be God. We need him to forgive. We need him to strengthen. We need him to restore.

The tax collector does that. The Pharisee goes on trying to be God.

But Jesus wants to restore that relationship, has restored that relationship by going to the cross to be our Savior. By doing what we could not, by dying for sin, by being a sacrifice for all sins. And he gives that now to us by grace. Not by anything we do. He asks us simply to receive it in faith.

Remember the time when people brought little children to Jesus? And the disciples tried to stop them? Jesus said, Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter. God has reconciled us to himself through Jesus. And he wants us simply to receive that. As a gift. Like a little child does. Not bringing anything, not even desiring to bring anything. But simply receive it with joy.

Jesus received us into his kingdom in the same way. Through the waters of holy baptism where he washes away our sins. Where he reaches out and touches us and makes us new through his life-giving spirit. Where he welcomes us home. Born as sinners and enemies of God. Turned in on ourselves. We have now been washed. Cleansed and justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He declares us to be justified. Made righteous through him. Because we have his righteousness over us.

Jesus has reached down and touched us and restored the relationship between God and man. "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God."