Sorry?

Sermon Text

​Good thing kids are so cute....otherwise, we couldn't stand 'em!
 
My daughter was three and a half. We were having spaghetti for supper. Her hands were covered with tomato sauce. She started wiping them on the tablecloth. "Marie!" I said, "Don't wipe your hands on the tablecloth! Gosh!  Use your head!" She gave me a puzzled look and, of course, wiped her hands in her hair.
 
And now there's a new generation. When one of my granddaughters was three and a half, I observed what was, for me, an enjoyable interchange. Her dad, my son, told her to do something. She looked him in the eye, and said, very clearly, "I'm not willing to do that."
 
Good thing kids are so cute...otherwise, we couldn't stand 'em!
 
There was a guy pushing a grocery cart with his kid in the seat. His kid was three and a half years old. The kid was having a major tantrum...really screaming. The dad spoke quietly. "Easy now, Freddy...calm down now. Everything is okay, Freddy...don't be upset." A woman passing by saw this and complimented the father. "You sure are patient with little Freddy," she said. The young father glumly replied, "Lady, I'M Freddy."
 
Good thing kids are so cute...otherwise, we couldn't stand 'em!
 
Now, think about this:  according to the Biblical tradition, we are all God's children. In the Hebrew Scriptures as well as the New Testament, human beings are God's kids. But in the Bible, God is often pictured as a father disappointed by his children.

The prophet Isaiah speaks for God, and says, "What more could I do for my vineyard?"
Isaiah calls his poem a love song. God is called "my beloved," and Isaiah pictures this beloved One lavishing care on a beautiful vineyard. In other words, God has lavished blessing on all creation. But then God is horrified by what follows:  bloodshed and injustice.
 
And like Isaiah, Jesus tells a story about a vineyard. It has a similar message:  even though God blesses people with so many gifts, humanity responds with bloodshed and injustice.
 
Doesn't this absolutely fit with what we see every day in the news? If human beings are God's children, why don't they play nice? But adults are not cute like children. So when we are selfish and violent, how does God stand us?
 
God has created and blessed this beautiful little blue planet. Human beings have been given all we need to live well and compassionately as God's kids. But look at our bloody history. Look at the blood in the news right now. We simply do not play nice. God is disappointed. We can do better.
 
I have a prayer triangle I show the kids once in a while. It has just three words on it. These three words are the most basic prayers of all. Help....Thanks....Sorry. Most every prayer anyone ever says can be summed up by one of those words. Help.... Thanks.... Sorry.
 
Seems to me that we don't use the word "Sorry" enough. The disappointed God of the Bible would expect us to say it a lot. "Sorry." So very often, we humans do not play nice.
 
Remember one of the questions from the Baptismal Covenant:  "Will you persevere in resisting evil, and whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?" When we answer, "I will, with God's help," we mean that we will say we are sorry when we mess up. Which, in human history and contemporary experience, has been a lot.
 
As God's kids, we will say we're sorry when we fall short. And that is quite often, if we're honest.
 
My daughter can drive me nuts. But from the time she was very little, she has always been so good at saying she was sorry. She is quick to apologize. I want to be like her.
 
We are all God's kids. Like all kids, we can be pretty annoying. We can be disappointing. We can be self-centered, even violent. Just read a little history or follow the news. Human beings do not play nice.
 
But for some reason -- who knows why -- God loves us all.
 
So maybe we can do better.
Maybe you and I can learn to be less disappointing.
Maybe we can say we're sorry whenever we need to do so.
 
And maybe -- just maybe -- we can bring some joy to the very heart of God.