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The two stories we heard today are among the darkest in the Bible.

Just Don't Go There - Joshua 7: Acts 5: ] -11 - July 11,2010 - Cicero United Methodist
Church - Everett J. Bassett

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The two stories we heard today are among the darkest in the Bible. In the Old Testament story from Joshua 7, God tells the Hebrew people that their army will be victorious, and when they are, they are to burn, bury, and destroy everything that belongs to the enemy. But while this destruction was being carried out, a man named Achan said to himself, 'There's some good stuff here. It's insane to just destroy it. I'll keep a little to help my family.' He shouldn't have gone there. That little act set off a chain reaction where Achan's guilt was uncovered, and he and his family utterly destroyed.

Then in the New Testament lesson, we're told that the people in the newly forming Church have covenanted together for a lifestyle of absolute sharing. They have sold all their possessions, and pooled their money to redistribute according to need. But a couple named Ananias and Sapphira get sneaky. They are going to tell the disciples they got this much for their property, while squirreling away a little for a rainy day. When it is discovered, first Ananias falls over dead when he admits the crime - then Sapphira.

If you preach from the Revised Common Lectionary, as many preachers do, you don't
have to wrestle with stories like these, because they are not on the list of chosen scriptures. But if you preach through a book of the Bible in sequence, as I have been doing with the Book of Acts, you come across these unsavory stories, and you have to ask some deep questions about God. How can a merciful, forgiving God be responsible for such murderous acts? Did God really require the deaths of Achan and his family? Did God strike Ananias and Sapphira dead because they tucked away a little money for a rainy day, instead of giving it all to the church? That's not a very edifying thought- although it does seem like a good time to pass out pledge cards. .

But, all kidding aside, what is the message in these stories that seem to show God in such a troubling light? First of all, they might urge us to be more humble about our ability to understand the mind of God. It is possible that what these stories represent most is that many times, when we're trying to figure out the mind of God, we just get it wrong. In each story we see a new faith community being zealous to protect its values, but perhaps in the process forgetting the most important value of all- mercy. Sometimes we project our own ideas onto God, and people who have convinced themselves that they know what God wants can do some horrible things. That might be one lesson.

But I think there is something even deeper in these stories. I think both of them were told as cautionary tales, to warn people in general that there are some places in this life where you just don't go, because the price you will pay in guilt is just too high. If you ask me if I think God tells us to stone people to death, I would tell you No, that is not the God of love that I have met. But if you ask me if I believe that guilt is capable of driving people to fearful and violent acts, or strong enough to kill people who are ashamed of what they have done, I would say I not only believe it, I know it. These scripture tales, if nothing else, are cautionary tales about the deadly power of guilt. Unresolved guilt can be a poison that kills spirits, kills relationships, kills institutions. So perhaps there are a few things to learn from these troubling Bible stories that we quite often steer clear of.

First of all, we can learn that sooner or later, our sins will be discovered. There is no such thing as a perfect crime. Sometimes the discovery is right away. I read about a football player on a road trip who wanted to sneak out and have some fun after curfew, but he knew that the coach would be checking his hotel room to make sure he was in bed sleeping. No problem, he thought, and he took his lamp and put it under the covers, carefully gathering his blankets around it so it would look just like someone sleeping. That might have seemed like a good idea, except later that night, when the coach opened the door and switched on the lights, the bed lit up. Many times, our sins will come to light, and many times in embarrassing or painful ways.

And even if our sin never goes public, the inner light shines on them. Guilt can be a  
brutal and constant reminder that we cut a corner, or we sabotaged somebody, or we weren't honest, or we betrayed a trust. No one else may know; but we do, each time we look in the mirror - and the mirror can be the harshest judge of all.

So the strong lesson of these biblical tales of caution is Just Don't Go There. If you are toying with a situation that might put you in that guilty path, step back from it. If you're engaged in what seems like an innocent flirtation that could build into a threat to your family, just don't go there. Step back. The guilt would be deadly. If you are cutting corners in business to get an edge, and you know it is dishonest, back away. You'll have to live with it from now on.

The temptation involved is like the 'Cathy' cartoon where she sits there in front of the
bowl of Halloween candy she just bought. She says, "This Halloween candy is for the children, I will not look at it. I will not think about it. It is not for me." A couple panels later she is saying, "I may eat one piece after dinner each day before Halloween if I have had no other snacks in between." A couple panels later, it's, "I may eat one trial piece now, and then start the one-per-day rule after that." A couple panels later, her face is buried in the dish like a pig at the trough. Then in the closing panel she says to her mother, "I opened the door to permission, and it moved in for the weekend." That's what happens when we open that door. Don't open it. Just don't go there.

The second thing we can resolve about guilt is that we won't be a guilt-supplier. I heard a guy say once, "My mother is a travel agent for guilt trips." Even in a rough job market, that is not a good position to hold. But sometimes, without even meaning to, we do this to each other -- we hold grudges, or we become offended at unintended sleights, or keep a high bar and a thin skin, and pile guilt on the people we love. It is not a good gift to have. Don't be that person. God loves each one of us with an unconditional love, and Jesus urges us to practice the love of God toward each other. Unconditionally.

Certainly there are times we have to hold each other accountable. We have to do it as
parents, supervisors and employers have to do it, we have to do it in our public life and our justice system and so on. But that's different than saying we are going to saddle people with unending guilt. I actually found it refreshing this week when it was announced that Marine General James Mattis would be nominated as the leader of U.S. Forces in the Middle East. And a reporter raised the fact that the general had publicly made some pretty atrocious statements five years ago in a speech. And Secretary of Defense Gates very calmly responded, "Appropriate action was taken at that time." And I don't know anything about General Mattis, or his attitudes, or whether he'll be confirmed, or how he'll do in his post. I just thought it was refreshing to be reminded that maybe we can get past some things, and that it's time we stopped hanging guilt on
people and never letting them move on. It's important to hold people to high standards;
but we need to balance that with an understanding that people can change and learn.

And that leads us to a third lesson about guilt - the lesson of forgiving ourselves. We have a faith that teaches us to be accountable for our sins; but it also teaches us about the wonderful forgiving love of God, represented in its fullest measure by the willing sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. It's the most basic statement of Christian faith: Jesus died to set us free from the guilt of our sins. And to continue to carry that guilt around with us is a denial of that gift. Now, that is a very simple statement to make, but I know that it is not so easy to carry out. Unrelenting guilt is a vicious companion, and our scripture lessons rightly point out that it can be deadly. But we're Easter people. We're not about death; we're about life. And Jesus breaks the power of guilt. People do some terrible things, and those things have consequences, and some of those consequences are profound and irreversible. So grace can't be cheap; and guilt can't be simple. But there's nothing cheap or simple about a Savior who died for all humankind on a cross. And
Jesus gave his life so that you and I could be freed from the burden of guilt - not from the
lessons of our mistakes - but from the deadly burden of guilt. God invites us today to be accountable for our sins, to learn the lessons that make us humble and compassionate, and then to move on as free and forgiven and forgiving people. It's a beautiful gift; it's the gift of life over death.

I believe in that gift so thoroughly that I wonder about the story of Achan in Joshua 7.

I wonder what might have happened if Jesus had been there. I picture the Hebrew people
ready to stone Achan and his family, and Jesus saying, "Let the one of you who is without sin cast the first stone." I know that is mixing two stories with very different purposes, but I still wonder if the story could have turned out a different way. Or what might have happened if Ananias and Sapphira had been confronted with their transgression, and then the writer of Psalm 103 had appeared with his wonderful insight: "(But) the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love."  Would Ananias and Sapphira have been freed to respond in another way to God's grace?

We know the whole message of grace. We hear the invitation of the Savior who knows us better than we know ourselves, and willingly bears the weight of every sin we have ever committed, and still extends loving arms to say, "Come unto me." And, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." And, "I come that you might have life, and have it abundantly." Today that invitation is there for you and me. Let us walk away from the things that will fill us with guilt; let us stop laying loads of guilt upon one another; let us be accountable where it is called for; but most of all, let us receive the wonderful gift of forgiving grace, and move from this place as forgiven, forgiving people.