June 3, 2007

Sermon: "Pealing the Justification Bell"

Scripture: Romans 5: 1-5

Reverend Larry M. Gerber

I was serving a small Parish near Watkins Glen, NY when our third child, Laury, was born. One of the  church leaders went over to the church in the middle of the day to ring the bell in celebration of our daughters birth. Several of the towns people ran to the church to see what had happened. Well, most of them were glad to hear the reason, but others who thought the bell was to announce a danger or disaster were a little angry because of the initial fear it put in them.

In Romans, Paul tolls the justification bell ? and for good reason. It's a bell that peals the good news of peace.

But, across America, church bells are going silent.

It's not because houses of worship are closing, but rather because many of the old churches have stopped ringing their bells and many new churches aren't writing bells into their building plans.

Earlier this year, for example, a reporter for the Associated Press took a look around Klamath Falls, Oregon, and could hardly find a church bell in use. At Sacred Heart Catholic, there are two bells in the church's 100-foot tower, which were put there 75 years ago when the church was built, but today, nobody is in charge of bonging them. And the tower is locked to keep kids from crawling up there.

Klamath Lutheran stopped sounding its chimes after a neighbor who works nights complained about being awakened by the racket.

First Presbyterian has a carillon ? a whole set of bells ? but it stopped working about a year ago and nobody is in a hurry to fix it.

In the current home of the Klamath United Methodist congregation, there's never been a bell in the belfry. Their former building, abandoned in 1926, had a bell, but the new church's tower couldn't support it. So the old bell is in the church's front yard, where it's rung only on special occasions.

Around the country, of course, lots of old churches still have bells in their towers, but many don't use them because the ringing of those massively heavy bells shakes those ancient towers so badly that the trustees are afraid the bells will either damage the structure or tumble down out of their cradles and kill somebody below! 

Churches along the Missouri River, where the states of Nebraska and Missouri meet, have an additional reason to have gone silent. Between September 10 and 14 of last year, some person or persons stole several church bells right out of the towers where they were housed. No one is certain why, since the local scrap metal dealers don't accept bells. What's more, the thefts must have required a significant amount of equipment since some of the bells weigh as much as 800 pounds.

The decline in church-bell ringing is not uniform throughout the country ? they are still tolling with some regularity in Bible-Belt areas of the South ? but overall, they are not in use as much as in years past. 

Be that as it may, however, there was a time when bells were one of the ways churches "spoke" to the communities in which they were situated.

Jane and I led a pilgrimage to Oberamergau in the year 2000 to attend the Passion Play. We stayed in the little village of Kufstein, Austria where there are many old and beautiful churches with old and beautiful bells of many shapes and sizes. We were surrounded by the hills that are full of the sound of music. It was so beautiful to hear the meriad of bells at different hours of the day, each with its own tone and loudness, competing with each other and at the same time complimenting each other. But, I wondered how many people really appreciated the sound. Jane and I stopped and listened, but the local villagers just went about their own business as if they didn't hear them. I wondered, is there any meaning to the ringing of the bells any more?

I bring this discussion of bells to your attention because it's possible that there are some theological bells that we just don't ring too much anymore. Perhaps it's disinterest; perhaps it's not a fashionable bell to ring anymore; perhaps we're not sure why we should even bother.

The Romans text before us is a case in point. Early in the letter, Paul writes this: "The one who is righteous will live by faith" (Romans 1:17). Behind that statement is the reality that all of us are sinners and are unable to effect our own righteousness. But in that verse, Paul implies that we become right with God not by anything we can do anyway ? not by doing good deeds or living an exemplary life or through acts of penitence. No, rather we become righteous by putting our faith in Jesus Christ.

Theologians call that movement from a state of sin to a state of grace "justification," a word that comes from the ancient Roman law court. In that setting, the judge had the power, even when he knew the accused person was guilty as charged, to pronounce the defendant free anyway, thereby granting the person a declaration of innocence.

Paul uses the word again in this text: "Therefore, since we are justified by faith ?" (5:1). Since Paul rings the bell of justification, loud and clear, and frequently, perhaps this is a bell we, too, should not fail to bong once in a while!

When Paul used the word justify, however, he was not speaking about our standing before the law but our standing before God. And if we are at all thoughtful and sensitive about how we live our lives, then we can hardly escape concern about our standing before God. It's the rare one of us who has absolutely no guilty feelings about something we have done or failed to do. Almost none of us get through life without getting involved in things from time to time that leave us feeling less than proud of ourselves. We look at certain moments in our lives and conclude, "I was thinking only of myself," or "I behaved badly there," or "I took advantage of that person and did him harm," or "I wouldn't want my whole life judged by my behavior in that situation," or even "I sinned." Our particular actions may or may not have been legal transgressions, but they have the weight at least of moral shortcomings. And they leave us feeling bad about ourselves and uneasy about being in the presence of the holy God.

So when Paul rings the bell of justification, that's a bell that tolls for us, tolling not death ? as in John Donne's poem or Hemingway's novel ? but life!

But in terms of our personal experience, what does it mean to be justified? We could go on boringly with a lengthy discourse on the theological ramifications of the word, but here's a simple way to picture it:

 Justification occurs when we turn to God though faith in Jesus, and God, in effect, says to us, "We're good." God immediately takes into consideration our relationship to Jesus Christ and makes the necessary juridical adjustment. Justification means that God brings us into right relationship with him. And the result of that is peace with God. We're good.

In fact, that's what Paul says in our reading for today. As we said, he rang the justification bell early in his letter to the Roman Christians. He continued to tug on that rope throughout the first four chapters of the epistle. Then we come to chapter 5, where he rings the bell once more, saying, "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ ...."

Peace with God means exactly what it says. Because God justifies us, we are no longer at odds with him or at war with him.

Peace with God should not be confused with a state of inner contentment; there is always plenty to feed discontentment in life. It is not a guarantee of smooth sailing in life or simply "Have a nice day". It is not having all our wishes granted.

Rather peace with God means that we are reconciled with him, and that the tension that kept us from being comfortable in his presence has been removed. Our fears about being in God's presence, fears created because of our sins, are gone

There is a good illustration about justification in the movie As Good As It Gets. It is  the story of an obsessive-compulsive author who falls for a waitress and both befriend a gay man who has been beaten during a robbery.

The scene that reminds me of justification is when Melvin, the author, and Carol, the waitress, go out to dinner. Melvin makes a thoughtless remark about Carol's dress, and she demands a compliment or she will walk out. Melvin tells her, "You make me want to be a better man."

In the case of our coming to God, we come clothed in sin, and so there is plenty for which we need forgiveness. We don't have equal footing with the righteous God, but in his justifying grace, God grants righteousness to us, saying "We're good," so that we can stand, without fault, before him. The bell of justification tolls peace for us.
 
So how do we receive justification and peace with God? Paul himself isn't clear. He doesn't offer The Four Spirtual Laws, or the ABCs of Salvation (Accept, Believe, Confess). He doesn't suggest the Sinner's Prayer. He doesn't say anything about "inviting Jesus to come into our hearts."

What he does say is that we are "justified." That's something that happened at the cross. One suspects, then, that being justified, we should live as though we believe it.

Justification. If we could convey that concept with the sound of bells, it would be well worth ringing them again ? and again ? and again! 

May your theological bells begin to ring as Holy Communion is served to you. Justification happened at the cross. Today we come to the cross as forgiven sinners who are justified by our faith. Will you come to the cross in your heart as the bread and grape juice are brought to you? Let us break bread together??.
 
"String of church bell thefts baffles authorities." The Christian Post. September 24, 2006, christianpost.com/article/20060924/24768.htm.

"Sunday silence: Churches shifting away from traditional bells." The Christian Post. August 29, 2006, la.christianpost.com/article/church/160/section/sunday.silence.churches.shifting.away.from.traditional.bells/1.htm.