Yom Kippur 2020

Rosh Hashanah begins the work and Yom Kippur seals it if you are willing to go deep. One of God’s names on Yom Kippur is Chacham Ha-Razim which means wise to the secrets. God knows everything about you, even your secrets, even things you have forgotten, even things you have lied to yourself about yourself. There is nowhere to hide from God. God wants us to be obedient. Consider Jonah. He took a ship to run away from God and was thrown overboard when a storm threatened to sink the ship if they allowed him to remain. Eventually, Jonah ended up where God wanted him – in Nineveh. Jonah also ended up doing what God wanted and was successful, even though he didn’t want to obey and he didn’t even like it when his preaching to the sinful people in Nineveh caused what God wanted – their true repentance. Jonah didn’t think the people in Nineveh deserved God’s forgiveness. He was angry that God forgave them. Jonah didn’t seem to realize how fortunate he was that God didn’t give up on him or what a blessing it was when God forced His will on him. On Yom Kippur we should imagine how completely transparent we are to God. He knows everything about us. It is a time to examine our lives and think about ways in which we have fallen short. A time to be grateful that God gives us a chance to do better every morning. By going deep into our memory bank we can take a hard look at our sinful thoughts and actions and mourn for how we have grieved God, hurt others and brought painful consequences to ourselves. We can ask ourselves: When have we lacked empathy? When have we not forgiven? When have we taken too long to forgive? When have we hurt ourselves by forgiving too quickly? When have we been resentful, fearful, stubborn, self-destructive, critical, insensitive, hurtful, cruel? When have we procrastinated about doing what God has asked us to do? We can look at the 10 Commandments and examine our lives in light of our responsibility to uphold them. And by the power of the Holy Spirit we can begin to be transformed into a gentler, kinder, more obedient, humble and loving servant of God. We will not get far without the power of God to help us. We can reflect on times when we’ve tried to change without the power of the Holy Spirit and how quickly we fall back into sin. This is a time to confess remembered sins and truly repent. God knows whether we are sincere or not. Would we really be willing to do it His way if we were taken into the past and given another chance? If we can truly say we hate our sins then our repentance is real and God will forgive. God’s forgiveness is NOT unconditional. He forgives us IF we truly repent. We can’t expect forgiveness if we are only sorry that we sinned but aren’t in FULL AGREEMENT with God that our sins are wrong. Not only is sin wrong; it is EVIL. I think it’s interesting that the word LIVE is EVIL backwards. GOOD is the opposite of EVIL. GOD is GOOD. And, GOD and LIVE go together because GOD gives LIFE and HE is LIFE and LIFE is GOOD. It’s not funny to God when we live a life of sin and laugh it off and use euphemisms to label it – like “I’m 99% angel, but oh that 1%.” Or “He’s such a cute devil.” We have glamorized sin to the point that we no longer think it is all that bad – it’s just sexy, or cute - a quality that we admire – WINK WINK. It seems so silly to make a big deal over such familiar territory that inhabits almost every aspect of our modern lives. But, that’s the problem, isn’t it? It’s everywhere and we joke it away. It’s the slippery slope that many generations have been down before and for whom it NEVER ended well. We are commanded to resist evil and to seek moral and spiritual excellence at all times, but this time of year is especially set aside for reflection and repentance so we can see more clearly how God sees us and vow to remember His ways in the coming year with a renewed and sincere heart. One way to get close to God during this time is to confess each sin you remember and imagine being before God as you confess. You might want to say them out loud. Your confessions have the power to pierce any barriers you have built - avoidance of facing the truth, avoidance of repentance, avoidance of recognizing the pain you caused God, avoidance of taking responsibility, avoidance of allowing God to help you change. Revival and renewal of strength and a will to allow God to fulfill His purposes for your life comes from the depths of brokenness. He is calling you. He is merciful. He is generous. His will is for you to follow Him. No more excuses. No more procrastinating. He doesn’t need us. But we desperately need Him. And, even though He doesn’t need us. His will is that all will come to Him so that He can bless us. It is our choice. “I call on heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have presented you with life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, so that you will live, you and your descendants.” CJB (Complete Jewish Bible) Deuteronomy 30:19