Christ, the Light of the World

May you experience the presence of Christ, the Light of the World, everywhere, in everyone, so that hope will abound in your life and the world you live in. There is no corner of the planet where Christ is not. And may you share the light of Christ that is within you with everyone you meet, wherever you are, everyday.


Wilfredo Juan Baez

Monday, July 20, 2015

Guilt, Shame and Fear, Oh My!: Breaking Free From Guilt, Shame and Fear Through Accepting God’s Forgiveness, Love and Empowermen



Breaking Free
From Guilt, Shame and Fear
Through Accepting God’s
Forgiveness, Love and Empowerment

Guilt, Shame and Fear, Oh My!
2 Samuel 6:12-15 & Mark 6:14-29
Rev. Dr. Will Baez
7/13/15
Has anyone here ever done something that you’ve felt guilty about?   Just about anything I’ve done wrong I’ve felt guilty about.  What’s the best way to not feel guilty?  Don’t do something wrong. 
When I feel guilty it’s because of my conscience.  Our conscience is our measure of what is right and what is wrong.  Sometimes when I’ve done something wrong and haven’t come clean about it, I look back over my shoulder hoping nobody is on to me; that I’m not going to be caught.
I remember when I was in Junior High.  I went shoplifting with my Cousin Charlie.  It was the first time I shoplifted and the last because I got caught.  How embarrassing!  The police came and they took all our information.  They must have been pretty busy because they didn’t call my parents until months later.  I had forgotten about it and hoped they did too!  One day I was coming home from school. My mother intercepted me on the way home and told me that she had gotten a call from the police and my father was coming home early from work.  Not only did I feel guilty, I felt ashamed and was afraid of facing my father when he came home.

King Herod in this story felt guilty.  He had John the Baptist killed to satisfy his wife and daughter and he knew he was wrong for beheading John.  I’m sure it’s something that ate at King Herod because the things we do wrong eat at us.  Our consciences bother us when we do wrong unless we’re sociopaths or are in strong denial.  We hope our wrong doings don’t catch up with us, but often they do or if they don’t, they leave us feeling anxious.   Herod knew his crime had caught up with him.   In Jesus, John was raised from the dead.

Now, this wasn’t literal.  Jesus wasn’t John.  It meant that the bill had come due for Herod to pay the penalty for what he had done to John.  The head that Herod had cut off had come back to bite him in the form of Jesus.  The bill comes due for the bad we do.  There’s a price we have to pay. 
I want you to reflect on those wrongs that you’ve done and feel guilt for.  Just for a moment.  We’re not going to dwell on them.  If you’ve been caught feel your shame for what you’ve done and if you haven’t been caught I want you to feel your guilt and fear of being caught.  These feelings are alive in you and me.  They may be conscious or unconscious, subtle or strong but we need to face them, seek forgiveness and make amends.  Otherwise there may be hell to pay; that is we have the face the music.  There’s no escape.

The tragic thing for Herod is that he did everything he could to evade capture.  Jesus was a threat to him.  It was people like Herod, who misused their power at the expense of others that were threatened by Jesus.  But the wonderful thing for us is that Jesus isn’t a threat to us.  He is, instead. a help to us.  Rather than throw punishment in our face, Jesus holds out promise.  The promise Jesus holds out to us is a gift from God.  God has chosen us to receive this gift; a gift of forgiveness and redemption.  It’s a get out of jail or hell card; a get out of guilt, shame and fear card.  We receive this promise of redemption and forgiveness through Jesus who gave his life for us and poured out his love for us.  This is less a bloody mess as it is an act of love.

When I went home to face my dad by the time I got home I didn’t need punishment.  My conscience handled that for me.  My entire walk home from school that day was my punishment.   Your conscience handles it for you, too.  We’ve done bad things, but we’re not bad people.   And overtime we no longer feel guilty because we mature and don’t do bad things. If we were bad people we wouldn’t feel guilty when we did wrong things. I’m glad my dad knew that although he still took the belt out.  I wasn’t ever shoplifting again the moment I got caught, but I was not redeemed until I faced my father.  And the belt was not needed!  

Everyone here has done something bad, but none of you are bad.  But you have to humble yourself and face God and admit to yourself what you’ve done.  It might help to confess what you’ve done to another human being; someone you trust; perhaps a pastor, but someone.  None of us are redeemed until we face God.  Then we find out that God isn’t holding a belt, but open arms of embrace to welcome us back out of our guilt, shame and fear into our identity as children of God, beloved by God, heirs of salvation and of everything that is God; every quality and every power.  And if you admit, right now, that you aren’t perfect, you’ve sinned, you’ve fallen short of your values, you’ll feel yourself included in and saturated by the pure and perfect acceptance and love of God in Christ.  You are loved, you are forgiven, you are accepted, you are appreciated, you belong right here, right now in this place, in God’s presence, in this body of believers, none of whom are perfect, all of whom are forgiven and loved, all of whom belong together in Christ, all of whom will ultimately realize their full potential and identity with Christ as all grown up men and women of God.

This may be the 1st or 2nd time you’ve been here; this may be the thousandth, but the truth is that in hearing this message of truth and gospel of salvation today, that the Holy Spirit is upon you, marking you, guaranteeing that what you feel today you will experience completely in God’s good time, when all have been offered this opportunity for a life of grace and unity of God, where we experience our full capacity for love, peace, growth and full capacity human being.

Soon, we like David, will dance in joy, unashamed of our faith and full devotion to our God who loves us and makes us God’s own, as was the plan from the very beginning of life on earth.






You Can Be Forgiven and Loved                                                                                                      (Message for Youth and Children)                                                                                                      2 Samuel 6:12-15 & Mark 6:14                                                                                                             Rev. Dr. Will Baez                                                                                                                                7/13/15
I want you to know that that you are forgiven and loved by God.  You might not know why you would need forgiveness or what it means that God loves you, but I hope today’s message makes it clearer to you.
Let me tell you a story.  There’s a boy I used to know.  He felt really bad.  He was rejected by his family.  He felt that no one accepted and loved him.  He felt so bad he would even hurt himself.  We used to try to show him that we accepted him and loved him and didn’t want to see him hurt himself.   He was treated so badly when he was young that it was hard for him to stop hurting himself.
Do you ever really feel bad, like nobody accepts you or loves you?  Lots of people feel that way.  If you don’t feel that way, and I hope that you don’t, you know somebody who does.
Sometimes people treat people badly; they reject them and hate them.  They pick on people, say bad things about them or bully them. And sometimes people treat themselves badly.  It happens in homes.  It happens in schools.  It happens in neighborhoods.  It happens in churches.   But if we repent, if we change our attitude and behavior, if we let God know that we’re sorry, God will forgive us.  And the only thing that God wants in return is for us to treat others well, and not only others, ourselves.  What I want you to know is that you are accepted and loved by God and Jesus exactly as you are and that God and Jesus will help you be the best person you can if you let them.  If we haven’t accepted people or loved them or treated them badly, we can ask God’s forgiveness and God will forgive you.  Or if you’ve treated yourself badly or hurt yourself, you can be forgiven for that and God and Jesus can help you love and accept yourself and help you become an even better person, more that you believe yet.
Let’s pray together.  Repeat after me: God, I know you love me. I’ve done some bad things, but you forgive me and love me anyways.  You expect me to be even better than I am and because you believe in me, I know I can be an even better me.  Forgive me for the wrong I’ve done and help me to treat everyone the way I want to be treated.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

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