30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, all of you according to your ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions; otherwise iniquity will be your ruin. ³¹ Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? ³² For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God. Turn, then, and live.

This past Wednesday night, a softball game was played between St. John’s and Northern Dutchess Bible Church and St. John’s Reformed to figure out who was going to be declared the winners of the church league softball for 2008. Yes, I realize that it is shocking that the game was actually played considering all of the rainouts and postponements that we have had over the past month, but we were finally able to line up a day when the first and second place teams were able to see who was better that particular night. During the summer we had played each other twice with Nothern Dutchess winning the first game by a run and St. John’s winning the second game by that same slim margin of one run. The reason that I give you this sort of a set-up is because everyone who showed up that night was expecting a close, back and forth, ‘I wonder who’s going to win this’, sort of game. That was not what happened.

After the first inning, Northern Dutchess was up 6-0. After the second they were up 11-1. By the fourth inning, the person who was keeping the scorebook for us just stopped telling us how many runs we were down. It actually got to the point where the home run rule came into affect. What that means is that Northern Dutchess had hit so many more home runs than we had, that every additional home run they hit counted as an out. If you’re confused, you’re not the only one because it’s a horrible rule. It worked to our advantage, but it’s still a horrible rule. It was that bad.

However, even as my pitches were getting smacked around the field like no one’s business, a strange sense of calm began to settle over me. And I do mean strange, because as much as I like to win, I really hate to lose: and we were really losing. And yet, there I stood, as frustrated as I was, calm.

Here’s why I was calm: the team that St. John’s put out there on the field stayed together; we stayed a team. As much as we were disappointed, we did not fracture and start attacking one another. Instead, we actually pulled together even more.

This pulling together happened in a whole lot of different ways but the one that stood out took place in the middle of the seventh, as we were down a ridiculous number of runs, Tom, who was keeping score, and is a friend of my brother Kyle, called everyone together and said, "I just want to say how much fun it has been playing with you throughout this summer. It has been a honor. And no matter how this game ends up, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to play with you. Now let’s go out there and get five more runs!", at which point everyone on the team put there hands into the middle and did one of those ‘1, 2, 3, Go Team!’ chants.

Did we score any more runs? No. Did I walk away at the end of the night a little bit of a different person? Oh yeah. I walked away feeling like my priorities were in the right place. I walked away feeling like the relationships that had been created and fostered through a game were so much more important than the results of the game. I walked away with what felt like anew heart and a new spirit. I actually went home and sat down on my couch, not to wallow in misery (as I had done so many times before) but instead to rejoice in the fact that I had the privilege to get to better know each of the people on that team. In a way, and maybe it’s only a small way, but I think it still counts, I feel like I was born again.

This process of being born again, even in a small way, is something that the people whom Ezekiel is prophesying to, wouldn’t believe. However, they took the thought that ‘you are who are’, to an even greater extreme when they said that they were stuck in the sin of their parents, and grandparents, and generations that preceded even them. That little proverb of, "The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge", is telling us that the people thought that the wrongs that were committed by their forbearers, is what was casting their lot in their particular day.

I love the translation that gives us God’s response to that proverb of unending doom and gloom. God says through Ezekiel, "what do you mean by repeating this parable?" Which, though of in another way, is God saying, "what are you doing?!" God then declares in a wonderful no ifs, ands or buts way, this proverb shall never be used again. Not ever!

And why should this short little turn of phrase never be used again? Because God doesn’t condemn us on the wrongs that were committed by someone else, regardless of how influential they may be in our lives.

Instead, God will judge us on who we are. Now you may think, "well that isn’t all that much better at all, because I still fall short each and every day." I’m sure that the people who were hearing Ezekiel speak to them were thinking that. And that is where the last verse of our passage, in specific the last four words come into play. The verse reads, "For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God. Turn, then, and live."

Turn, then, and live. Never think that you are so far stuck into whatever rut you may be in that you can’t turn, that you can’t turn toward God and receive life! In God, when you make that turn, through the Holy Spirit you are made new, with a new heart and a new spirit, you are born again.

For a whole lot of people, that term ‘born again’ has some connotations that are not necessarily the most positive. For many folks that term denotes an expression of faith that has very little to do with the religiosity that that have been raised in and feel comfortable with.

In the same breath, what do we hear from the lips of Jesus when he speaks to Nicodemus in chapter 3 of the Gospel of John? Jesus says to the religious leader, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born again of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born again from above.’

We, as people who say we trust in the power that is found in Jesus Christ, need to truly trust that there is a redemptive and cleansing power that is found in his sacrifice. We need to trust that that if we, as it says in Ezekiel, turn, that if we turn away from the brokenness that marks so much of our life, that we will live. We must trust that in God’s restorative grace that we can be born again, and again, and again. That for all of those times when we fall short in sin, that when we turn back to God, that we will made new again. The people that Ezekiel was speaking to felt that they were too far gone for God to help them. What about you? Do you think that you, or someone you know, is too far gone to be helped by God? To far gone to turn and be born again?

One of the questions that is often asked of me in regards to the name of our denomination (the Reformed Church in America) is, "what are you reforming from?" It’s a fair question, because whenever you use a word like ‘reform’, well, there has to be something that you’re reforming from. The answer is this: we are a people of faith who have reformed our lives, and are always reforming ourselves, according to the Word of God. What we are reforming from are our sinful ways. We are reforming from is our sin-filled past. We are constantly recognizing the places that we have fallen short, and then, with the help and support of the Spirit of God, taking the necessary steps to turn around and live as the Creator of all would have us live. As members of the Reformed Church we should be constantly striving to recognize those times where we are in the wrong, and then turning around toward God so that we might have the opportunity to be born again.

And this offer from God to be made new, to be born again, is not just for those sins that feel small and almost inconsequential. In God, all areas of sin can be redeemed, if we are willing to following the leading of the Holy Spirit and turn. What is the most extreme and heinous sin that you can think of? Well, if that person honestly and sincerely recognizes their wrong, they will be forgiven and made new in Christ. Even the criminal who was justly convicted and was hanging on the cross next to Jesus, when he recognized his sin, he was made new; he was born again.

I was able to recognize this grace and felt the renewing of God’s presence in my life as I was getting my hat handed to me on a softball field, helping me to truly understand what was important. In that loss, I was led away from the thought process of the world to the grace of God.

I don’t know what you may carry with you that leaves you feeling like you are separated from the world and the Almighty. I don’t know.

What I do know is that it is never too late to turn; never too late to be born again, and again, and again. We are sinful creatures, and we will fall short. But in God, we can, and we will be born again. Trust in that promise. Trust in that promise and turn toward the Almighty.

God, even though we are broken, even though we sin and fall short, in Your infinite mercy and grace, it is never too late to turn to You, for in You, we are able to be made new and born again. Help us to raise our eyes so that we might be able to see this forgiveness and recognize that in You, all that was broken can be made well. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.