A defendant was on trial for murder.  There was very strong evidence indicating guilt, but the prosecution had one problem - no body had been found.  In the defense's closing statement the lawyer, knowing that his client would probably be convicted, pulled out one final desperate attempt at getting a not guilty verdict.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I have a surprise for you all," the lawyer said as she looked at her watch. "In exactly twenty seconds, the person presumed dead in this murder trial will walk into this courtroom!" and turned theatrically to look at the courtroom door.  The heads of the jurors all shot to the door.  Twenty seconds passed. The door remained closed.

Finally, the lawyer said, "Actually, I made up that last statement. But you all looked at the door with expectation.  I therefore put it to you that you have reasonable doubt as to whether anyone was killed and should return a verdict of not guilty."

With that, the jury retired to deliberate.

But after only a few minutes, they came back and pronounced a verdict of guilty.

The lawyer was bemused "How?" she asked. "You must have had some doubt. I saw all of you stare at the door."

"Oh, yes," the jury foreman replied. "We did all look - but I noticed your client didn't!"

Well, this morning we’ve had four Bible readings with one thing in common.  It was also the subject of the joke.  It is something we all experience – some people more than others.  It’s a curse but it can also lead to great blessing.  It hurts and can overwhelm us with feelings of alienation and despair.  Yet society tends to incarcerate in maximum security prisons anyone who does not experience it.  So, it can be seen as a friend, but not one we can live with happily for anything longer than a few minutes or hours.  It’s not suffering, although that fits one or two of those criteria.  It is guilt.  It’s there very obviously in the Old Testament lesson about David following his sin with and Bathsheba and the murder of her husband; it’s there in the epistle reading where Paul tells the Galatians that they were once sinners but have been put right with God by their faith in Christ; it’s in the Gospel reading, where a woman with a guilty reputation becomes the heroine of the story despite her guilt, and the religious leader, whom no one would think was guilty of anything was embarrassed by his self-importance.  And, it’s in the Psalm. 

¹  Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven, *
  and whose sin is put away!

²  Happy are they to whom the LORD imputes no guilt, *
   and in whose spirit there is no guile!

³  While I held my tongue, my bones withered away, *
   because of my groaning all day long.

⁴  For your hand was heavy upon me day and night; *
   my moisture was dried up as in the heat of summer.

⁵  Then I acknowledged my sin to you, *
   and did not conceal my guilt.

⁶  I said," I will confess my transgressions to the LORD." *
  Then you forgave me the guilt of my sin.

First let’s look at the good thing about guilt.  It brings us to God.  David in 2 Samuel, the writer of Psalm 32, Paul in Galatians and the woman at the feet of Jesus knew about guilt.  And in each case it forced them to recognise the painful truth that they needed God.  Unless we had that twinge of guilt then why would we come to God to seek forgiveness?  Why would we apologise to people when we have hurt them?  Why would we seek to change our behaviour when we know we have messed up?  Without guilt we would have little incentive to be reconciled to someone when we have had a falling out.  We wouldn’t know the joy of forgiving ourselves or receiving other people’s forgiveness.  As I said just now there are a few individuals who are psychologically incapable of feeling guilt and they are dangerous.  We call them psychopaths.  So I want to say that it is healthy, normal and good that we feel guilt.  Some guilty feelings are entirely proper.  It is very appropriate that King David felt guilty after what he’d done.  His guilty feelings matched his guilty condition.  He felt guilty because he WAS guilty.  And I hope we can all see occasions when we personally have felt feelings of guilt and they have served us well by urging us to turn to God or to apologize to someone or make amends or in some way change more into Christ’s likeness.

But, perhaps the main problem with guilt is that we can have guilty feelings even when we are not actually guilty of any wrong.  We can also feel guilty after we have confessed our sin to God and maybe apologized to other people and made amends.  And that’s a problem because God forgives us but we can refuse to forgive ourselves.  That’s the dangerous kind of guilt, the kind that robs us of our joy in Christ.

A little boy was visiting his grandparents and while he was there they gave him his first slingshot. He was thrilled by the gift and went off into the woods at the back of the house to practice.  And he spent hours firing the slingshot at targets, usually without much success.  As the daylight faded he came back to the house, and as he went into the back yard, he noticed his grandma’s pet duck, and one of those thoughts flitted across his mind.  You know, those little temptations that sometimes we can dismiss.  Well, not this one.  So, he took aim and let fly a stone at the duck.  Tragically, this was his best shot of the day, and duck fell dead. The boy had a rush of panic and guilt.  He ran to the corpse swept it up and scurried to the woodpile, where he disposed of the body. He was gripped with conscience and prayed desperately that his grandparents had not noticed him in the yard.  He turned around and looked to check that his crime had not been witnessed.  And there standing near the house staring at him was his sister.  Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing.  After lunch that day, Grandma asked Sally to wash the dishes." But Sally said, "Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today. Didn't you, Johnny?" And she whispered to him, "Remember the duck!" So Johnny told grandma that that was right and he dutifully did the dishes.

Later Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing.  Grandma pointed out that she needed Sally to stay at home and help make supper.  But Sally smiled and said, "Everything’s fine.  Johnny wants to do it." Again she whispered, "Remember the duck."  So Johnny stayed while Sally went fishing.  After several days of Johnny doing both his chores and Sally's, finally he couldn't stand it. He confessed to Grandma that he'd killed the duck. "I know, Johnny," she said, giving him a hug. "I was standing at the window and saw the whole thing. Because I love you, I forgave you. I wondered how long you would let Sally make a slave of you."  The power of guilt to destroy our joy.

According to psychologists guilt can effect people in four ways:

1          It can lead to always being on the defensive in our dealings with other people – we seek to blame others when things go wrong, instead of accepting that sometimes things go wrong just because they do, and blame isn’t necessary.  It can lead us to denying our wrongdoing, and failing to take responsibility for our actions - how many times have you heard someone making a confession of guilt that is couched in language that tries to avoid responsibility like “mistakes were made” instead of “I made mistakes”.  When people have a deep-seated feeling of guilt they can also withdraw from other people for fear of being thought of as a bad person, that if people really knew me and what I’m like they would not want to be my friend.  And it can lead to self-justification.  “OK, I did wrong, but someone else started it … it’s not as bad as all that … compared to what other people do I’ve done nothing …”  And what happens with guilt feelings is that when we don’t deal decisively with them they can go deep into our hearts and create this defensive approach to life.  We think we have something to hide, even if we actually don’t. 

2          Guilt can lead to feelings of self-condemnation – I’m not good enough, I don’t deserve God’s forgiveness, I don’t deserve the love of friends or family, I should punish myself by treating myself harshly, I should not be kind or gentle to myself.  We can reject compliments, and deflect praise when someone gives us it.

3          Guilt can produce Physical reactions – stomach issues, clinical depression, joint and muscle pain.

4          There’s moral pain.  The shame of realizing that we have failed to live up to our own standards, never mind God’s or anyone else’s.

These four things are what the Psalmist was saying.  “While I held my tongue, my bones withered away, because of my groaning all day long.  For your hand was heavy upon me day and night; my moisture was dried up as in the heat of summer.”  Can you feel his pain – it’s in his bones, on his shoulders, in his soul, in his voice.  His energy has been sapped, his spirit has shriveled up.  He is like a person who has walked for hours through the desert in the heat of the day, with no water and no shade.  His guilt has reduced him to a frail shadow of the life he knows now.  Guilt, whether it is real or false, can do that. 

So, how can we handle feelings of guilt?  There are three ways, I think: we can pretend it doesn’t exist and bury it - kid ourselves that we’ve done nothing wrong, that it’s all the other person’s fault, that it’s society’s problem not mine.  Or we can go to the other extreme and obsess about it and never let it go, convinced of our own unworthiness to receive God’s love and forgiveness.  Or we can do what the Psalmist did.  Admit it to yourself, confess it to God and then forget about it.  “Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and did not conceal my guilt.  I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’.  Then you forgave me the guilt of my sin.”  And then his life turns around.  He comes in from the desert, he drinks from the goodness of God, no, he swims in it.  He is refreshed and liberated in mind, body and soul.  He declares, “Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sin is put away!  Happy are they to whom the LORD imputes no guilt, and in whose spirit there is no guile!”  Happy, joyful, carefree, lighthearted.

God’s forgiveness is full and free and reaches the very worst that we can do.  So, let me ask you if there’s something you need to bring to God this morning; maybe something very old but you’ve never had the guts to go there.  Maybe today is the day to confess it to God and receive a fresh new start.  Or maybe you have confessed it to God but you don’t feel forgiven and you are still dogged by the memory of it. It eats away at you and brings you shame and sadness.  No maybes about it – I know that today is the day to move on from the power of that sin.  God has forgiven you and wants you to enjoy freedom.