Redeeming Our Language: Sin Romans Third Sunday after the Epiphany January 25, 2015

Transcription

1 Redeeming Our Language: Sin Romans Third Sunday after the Epiphany January 25, 2015 Along with her husband and cousin, Barbara Heck set sail from Ireland in 1760 and eventually settled in New York City. All three of them had been a part of John Wesley s societies back in Limerick. Her cousin, Philip Embury had even been one of Wesley s lay preachers. But traveling to and settling in a new land had created new priorities. While not rejecting their faith outright, it seemed to be pushed more and more to the back burner of life. That all changed, however, the night that Barbara came home and found her husband and a few of his friends playing a friendly game of cards. Sweeping the cards into the folds of her apron, she rushed to her cousin s house. As she cast those cards onto the burning hearth, she exclaimed, Brother Embury, you must preach to us or we shall all go to hell, and God will require our blood at your hands! It was, to say the least, a bit dramatic perhaps even overly dramatic. But it provided the spark that was needed to rekindle the faith of all three of them. The very next Sunday Barbara gathered her family and a few close friends into her kitchen and Philip preached. Those few people, in turn, invited a few more people that eventually became a congregation that still exists today John Street United Methodist Church, the oldest continuously-active United Methodist congregation in these United States. Obviously, Barbara Heck was one of those who saw the playing of cards as a sin; as an affront to the sovereign God. Many Christians back then believed playing cards was a great transgression. Some Christians right now believe the same. A few of them even say that as seemingly as innocent a game as Go Fish can lead people down the road to doom and destruction both which starts with D, which rhymes with T, and you know what that spells and where that leads! Well, you can relax. I m not one of those Christians. One of my fondest memories is sitting at the kitchen table playing penny ante poker with my Nonno. That old Italian knew how to play some poker! Yet the only road I was led down playing with him was the one that ended at the refrigerator door. Neither am I one of those Christians who think that dancing, rock and roll, or going to the movies is a sin. As a matter of fact, I have some great jokes about dancing and sin that I ll tell you on the last Sunday that I m your pastor. Believe it or 1

2 not, I am actually much smarter than I look! But I am going to talk about sin this morning. After all, it is a rather important word in the language of faith. It is also a rather important word in the Holy Scriptures. And in addition to both of those, it has become the main way that much of modern faith talks about the situation in which humanity finds itself. For many Christians sin has become the primary means of addressing the human condition. But is it right to do so? According to the children s book Madeline, it was in the middle of the night that Miss Clavell decided that something was not right. Was sin the problem over which Miss Clavell worried? If you have been here the last two weeks, then you know that we have been looking at some of the most misunderstood words and phrases in the Bible. We have already looked the words salvation and righteous, and found that their biblical meaning is often very different from their popular understandings. In the weeks to come we ll look at words and phrases like the cross, born again, and the way, the truth, and the life. Today, however, we re going to look at the word sin. (In some corners of the church, it is pronounced with two syllables: see-in ). You may also remember that I have mentioned that a well-respected author (one who just died this past week, by the way) has written how the words in this list have acquired meanings that are very different from their biblical and ancient meanings. 1 One of the main reasons they have is what Marcus Borg called the heaven-and-hell framework of faith; the idea that the sole purpose of biblical and Christian faith is to enable believers to go to heaven after they die. The other big reason is what the author described as the increasingly common belief that the only way to understand these particular words and phrases is literally; at their face value. Doing so can place a very negative spin on their interpretation. Both of these reasons have caused you and me not only to miss the original power and beauty of these words, but good and full life that God wants to give us. So let s take a deeper look at sin. And let s start with a simple, but necessary reminder: there is a big difference between sin and sins; between sin in the singular and sin in the plural. When talking about sin in the singular, we are referring to a particular condition. The biblical words are helpful here. There are many words for sin in the Hebrew Scriptures those books Christians call The Old 1 Marcus Borg, Speaking Christian, Harper One, New York, 2011, p. 9 2

3 Testament. The most common is chata, the basic meaning of which is to miss. There s a similar word for sin in the Christian Scriptures the New Testament. Hamartia is a Greek word that means to miss the mark. Think of an archer shooting at a target. The aim is to put the arrow in the red circle at the very center. When that arrow is released, it may hit on the outside of the circle or, in my case, probably not hit the target at all. The arrow quite literally misses the mark; it doesn t hit where it s supposed to hit. Biblically speaking, sin in the singular is often understood as missing the mark as missing God s mark. Or think of it this way: metanoia, the New Testament word for repentance, literally means to turn around. Once you realize that you are going the in wrong direction; once you come to yourself, as Jesus said happened to that Prodigal Son while he was sitting in the middle of that stinking pig sty; once you realize that you have missed the mark, you stop, turn around, and head in the right direction; you walk on God s path. When the Bible talks about sin, more often than not it is in this singular fashion. I ve always liked that conversation that God had with Cain. You heard it read earlier and it reminds us of this singular understanding of sin. You may remember that Cain and his younger brother Abel had both offered their gifts to God. For reasons that no one has really ever been able to adequately explain, God accepted Abel s gifts and not Cain s. As a result, Cain threw what may have been the first-ever temper tantrum and began to sulk. The next morning God walked up to him and asked, Why the fit-pitching? Why are you in such a bad mood? Cain gave no answer to what he believed was a rather dumb question. After all, this was God talking to him. He presumed that The Great Oh-My-Gosh already knew why he was so ticked off. So the first brother just continued to wallow in his funk. That s when God told him to be careful because sin is lurking at your door, and warned that its desire is for you. My Old Testament professor once offered a paraphrase of that verse that makes its message even clearer: Sin is sitting right outside your door waiting to jump up and bite you on the backside when you re not looking. I ve always liked that. It reminds us that sin in this singular sense is not specific act, but a condition in which people all too often find themselves; a description of what is wrong with us. 3

4 Now it s different with sin in the plural; when we start talking about sins. Here we re not referring to abstract ways of missing the mark, but about specific ways in which people have missed it. According to the Book of Exodus, Moses had the ten biggest ways people shoot wide and miss the mark engraved on two stone tablets (apparently there wasn t enough stone to put the 603 lesser ways Moses said people miss the mark on tablets, so they were simply written down on sheep skin). A millennium or so later one of the Desert Fathers, a 5 th century monk named Evagrius, came up with seven more biggies. And of course, he proclaimed that they were very deadly. You may remember a 1995 film entitled Seven and how Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman hunted for a serial killer who was modeling his murders after the Seven Deadly Sins. (Apparently the descendants of Barbara Heck proposed a sequel where Pitt and Freeman hunted down those who played cards in the kitchen, but it never got off the ground.) When referring to sin in this way, when it is used in the plural, it refers to individual, specific acts of wrongdoing. Unfortunately, it is this plural from that has become the predominant way that many modern Christians think about sin today. Even more unfortunate, that plural form of the word has become the only way that some of those same Christians judge the human condition. Their focus seems to be on those singular acts of wrongdoing; those individual transgressions that people far too often commit and that keep people separated from God. As a matter of fact, in some corners of the church, those sins have even been ranked in order of their perceived importance. (Before I try to explain all of that, I need to ask you to hang with me for the next few moments. I m getting to the part of this sermon where even I m not sure where it s going. But a sermon is an adventure that pastors and congregations are supposed to take together. So let s set out through the fog together. Here we go.) You remember that I said some folks seem to rank sins in order of their perceived importance. Now it seems to me that in the grand scheme of things, stealing probably should be considered near the very top of the list. Moses apparently thought the same as Thou shalt not steal was among his Top Ten. You know as well as I know that there are a whole lot of different ways to steal. It s not just about robbing banks or shoplifting DVDs. We steal time. We 4

5 steal affection. We steal unused bars of soap from our motel rooms. The list is very, very long. Yet if you listen to some of today s Christians, stealing is very rarely mentioned. Nowadays there seems to be a brand new list of offenses which appear to be categorized in order of their supposed seriousness the greatest of all being that of homosexuality, followed closely by abortion, secularism, and a variety of other hot button social issues. Now my purpose is not to argue whether or not those on that list are sins. Neither is my purpose is not to say that individual acts of wrongdoing do not exist. They do and they are very real! Read the story of David s sins against Bathsheba and her husband Uriah in the book of II Samuel if you don t believe me! Sins are a very big deal! My purpose is simply to remind you that when the focus is on sin in the plural, when all we talk about are sins, then the only solution to our problem the only way to fix the vast brokenness of the human condition becomes forgiveness. Now don t get me wrong. Forgiveness is a good thing. Commit the singular sin of buying $7,000 worth of carpet without the Finance Committee s blessing and see if it s not. (Can I have an Amen! ) Again, forgiveness is always a good thing. Yet there are so many other things that are wrong with us; so many other parts of the human condition that also need fixing. A few weeks ago, I mentioned that when the people of Israel found themselves stuck in the mud pits of Pharaoh, it was not forgiveness from sin that they needed. They didn t need Moses to come back to Egypt and tell them that God had granted them absolution from their sins. Oh, I m sure they would have appreciated that, but that s not what they needed. What they needed was for Moses to come back to Egypt and tell them that God was going to find them a way out of their bondage. Liberation, not forgiveness, was the answer to their problem. When the people of Israel found themselves weeping by the waters of Babylon, it was not forgiveness from sin that they needed. What they needed was a chance to head back to their beloved Jerusalem. Going home, not forgiveness, was the answer to their problem. When Jesus and the disciples came upon the man born blind, it was not forgiveness from his sin that he needed. If you remember the story from John, Jesus made that very clear. What he needed was to be able to see. Healing, not forgiveness, was the answer to his problem. When those 120 fearful followers of Jesus found themselves hiding behind locked doors 50 days after the resurrection, it was not forgiveness from their sin that they needed. What they needed was courage. The power of the 5

6 Holy Spirit, not forgiveness, was the answer to their problem. You can find story after story like these in the scriptures. Forgiveness is a good thing, no doubt about it! I recommend it highly! Yet it s not the answer to every problem! Someone once wrote that when sin becomes the one size fits all metaphor for the human condition, it obscures the rich and important meaning of those other metaphors, 2 metaphors like slavery, exile, blindness, and fear; other difficulties that all-too often also separate people from God and others. Not only that, when those individual sins become our sole focus, it diminishes the needs of our neighbors who find themselves trapped in some of those exact situations. If our understanding of the human condition is dominated by the singular sins that people commit, for example, then why worry about those trapped in the bondage of poverty? If our understanding of what s wrong with us focuses only upon one s individual wrongdoing, sins that supposedly keep us from an eternity of heavenly bliss, then why would prophets like Micah put such an emphasis on doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God? If our understanding of our nature is only on what we or others do wrong, then why should the Finance Committee anguish about not having the funds to pay our mission shares? Yes, Jesus was concerned about sin, even suggesting that we forgive trespasses just as he forgives trespasses. But he was also concerned about those who find themselves hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, and all the rest all of those whose situation causes them to be cut off from everything that gives them life. And according to Jesus, it s our response to those situations that will be the basis of our judgment. I guess what I m trying to say is this: God wants to give this world so much! God is ready, able, and willing to do so very much for you, for me, and for all of our neighbors; to give us grace upon grace. But when our only focus is only on sins, when the whole emphasis of our faith is on a real or imagined list of dos and don ts, we miss the fullness of God s grace. And that s a tragedy. Every once in a while, someone like Barbara Heck just may be needed. Fortunately, the congregation and denomination she helped start did not remain focused on her list of sins. May everyone who hears with ears of faith do the same. 2 Marcus Borg, p

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