Though it hasn’t been emphasized nearly as much in recent years as it was when I was a kid, sin is a serious matter. It’s serious because it affects relationships – relationships with the ones against whom it’s perpetrated, with God, and even ourselves. Oops, by using the word perpetrate, I’ve fallen into the very trap that’s caused sin to be de-emphasized. The word sin, itself, and the images used for it have been so harsh that many people have reacted against it.
I was at a meeting of clergy a week or so ago. It was a meeting about taking a public stand against domestic violence. I suggested that we might identify abuse as sin that requires repentance. The cleric next to me said, “I don’t believe in sin.” I asked, “Do you believe that there are negative or destructive behaviors that need to be changed?” The other cleric replied, “Of course I do.” “Same thing,” I added.
I understand what my colleague meant. Historically, the imagery the Faith has used for unloving behavior has actually stood in the way of behavior change and love. The term has stigmatized people and made it harder for positive changes to be made. The earliest biblical imagery for sin – in the Old Testament writings – was death. Sin deserved to be punished by death – the vicarious death of the person – by ritually killing one of his or her animals. The poor animals! For the longest time the Church used imagery of soiling the soul – polluting the essence of a person with all the guilt, shame and fear appertaining thereto. All that emphasis on punishment and unworthiness actually caused people to deny their unloving behaviors so as to defend themselves from the despair of it. Emphasizing the negativity of negative behavior rather than positive ways to remedy it creates a trap.
People often felt trapped in their sins. The Jewish sacrificial system – killing animals for one’s own atonement – was always intended only for accidental sins, not intentional ones. The Church had ambivalent thoughts about sin as well. Take the Emperor Constantine, for example. He wasn’t baptized until he was on his deathbed in part, at least, because the Church didn’t know whether sins after baptism would be covered by Christ’s death and forgiven. That’s where two ideas became popular. After baptism people could try to counterbalance their shortcomings by compensatory actions – penance – punishing oneself so that God wouldn’t or doing good works to outweigh the not so good ones. People could also try to gain the favor of a patron – a saint whose good works could be accessed to make up for the people’s failures. Both of those were what I’ll call the credit card approach to sin – gaining spiritual credit to pay for one’s debts. But all these images hurt as much as help when it comes to the point of all God’s loving efforts on our behalf.
It’s much simpler than that. Permit me an illustration, and it’s not intended politically. It’s just convenient, recent and public. When Vice President Cheney accidentally shot his hunting partner it negatively affected the victim, and affected, at least temporarily, their relationship. It caused Cheney inner stress, and his relationship with himself. But it also affected the public – not so much what he did as how he handled what he did. That’s what sin’s like. It hurts relationships – with those who’ve been damaged by what’s been done that ought not to have been done or by what’s not been done that should have been done. It hurts our inner relationship with ourselves. And it hurts our relationship with God (our ultimate public). What God wants is for those relationships to be mended. That’s why God sent Christ Jesus – to repair our relationships with God, others and ourselves. It doesn’t take denial of the injurious behavior, self-punishment for it, or gaining the patronage of powerful friends. It takes acknowledgement (asking for and receiving forgiveness from God and those we hurt) and loving behavior toward the wounded (not to make amends, but to do right by them).
Once again, twelve step programs have it right. We need to make a fierce inventory of our lives, our actions and our relationships. We need to seek God’s help – God’s forgiveness, guidance and strength. We need to ask forgiveness of those we’ve hurt by our actions or our inactions. And, when it’s possible, we need to take positive and loving steps to make amends. The purpose is to grow in love by reforming our ways and restoring our relationships in the power of Christ’s redemption and example.
That’s the goal of Lent – to grow in God’s love. It’s a perfect time to seek God’s help to reform our ways and restore our relationships.
Faithfully in Christ,
Phil +