This month’s question for columns Rev. Bob Norris and I have
been writing is, “What is sin?” For some, the answer contains the keys to
Heaven. For progressives, it is about how we share this life. Regardless, sin
is central to our shared lives on this earth.
Alas, we all do it. Liberal and conservative Christians agree
on a literal interpretation of Romans 3:23. “All have sinned and fallen short
of the glory of God.” But are our sins about individual lives or how we live together
among God’s creation?
A popular metaphor comes from Billy Graham’s sermons. Rev.
Graham said sin is like
an archer who misses the target. “He draws back his bow and sends the arrow on
its way, but instead of hitting the bull’s eye, it veers off course and misses
the mark. The arrow may only miss it a little bit or it may miss it a great deal,
but the result is the same.” The arrow doesn’t land where either the archer or
God would like.
But
doesn’t the greatest commandment that we love God and love one another elevate
the meaning of sin beyond individual lives?
Understanding
sin starts with God’s decision to give humans freewill. It was a profound
choice. Think about it. Genesis
1:26-27 claims that humans are created in “the image of God.” Whatever the
“image of God” may mean, the analogy doesn’t include perfection. God might have created us to be
as perfect as God. We could have been created so that sinning was beyond either
our capability or our imagination.
God
made an altogether different choice. God gave us the power to do that which God
does not want us to do. You might even say that God created us with the
inability to do all that God wants us to do, and a proclivity to do that which
God would rather we didn’t, alongside an abiding desire to please God.
The
myth of the Garden of Eden teaches that we are not born with the stain of
“original sin.” The myth depicts a God who gave us everything we need and then
thought, that in our abundance, we’d make the right choices. Then we encountered
our first choice between sin and God. It came after we’ve learned right from
wrong because until then we don’t even know we are being given a choice.
But,
our lives aren’t like those of Adam and Eve mythology. We are not all born into
abundance. That explains the necessity Jesus felt to reduce all of the law to
two commandments. Some are born with more; some with less. Our lives are not
like a game of Monopoly where each player starts on a level playing field with
the same $1500 and a roll of the dice.
In
this culture, life is more like another child’s game. “Musical chairs” is
designed to make sure someone gets left out. There are always fewer chairs than
players. The music plays. Players move around the circle. But when the music
stops, as it inevitably does, there are never enough chairs for everyone. The
game is designed to leave someone behind at the end of each round.
That
is life in a world where humans have freewill. We’ve taken the abundance of the
Garden of Eden and turned it into a game of musical chairs. Our sin is the greed,
racism, sexism, violence, and environmental destruction staining our souls and
marginalizing the least of these our brothers and sister.
These
sins deny Billy Graham’s bow and arrow metaphor. These sins are not attempts to
hit God’s bull’s eye. They are self-serving, freewill efforts denying the value
of Creation and the humanness of our brothers and sisters.
That
is sin.
Jesus
tells us how our lives will be assessed. Matthew 25 is the clearest
proclamation of what will be considered sin on judgment day. It is the failure
to alleviate the suffering of those who are hungry, sick, naked, homeless,
imprisoned and hurting.
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