Karl Mennenger wrote What Ever Happened to Sin? in the 70's. Barbara Brown Taylor has written a book in the recent past entitled Speaking of Sin: The Lost Language of Salvation.These two books have prompted much thinking in my mind about the language of the Christian faith.
I agree with many contemporary theologians who note the "otherness" of being Christian. Some have noted that Chrisitanity is a learned pracitce; to be Christian is to learn the values, ethics, attitudes and language of the community (see Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon). To be a follower of Jesus, one must apprentice themselves to one or many people who have been living the Christian faith. NT Wright uses the piano metaphor (learning to play the right notes) while Brian McLaren uses the violinist analogy. In all of this the point is clear: The Christian faith does not come naturally to most of us. To be Christian is to be oriented to a whole new way of thinking and living; a whole new approach to seeing the world.
Taylor, in Speaking of Sin, states that "...sin might just be the last best hope of the church." Unless we understand the power of sin over creation we cannot appreciate the ways in which Jesus exposes, names, resists and defeats these cosmic powers. In fact, I encouraged our church this morning to read Romans in light of the ministry of Jesus in the scope of this divine/human drama; the battle between the powers of sin and the powers of Creator God.
Though sin has been a huge focus of evangelical churches for the last several decades, I'm not necessarily advocating more of the same company stuff. I believe we need to talk more about wider definitions of sin (racism, injusice, classism, and sexism) as well as the way in which the Old Testament and New Testament bear witness to God's interest in the communal sins of His people. Conservative Christians often focus only on the "private individual sins" as oppposed to the ways in which the darkness can hold collective groups in a hazy fog.
One need look no further than the way in which conservative churches reacted during the Civil Rights Era in the 1960's in America or the way in which a large portion of Lutherans in the middle of the 20th Century wholesale pledged themselves to the ideologies of the Thrid Reich. I am afraid to ask whether or not the contemporary church might be blind to the call of God in our American culture.
Communal sin is dangerous to the Kingdom of God. And a wider defintion of sin will prevent us from only being passionate about rated R movies, alcohol, and ....well you get the point.
Thank God, He is still pursuing us and empowering us to become more like him. "I am not the man I want to be nor the man with God's help I'll someday become--but thank God I am not the man I used to be," Martin Luther King Jr.
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6 comments:
You're right, Josh. I wonder what sins we are overlooking, just as earlier Christians overlooked slavery or racism. I am haunted by the plain words of Christ to "lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth." Could we do so much more to establish justice if we weren't holding onto our stuff so tightly? What would the world be like if Christians quit saving for a lavish retirement and, instead, lived to serve and give lavishly, living dangerously until we were used up and went to see Jesus?
I think Patrick really hit the nail on the head. Materialism is a very dangerous trap to fall into. Pretty much everybody does it to some extent. I know it's something I struggle with. I also find myself judging others based on my own opinion of the way they spend their money. It's very easy to look at somebody with a huge house or extravagent car, and judge them as being wasteful. I know I've done it. On one hand, I think spending too much on a possesion just to give yourself higher "status" is a waste, but at the same time, it's so easy to condemn somebody for doing it when it really isn't our place. Materialism may not be on the same level with racism, but I would think it's one of the more prevalent dangers christians are facing today.
Right on . . .Im still seeing an unveiling of communal sin around me and learning how to battle it (prayer). This is a problem; focusing only on individual sin. LAst week I watched a sermon on music; it blew me a way but was a revelation as to why God told me to throw away over 200 secular music CD's.
Sin! what a HUGE issue...my biggest problem with sin is that until recently I was never aware that what I was doing is considered sin...being blind to the issue, I went deeper and deeper all the while thinking I am a good christian...then it hit me...I was addicted to sin...much like that of drinking or smoking, but it seems so much stronger...from overlooking my sin, I created something I never wanted to be and now it almost seems harder to break all of those addictions.
Nikki - Addiction to SIN; it's terrible but real and I recently had a similar revelation. Its not us but the sin within us. We can break the addiction, you can! SOmetimes easier said then done, but with the spirit of the Lord within us, we have NO LIMITS! I'll keep you in prayer!
How do we deal with the dual nature of sin in Scripture? For Paul, all people struggle with committing sins. We have "all sinned and fallen short...." On the other hand, Sin is a cosmic power that is at work, wreaking havoc on the world, and competing against God for human allegiance. See Romans 6, see Paul's description of pre-salvation, pre-Spirit life in Romans 7. As those in the church, how do you all suggest we should think about Sin as a Power, not just as the individual mistakes that separate us from God?
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