Our Four-Part Series: "Reframing Our Faith for A New Generation"
Part I: God’s Nature -- "The Journey from Mercy to Compassion"
Part II: Our Response -- "The Journey from Faith to Trust"
Part III: Our Nature -- "The Journey from 'Sins' to Idolatry"
Part IV: God’s
Response -- "The Journey from Saved to Transforming"
As far as I can recall, in my five decades of church involvement, our spiritual problem has been
described with an English word I believe has increasingly become less helpful
and more harmful in communicating what we as a church wish to invite others to
appreciate with us. I believe the use of this word has significantly
constricted the flow of the Spirit among us, serving instead as a
conversation-stopper. It’s a word that lends itself, I think, to misunderstanding
and heartache rather than the Epiphany purpose of illumination and
world-embrace.
One
word – a true four-letter word – and one of the most loaded words in the
English language. Let’s say it together: Sins. Even the sound of it sounds a
bit malevolent. Sounds like the hissing of the serpent in the Garden of Eden,
doesn’t it? SSSSinnnnsss …
Sins.
A big part of the confusion and heartache this word communicates stems from
that plural usage. If sins could be and would be understood in its singular
form – as a general expression of what spiritually ails us – we might not have
a problem with retaining the word. But as it is, the plural use has so polluted
the singular in common vernacular that I don’t find either helpful
anymore.
Sin
as a general condition simply means separation from God and others and all of
God’s creation. Missing the mark. I have no problem with that understanding. My
favorite definition of sin is this – translated from a German theologian who
says it in his language in ways only German theologians can say: “A drivenness
toward relationlessness.”
A
drivenness toward relationlessness. We are driven – there is nothing we can do
to stop the vehicle! We are compelled not to make a full relational connection with
anyone – at any time. Take our ever-animated Passing of the Peace, as an
example. During the Peace, we greeted certain folks and did not greet others
who needed it more … We engaged one or more in conversation and whether we were
aware of it or not, we did not connect in the way our conversation partner
needed to connect … Or perhaps the someone we did engage through a greeting or
conversation just needed to be left alone.
A
drivenness toward relationlessness. For the more scientific-minded among it:
Think of sin as the entropy of human relations. Its atrophying effect may not
be necessary, but it sure is inevitable!
We
hear the Apostle Paul say today that he is a “captive to the law of sin.”
That’s beautifully put. Throughout scripture, sin is seen as a power that holds
us in bondage – likewise, keeping us separate from one another. Bondage whose
remedy may not be forgiveness, but – simply put – exodus. A way out.
liberation.
Yes,
there are sins to confess – to avoid – to overcome. And yet, knowing we are
in bondage – held captive – to that driven relational reality, let us not get
bogged down by our sins and sinfulness, as well as by the world’s – as many of
us are prone to do. Let us simply accept
the fact that we live in the human condition – if you will – of sin.
So much for redeeming
the power of the singular from the muck of the plural. For I am inclined to
believe with many others that the word sin in the plural or even in the singular
looms so bleak with judgment over lowered heads and longing hearts that would
enter our sanctuary that a more neutral and helpful naming of the human
spiritual problem is necessary for our day.
One
that need not prompt our souls, like the prodigal son, to come bowing and
scraping to God for mercy, but one that carries our souls into the arms of
God’s compassion that runs to welcome us home.
And that soul-carrying
word is idolatry. Wrongly orienting ourselves to false gods. Idolatry. Focusing
the issue, unlike sin, not on self-orientation: who we are, branded as
“sinners”. Idolatry focuses the issue not
on self-orientation but on our orientation to the other: whose we really are in
this world – versus to whom we could rightly belong.
In
the spirit of last Sunday’s message, which focused on our response to God's love,
moving us from a framework of believing to “beloving”: To whom or to what, in
our lives, do we really give our heart to? We need not scratch our life’s
surface very deeply to uncover many false gods – many idols – that make that
claim. Our great Presbyterian forebear John Calvin once wrote that the human
heart is a factory of idols. If you are anything like me … well, you resemble
that remark!
It
is little wonder, then, that the first two of the Commandments Ten – the two
Colin read earlier – refer to idolatry. “Have no other gods before me … You
shall not make for ourselves an idol.”
And
how does our one true God self-introduce these Commandments and the rest –
self-differentiating from the false gods? “I am the Lord your God, who brought
you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
“I
brought you … out of the house of slavery”: How fitting we hear this self-epiphany
of our one true God at the beginning of African-American History Month! Out of
compassion, our God liberates us. Versus all other gods – our idols – that, at
that end of each day, bind us in our attachment to them. Attachments that can
and often do become addictions. Attachments that, as our Buddhist friends well
understand – addictive or no – eventually lead us into the valley of suffering.
Idolatry. This
word of disassociation from the nature of our one true God I believe conveys
our core human problem for a new generation seeking to heal the world around
them in ways more helpful, less threatening, and yet even more pointed than navel-gazing,
breast-beating sins.
And just what
are some of our idols today? One prominent idol our country worships
this evening – and many of us like me will join in. Thanks to lavish
advertisements, this idol finds vivid expression in sporadic engagements of
corporate violence punctuated by committee meetings known as huddles. (Just
what might that idol be?)
I
speak directly when I say that The Super Bowl refracts indirectly what Newtown
made clear to many of us: that False God
#1 in our land is simply Violence. In the process of carrying our crosses
with Jesus to Good Friday, my Lent sermon series – “Our Nonviolent Jesus for a
Violent America” – will focus on how we as Jesus’ disciples can confront False
God #1 in our land today.
But some of you
might really think I’ve stopped
preachin' and gone to meddlin’ when I lift up the idol I believe stands in the
way of rejuvenating our life and ministry here at Bethesda Presbyterian. That idol
is work.
Our good work, and our good works. Our accomplishments. Our achievements. Our
careers, and our causes.
Back
in Ann Arbor, I would joke there was an Unholy Trinity abiding in that
university land: Work, Work, and Escape from Work. Trust me: The frenetic pace of life around the
University of Michigan could scarcely hold a candle to the pace around the
Beltway.
Looking
for an escape from work? Here’s one suggestion: Invest it by discipling some of
those great ideas offered up at our annual congregational meeting last Sunday.
For our discipleship is not about the work we’re used to. It’s not about
accomplishment. It’s not about achievement. It’s not about our work or our works.
Our discipleship
is about “beloving” God’s works of grace among us, and then testifying to them
so that many may come to find they, too, belong to the one true God here. Our God above
all idols. Our compassionate, liberating God of the Exodus who sets us free to
belong, versus the idols that bind us in our separations. Who sets free those
who are or who feel marginalized by achievements and accomplishments that pass
them by – physically and/or spiritually – so that they, and we, might enjoy
life’s abundance together.
That’s
God. And that’s Good. That’s Good News. That’s Good News to share.
Worried
about your sins – or the world’s? Concerned about what you are doing or not
doing with your life?
My
hope and prayer for each of us is that our peccadillo sins and our self-concern
around them not serve as our framework for expressing our common human
predicament. Not to a world that longs for and needs and deserves a God so much
greater than a mild-mannered, lamb-holding assurer of grace retrofit for those vexing
little transgressions of ours.
My
hope and prayer is that we lift up to the world, and to one another, the real
roots of evil in our world: our idols, our false gods, our achievements and
accomplishments we find – at the end of each day – we really worship. My hope
and prayer is that we name these idols – not because we like to call those out
who worship them, but because only then can we not try so damned hard to
impress and instead let go and step aside. Step aside, and let God’s real grace
be made known through our lives transformed by simply enjoying and serving with
one another.
Come
join us on that joyful and playful and serving journey. Put down your work – at
home and at the job site – and have some times of joy with God: in intentional
solitude, as well as with your brothers and sisters here. Come, have some times
of joy with our God, who is just running to love the prodigal and dutiful child
both in each of us, and to set this church free to serve!
Charge
and Blessing …
Understanding
and communicating our core human problem as sin, the antidote of course is
forgiveness and redemption. And that’s good. That’s good.
Understanding
and communicating our core human problem as idolatry, the antidote is even
better: liberation and welcome, into the compassionate heart of our one true God.
And
that – of course – is the best thing of all ...
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