Sin or not sin

We think that we have a pill, a potion, or a procedure to deal with any problem along the way, so that we can do whatever we feel like at the moment, without significant consequences.

The scriptures are replete with the stories of those who thought and acted like that.

We begin with Adam and Eve, who were kicked out of the garden as a consequence of disobedience. [Gen 3]

We move on quickly to Cain murdering Abel, and his being reduced to a life of wandering as a consequence. [Gen.4]

The whole world acted wickedly and refused to listen to the warning through Noah, and drowned. [Gen 6-10]

There were the prideful monument-builders whose tower was a vain attempt to build their way “up” to God, and were scattered and suspicious of one another as a result of God's remonstrance. [Gen 11]

Sarah the impatient decided to help out God by providing a surrogate wife for Abraham, filling Hagar's life with pain and sorrow, and her own life with bitterness.[Gen.16]

Eli the priest could not restrain his two sons wicked lives.

Those two arrogant men took what they wanted, did what they wanted, treated God with contempt and treated the holy ark as a good luck charm, and at length they were killed in battle.

The shock of this led directly to Eli's death as well.[1 Samuel 2-4]

Saul, couldn't wait for Samuel to come, and took matters into his own hands in order to help out God and Samuel, thereafter descended into mental illness and death in a battle stirred up by his vanity. [1 Sam 28]

David the great king, took what he wanted, acting as though the commandments applied to others but not to himself, just like people who think they can rule by executive fiat always think they can do.

He tried to slide around the commandment about adultery by ordering a murder of Uriah the Hittite to get rid of the inconvenient husband of Bathsheba, so that he could have her for himself.

The first child of this unholy union died, bringing sorrow to them both.[2 Sam. 11-12]

Ahab and Jezebel put themselves above the law of the Lord, and vowed revenge on Elijah who had the temerity to point out their sin, and also Elijah rid the land of the prophets of Baal.[1 Kings 21-22]

Jezebel the proud queen is thrown from the gate tower and is eaten by the pack of scavenger dogs.

Judas the betrayer who thought he knew better than Jesus about bringing in the kingdom of God, is driven to suicidal despair when Jesus does not act as Judas thought he should.[Mt.27:3-10]

Annanias and Sapphira who lie about the proceeds of the sale of land and keep for themselves some of what was to be dedicated to the common use.

When confronted by Peter, they fall down dead and are buried that very day. [Acts 5]

On and on goes the sorry list.

“The wages of sin is death,” Paul reminds us in a passage just beyond what we read earlier. [Romans 6:23]

We are amazingly inventive in trying to justify the unjustifiable, to call “not sin” what is “sin.”

And sin is to be understood as much more than merely doing bad things, although it certainly includes that.

At root, it is our spurning of the relationship which the Lord God forges with us, and also trampling the relationships with one another which are made possible through the love of Jesus for us.

“Sin” is a breakdown of community at its deepest level.

”Death” is not just a cessation of breathing.

It is also the maceration of relationships which have been made by and through the Lord Jesus.

We can hardly think about Adam and Eve and all these subjects without reference to matters of sexuality in church and society.

What passes for current progress is a lame attempt to rewrite scripture into something easier, more palatable, less demanding.

“Thou shalt not commit adultery” is clear and straightforward.

It is without a doubt about the relationship of a man and a woman, husband and wife.

It speaks against any other arrangement.

For the unmarried are not to sin against the spouse they have not yet found,

nor are the married to sin against the spouse they have.

It does not take any advanced degrees to understand it.

That is not to say that living within the bounds of the commandment is easy; often it is painfully difficult, and we abuse it in many ways.

For this there is confession and forgiveness.

No, Jesus did not turn his back on any sinner, but he also does not leave us to stew in that sin.

To the woman taken in adultery, whom others were ready to stone in righteous anger, he offered forgiveness and said,” Go and sin no more.” [John 8]

That was setting her on an even more difficult path than she had traveled before, but it was the right path, the path of a renewed community.

We could pick any other area of life, do a similar analysis, and be convicted of our sinfulness in the same way.

But Jesus never leaves the matter there.

Jesus is in the business of making strong and appropriate relationships with himself and then through himself with others.

He does not go the easy way, the go along with whatever way, the “way of glory,” as Luther called it.

Rather he offers the “way of the cross,” in which he demonstrates that he takes on the weight of every kind of sinfulness and brokenness that we can invent, is faithful to an alternative way of living, and by his death and resurrection is able to offer that new way of life to us all.

That means that he is beside us to pick us up when we fall, to admonish us when we disobey, and to offer another chance, each new day.

That is the Good News.

Luther's hymn is very realistic. [LBW#229]

At the end of the first stanza it acknowledges that when we do things by ourselves, Satan always wins.

“On earth he has no equal. No strength of ours can match his might. We would be lost, rejected.”

We need again and again the promise of Christ that overcomes the lie.

And so we make bold to sing:

Though hordes of devils fill the land

We tremble not, unmoved we stand

For God himself fights by our side

With weapons of the Spirit.

God's Word forever shall abide.

It is an utterly chilling line that Satan the accuser uses to seduce us.

“You will not die,” he whispers to us in a thousand disguises.

“You will not die, but will really know what is what.”

“You will not die, and with this knowledge, now you can do anything you like, whatever tickles your fancy.”

The sad thing is that just like Adam and Eve we fall to temptation and believe Satan's whispered lie, “You shall not die.”

But that is only the beginning of Lent, the start of our journey together.

By the grace of God, the persistence of God, the gift of the forgiving love of God that pursues us even in our sinfulness, at the end of the journey we will be able to sing with saints and angels:
The kingdom's ours forever. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.