Reading: Romans
7:21-8:6 Proper 8A
July 7, 2002
The Rev. Karen Siegfriedt
St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church, Cupertino,
CA
Until the Age of Enlightenment, religious language and concepts were used to define reality. Lawyers, doctors, and lay people would all use religious language to explain behavior, ideas, and experience both in the workplace and at home. Since that time, different models have come to the forefront to explain and define reality. These models include (but are not limited to) the scientific model, the psychological model, the business model, and the legal model. Today, hardly anyone uses religious language to define or explain reality and ideas. As a result, congregations often have difficulty grasping the rich theology and principles which are found in our Holy Scriptures. Even clergy have resorted to the psychological model in their preaching in order to communicate religious concepts. The problem is, translating religious language into psychological jargon looses the depth and the nuances of religious thought.
So what I would like to do today, is to begin a series on the theology of Paul. Paul's letters (which are found in the New Testament) have influenced Christian thought perhaps more than any other writing. My hope is, that as we study the theology of Paul, we will begin to learn a theological language which describes what exactly is necessary for salvation. And since salvation is a theological term that many resent or do not understand, I will restate what I just said in psychological terms. My hope is, that as we study the theology of Paul, we will begin to learn a theological language which can direct us to a path leading to health and wholeness. Today I will be speaking about sin and repentance. I will use Paul's letter to the Romans as my text.
Barbara Brown Taylor described the turn of the 1st millennium in the following manner: "On New Year's Eve 999, St. Peter's Basilica in Rome was filled with worshipers expecting the end of the world. Many of them had given away all that they owned to the poor, while others had spent weeks in prayer and penance for their sins. Some dressed in sackcloth and ashes, which stuck to skin they had bloodied through various mortifications of the flesh. After Pope Sylvester the II celebrated the last mass of the millennium, the great bell began to toll. Some died of fright while others lay face down on the floor with their arms spread in imitation of Christ on the cross. When the clock struck twelve and time did not end, the stunned crowd gradually trickled home- or for those who had given away their homes-to whatever shelter they could find in a world that had been inexplicably spared by God."
One thousand years later on December 31st, 1999, people once again gathered together for the great millennium. This time however, there were no sackcloths, no ashes. Instead of spending weeks in prayer and penance for their sins, people were lining up at the ATM machines, making sure they had enough cash. Extra food was being stored in the homes and special software programs were being installed on those old computers with date problems. When the bell tolled midnight, people sighed a breath of relief, assured that the stock market would not crash and that life in the new century would be as prosperous as before. The only repentance that most people did was to wish on New Year's Day that they had not drunk so much the night before. What accounts for the change? What has happened to our understanding of sin and repentance? And how does this affect the well being of society?
A large number of people have simply stopped calling wrongdoings sin. And so of course, there is nothing to repent of. Perhaps we avoid the word sin because in the past, sinful people were severely punished as in the days when people were put in stocks and mocked in the public square. Others were excluded or shunned by the community for their sins, while some carried around guilt and shame for years. Whatever the reasons might be, we have stopped calling sin, sin. Instead, we have replaced the word sin for something a little softer such as: a lapse in judgement, a white lie, a breaking of a rule, a wounded ego, a stressful moment, a genetic predisposition, or my own personal business. In the process of eliminating sin from our consciousness, we have turned over the really awful things to the courts as crimes, while the more self-destructive things are turned over to the medical establishment as mental illnesses. This leaves a great many things in the middle to become strictly personal matters. *
In the legal model, once you have admitted your guilt, it is the court's decision to decide how you should pay for your crime- with a fine, community service, or a prison term. The emphasis is paying your debt to society, not on restoring you to society. In the medical model, illness does not carry the onus of choice. The responsibility for evil or wrongdoing is shifted elsewhere- to biochemistry, to abusive parents, to birth defects, etc. We become victims of something outside our control and therefore, not responsible. The medical model is compassionate, not punitive. So wrongdoers in our legal system often try to demonstrate that they are ill (rather than criminal) in order to receive treatment rather than punishment.
But deep down in human existence there is an experience of reaching for the forbidden fruit, of pushing away loving arms, of failing to honor relationships, of doing whatever is necessary to feed and comfort the self, because there is no one else to trust, no other purpose to serve, no other god to follow. For ages and ages, this experience has been called sin; the deadly alienation from the source of all life. In religious terms, it implies a turning away from God. There are thousands of ways to turn away from the light. The point is to know the difference between light and darkness, and to recognize the pull of darkness when it comes. By articulating sin, we are able to identify this pull of darkness. *
It is into this context of sin and darkness, that Paul writes his theology about sin in his letter to the Church in Rome. In today's reading Paul says: "I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"(Rom. 7)
For Paul, sin is the inability to carry out the will of God. Paul is not as concerned about the small transgressions that we commit on a daily basis as he is about our natural inclination to choose the bad even when we know in our heads, what is right. What exactly lies behind our self-indulgent appetites and our exploitation of other people? What is the cause of our obsession with an intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts? Why are we dishonest in our daily life and work, for uncharitable thoughts, and for our waste and pollution of creation? How are we to describe the tendency for people to turn a blind eye to human need and suffering? Paul would call this propensity to choose the bad even when we know in our minds what is right as living in the flesh. Our Episcopal tradition refers to this tendency as original sin.
So what does Paul suggest we do about this human tendency to choose to do the bad? Well, he does not believe in making more rules and regulations. Paul was a faithful Jew who had followed the 600+ laws of his tradition without fail. The problem was however, even thought he followed every letter of the law of his tradition, it did not stop him from supporting and participating in the persecution and death of those people who decided to follow Jesus as the Christ. He began to ask himself: How can such a religious person be so blind to God's ways? Paul began to realize that laws do not inevitably produce good conduct. Moral imperatives do not guarantee that we do what is right. Paul is very much aware that ideals are not realized and that we do not do the good that we should but rather we do the very thing that we ought not to do! What is the solution to this dilemma? "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom.7)
For Paul, the solution is not to depend on laws, or pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, or engaging in corporal punishment, or by focusing on our own ego strengths. Paul believes that we need the grace and power of God to change. Christ has inaugurated the possibility of a new humanity by demonstrating God's power and grace. To respond to this love of God, to open one's mind to it, to reach out one's hand to accept God's gracious offer of righteousness, is what Paul calls faith. When we offer our selves, our souls, and bodies, in the service of the Spirit of God, we begin the process of sanctification. Sanctification means living a holy and righteous life. When we turn our gaze from ourselves (i.e. living in the flesh) to God, it is called repentance.
It is important to call sin, sin. Otherwise, we can not name the darkness that destroys relationships and deforms our image as children of God. If we name sin, a crime, then we are simply punished. If we name sin a medical problem, then we will only seek treatment to relieve the symptoms. But if we name sin, sin, then we can engage in an honest process of repentance; a process where we make restitution to those whom we have hurt; a process where we move from a place of guilt to a place of doing things differently; a process where we turn our lives over to the will of God. For the mind that is set "on the Spirit [of God] is life and peace." (Rom.8)
*Material used in this sermon is by The Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, Hastings Memorial Lecture, College of Preachers, Washington D.C., 1999.
| Updated 7/11/02 |
|