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Sin Stuff
What is SIN - What is it really? How much of it counts? How much of it doesn’t? Do we have any guidelines - like is it limited to the 10 commandments? or the scary dichos of Jesus recorded by Matthew about sin - things like lust, divorce, envy, etc., or is sin all over the place and in almost everything we do?
We all sin. It’s the truth. We go against the grain, not that that’s a negative. We have addictions that seem to take over our lives. They become like gods we think we need. We just don’t have much will power. But really any hour, day or week, it can be time to try to toss those sins out there in front of us - maybe written on pieces of paper. And burn them up. And then humbly ask God to take charge of our hearts and souls and forgive us our sins. We must firmly state, we must proclaim, that we don’t want them anymore. And when we do that, and we ask for forgiveness and help, everything will be all right. God hears us and gives us consistent care and love.
 Most of us concentrate on shedding sins prior to Easter. It’s the sin think time. We try to seek what do we do that might be abhorrent to God or might interfere with his effort to love us all the time. What do we do that is inexcusable - we say that so often, “that was inexcusable!” So, I wonder, who selects, modifies, dictates, orders what Sin is and what it is not. There is so much temptation out there exploded by modern activities and electronics and powers. But sin is not complicated. It is simple.
I remember years ago, when part of my ministry was to listen to sins and encourage the forgiveness, there was this lovely Uruguayan lady at the Winston Churchill Home in Montevideo, dependent on a wheelchair. She was in her ‘90ties and was present when we first opened the Chapel at the British Hospital. In fact in those days in the ‘90ties, we had 3-4 wheelchairs crammed into our little but holy space. And this sweet lady said to me in confidence, I am a sinner and don’t know what to do. If you saw or knew this charming lady, you would know right off she was a beautiful example of a Christian woman who had nothing to be ashamed of because God embraced her with his gentle love and she was as tender as a baby deer. I wish I could remember her name. I looked her in the eye and said, Senora, there is no sin in you. Remember God forgives us and cleanses us in the very minute we acknowledge or confess that sin. And most of the times the things we think are sin or sinful, are not.
What is Sin though? When Catholics say, “that’s a sin on your soul,” what does that mean? Is there a list of qualities? The official answer is: An act of transgression against Divine law. That’s not man-made criminal law, or club rules, or racist dictates. Divine law is God’s law and each culture has its own version of what sin might be. But the only one who really knows what counts as sin is Almighty God, our true father.
Men throughout history have attempted to list sins, particularly if they were political leaders who wanted to control everyone’s movement or possession or life, or firmly demanded their ideas be followed by the public. Rarely have women dictated sins, they are busy trying to teach their offspring to avoid sin - as mothers we say if you don’t behave yourself, you will be punished. And back in my day that behavior was related to don’t hit your baby brother, don’t hide your friends’ toys, don’t throw the eggs across the room, don’t pull the dogs tail, don’t sneak a buttered biscuit from the kitchen.
I got spanked at age 5 - a way to acknowledge and get rid of a sin, I guess, - because at our family’s formal dinner at 6 p.m. each night, if we had Southern turnip greens, which I hated, I tossed them under my dinner chair, when I thought no one was looking. But it landed on my mother’s Persian carpet. That would earn me a spanking across my father’s knees. I also was punished with a hairbrush spanking by a nurse because, jealous of my baby brother who took away the attention usually given to me, who was there first, I hit him on the head with a shoe- a baby’s shoe. But he grew up to be a brilliant man.
As we grow, our sins take on different characteristics, because obviously we have been taught by parents and priests and school teachers what rules are and what happens if we violate them. We begin to creep into society, test the negative or the behavior of others and must learn to take responsibility for our actions, so it isn’t always poor parenting, or we didn’t know better. Now maybe you think, like I do, these errors and disobediences are teaching moments like how to exist and advance in a confused and complicated world. Today there is so much horror and sex and crime and cursing and abuse in our face 24 hours a day - on TV, on portable media, cell phones, apps, in magazines and books, and even watching a halftime at a Super Bowl. We learn sin by seeing it and finding it fun or attractive.
But Sin was designed by faith. It is an act of transgression against divine law. In Old English the word means “offense, wrong-doing, misdeed.” There is no sin in Buddhism, but there is a universal moral code, like you don’t kill someone, or steal their food, or insult them, etc. To Hindus, actions that create negative karma which violate moral and ethical codes, brings negativity into life.
Islamic ethics are based on sin. They have the same familiar base as our side of the coin, both having come from the Adam and Eve event. But Islamics believe sin is an act and not a state of being. And that God will judge the good against the bad of a man on the Day of Judgement. (They don’t mention women.) They learn that if evil outweighs the good, there will be the fires of hell as a punishment.
Judaism - to them violation of any of the 613 commandments is a sin. There is no perfect man, obviously, and they believe we all have an inclination toward evil. Sins between people are more serious in Judaism than the sins between Man and God. But Leviticus allows that sin between man and God can be cleansed.
St. Augustine of Hippo said sin is a “word, deed or desire in opposition to the eternal law of God.” Now that is a huge field to cover because so many of us curse, insult, covet, harm each other, envy each other, despise others who beat us, gossip about us, envy us. We also want to know everything. Knowledge is power and gives us power. That was what happened to Eve. She wanted to know and lost all innocence.
Are we guilty of all sin? every man’s sin? How in the world can we deal with knowledge that the powers of the catholic church, that’s the basic original church men established to worship Christ, has been a screen to hide severe abuse of children by priests, bishops, cardinals- something that has been going on in the hierarchy of the church all over the world? It has ruined not only our trust of the church but the outsiders as well. For so many, it has ruined the trust of priests and Bishops. This, then, shows the effects of sin when leashed in this world and kept hidden by the most respected of Holy men who occupy it. It makes one wonder about the histories of so many saints - were they really pure and honest? were they really worthy of sainthood? What do we really know and not know?
Nelson Mandela said, “I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.” That’s an amazing quote that gives us hope.
So weekly, take time to kneel on those weak knees and confess all we can remember before Gracious God in the silence of our hearts, or in a private place of confession to a priest, who is supposed to swallow what he hears, pardon and absolve, and tell the confessor to go and sin no more. I’ve done that many times. I hope you have too. We don’t need to carry sin around like a big blister on our hearts and souls. We can get rid of the guilt, or the memory, of the “wish I hadn’t done that” in our souls. When we say our confession each Sunday at the Eucharist, we must pray it with real thought and honesty and know, even though we may not be able to remember all that week’s sin in such a short prayer, that our sins are forgiven quicker than a snap because God knows us, loves us, and will take us to his heavenly kingdom when our time on earth is done. He loves us beyond anything we can imagine. And for that I say Thank you God, and Jesus.
~ Rev
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audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
www.audreytaylorgonzalez.com
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