January 2008
As I write this, Christmas is fast approaching and life is a blur with all the activity and things that still need to get done before Christmas arrives. As you read this, all that hustle and bustle has settled down and for the moment we can stop and catch our breath. And this much needed break seems to have come in just the nick of time.
Though I sit down at the keyboard of my computer to write this, there is a thought that I just can’t seem to get out of my head; it’s been nagging me for days. I had a person tell me recently – in a very matter-of –fact sort of way – that “Nobody believes in sin anymore”.
That statement struck me as odd at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I began to see the truth in what they were saying; a lot of people don’t believe in sin anymore. They may talk about sin – in a philosophical sort of way, but as a society, we don’t take sin seriously. As a pastor, it’s hard to understand how people could take sin so lightly, but then again, most people don’t find themselves having to deal with the consequences sin brings into peoples’ lives on a day to day basis.
After lying awake at night thinking about this, I believe that this issue really goes deeper than that. One primary factor is our American culture’s movement away from personal responsibility. How many times have you heard, “It’s not my fault” or “He made me do it”? We have been told time and time again that we’re not responsible for their own actions – that what we do is a product of our past experiences that have shaped our response to various situations we encounter in this thing called life.
Granted, there is evidence, for example, that abuse is frequently passed from one generation to the next, but we don’t grow up to become serial killers simply because we were spanked as a child. That may be a bit extreme, but my point is that we can’t assume a blanket cause and effect with everything in life. Abused children often grow up to be perfectly good, non-abusive parents.
The fact of the matter is that we each have the God given gift of Free Will. We always have a choice; even if we refuse to make that choice, we have, in essence, have already made it. Regardless of how big or small those choices are, the responsibility and consequences of those choices ultimately fall on our shoulders. That’s true regardless of the situation; be it a mass murder with his finger on the trigger or someone walking by the bucket of a Salvation Army bell ringer.
So what is sin? Wesley defined it as a willful disobedience of a known law of God; be it doing something we know we shouldn’t do or not doing something we know we should. Wesley’s definition is dependent on the specific guidance provided to us through the scriptures. Jesus summed the law up with two simple yet all encompassing commands for us to follow: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself. You see, it’s all about relationship; our relationship with God and our relationship with each other. Our moral compass, to function correctly and effectively, needs the guidance of God’s word to help us understand what those relationships are supposed to look like. It guides us, with the help of God’s Holy Spirit within us, to become what God created us to be; not necessarily all at once, but one step- one little adjustment – at a time.
Apart from God’s word and direction, we begin to define our own moral standards. It becomes a matter of what we believe; truth, especially God’s truth becomes relative. We begin to compare our “moral goodness” with others around us. We begin to say things like “I may not be perfect, but at least I’m better than he or she is” or “I’m a good person, God’s got to give me credit for that…” or “Everybody’s doing it, why shouldn’t I?” or “Maybe I shouldn’t have done that, but I have my reasons”… We drift away from God and don’t even realize that we’re off course. We can’t see that our moral compasses have become broken and unreliable. We think our compass is leading us along the safe course that God has set before us, but in reality we’re drifting toward the rocks and utter destruction. What’s sad is how often people don’t even realize it until it’s too late.
We need to stand firm in God’s truth. God is not some killjoy who limits us with rules to follow so that we can’t have any fun. God’s word is what defines us and sets us free. God’s word empowers us to become all that God intended us to be. Sin limits us. Sin holds us back and separates us from the fullness and richness of God’s love for us. That’s something we can’t understand without having experienced it. The early Christians understood and were willing even to die for it.
If you feel the need to compare yourself to someone else, compare yourself to Christ Jesus. In him not only we are humbled by realizing how short we fall from the mark that God has set for us, but through Christ we also find forgiveness and restoration and hope and in him we see our potential to be all that God created us to be.
And if you feel the need to make a resolution this New Year, let it be to recognize sin for what it is and commit yourself to Christ completely; with reckless abandon. Step into the great adventure that God has in store for all those who are willing to be all that you can be; all that you were meant to be… Because once you do, you’ll never look back and you’ll wonder why you ever waited so long…
Have a blessed New Year.
Grace and Peace, The Rev. Rob Hughes
Links to other sites on the Web
Read other letters in our Archivies from Pastor Rob
Read other letters in our Archivies from your friend Pastor
John
Home Page
Keep checking back for updates. Thanks.
Special thanks for music go to THE CYBER HYMNAL
© 1997
O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing