Church of the Holy City

A Positive View of Sin

A Positive View of Sin
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
September 7, 2014

Ezekiel 33:10-16 Matthew 18:15-20 Psalm 119:33-41

Our Bible readings today bring up the topic of sin. In Ezekiel, God tells the Israelites to turn from their “evil ways” and live. And in our reading from Matthew we have the awkward situation of a person reproving their friend for a sin they have committed against him or her. The subject of sin is not a popular one. No one likes to hear about it. But all through the Bible the subject comes up. And most theologians have something to say about sin. So it’s not a subject we can just ignore.
But neither do we want to become obsessed with it. People have told me that when we pay attention to something we give it power. And dwelling on the subject of sin gives sin power. Better, they say, to dwell on good things and give them power.
And, in fact, there is a positive side to sin. The subject of sin is actually the subject of change. Change for the better. And I think that changing for the better is a positive thing to give our efforts to.
Plato said that the unexamined life is not worth living. I take this to mean that if we don’t examine our lives, we will continue to make the same mistakes and continue to get the same unhappy results. And by the same token, if we don’t examine our lives, we will not see the good things that we do, and make an effort to stay the course on these things. If we don’t examine our lives, we will blunder along doing what we learned in early life whether it is healthy or unhealthy.
The real issue here is love. Are we giving love and are we receiving love? Are we receiving love from God? Are we feeling love from our neighbors? Are we showing love? And are we loving effectively? My understanding of sin is this: Sin is what blocks the giving and receiving of love. Put that way, who wouldn’t want to be concerned with the subject of sin?
Today we have different words for sin. Psychology has a language of its own to talk about positive change. Some 12-step groups talk about coping mechanisms that a person learns in childhood that are no longer effective in adulthood. These groups talk about undergoing a rigorous moral inventory of unhealthy coping strategies and healthy ones. They talk about doing this with another person so that we don’t overburden ourselves with guilt and so that we find reasonable ways to make change. The goal of these programs is loving effectively. The goal is discarding or outgrowing ways of living that are manipulative, self-defeating, and neurotic. Upon outgrowing these maladaptive ways of living, one grows into healthy ways of relating to one’s neighbors. One lives a loving and sane way of life.
These programs wisely speak of real change taking a long time. They speak of progress, not perfection. As one friend put it to me, “I didn’t get sick over night, and I won’t get well over night.” This understanding of rebirth, or well-being is in accord with the teachings of this church. For us, salvation is nothing other than growing into deeper and deeper love. And we understand this process as occurring by overcoming whatever blocks the inflow of love from God. What blocks the inflow of love from God is called sin. And reprogramming ourselves to receive God’s love is called reformation and regeneration. Another way of saying this is being re-born and made anew.
As with 12-step programs, this church sees regeneration as happening over a long period of time. Over a whole lifetime and even into the next life. The person we have become through our upbringing and adaption to this world needs to be rebuilt and reformed through spiritual education and discipline. Swedenborg compares this process to the building, the tearing down, and the rebuilding of a house:
Who that yet has sound understanding, cannot conclude from this that such things cannot be done in a moment, but successively, as a person is conceived, carried in the womb, born and educated . . .? For the things of the flesh or the old man are inherent in him from birth, and they build the first habitation of his mind, in which lusts abide . . . , and they dwell first in the outer courts, and by turns they steal as it were into the the lower rooms of that house, and afterward make their way up by ladders, and form chambers for themselves; and this is done successively, as the infant grows, reaches childhood, then youth, and then begins to think from his own understanding, and to act from his own will. Who does not see that this house which has been thus far built in the mind, in which lusts dance with joined hands . . . cannot be destroyed in a moment, and a new house built in place of it? Must not the lusts . . . be themselves first removed, and new desires which are of good and truth be introduced in the place of the lusts of evil and falsity? (TCR 611).
Paul agrees. He speaks of putting to death the sins of the flesh and living by the Spirit. So in Romans 8:12-13, Paul writes,
So then brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh–for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.
Paul expands this idea in Galatians, linking life in the Spirit to love. Living in Christ’s Spirit is living in love. And as we said above, sin, lust, and living according to the flesh are what interfere with the life of Christ’s love:
For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” . . . But i say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. . . . Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5:13-24).
So the whole notion of sin turns around loving. The whole process of recognition of sin and turning from it is to become more loving. It’s all about the kind of person we are. It’s not about God writing a book and checking it twice as to what bad we have done and what good we have done and seeing how the two balance out. No it’s only about who we are now. We don’t get points for being good in the past. And we don’t get demerits for being bad in the past. I think Ezekiel is remarkable in this and really progressive. He says,
If I tell the righteous man that he will surely live, but then he trusts in his righteousness and does evil, none of the righteous things he has done will be remembered; . . . And if I say to the wicked man, “You will surely die,” but he turns away from his sin and does what is just and right . . . follows the decrees that give life, and does no evil, he will surely live; he will not die. None of the sins he has committed will be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he will surely live (Ezekiel 33:13, 14, 15-16).
This isn’t too hard to do. God tells us in Deuteronomy that choosing what is good is not beyond us, and not a far off ideal beyond our abilities
“For this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it (Deuteronomy 30:11-14).
And Swedenborg concurs. He tells us,
It is not so difficult to live the life that leads to heaven as it is believed. . . . That it is not so difficult to live the life of heaven as is believed, is evident from this, that it is only necessary for a person to think, when anything presents itself to him which he knows to be insincere and unjust and to which he is inclined, that it ought not to be done because it is contrary to Divine precepts. If a person accustoms himself to so think, and from so accustoming himself acquires a habit, he then by degrees is conjoined with heaven; and so far as he is conjoined with heaven, the higher regions of his mind are opened; and so far as these are opened, he sees what is insincere and unjust; and so far as he sees these evils, so far they can be shaken off–for no evil can be shaken off until it is seen. . . . But when he has a beginning, then the Lord quickens all that is good in him, and causes him not only to see evils as evils, but also not to will them, and finally to be averse to them. This is meant by the Lord’s words, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matt. xi. 30) (HH 533).
We will be better off, more loving, and happier as we grow spiritually. I think that is a positive view of sin.

PRAYER

Lord, we are aware of our fallenness. We know that we sometimes stray from your precepts. And yet we know that you are always with us, leading us back to you. We thank you for your constant love. We thank you for your constant efforts to save, to bring to you, and into heaven’s joys. We know that you do not keep a record of wrongs. We know that you see only the good in us. And you nurture that good while always planting new good and higher love in our souls. Thank you for your everlasting salvation.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Comfort their family and friends. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.