Sin

I can see eyes glazing over already. Sin, what an outmoded, irrelevant, strange word and title; who wants to talk about that. Well, pastors, like myself have been talking about it for years in varying ways.

People today are interested in spirituality and even in religion, but not in the same way we have talked about those ideas in previous generations, as a matter a fact, the idea of spirituality is foreign to many older folk.

But back to sin; I think I am starting to redefine my concept of sin. To put my theological cards on the table I am a hardcore Calvinist, one who affirms the basic theology and beliefs of John Calvin and the tenants of reformed faith. One of those beliefs is total depravity, meaning the human inclination is to do evil (not bad that is another concept); evil being, not what God’s wants. And in describing how that works I have often taught confirmands (those studying for adult church membership) that evil, sin is basically pride and selfishness, putting yourself of others ahead of God; hubris is a good if not out of date description. It is not a perfect definition but generally got across what I wanted to say.

Now back to spirituality as a way of seeing ourselves having some type of significant relationship with the divine; intimate and having to do with a fuller sense of self. In our culture we have grown used to describing ourselves in terms of our genetics, our social milieu, our economic position, are racial and ethnic heritage, our political affiliations, our communities or region, our pet preference, whether you prefer tea or coffee or soda and the like.

But more and more people are beginning to reflect of their spirituality as they seek to understand who they are. And, if I am connected to the divine or deity what is that relationship like and how does it affect my daily life.

My belief is that we are all children of God, also the brothers and sisters of God; intimate members of the divine family and that is the center of our identity; those things that distract us from that reality is/are sin. Bear in mind as I am writing this cats are attempting to walk across my keyboard and I am trying to watch This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Distractions.

We have a tendency to see sin, evil as bad terms rather than just descriptive terms. Christians have done a marvelous job of this illusion by trying to scare folk into believing in God with the punishment of sin resulting in eternal damnation. Sick. I don’t believe God, the divine wants anyone in eternal damnation, I don’t believe in hell, and any punishment we receive is due to our own actions or by accident. I believe God wants a full abundant life for everyone.

We live in a world of distractions, we are the choice making generation, where I mentioned before we have 82,000 choices of coffee if we go into Starbucks. Also the media pretty much ignores the spiritual aspects of life. But that does not mean that folk do not think about their spirituality quite a bit. Who am I? With all these distractions it is hard to answer the ultimate questions of identity and what meaning we have in life. And most folk do not have the vocabulary to talk easily about these issues.

This is indeed the post-Christian and perhaps the post-religious age but it is not the post-spiritual age. But all those distractions, the sins, keep us from focusing upon the most important relationships we have in life.

Yet I remain convinced that the Divine will not leave us alone any more than a loving father or mother or sister or brother can leave us alone. Indeed we may be living in a time of new revival or awakening.

My great thanks to Diana Butler Bass and her new book Christianity After Religion: the End of Church and the Birth of the New Spiritual Awakening. I am about half way (58% according to my Kindle) through this marvelous book and it certainly has stimulated my thinking.