When my congregation voted to be an Open & Affirming congregation 10 years ago, we lost a couple of members. One member who left, when I asked him who else we should exclude, felt that we were soft on divorce (his parents had divorced, and it had scarred him badly). I told him that this would never happen, even though Jesus did ban most divorce. I believe Jesus did that to protect women, not punish them. I asked this man if we should come down harder on people who lived together without being married (something I would never, ever do!) and he felt that this wasn’t that important. My reply was that this was interesting, since both of his kids lived with someone without being married, and one was pregnant. We never spoke again, unfortunately. He was a good person.
I was trying to make a point, obviously. How we define sin is often based on our own lives, and sin to one person isn’t always sin to another. Is it always wrong to lie? Well, not if you save a life. But if it’s a false claim about a stolen election? Yes. Stealing? Not if you are starving, maybe. Making hundreds of millions of dollars? If you are a person of faith, you are expected to give a good portion to help others. If you aren’t, then no. If you aren’t generous as a person of faith, it is a sin. Killing someone? Not is self-defense or defense of another or one’s country. But not everyone agrees with that either. But Jesus said that if you were angry with someone – we assume He didn’t mean the anger that happens when someone takes your parking space – you have committed murder, at least in your heart (Matthew 5:22). Same verse goes for calling someone a fool.
The Apostle Paul listed greed as a sin on almost every sin-list he wrote about. In this country (and elsewhere), greed is considered good business. The Catholic Church tried to sort some of this out in 1854 by separating the really bad sins (mortal) from the less bad sins (venial). I think this helps a little, but the question is still complicated, isn’t it? Some churches condemn homosexuality while condoning clergy adultery. We all make excuses for some things and get really mad about others, but none of us can truly define what sin is. We can’t even agree that allowing children to marry adults is sinful! It is a difficult topic to nail down.
For me, a sin is something that injures you or others. If two consenting adults love each other, does it matter what their gender is? If someone lives a lavish lifestyle and doesn’t hurt others, shouldn’t they be allowed to do that? Maybe we could stop worrying about adults in their bedrooms and start caring about the earth, or children, or those who cannot defend themselves. Otherwise, mind your own business. Take the log out of your own eye before you try to help someone with the speck in theirs. That’s Jesus talking, not me.
Prayer – Holy God, we all really want to live in ways that You approve of. Help us to fix ourselves before we worry about others. Amen.
Today’s art is “Satan, Sin, and Death” by John Martin (1825).