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“What is Sin?” -Reflections from Rev. Kathy Speas<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sin. No matter what our beliefs, that\u2019s a loaded word. Given the common association of sin with pleasure, maybe I should have titled this sermon, \u201cWhat Isn\u2019t Sin?\u201d I have never heard \u201csinfully delicious\u201d used in reference to salad greens. \u201cSin City\u201d is not a town known for its beautiful scenery.<\/p>\n Religion has been reduced to arguments over which acts are going to send us to the Fiery Place and which ones are going to win us a ticket to Cloud Nine. We want the definitive, ultimate list of Do’s and Don\u2019ts. We struggle with deeper questions: What does it mean to violate divine law? What does it mean to be separate from God? Is sin something you do, or something you are?<\/p>\n How, then, do we live to overcome sin and know God? Where do we turn to understand what sin is? The Bible? Theologians? Which theologians? Mystics? Psychologists? Our parents? Judge Judy? Who can tell us the definitive truth about what sin really is? Ancient people who spoke from visions of God in the purifyingly hot desert\u2014or modern people, who know what it means to live in today\u2019s technological world? One thing is clear: regardless of whose truth you consider about the matter, sin is here to stay. Nobody has come up with a way to live a 100% guaranteed sin-free life.<\/p>\n David\u2019s anguished lament, \u201cFor I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me, against you and you only have I sinned, and done what was evil in your sight,\u201d and Paul\u2019s frustrated comment that \u201cI do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do\u201d are more timeless and real than any list of Do\u2019s and Don\u2019ts. Somehow, though, we walk around with a vague distrust of our own God-given humanity in the name of guilt and repentance. Early desert monks sought total separation from earthly concerns by retreating to dark desert caves. Luther despaired over ever being worthy of God\u2019s grace, agonizing that no matter how hard he worked, he would never overcome sin. The fiery Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards gives us a vision of God holding humanity between his extended thumb and forefinger over a lake if fire.<\/p>\n Many Christian traditions tell us us that we are doomed from the outset, and that God\u2019s only son Jesus had to die a horrible death just for us. And even as we reject Jonathan Edwards\u2019 and others notions of sin, we still feel guilty\u2014about exercise, about choosing butter over Promise margarine, about that home improvement project we\u2019ve been putting off, about how imperfect our kids are, about our feelings about certain people. One thing is clear: regardless of whose truth you consider about the matter, sin is here to stay.<\/p>\n But on the other hand, in an effort to reclaim the humanity for which we were created in God\u2019s image, many in the postmodern world would advocate doing away with the whole notion of sin or wrongdoing altogether. God loves us all; don\u2019t worry, be happy; just try not to hurt anybody, but whatever you do is OK\u2014as long as you\u2019re not judgmental.<\/p>\n Neither view provides a satisfactory answer to the question, \u201cHow, then, shall we live, in order to know God?\u201d Either we see ourselves as sinners who can never, ever achieve the perfection demanded of us by a vengeful God, doomed to repeated failure every day, or we forget about the role of divine grace, and focus on self-development toward our own fully achievable psycho-spiritual goals instead.Swedenborg offers us a view of sin that frees us from loathing ourselves, yet holds us accountable for our lives in the eyes of God.<\/p>\n How often do we crowd our lives with tasks in the name of responsibility, <\/strong><\/p>\n and then find that we don\u2019t have time for inner peace?<\/strong><\/p>\n Like Paul, Swedenborg sees humanity as suspended in equilibrium between good and evil. Unlike Paul, Swedenborg affirms our free will to choose either path. In Swedenborgian theology, sin is the willful appropriation of evil (\u201cevil\u201d being whatever is contrary to God\u2019s creative and loving good\u2014not just Hitler-quality evil) into our intentionality, knowingly acting only for the sake of our own self-interest. We become what we do, and we shape our spirit by how we use it in our earthly life. Swedenborg sees original sin as the denial that it is God alone who can guide us to goodness. We can\u2019t get there from here if we leave God out of our plans. We succumb to the serpent when we knowingly separate ourselves from the power of God, and try to control the world and our lives as if we were the ultimate source of love and grace.<\/p>\n Swedenborg\u2019s concept of sin presumes that we are able to know and experience God, and yet act contrary to the divine order because of the motivating power of our own self-interest. It takes two to tango, us and God, and we\u2019ve got to let God lead the dance. We are caught between two notions of sin.<\/p>\n How do we know what God\u2019s creative and loving good is, when it\u2019s all mystery? How can our sensual human experience be sinful, when it is only through our senses that the presence of God is known? It is through our sensual physical natures that we know loving friendship, kindness among strangers, the beauty of sunsets and forests, the beauty of music and architecture, harmony, mercy, creativity, justice, the \u201cpeace which passeth all understanding.\u201d The list goes on and on\u2014think of all the expressions of God\u2019s love and wisdom, and then think of what it is that keeps us from manifesting these characteristics ourselves.<\/p>\n How often do we crowd our lives with tasks in the name of responsibility, and then find that we don\u2019t have time for inner peace? How often do we worry so much about the future of our fortunes that we forget all about kindness or mercy or beauty? To what degree do we feel so guilty, and expect so much of ourselves, that we stay at work instead of coming home to paint or sing or dance or love? How often do we take on more than we can handle, and weaken ourselves in the attempt to take care of everyone?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n How do we know what God\u2019s good is?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n From a Swedenborgian perspective, self-denial, guilt, worry, and workaholism are sins to the extent that they ground us in our self-interest, instead of opening us up to the love of God and our neighbor. It is not what we do, but the spirit in which we do it, that makes for sin. As Swedenborgian theologian George Dole says, \u201cThe road to Hell is not paved with good intentions, it\u2019s paved with unexamined intentions.\u201d Philanthropy can be a sin if we are generous only to get our name in the newspaper.<\/p>\n Ambition can manifest God\u2019s love if it is used in the service of faith and love. It is our task to open our hearts to God, so that our actions may make God\u2019s love visible, so that perhaps even our sins may be used by God to good ends. You can\u2019t think about sin without thinking about redemption. In Swedenborgian terms, awareness of sin begins the cycle of repentance, reformation, and regeneration. Repentance begins with wanting to know something beyond the worldly desires that trap us in a vicious cycle of \u201clooking for love in all the wrong places,\u201d as the song says. We are stung with the hot shame of realizing that we have done.<\/p>\n It is something Sin is evidence that God is reaching out to each of us to welcome as a special invitation from God to choose God over yourself! The German poet Rilke gives us the image of continuing on a path by \u201cbeing defeated by successively greater and greater opponents.\u201d The Persian poet Rumi says, \u201cAn empty mirror and your worst destructive habits, that\u2019s when the real making begins, that\u2019s what art and crafting are . . . Don\u2019t turn your head, keep looking at the bandaged place. That is where the light enters you.\u201d<\/p>\n So it is with sin. Once we have overcome one tendency to cling to our self-interest, we are faced with another, subtler temptation. Yet as we overcome greater and greater temptations, we are led to greater and greater joys. And it never ends.<\/p>\n According to Swedenborg, even the angels fall into the trap of self-interest, feel remorse, and have the chance to choose God over themselves yet again. So what is sin? You know, in your heart of hearts, exactly what sin is for you. I can\u2019t tell you what sin is, because I don\u2019t live your life, and my path to God is not your path to God. Your sins will change as God coaxes you onward to master the claim that self (sin) has on you right now. But you know what sin is. You know that you know what sin is.<\/p>\n “What is Sin?” -Reflections from Rev. Kathy Speas Sin. No matter what our beliefs, that\u2019s a loaded word. Given the common association of sin with pleasure, maybe I should have titled this sermon, \u201cWhat Isn\u2019t Sin?\u201d I have never heard \u201csinfully delicious\u201d used in reference to salad greens. \u201cSin City\u201d is not a town …<\/p>\nReformation begins with conscious attempts to act differently, to try repeatedly to be a different kind of person\u2014 someone that does divine things, not boneheaded things. Persistence in aligning our will with God\u2019s will leads us to take this renewal of life to heart, and we are regenerated as we act in harmony with God\u2019s will unconsciously, acting from faith because we love to do so, not for the material consequences. And then we recognize another sin, and the cycle begins again.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nSin and redemption, in the Swedenborgian world, are an ongoing, dynamic journey, not a destination or a state of achievement or failure. This perspective on sin offers us a way to get up each morning and strive to be, with God\u2019s grace, more aware of and able to move away from our sins than we were yesterday. We know we can only overcome sin by accepting God, and God knows we can only overcome sin by choosing another way. Regeneration is not something that God does to us, it is something God does through us.<\/div>\nLike the motion of a bicycle wheel, each cycle of repentance-reformation-regeneration moves us a little closer to having a \u201cclean heart, and a new and right spirit within us,\u201d as the Psalmist says. God is the wind; we are the sails. What a wondrous gift God has given us in our flawed humanity! Our sins\u2014what an ingenious system of inviting us toward the divine presence! We could not take the steps required to approach God if it weren\u2019t for sin.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nSin is evidence that God is reaching out to each of us, <\/strong><\/em><\/div>\nshowing us each our very own individual way to God, the way that is right for us.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nSin is the beginning of the process that leads us closer to God, if we so choose. God came to earth as Jesus to invite us to choose to be reborn in God. The urge to act from our own self-interest instead of the interest of the divine gives us the chance to choose God over and over again, sculpting our spirits as we journey in this world. Sin is not something to fear or avoid in a cave. Sin is not something over which to despair, or a source of self-loathing.<\/div>\nSo what is sin? You know, in your heart of hearts, exactly what sin is for you. I can\u2019t tell you what sin is, because I don\u2019t live your life, and my path to God is not your path to God. Your sins will change as God coaxes you onward to master the claim that self (sin) has on you right now.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u201cHeart for heart\u2019s sake\u201d<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nNo one has said it better\u2014not Paul, not Luther, not Swedenborg. What does this mean\u2014\u201cYou know better than that?\u201d And how, then, shall we live in order to know God? Again, the most succinct insight comes not from an ivory-tower theologian, but from a man I befriended who had an IQ of around 35. He asked me to explain a button I was wearing that displayed Art Linkletter\u2019s picture with the slogan \u201cArt for Art\u2019s Sake.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\nBut you know what sin is. You know that you know what sin is. Perhaps the most eloquent theological observation on sin I ever heard was from an autistic and severely developmentally challenged woman I worked with at Project Open Hand, who would repeat phrases that she had heard from her grandmother that morning. One day, she came in saying, \u201cWhat does this mean\u2014\u2018You know better than that?\u2019\u201d No one has said it better\u2014not Paul, not Luther, not Swedenborg.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWhat does this mean\u2014\u201cYou know better than that?\u201d And how, then, shall we live in order to know God? Again, the most succinct insight comes not from an ivory-tower theologian, but from a man I befriended who had an IQ of around 35. He asked me to explain a button I was wearing that displayed Art Linkletter\u2019s picture with the slogan \u201cArt for Art\u2019s Sake.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\nKnowing that someone with an IQ of 35\u00a0might not be capable of discerning irony, I merely read the slogan. And he responded, \u201cOh, heart for heart\u2019s sake.\u201d Yes.<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\nWhat is sin? \u201cYou know better than that.\u201d How do we live to overcome sin? \u201cHeart for heart\u2019s sake.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nPrayer<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\nHoly Spirit, Source of all life, we are grateful for all the ways you appear to us, <\/em><\/div>\nin the stunning epiphanies and in the small revelations.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\nWe thank you for your infinite, absolute, eternal love.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\nBe with us as we go about our days; help us to see you in the faces around us.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\nHelp us to love you with our actions and words, as well as in our hearts and minds.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\nGuide us away from our self-centered concerns and lead us into life eternal.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\nIn the name of the Risen Christ, may our sins and our failings be used in your service, and may all that is within us, not just our \u201cgood\u201d parts, bless God\u2019s holy name. <\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\nAmen.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/spiritualquesters.org\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/kathy.jpg\")
Rev. Kathy Speas is an ordained minister in the Swedenborgian Church of North America.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRev. Kathy working with physically and developmentally differently-abled people, as well as being involved at the San Francsico Swedenborgian Church. Her work has centered around justice, contemplative practice, care-giving and peace-making.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"