Thank God We're Sinners?

23 Pentecost, Cp25, October 27, 2013

Joel 2:23-32 Ps. 67

2 Tim. 4:6 8,18    Luke 18:9 14  

Lectionary Link

   We can be led to some very bad conclusions and even bias from reading some good things in the Bible, and in the Gospels, or even from the words of Jesus.

   Jesus told a parable to some people whom he perceived to be treating others with contempt.  And in this parable there were two people who went to the Temple to pray.  A Pharisee offered thanks that he was not like the poor tax collector.  And the poor tax collector simply beat his breast and said,  "Lord, have mercy on me a sinner."

  One of the wrong conclusions that we can reach about this parable of Jesus is “All Pharisees were shallow hypocrites.”  We have essentially adopted in common language a pejorative use of the word Pharisee.  In ordinary English language if someone calls you a Pharisee, it is meant to judge you as a low down hypocrite of the highest order.

  This is a wrong reading of the words of Jesus and a wrong judgment on the Pharisees.  It is like saying because I’ve had unfortunate interaction with five Episcopalians, all Episcopalians are bad and if I call you an Episcopalian I am not giving you a compliment.

  We also can read the Bible and the Gospels for the purpose of locating people whom we think are the real sinners.

  I think that the parable of Jesus about the Pharisee and the tax collector is basically about the judgmental attitudes that I might have if I  live as though my social class training is better than the background of someone else.  The parable of Jesus is told to show us that sin is not a matter of association with a class of people; sin is a very positive notion if it is understood with the attitude of knowing moral direction and orientation in life.   Sin and being a sinner are very important insights in the teaching of Jesus.  Knowing about sin and being a sinner are important personal insights which everyone needs to have.

  We get the impression from some preaching that the Bible is all about God convincing us about how bad we are as sinners so that we can really appreciate how good God is in offering us forgiveness and grace.

  The attitude of knowing that one is a sinner and that one has sinned is a most important insight in life.  In fact, it is a very positive insight in life.

  What Jesus criticized was the notion of goodness that is believe to have been attained by pedigree, nature, hard work and merit.

  I am better than you because of the pedigree of my family.  I come from an important family, therefore I am important.  This pedigree could be defined as being a Pharisee, an Episcopalian, a Baptist or a Blue Blood.  I have the breeding for goodness.  It’s in my nature to be good and better than people who were not born as good as I was born.

  I am better than you because I am smarter and I work harder than you.  So by my merits, by my work and study, I am in a position to make comparative judgments on others who are not as smart and who have not worked as hard as I have.

  The problem with this kind of thinking is that if we think in this way we can always be subject to the same judgments of people who think that they are better than us by pedigree, nature, hard work and merit.

  So this kind of thinking only encourages endless comparisons.  This kind of thinking does not get at what is needed in learning the art of living well.

  So how do we learn to live well?  We first learn from Jesus about the positive notion of sin and the positive vocation of sinning.

  If we cannot help but sin because it is unavoidable then we must begin to believe that God has given us sinning as an important vocation in life.

   How can sinning be an important vocation in life?

   The Greek word for sin comes from archery and it means missing the target.  We are on the archery range or we’re hunting with bow and arrow, we shoot and we miss.

  In the Greek language, the archer would say in the English translation, “Oh no, I sinned.”

  Missing targets in archery only means we missed to try again.  We retrieve the arrows and we keep on shooting.

  And herein is the positive notion of sin.  In our lives we keep on, keeping on at shooting for the perfect.  And sometimes we get close but we always miss the mark because there is always another future shot to take.  We may have come to approximate love and justice in significant ways today and yet because there is a tomorrow, we cannot rest on our laurels nor can we judge the archery of others.  We cannot judge the sin life of others.

  The positive notion of sin as propounded by Jesus is that each of us has our own targets based upon our own situations.

  The tax collector in his situation had a different target of excellence than did the proverbial Pharisee.  The Pharisee, instead of looking at his next target of excellence, took a pot shot at the tax collector for “not being in the same archery class as he was in.

  And this is the second positive insight that we can take from this parable of Jesus.  Sin is not about comparing my life with yours.  Sin is about comparing my life now with what my life will be in a future state.  The question is not whether I will ever be able to say or know whether I am better or worse than you;  but will I be able to say that I surpassed myself in a future state?

  In the positive notion of sin offered to us by Jesus, we are not allowed to compare ourselves with others, we are to accept our own path and we are to look to be better today than yesterday and better tomorrow than we are today.

   The positive notion of sin and being a sinner is to avoid comparison and to be on the path of having oneself in a future state be the only person in one's comparison.

  So indeed this makes sin and righteous relative and adaptable to the life situation of each person.  The Pharisee of the parable is one who had lost sight of the target.  And what is the target?  It is found in the words of Jesus when he said, “Be perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect.”  If we know that the unreachable is the target then we are always aware of the moral direction and we know that we always need mercy.

  So let us embrace this positive notion of sinner and sin.

  Welcome to the Episcopal Church.  A place where you can know that being a sinner is a very positive notion.

  Let us embrace this positive notion of sin today.  I do not know what targets you have been shooting at in your lives; your targets are different than mine.  But we are here today to encourage each other in mercy and forgiveness and wish each other well in the effort to surpass ourselves in excellence in future states.   We need mercy and forgiveness to tolerate ourselves until we get to where we think we need to be in excellence.  And may God grant us the sense of being justified through the experience of God’s mercy.  We are justified by having the attitude of knowing that we need mercy.  And this is the positive insight about sin and being sinners.

   We do not judge a child for not having adult knowledge and experience; we hope to mentor them in surpassing themselves daily in the path of knowledge and more experience.  From the wisdom of Jesus we can learn that this is how a loving God mentors each of us in the individual circumstances of our life experience as we grow in excellence.  We hope for excellence.  We hope for what we do not yet have in excellence and we accept mercy for not having it yet.

  Sin is mainly positive; it is only negative when we willing give up the quest for excellence or when we believe our targets of excellent should be other people’s specific targets too.

  Let us embrace the positive notion of sin and mercy as healthy attitudes to have in our lives today.  Amen.