Service Sunday: conversations about sin

I am listening, as we all do. I like this community- this oneness. I hear their collective sighs as they come to understand each other or hear the truth said. The tension that builds as we wait patiently for the words to come out. Sometimes the words strangle in the throat and fight to stay trapped. But they long to hear. I long to hear too. We are all trying to understand, trying to grasp this Oneness of Him. The words come and we sit and think. “Is that it? Do I think that too? What is the Truth?” Because all men lie but He doesn't.

“Say more...” Is a common request when they want to hear more. They want to understand better or maybe they agree and want to hear it said in your words. So he asks, this shepherd trying to hear what the flock heard.

I have thought a lot about what all was said. The words I scrawled to remember.

“Sin can be our way back to God.”

“Is sin our only way back to God?”

hmm... I think I remember some words written about that. I write that down. I want to look at that again. Who was that?

“What is sin?”

“...disbelief about the goodness of God...” those words bring that sigh within me and more thoughts.

“What happens when we sin?”

I know this only to well, so I blurt it out. “Separation. Separation of relationships, relationships with God and others.”

“What did Jesus do about sin when he encountered it?”

 We all know what he did with the religious who were seeped in pride. But what about those guys that He broke bread with... What would He do with my neighbor? My kids? What about me? All this filth that we can not be free of. What of that? I write that down too.

We read Lewis' words about not being surprised and how God is rebuilding our houses. He isn't just fixing the roof or the drain and making us into a cottage. He is busting out walls and building a mansion. I think I remember more that Lewis wrote. I find it in his book, Mere Christianity.

“I do mean that wickedness, when you examine it, turns out to be the pursuit of some good in the wrong way.” -Lewis

I think about that, I really like to do that.

My sins are my way back to God. Every sin I carry and wrestle with are all about that broken relationship with Him. I take what He says was good and I distort it with my lack of trust in Him. I reject it or want more of it. I am never satisfied, never content to accept on His terms. I hold that fist up and want my way. And each time I acknowledge that with penitent heart, I find Him there. What Amazing Grace. It is a good thing He is God. We are a wreck... can you imagine if we were in charge.

So I think about the last question. “What is possible to the believer but impossible to unbelievers?”

They seem quite capable to love their neighbor, do good, stay in marriages, raise good kids. I wait, almost worried. Do we have anything else to offer? And then our shepherd and fellow traveler says what Jesus did and what He calls us to do.

“...delight and reveal the Father in every circumstance...”

I think of Him and the path He blazed for us. I want to do that. I want to crawl back each and every time and shine the light on Him. Delight and reveal... what if we Christians pursued that? What if I pursued that?