Thursday, March 29, 2012

Sin: It's Not What You Think It Is


During much of this past week I've been thinking a lot about the concept of sin. I understand that sin is a concept that is clearly addressed in the Bible, but I am wondering how much that concept has been misinterpreted and misused over the past two thousand years. Traditionally the term sin has denoted wrongs committed and has been used for the purpose of condemnation and has caused the alienation of many people because of the so-called sins they have committed. So how can we look at sin differently that might help clear things up and portray scripture in a more accurate light?

Last week I discussed sin as being a symptom of a problem rather than the problem itself. What if we look at sin this week as a hurt or a pain that one experiences? One of the definitions for the Greek word typically translated as sin is "to miss the mark," or "to be without a share in." These are both things that cause a great deal of distress and pain in the person who misses the mark and is without a share in. So it is reasonable that "sin" refers to a hurt of some kind which may result in bad behavior.

I think this is a better definition because it doesn't allow for the exclusion of someone because of a sin, but instead welcomes greater love and compassion toward sinners. Defined the traditional way, sin tends to bring about criticism by people for the way a sinner might live his or her life. If you are gay you are seen as a sinner by many in the church who will then shun you. If you have had an abortion, you will be excluded from certain church groups. The pastor gets up to the pulpit on Sundays and preaches against sin, bringing about a feeling of condemnation in those who are in the pews.

Defined in this new way, sin breeds a sense of empathy from those who sense the pain of the "sinner". Instead of creating an atmosphere of exclusion, sin now brings people together because people want to help those who are in pain. When we view sin not as a wrong committed but a pain felt, it lends itself to a more loving church body that wants to bring in sinners instead of keeping them away.

This interpretation also changes how we interpret the saving act of Jesus's crucifixion. Instead of Jesus being punished for our sins, an interpretation which breeds more guilt in me than relief, Jesus bears our burdens and our pain, making what we bear a little less burdensome. This accords with the words of Scripture where Jesus tells us that his yoke is easy and his burden light, easing our burdens. It also is in tune with Isaiah 53:4, a prophetic passage about the Messiah, which reads, "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.". Not only does this prophetic passage interpret sin in the new way we have interpreted it here, but it also predicts that we would interpret sin in the traditional way in which we have by calling the crucifixion a punishment from God for our sins. It seems to me this newer way of interpreting sin is more biblical than the traditional way.

But what about those passages in the Bible where Jesus and John the Baptist are telling people to repent and turn away from their sin? Here is how that comes to be translated. The term "repent" means to turn away from one thing and towards another. What these men are saying is that I can turn away from my pain and face Jesus where I will receive comfort. When repentance is called upon by us, it is repentance from our hurts toward a man of compassion, Jesus Christ, from whom we can be healed and comforted from all of the pain that we experience in this life. Won't you repent with me and turn away from what is causing you pain, to receiving the ultimate healing from Jesus?
Blessings,
-Brandon

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Sin is A Symptom, Not the Problem


In many, if not most Christian churches today we often hear messages condemning sin and asking us to make a change in our lives. These messages are often filled with guilt-laden comments, guilting us into making a change in our lives which, because of the way the change is brought about, does not last for long and we end up deeper into our "sin" than we ever were before. Why does this phenomenon take place? It is because in the Christian church we are addressing the wrong thing when we address sin. When a person goes into the doctor with a pain, the doctor can treat the pain or look for an underlying problem. People don't normally have pain without an underlying problem. If the doctor treats the pain, the thing causing the pain might get worse and the pain might therefore get worse. In order to fix the pain, the doctor must ignore the pain and fix the underlying problem. Every sin is a symptom of an underlying problem that is going untreated in the Church. What is the underlying problem? Emotional pain.
The only reason people get involved in sin; whether it be drinking in excess, cheating on their spouse, involvement in pornography, etc., is because they are trying to self medicate. If you ask an alcoholic about their childhood they will tell you that nothing they ever did was good enough for their father. If you ask a porn addict, they will tell you they never got enough attention. What is condemnation and a guilt trip going to do to those already feeling such pain? It is going to drive them deeper into their sin. Criticizing an alcoholic for their drinking is going to make them want to medicate even more by drinking even more. Instead what the sinner needs is an increase in love. Let's take a look at what Jesus did with sinners.
The best example in the bible of Jesus's response to sinners comes in Matthew 9:9-13 where Jesus is walking along and sees a tax collector named Matthew sitting at his tax booth. Tax collectors in Jesus's day were seen in the same way as gay couples are seen today by many in the Church. Jesus did not condemn Matthew for his tax collecting. Instead, Jesus invited Matthew to follow him and even ate at his house with other tax collectors. Instead of showing condemnation, Jesus showed care and compassion by loving and accepting the tax collectors; giving them what they likely had never experienced before. The religious leaders of Jesus's day, on the other hand, did what the Church tends to do with sinners today: it condemned the "sinners" and Jesus for eating with sinners. Then Jesus gave his famous line: " it is the sick who are in need of the physician, not the healthy."
Jesus knew that sinners enter into sin because of the pain they are feeling. He knew that it was ridicule that drove them deeper into their sin. He knew that the only cure for sin for them was for him to befriend them and love them. By accepting them for who they were, Jesus helped the men and women of his day to overcome sin. The next time you see someone sinning, don't criticize them for sinning; that will only drive them deeper into their sin. Instead, empathize with the pain they must be feeling for them to be driven to sin, and show them the love and acceptance of which they are in such desperate need. And hopefully the pastors of our churches will follow our lead and end the condemnation that so often comes from their pulpits.
Sincerely,
-Brandon

Thursday, March 15, 2012

What Religion Am I?

For many of you the answer to the title question may seem obvious; you would say I am a Christian. If you had asked me a year or more ago what religion I belong to, I would have said Christian also. But I'm not sure this label fits me anymore, and let me tell you why: it is because I do not believe that Jesus himself accepted any labels for himself, and I believe that labels represent everything that Jesus was against. It creates a me-against-them mentality that Jesus was adamantly opposed too. Search in the Bible and tell me where Jesus claims a religion for himself. You can't because he doesn't. Sure, Paul labels himself a Jew, but the famous mantra is not "what would Paul do" but "what would Jesus do," and Jesus did not accept labels.

I do not want anyone to be mistaken; I believe in Jesus, I read the Bible, and I pray to God. But I am open to people of other faiths. I make no attempt to convert people from their belief to mine. How arrogant is it of me to say "I am right and you are wrong." Instead, I want to be like Jesus who accepted the Mithra worshipping Centurion who had more faith than anyone in Israel (Matthew 8:5-13). I want to be like Jesus who accepted the pagan Gentile woman with whom he had the longest dialogue in all of Scripture whose faith was so great (Matthew 15:21-28). Jesus applauded these people who worshipped a different god than he did, yet ridiculed the religious leaders of his day who belonged to his own religion.

By claiming a religion, I am doing that which Jesus worked so hard against: building boundaries. Jesus worked to tear down the boundaries that his religious group set up. His religious group set up boundaries between those who were clean and those who were unclean. Lepers could not remain in the city or have any contact with their family or friends. They were required to remain on the fringe of the city. Jesus allowed for them to reenter once he healed them. The clean were not supposed to dine with the unclean, yet that is exactly what Jesus did, and he was rebuked for it. Yet he wanted to establish that there was no boundary to be placed between the clean and unclean. Jesus overthrew the moneychangers at the Temple in Jerusalem because of the broken Temple system which created such boundaries that the farther in you go into the Temple, the less types of people were allowed in, until finally only the high priest could enter into the Holy of Holies. It was upon Jesus's death that the curtain of the temple was torn, thus tearing down the final boundary that was established by the Jews between humankind and God.

Now, think about the kind of boundaries one is setting up by calling themselves Christian. They are placing themselves in a position opposing other groups, such as Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists. The immediate connotation that enters the head of one who hears that someone else is a Christian is, "oh, he/she thinks they are right and I am wrong." Immediately there is a sense that that person has that he/she needs to defend him/herself. One then turns to think of all of the cruelty that has been done in the name of Christianity. It is rare anymore for a non-Christian to hear the label "Christian" and think in positive terms. Instead the term works to build walls instead of bridges. To conclude, I do not know what to call myself, but I can no longer call myself a Christian. I do not deny Jesus the Christ. What I do denounce is this label which has become a term not of respect, but of derision.
Sincerely,
-Brandon

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Would Jesus Be Welcome in the Church?


The title question of this post is based off of an interview with Rick Warren done recently in his News and Views Blog where the Senior Pastor of Saddleback Church and author of A Purpose Driven Life defends against attacks from those who are saying he has compromised his faith recently because of eating with a group of Muslims after Ramadan ended. The attacks claim that Rick Warren is sacrificing his Christian faith by eating with the Muslims which is a sign of collaborating with them to form a new church. Rick Warren simply calls it "being a good neighbor." He goes on to question whether Jesus would even be allowed in some of these churches which protest so strongly against actions that even Jesus himself might be caught doing. So the questions arises: "would Jesus be welcome in the Church today?"

If a Christian today who is seen eating with Muslims is said to be compromising his faith, then it certainly seems like Jesus would be considered by those same believers also to be compromising his faith when he eats with tax collectors and prostitutes. If association with a particular group that one considers to be antithetical to Christianity makes one less of a Christian, than certainly Jesus fits that bill.

We can look even further and see how the behavior of Christians that go to bars is viewed. My Senior Pastor's son was killed three and a half years ago outside of a local bar. Many people were stunned by the brutality and raged against this heinous crime. Unfortunately some could not get passed the fact that a pastor's son was at a bar. The issue of the evil of the attack didn't even come to bare in this situation for those who questioned the integrity of this "supposed Christian." But wouldn't Jesus go to the bar today? He sat and visited with people that were seen as the vilest scum of the earth, like the Samaritan woman, or the Gerasene demoniac who could only find solace among the tombstones. Why not say that Jesus would also visit bars and prisons on a regular basis. I can imagine Jesus going down to skid row and death row. I can see him hanging out with the crips and the bloods. These are today's versions of the people we see Jesus hanging out with in the Bible. And yet if any of us were found with these types of people, we would immediately be seen as backsliders and expelled from the church.

The moment a Christian becomes accepting of homosexuality and speaking up for gay rights, that person is immediately singled out in the church as a heretic and made to leave. Do Christians not see and understand that their behavior matches exactly the behavior for which Jesus so adamantly criticized the religious leaders of his day. Among those religious leaders Jesus was seen to be a drunkard, a reveler, a rioter, and someone who laughed too much. He was the life of the party. And he certainly would not have been welcomed in the Church today. He would have been viewed as a heretic and a backslider. This is certainly something to think about the next time we begin to criticize someone for their "anti-Christian behavior."
Blessings,
-Brandon

Monday, March 5, 2012

What Did Jesus Do?

I realize that I have been absent for quite some time, and to my faithful followers I do apologize. In the time I have been absent I have been busy with other endeavors, one of which includes the book I have been working on and have since completed. I am currently trying to format my book to publish via iBooks Author for the Apple iPad. I intend during this time to continue to write articles for this site and will be happy to answer any questions and comments that you may have. Thank you for your kindness and devotion in following my blog.
Sincerely,
-Brandon