Sermons

Sun, Jun 28, 2020

Slavery and seduction

Series:Sermons
Duration:13 mins

Cold, blustery, biting winds…

grey skies and short days…

bucketing rain…

and icy frosts––

winter is well and truly upon us!

And, of course, with winter’s arrival comes the inevitable host of colds and flu’s––

although with all of our increased hand sanitation…

wearing of masks…

and social distancing…

the incidence could well be much less this winter.

But, when I was growing up, come winter-time…

and especially if there was the slightest hint of a runny nose or sore throat…

out came the Vitamin C––

both tablets and extra glasses of orange juice.

Because, as everyone knows, Vitamin C helps ward off colds.

But does it?

Well, not really.

At least, not according to an extensive body of medical research.

There is no correlation between Vitamin C intake and the incidence of colds––

that is, taking it doesn’t prevent a cold.

There has been no consistently demonstrable effect on the duration or severity of a cold…

when taken after the onset of symptoms.

Taking Vitamin C prophylactically has been shown to reduce the duration of cold symptoms…

but only in people exposed to short periods of extreme physical stress––

like marathon runners––

and only those undertaking such strenuous activities in cold environments.

Vitamin C, of course, is necessary to prevent scurvy.

It may have some effect in lowering the incidence of gout.

It’s useful, at least in cats and dogs, in treating urinary tract infections…

and preventing or treating certain types of kidney or bladder stones.

It helps with the absorption of iron supplements;

and it may help reduce the risk of having a stroke.

But the conventional wisdom that Vitamin C helps us fight colds is false.

 

Isn’t that often the case with conventional wisdom––

so many of the things that we believe to be true…

so many of the things that we assume to be true… 

are, in fact, not true?

The examples, throughout history, are legion:

the earth is flat;

the earth is the centre of the solar system;

humans will never fly…

and they will never land on the moon;

there will never be more than a niche market for computers.

And nowhere, perhaps, do we find this problem of conventional wisdom more than in regards to religion.

Religious beliefs are often the most impervious to challenge and change.

For example, even when the evidence for the big-bang origin of the universe––

and for the evolution of the species–– 

is overwhelming…

and biblical scholars have demonstrated the creation stories to be thoroughly mythological…

many people still cling to a literalistic reading and a simplistic understanding.

Conventional wisdom––

especially in the realm of religion––

dies hard.

And perhaps we see this most… 

in the case of what are considered to be the central and fundamental beliefs…

within the Christian tradition…

namely…

beliefs about heaven and hell…

sin and salvation.

I have touched on…

deconstructed…

and, in some cases, reconstructed a number of those ideas over the years––

both in preaching and in pastorals.

But it’s been a while since I tackled the concept of ‘sin’.

So, let’s have a look at that this morning.

 

Within the Christian tradition ‘sin’ is often taken as the root cause of humanity’s problem.

‘Sin’––

usually understood as disobeying God or transgressing God’s rules––

is a problem that needs to be solved…

but it’s not one that we can solve ourselves.

That’s why––

as the argument usually goes––

Jesus died in our place…

and paid the penalty that we deserved…

in order that we could be forgiven…

put right with God…

and go to heaven.

As I have suggested many times before… 

such a theology perverts the nature of God…

and it misunderstands what was happening on and through the cross of Christ.

When ‘sin’ is understood as disobedience––

or a breaking of rules––

it turns God into a stern, angry, and vengeful judge.

Such an idea is at the heart of so much bad theology…

and it underpins the heretical…

and often unspoken assumption… 

that we need to earn God’s approval.

More than that… 

it doesn’t gel at all with what Paul says in our reading this morning from Romans.

‘Sin’…

here…

is not some lapse or failure or breach of a divine moral code.

Nor, in Paul’s thought, is it something inherent to the human condition.

There’s no notion, here of “original sin”­­––

a dogma that we do not find in the tradition before Augustine in the fourth century;

and an idea that’s completely foreign to Jewish thought.

Instead, Paul speaks here of ‘sin’ in a personified way.

‘Sin’ is set up as a ‘being’ in contradistinction to God––

indeed, as God’s rival.

No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God”.

In other words, what he is saying… 

is that ‘sin’ is a force or a power that influences our lives.

Indeed, it’s a force or a power that controls our lives…

much like an ancient master controlled the lives of his slaves.

Now, granted… 

that’s not an image or a metaphor that sits well with us in the modern world;

but it made sense in Paul’s world.

What Paul suggests that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus accomplished…

was to free us from bondage to this master…

in order that we might serve a new master.

And, in serving a new master…

he expects that we would seek to live out the values and nature of our new master:

living lives of goodness…

mercy…

justice…

and love––

because that’s what he means when he speaks of “righteousness”.

 

What Paul presents here is a fundamentally different way of looking at ‘sin’––

compared to what we’re used to.

If ‘sin’ is understood as some external force––

as something that corrupts us and seeks to control us––

then, in many ways…

‘sin’ is really a seductive, systemic evil.

Translating that for us, today, Paul is saying that…

in a world of gross inequality… 

of a disparate distribution of resources…

of poverty and starvation––

‘sin’ is being seduced by selfish materialism and consumerism…

and exploiting the expendable for the sake of our comfort and complacency;

in a world with rising seas…

melting ice caps…

and changing climate––

‘sin’ is being deluded into doing nothing or pretending that the problems don’t exist;

in a society that demonises and harshly punishes those escaping danger and tyranny––

‘sin’ is giving in to xenophobia and racism…

treating vulnerable people as political punching-bags…

and sentencing them to indefinite detention under inhumane conditions…

or illegally sending them back to be tortured and killed.

‘Sin’, for Paul, is being sucked in by evil––

and not recognising it for what it is.

 

Thus, Paul urges his readers––

and us––

not to give in to it…

not to go along with it…

not to allow ourselves to come under its influence or sway.

Paul urges his readers––

and us––

not to fall back into old habits and old ways…

not to be complicit with evil…

and not to give in to the temptation to side with the forces of death and destruction…

and with all that is not ultimately of God.

From such things, we still need forgiveness.

From such things, we still need to be set free.

 

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