What is a Sinner?
Sermon Given Sept. 11, 2022
Texts: Exodus 32:7-14, Luke 15:1-10
What is a sinner? Honestly, I’m not sure I like the word sinner. Not because of what it means, but of how it gets used in our culture today. According to many people, I am a notorious sinner. Not because of things that I do that seek my own will above God’s, but because of how I care for myself and whom I love. Sinner has become almost another way to say LGBTQ in some contexts. It’s so often sexualized. Sometimes the word sinner is slapped on someone facing abuse or recovering from trauma. Questions get asked: Did this person do something to deserve their pain? Have they forgiven their abuser or found peace with their trauma because if not, are they a sinner for still being hurt?
We can slap the label sinner on seemingly whomever we want. We’re all sinners, so it should be universalized, but it gets used as a label of control, a way to keep certain people at a distance, to not engage with “someone like that”. We do need boundaries in communities. Acts that endanger and cause harm to others are wrong, we can’t endorse them. We stand up against abuse of all kinds and anything that does not respect the dignity of human beings. For example, all adults who work with kids get background checked and trained in sexual abuse prevention. No one who is convicted of a serious crime is going to help out with children’s ministry. That is a boundary of protection. But I rarely see the term sinner used when talking about people who have abused others or committed violent crimes. I see it used more for people who reject certain teachings that don't fit the person’s understanding of who they are in relation to God, if they even believe in God at all.
Here’s where I find our Book of Common Prayer quite helpful in breaking down the term sinner. We aren’t a confessional church, we don’t have a lot of specific teachings that we are asked to ascribe to. We are creedal, so we ascribe to basic beliefs, found in the Apostle’s Creed, which we say together at Morning and Evening Prayer as well as baptisms, and the Nicene Creed, which we’ll say together after this sermon, but even how you interpret the creeds is open to debate. Our tradition is purposely designed to hold a multiplicity of views in one praying community. We give broad answers to questions, we don’t write theological statements that we then ask all in the community to ascribe to. But we do have an outline of the faith, commonly called a catechism. It’s a brief little 17 page question and answer section based on the creeds used for instruction and to help guide instruction in the faith. Even in the intro to the catechism it is emphasized that this is an outline for instruction, not a complete statement of belief and practice. It’s meant to open up discussion, not give bullet point answers. In this catechism, we receive a definition of sin. It states, “Sin is the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God, thus distorting our relationship with God, with other people, and with all creation.”
Sin is that which distorts our relationships. So what do we find distorting our relationship with God, other people, and all creation?
Within our reading from Genesis, we see a very clear distortion. The people have made an image of God within the golden calf, wanting to define God, to limit God, to make God in their own image. The people tried to turn a God with an unspeakable name, who was mightier than anything else in the universe, into a golden calf they could tame and tuck away into a shrine. They limited God because a limitless God, the one in the fiery and fierce clouds talking to Moses on Mount Sinai scared them too much. They wanted something smaller and less powerful than the God they had.
In our Gospel lesson we see a multiplicity of distortions. The Pharisees and legal experts, those who are leading houses of worship, don’t rejoice that those who are sinful are eating with Jesus. They don’t experience the kind of joy that Jesus says happens in heaven at the repentance of a sinner. They grumble. They complain. Their view of God and their relationship to God is distorted. They are sinners just as much as the people Jesus ate with.
Also, we tend to focus a lot on the one sheep that wandered away, but what about the other ninety-nine? Why did they allow this sheep to wander away? Sheep are almost always with other sheep. They have close bonds and are very communal animals. The herd is their primary means of protection. It’s dangerous to go it alone. I have to think that at least one other sheep saw the sheep wandering away, getting lost. Why did they not try to alert that sheep or others? Where were the others when this sheep was in need?
How did the herd respond when the lost one was brought back into its fold. Was the lost sheep embraced or rejected? Did they rejoice and work to protect the lost sheep? There was distortion of relationship in this community, not just with the lost sheep, but potentially with the entire herd. Something is wrong with this picture, and it’s not just with the one lost sheep. There is a glimpse here into the nature of communal sin.
Finally, we see a true description of God, something that involves no distortion when we look at the parable of the woman with the lost coin. I don’t think this is really as much about sin as it is about God for one simple reason: coins aren’t living creatures. Coins cannot be sinful, they just are. So the parable is not about a sinful coin that repents. It’s about the heart of God, searching and reaching for what is lost. God feels when something is wrong, when something has gone astray. God does not control everything, just like the woman does not immediately know where the missing coin is. But God works and searches and asks for our help so that when one person is lost, one who is precious and beloved to God, they can return. God throws a huge party each time someone experiences healing, love, and a renewal of life.
We are called to celebrate each other just like God celebrates us. While we don’t create repentance, we can’t manufacture a change of heart and life for another, we can help create places of safety, of openness and the freedom to question in order to help others. We can help alleviate distortions and talk about what it means to be in relationship with God, others, and the world.
But how do we know what all those distortions are? Some are obvious, but some are subtle. They can be a part of our communal dynamics. Just like the other ninety-nine sheep may have a distorted view of each other, we may have distorted views in our own relational dynamics. This is why it’s so important for us as people of faith to rub elbows with others who are not like us. It’s not so we can save them. It’s so we can explore our own biases and those things we may have not even considered sinful until viewed from an outside perspective. We have the ability to help each other assess our own natures, to explore ourselves in loving and life giving ways.
It’s important to interact with the scriptures, not because they are infallible or a basic guide for life. I don’t believe they are either of those things. I believe the Bible is a tool for reflection on God and our values. The Bible evokes all sorts of emotional reactions. There is disgust, discomfort, and the heebie jeebies in there right alongside love, peace, and joy. We can explore our emotions and why we feel that way about certain texts with God. We can ask what we believe about God’s nature and explore what we value the most. Some texts in the Bible speak about unjust things. We aren’t meant to justify them. We’re meant to ask how we can help alleviate that kind of suffering, because it still happens today. The Bible, when read in prayer, can be an illumination tool that helps clarify distortions.
Finally, like much else, it really does come back to prayer. God already knows all of what is going on anyway, but wants to talk about it. All of it. God wants to take on what’s bothering us and help us through, both individually and communally.
One of the most healing things we offer for individuals is reconciliation of a penitent, otherwise known as confession. It’s a rite that is offered, but not required. There is a saying that we use when talking about this particular offering: All may, none must, some should.
We’ve all got these distortions within us. We’re good at holding them in and letting them fester. It can be easy to think, “If you really knew this about me, you would never love me.” Nine times out of ten though, if these things are talked about, we feel closer, not further away. We find a way forward that causes less pain and distress. God wants us to talk about these things with God, not to cause pain, but to help alleviate it. When we are open to sharing things with God and a trusted person, we can find liberation. When we are closed, the distortions tend to grow, not shrink. The more distorted our relationship with God, others, and creation, the more pain we feel and the more pain we can unintentionally inflict on the world.
The rite of Reconciliation is a meeting between a priest and a person. It’s very private and is a matter of strict confidentiality. We don’t use confessional booths, the person and the priest are face to face, but it’s a meeting to talk about pain and shame, the distortions of sin, alongside what healing and growth might look like. The ritual is an expanded and more specific act than the general confession we say every time we worship together. They talk about what is going on, then come together and hand everything over to God in prayer. Then the priest lays a hand on the person’s head, just like I do when I anoint people for healing and shares the absolution.
There are multiple prayers of absolution for this rite, but this one is a true gem: Now there is rejoicing in heaven; for you were lost, and are found; you were dead, and are now alive in Christ Jesus our Lord. Go in peace. The Lord has put away all your sins. The penitent responds: Thanks be to God.
In that moment, there is no sin. It is gone and God rejoices. The person is free to be their fully alive self. Confession does not erase what has happened, but opens the person up to repair wrongs, to alleviate suffering they have caused, to make the world a better place. They are open to being Christ in the world.
When we bring all our stuff to God, God rejoices. Being a sinner is not a permanent label of shame. It’s not a bludgeoning tool to try to exert control over people and make them follow certain rules and ways of life. Sin happens because it’s easy to distort our relationships with God, others, and creation. So we need to talk about how we do that and why we do that with God and trusted others. We need the openness of repentance, of asking God to help us heal. We talk about sin to help bring the world to a better place, not to cut down and dismiss fellow children of God. A sinner is simply a person living in an imperfect world doing imperfect things. Repentance is the work of making that world better.
