{"id":1125,"date":"2011-07-03T19:31:57","date_gmt":"2011-07-03T23:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roadsfromemmaus.org\/?p=1125"},"modified":"2011-07-03T19:31:57","modified_gmt":"2011-07-03T23:31:57","slug":"humanity-unplugged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/asd\/2011\/07\/03\/humanity-unplugged\/","title":{"rendered":"Humanity, Unplugged"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
The Rickenbacker 12-String<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nThe Third Sunday after Pentecost, July 3, 2011<\/b><\/p>\n

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.<\/p>\n

Today, let\u2019s talk about sin.<\/p>\n

Yes, of course, almost all sermons are in some sense about sin, and sin is certainly mentioned a great deal in the hymns and readings of the Church. But let\u2019s take a moment today to address sin head-on, to define it, to look at what it\u2019s really made of, and, because we are Christians, what God has to say about it.<\/p>\n

The diligent observer of political history will correctly note that morality cannot be successfully legislated\u2014that is, passing laws doesn\u2019t make people moral; laws can only restrain and punish people. Yet sin and morality are constantly in political news. Sin is also a dominant theme in our entertainment.<\/p>\n

Whether the issue is abortion, same-sex attraction, euthanasia, assisted suicide, drug abuse, or even how one finances political campaigns, sin is constantly at the forefront of our public life. But almost no one uses the word sin any more when discussing these things, except perhaps those cruel and obnoxious people from the so-called \u201cWestboro Baptist Church\u201d who like to picket military funerals. Sin<\/i> has become an unpopular word. Even mentioning something as sin is likely to get you labeled as a hateful bigot.<\/p>\n

But what is sin? Sin is anything that distances us from God. The Greek word for sin used in the New Testament, hamartia<\/i>, literally means \u201cmissing the mark.\u201d Thus, whenever we fire the arrows of our life and do not hit the mark that has been set up by God, we are sinning.<\/p>\n

We often think of sin in terms of crimes against a divine law, and so when we sin, we make God angry with us. But God isn\u2019t subject to such sinful passions Himself. You can\u2019t make Him mad. Even language about God\u2019s \u201cwrath\u201d that is to be found in Scripture cannot be understood to depict a God Who flies off the handle. Talk about God\u2019s \u201cwrath\u201d is simply an attempt to understand what we experience when we sin.<\/p>\n

I think the best way for us to understand sin is as a malfunction. God created the universe and mankind to function in a particular way, perfect and balanced and beautiful. He had a design, and He made us according to that design. But our ability to function well was dependent on staying plugged in to the Giver of Life Himself. And Adam and Eve unplugged us.<\/p>\n

As someone who used to be employed in the live music business, I sometimes like to think of mankind like an electric guitar. If you unplug it from the wall, you can of course still play it, but it\u2019s very muted. Mankind without the energy of God can function a little bit, because of God\u2019s design, but we will never be able to make music the way we\u2019re intended while we remain unplugged.<\/p>\n

The problem with the world today is that, for so long, we\u2019ve been hearing an unplugged electric guitar and assuming that that is what the music is all about. Little do we know that we were not only meant to be plugged in, but that there are a variety of amps and effects pedals that we can plug in, as well. But we\u2019re malfunctioning, so most of that escapes our ears.<\/p>\n

When God tells us not to sin, it is not because He has made up a bunch of arbitrary laws that He\u2019s looking for an excuse to zap us over if we disobey them. Rather, he\u2019s telling us that if we want to \u201crock out\u201d on the electric guitar that He designed us to be, only certain things will get you there. There are plenty of techniques and options once you plug in, but if you don\u2019t plug in, you won\u2019t make the music. If you unstring the guitar, you\u2019ll make even less. If you bang the guitar against the power amps, that\u2019s not music, either. (Note that most of the bands who do that wait until the end of the concert!)<\/p>\n

Morality is really simply what it takes for mankind to make the music he was meant to make. It\u2019s not about judging or condemning anyone. It\u2019s about what works.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of kinds of sins, just like there are a lot of ways to make an electric guitar malfunction. Some sins, I am tempted to commit. Others, I am not tempted to commit. But it\u2019s all still sin. It all still unplugs me from God\u2019s divine energy. Sin isn\u2019t bad for me because I\u2019m not following the \u201crules.\u201d Sin is bad for me because it disconnects me from God.<\/p>\n

So when God looked at the world and saw that we were a bunch of sinners, did He storm from Heaven and smite us all with bolts of lightning? Did He shout out in anger and level our cities? Did He picket funerals and tell us that He hates us for our sins? Today\u2019s epistle reading<\/a> from Romans<\/i> tells us what He did: \u201cBut God shows his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

When God looked at a world full of rotten, broken, messed up sinners\u2014including me\u2014His response was to come here and die for us. As it also says in that passage from Romans<\/i>, \u201cFor while we were still weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly.\u201d God looks at our sin not as creating a bunch of guilty people, but rather in creating weakness. Sin leaves us weak, malfunctioning, unable to do and be what He made us to do and be.<\/p>\n

As we look at our world, which more and more is redefining sin as \u201cfreedom\u201d and \u201ccivil rights,\u201d we have to remember what sin really is and how God approaches it. Abortion is sin because it kills a child. Yes, people who commit abortion are often suffering in other ways, too, but they\u2019re still killing a child. The same is true of euthanasia or assisted suicide\u2014an innocent life is being destroyed. Homosexual acts are sin, just like any other sexual act outside of marriage as God designed it, because they are not God\u2019s design for us. Yes, people with that temptation have been made to suffer for it, but that is because of the cruelty of some sinners toward other sinners, not because God is cruel.<\/p>\n

It really does not matter whether we were born with the temptations we face. Being \u201cborn this way<\/a>\u201d (to quote the pop philosopher Lady Gaga) does not mean that it\u2019s natural or good. Lady Gaga is right when she says that \u201cGod makes no mistakes,\u201d but what we\u2019re living in is not the world as God designed it or human nature as God designed it, but as man has distorted it. What we inherit from Adam and Eve is not human nature as God designed it. We inherit a malfunctioning human nature, unplugged from the divine energy.<\/p>\n

It really does not matter whether we have suffered, either. Sin is still sin. Nothing justifies it, and sinning doesn\u2019t make our suffering better. Indeed, sinning because we have suffered is really the same dynamic that causes blood feuds between families and nations. That is what revenge is\u2014an attempt to release the suffering through sin. But sin never releases suffering, despite whatever momentary emotional reward we may experience. Sin always disconnects us more from God.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter how we personally feel about it. What matters is the objective reality about how God designed us to function. We may not understand all of His teachings about what works best, and sometimes the results of following or not following them may not be apparent until we reach the next life (though they often show themselves here, too), but the true character of sin is that it is malfunction. It will always be malfunction, even if the world redefines it to be something else or we personally feel like it should be something else.<\/p>\n

But God\u2019s love for us is so powerful and strong that He doesn\u2019t want us to stay in our malfunction. He wants to heal us, to plug us in to the life-giving energy that only He provides. That means that we have to respond to the free gift of healing and wholeness He offers by getting rid of our sins that distance us from Him, whether they are sins of commission like some of the things we have named, or whether they are sins of omission like neglecting worship in favor of entertainment or other worldly pursuits. Either way, they\u2019re pulling us away from God, whether through quick jumps in committing evil acts or through gradual decay in not making Him the center and focus of our whole lives.<\/p>\n

The only cure for sin is to pay attention to and take hold of the “one thing needful<\/a>\u201d (Luke 10:42), to commit ourselves and each other and our whole life to Christ our God.<\/p>\n

To Him therefore be all glory, honor and worship, with His Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Third Sunday after Pentecost, July 3, 2011 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Today, let\u2019s talk about sin. Yes, of course, almost all sermons are in some sense about sin, and sin is certainly mentioned a great deal in the hymns and readings of the Church. But let\u2019s take a moment\u2026 <\/i> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[583],"tags":[683,865,726],"class_list":["post-1125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-morality","tag-sermons","tag-sin"],"yoast_head":"Humanity, Unplugged — Fr. 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