We really do not understand the concept of sin per se in today's world. We bandy the word about but without any true meaning behind it and I also suppose with little understanding of what it means to sin or be a sinner. This means that we use sin as a cast off word rather than a word with reality in its meaning. There are a number of understandings of what sin is very dependent on the culture and the religious belief people have been brought up in. At the end of the day for most sin is a moral wrong doing either against God or against some other authority that is sublime. This then bends us towards understanding that sin is something that we have a choice over rather than something that is thrust upon us from outside ourselves. This in turn tells us of our own need to make decisions that are in alignment with the moral code of God which is seen in the love of God and the love of neighbour. If we understand this then we can understand where in our lives sin exists but also that redemption lies with Christ.
In understanding our failures we begin to rejoice over our redemption even when those failures were small as shown in the parables at the start of Luke chapter 15 (1-10). This rejoicing is emphasised and taken further in the parable of the prodigal son later in the chapter. The main point for us is that we cannot overlook what appears at first glance to be small and inconsequential. We cast aspersions of sin when we speak about major incidents like murder and theft often overlooking our own minor misdemeanours that we do not go looking for. The parables in Luke 15 other than the prodigal are all about minor things, a single sheep and a single coin. How well do we know our own proclivities that we can point to those things that we believe to be so minor as to stay lost? Perhaps what I am trying to point out is that we neglect and overlook many things that we believe to be minor but are actual causes of our continual sin. Reminding us that our sin is that which is not in keeping with the law of love. I think that if we were to deeply delve into our own actions over say the last week we could easily come up with circumstances where we were not loving towards God or our neighbour.
The saying is that the little things trip you up and for the most part it is the same in our faith journey. It is those things that we overlook that trip us up. Our attitudes, our reliance on our own thinking, our reliance on tradition, etc. all of these things eventually highlight our own hypocrisies and our lack of love for those around us. We become protective of our 'territory' and would rather our neighbours leave us alone so that we do not have to share what we perceive to be our wisdom. In doing so we neglect the basics of our faith journey and act out of ignorance (1 Tim. 1:13b) rather than out of faith and knowledge. Our ignorance appears to be related to our own self understanding of what it means to live a life of faith. More often than not we impose on others the meaning and relevance of scripture that we are happy with even if it moves away from the bedrock of love. We cannot see the irregularity and disjunction between our own perceptions and those that highlight God's love. Irrespective of where we sit on the spectrum from ultra conservative to ultra liberal.
Perhaps the words from Jeremiah are more apt than we would think "For my people are foolish, they do not know me" (Jer. 4:22). People do not want to understand the scriptures or to be led in the way of love rather they prefer what they are told what scripture says even if the words are words against love. Whilst it is sometimes difficult for people to gather around the scriptures in the fashion of the old style bible study it is even more difficult to come to terms with scriptural passages if there is not real means of debate or reading at a local level. The common complaints are often along the lines of "I do not agree with x, y and z's comments so won't continue to go" or else "it is to high faluting and I am immediately lost, so what is the point". Perhaps, also there seems to be little enthusiasm to delve into aspects of scripture in an academic way and in any case the minister tells us all about it in the Sunday sermon. I understand that because often in the past it has come down to a liking or a disliking of a person leading a group that has turned people away or else it has been "shoved" down the throat in an unacceptable manner. This is where our centrality in Christ comes into play and if we forget this we unintentionally sin automatically turning from God who is justly angered by our neglect.
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