Saturday, March 27, 2004
(7:54 AM) | Anonymous:
Got The Peace Of Mind (Shoot Me In The Freaking Head)
(this is a reposting of my post that was posted originally on the posting list that is Academy. I re-post it here because I wonder about the thoughts of the established Weblog "niche" regarding my thoughts that were thought a few moments ago. Okay, let me know.)I think our image of God must always begin with a loving, divine being who is desperately seeking a relationship with us.
From this view, then, I would view Sin as a rejection of this relationship, a breaking that can only occur on our side, since God is always standing with arms open wide (a perfect picture of the day he died...to quote some old CCM song).
I don't think God looks past the Sin to the sinner. I don't think God can really make a distinction. Sin, as understood in this context, is more than stealing, gluttonizing or having sex with the same gender. Instead, Sin is a state of being, a way of seeing the world that bars any relationship to Christ. This can't be narrowed down to specific actions. It is a complete setting of one's heart, mind and soul. Thus, it's impossible to "hate the sin, love the sinner", for God at least. He loves the sinner, unconditionally, and yet is unwilling to force a relationship on that person, because there would be no relationship at all.
I regard SIN, then, as a breaking of this relationship with the Father or with his creation from our end.
Maybe Drinking, Dancing, Murder and Adultery are all symptoms we've come up with to help us realize when our relationship to God and to God's creation is broken. However, just because you start to feel fatigued or a little weak doesn't automatically mean you have botulism. I don't think it's a straight up breaking point right at the first symptom. I don't think it's necessarily a breaking point at the 85th symptom. SIN, as a breaking of relationship with God, is not necessarily commited even in the worst acts.
This is not to say that as long as one merely feels they're doing something Godly, it's okay for them to do as they please, of course. That's not a true relationship. That's paying lip service, and is something Christ often decries.
But then, if the symptoms don't always indicate the deeper problem, how are we supposed to know? We can't be in that person's heart or mind. And to this I say, exactly. Our place, as followers of Christ, is not to judge whether that person is in relationship with God or not. Our place is to love to the ultimate extent of our abilities. To "die to self" then, is to give up our own pride, our own control of our lives, our grip on history, and freely submit to the loving person of Christ in all things. To stop caring about whether we'll be sucessful, to stop caring explicitly about whether the world gets "saved", to stop being so anxious about the things of this world, to die to all those things, and embrace the calling of Christ to love those other than ourselves with everything we have.
I think part of this can entail talking about these symptoms of sin, when we witness them in another's life. But, in order to talk about anything more than the symptoms, you have to actually know the person. We have no place blanketly saying all people who do such and such a thing are going to Hell. To do so is to limit God, to say that there are rules in place which he must abide by whether he wants to or not. Anyone seen 13 Days? I'm totally reminded of the military trying to box JFK in with the Rules of Engagement. Yeah?
With this conception of sin, even if we concede that Homosexuality is a sin, which I'm not at all ready to do, we still have no place as a church to condemn homosexuals in the broad sweeping manner we do. It should be something that maybe close friends have those sort of late night heart to heart talks with someone about, rather than blanket confrontation. Any other kind of discussion shifts the focus from the Sin, that is, a break in relationship with Christ, to the symptom of homosexuality. One may exhibit the symptoms, but still fully be in relationship. Consider the alcoholic, they may never beat their addiction due to human constraints, yet they can still be in relationship with Christ.
I have to think then, that even if homosexuality is a sin, any homosexual who openly and completely gives himself to engaging with the person of Christ, even if he never settles the question, shall not have the relationship they are seeking rejected by Christ. That doesn't fit the image of a loving God who desperately is seeking to live with and among us, and thus must be rejected, or our image of God must change.
