{"id":640,"date":"2020-02-27T17:03:27","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T17:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/chaplaincy\/?p=640"},"modified":"2020-02-27T17:03:27","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T17:03:27","slug":"what-sin-is-and-isnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/2020\/02\/27\/what-sin-is-and-isnt\/","title":{"rendered":"What sin is – and isn’t"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
“Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ”<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ash Wednesday is traditionally a day to think about sin. How\ndoes thinking about sin make you feel? We often feel uncomfortable – like we\u2019re\ngoing to be found out. I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s very helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right in the middle of the Lord\u2019s Prayer – the one<\/strong> prayer that Jesus taught us – we\nsay \u2018Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.\u2019 Jesus didn\u2019t\nsay \u2018only include this line if you have to\u2019. He knew we would have to. Sin is\nnot a serious of bad choices that we could have avoided. Sin is a fundamental\npart of what it means to be human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s what St. Paul was so frustrated about in his letter to\nthe church in Rome. He wants to do what is right – but he doesn\u2019t do it. He\nwants to stop doing what is wrong, but somehow, he can\u2019t help himself. It\u2019s a\npain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I came across a very helpful definition of sin the other day.\n\u2018Sin is an addiction to being less than ourselves\u2019. We want to be the very best\nversion of ourselves – to live out our God given potential to the full. But sin\ngets in the way – we get stuck in habits of thinking and habits of behaving\nthat become so ingrained that we just don\u2019t seem to be able to change them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know that when someone is caught up in an addiction, they\nlose the power to stop doing whatever they are doing. They need help. And we\ndon\u2019t condemn them for where they find themselves – we long to see them set\nfree from this damaging way of living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is how God looks on us. His first response to our sin is\nnot anger or disapproval, but longing – longing to help us be free. I learnt\nrecently that the phrase \u2018miserable sinner\u2019 in the old prayer book meant\nsomething different when the book was first written – it meant a sinner in need\nof mercy. And the word we often translate as mercy could also be translated as\ncompassion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God looks at us with compassion. He longs to set us free from\nthe sins we are addicted to, which stop us from being fully free. Those sins may\nnot be the obvious ones that people talk about – sex and drugs and all that.\nThey may be habits of overwork, or looking after everyone else\u2019s need but not\nours – or a tendency to judge others in our minds even if we don\u2019t say anything\n– or a tendency to judge ourselves too harshly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will each have particular habits and compulsions.\nSometimes we are aware of them. Sometimes they are hidden from us. Lent is a\nreally good time to do some reflection on our lives – to think about our\ningrained ways of thinking and acting, our relationships, our use of time, each\npart of our lives where are we becoming \u2018less than ourselves\u2019. I don\u2019t think\nthis is a miserable exercise. It can be very freeing to face up to the ways we\nare messed up. We don\u2019t really have any secrets from God – so we might as well\nbe open with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we really face our messed-upness then we realise, like\nPaul, that we cannot do this on our own. \u2018What a wretched man I am! Who will\nsave me?\u2019 he says. But then he exclaims \u2018Thanks be to God, who delivers me\nthrough Jesus Christ our Lord.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a beautiful gift that comes from our sinfulness –\ngrace. Sin brings us to our knees before God\u2019s all forgiving love – and we\ndiscover there how precious is the free gift of forgiveness that he has for us.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip Yancey says that you can think about our connection\nwith God as a piece of string. Every time we fall into sin, we cut the string.\nBut when we come to God for healing and forgiveness, God greets us with\nforgiveness and grace, and knots the string. So over time, as we go on being\nforgiven, and the string keeps getting tied, the distance between us and God\ngets shorter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So now you may like to accept God\u2019s invitation to be open\nwith him about your sinfulness, not feeling terrible, but letting go of a\nburden. After you have reflected, you may like to say these words of confession\n– and then hear said back to you the joyful words of forgiveness and freedom.\nAnd so we can be encouraged us to carry on with this journey of healing and\nrenewal as we go on, day by day, on our journey through Lent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Most merciful God, <\/strong><\/p>

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,<\/strong><\/p>

we confess that we have sinned <\/strong><\/p>

in thought, word and deed.<\/strong><\/p>

We have not loved you with our whole heart.<\/strong><\/p>

We have not loved our neighbours as ourselves.<\/strong><\/p>

In your mercy, forgive what we have been,<\/strong><\/p>

help us to amend what we are,<\/strong><\/p>

and direct what we shall be;<\/strong><\/p>

that we may do justly, love mercy, <\/strong><\/p>

and walk humbly with you, our God. <\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

May the God of love and power forgive us, <\/p>

and free us from our sins,<\/p>

heal and strengthen us by his Spirit,<\/p>

and raise us to new life in Christ our Lord.\u00a0 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ash Wednesday is traditionally a day to think about sin. How does thinking about sin make you feel? We often feel uncomfortable – like we\u2019re going to be found out. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}