Cimplifigh

Great place…My fave…

Actually, I want to talk about a conversation I had with my business partner today about sin.  It sprung up after he heard an f-bomb in a song playing in my work van.  Amen for profanities in music bringing about thought provoking conversation.  He told me I shouldn’t be listening to that because I’m a Christian, to which I saluted my emerging church liberalism and dutifully replied “dude, there are far worse injustices going on today than the occasional f-bomb in a song.  He told me that God views all sin the same, and the can of worms opened…

Actually we continued talking about whether or not swearing is a sin (don’t worry mom I still think it is). But I want to expand on the previous question.  I’m sure there are smarter people to tackle this one out there than me, btw, but hey if you never question you never get anywhere.  I’m not sure I believe all sin to be equal…I believe the wages of all our ungodly decisions is death, no doubt; but I can’t get past the idea that if I drop a good f-bomb when I hit my thumb with my hammer, i’m equally guilty as a guy who murders someone in cold blood.  

We talked about how there is undoubtedly differing consequences for sin here on earth, given the previous example (25 to life for the coarse talker, yes sir). So it seems at least here on earth the difference is obvious. The consequences differ on the severity of the ’sin’ and are much more far reaching for serious offences (i.e. If you kill someone you take that with you for the rest of your life).  

But in God’s eyes? I don’t know. I know his remedy (grace) is the same for all sin, so maybe that makes the question an unimportant one. It seems, given the sacrificial system in the Old Testament, He knew some sins required different consequences; at the very least it seems He did view one sin as different from another. So if we believe all sin to be equal, why do we associate levels of guilt with different sins? What I’m asking is, do I have to feel as bad for letting a foul word come out of my mouth as if I had murdered someone? (or, on the flip side, should I let “big sins” roll off like water off a duck’s back if and when they occur?)  If not, why not? Is the guilt/consequence we associate with varying ‘levels’ of sin a man-made thing? In that case, are we saying we have a better way of doing things? 

All this being said, I don’t question the grace of Jesus – It doesn’t and won’t make sense to me until His kingdom comes fully – and that is partly why it is so attractive…it’s a mystery.    

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Here’s a plug for a little thing our church is into called the advent conspiracy.  I almost started crying when we watched it today.  The part about water…Seriously, we are taking part in a huge injustice here in North America.  Let’s do someting about it.

Last week a few of us went down to a college in town to hear Dr. Tony Campolo speak on the topic of social justice. It was awesome.  Campolo’s got a way, as all truly gifted speakers do, of recycling old material, breathing life into it and allowing others to see things in a different way (did Jesus do that too?). Afterwards, Dayna and I found ourselves at quite a crossroad. Herein lies the tension between hearing the words of Jesus and applying them to real life.  Tony has been accused of taking the words of Jesus ‘too literally’, giving answers to questions using the words of Jesus which seem to demand more complex answers in our day and age than some of the ones we’re given in the Red Letters. For example Jesus tells the rich young ruler the one thing he lacks (b/c he’s done the rest) is that he needs to sell all he has and give it to the poor.  Jesus is psyched when the poor woman puts her penny into the offering box because it is all she had. When Jesus says it’s harder for a rich person to enter heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, he means that.  It’s not a tricky metaphor for something else.  Here’s my dilemma.  So yes, i’m asked to give all that I have, and trust that I will be provided for.  But is the question one of attachment and freedom (i.e give it away because you love stuff too much), or is it one of sacrifice and trust (i.e give more than you can afford to, trust me for the rest) . Is God taking care of me as he does the birds by giving me a job? Or is that my way of saying I can do it on my own?  Is saving money negating my trust in Him or is it honoring Him with good stewardship?  The topic of authority infiltrated our conversation to some extent.  It seems that people who just try stuff and see if it works have the authority to speak on the stuff they’re trying.  I can’t tell other people to sacrifice and give all their needless shit away because i’m not really doing it.  That’s why Jesus is awesome.  He’s like ‘guys, sacrifice, follow me, take up your cross…it’s going to be hard but it’s GOOD’  - and he’s got authority to say that because he did it. So maybe the answer is that I should just start buying into this Jesus guy and doing some of the stuff he says I should do.  It’s the only way to know.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

The book I’m into right now is called ‘Surprised by Hope’ – It’s by N.T. Wright. This guy is smart man.  Mostly alot of it goes right through me, but what I can latch on to I like.  He’s wrighting (boo hoo) about the resurrection of Jesus.  What it means, why it’s so important, how we’ve got our after death theology generally wrong, and more importantly, what it means for us now.  I haven’t got to the last part yet.  We discussed this a bit at a C&C meeting this last week.  The idea of being resurrected at some point is bizarre.  Probably why we’ve invented other more fluffy ways of thinking about life after death so we don’t sound like freaks.  Also, if Jesus was the only one to have done it so far, it makes it even more weird.  Here’s why.  When Jesus was resurrected, he was transformed…Not made into a new person, but having aspects of the old.  Some people didn’t recognize him, some did.  He still had scars.  He could walk through walls.  He still ate.  He didn’t belong on earth as we know it yet he was a physical being…

All this to say, I think life after death is going to be a lot sweeter than we think it’s going to be.  When Jesus returns and God’s kingdom comes to earth, wright (and the Bible) says that the earth will also be transformed – the New Jerusalem.  We get to inhabit that, cruise around, wonder at stuff, wonder at the one who made it and the fact that he’s letting us be with him,  maybe fix some of the stuff we wrecked the first time, maybe mourn over the scars that we can’t fix, but rejoice that they’re there at the same time.  Who knows what it’s gonna be like, I just know the whole ‘up there riding on clouds’  thing doesn’t do it for me.  There’s no mountains in the clouds.