Funny how everything works together.
I was mildly annoyed when 3 teenagers who attend Church of the Nations said they needed me to take them home in the church bus – which had left 10 minutes earlier. Sigh. Which meant not being able to give a report during deacon’s meeting. I was not planning to go to deacon’s meeting but apparent our deacon representative had not been receiving our regular emails. Argh.
Got back in time. Gave report. Left meeting early about 2:00 p.m.
If all of that had not happened I would not have heard what may be the single best discussion of the nature of sin I have ever heard. Although I listen to Ancient Faith Radio I have never listened to Steve the Builder. He was ostensibly discussing homosexuality – but the podcast is not only about that and that is not where I think its value primarily lies.
The Christian faith does not give us a definitive answer in the “nature/nurture” debate on any human frailty. Genetically caused disabilities are as much a trait of the fallen world as weaknesses visited upon us by lack of nurture and love. The issue for the Christian is the fact that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). What is the “glory of God”? It is living in perfect love and communion with God and other human beings.
But we don’t live in perfect love; we are born into corruption, futility, and death. We are conceived by fallen flesh and born into a fallen world. We are dealt a set of fallen DNA from conception. The moment we leave the womb, we are placed in the arms of a broken person, then taken home to a place where broken people are working out their salvation with fear and trembling at best, or with no fear of God at worst. From our first interactions, we are mishandled, neglected, and broken in ways we did not choose and often cannot consciously identify. The sins of the fathers are visited upon the following generations, not as punishment but as inevitable consequence. We are all broken.
I do not like telling people “go do this or read that” because I believe so strongly in (a) human freedom and (b) the authority of the Holy Spirit. But on this occasion please take the time to listen to this podcast or at least read through the transcript.
Addendum: In the interest of fairness let me share that my friend Joshua (theologically conservative and politically liberal) did not care for the piece much at all. If I may summarize (which means I am not doing full justice to his critique) (1) it fails to distinguish sin-as-condition from sin-as-acts (2) what was sin in 1st century might not be sin for us today (3) it sounds paternalistic (4) its understanding of people (who want to be) in same-sex relationships is skewed and limited.
