Threads from Henry's Web

Tag: sin

  • Bound – Lamentations 1:14

    Bound – Lamentations 1:14

    14 ‘My sins were bound like a yoke
    tied fast by his own hand;
    set upon my neck,
    it caused my strength to fail.
    The LORD abandoned me to my sins,
    and in their grip I could not stand.

    Lamentations 1:14 (REB)

    I’ve actually been meditating on this verse over the last few weeks while I haven’t been posting. I think it’s rather important. I first thought about sin/sins in the way I’m going to speak of them here when I read Ezekiel 23:49 and several other passages that suggest that what the people suffer is simply their own sins brought back on them.

    Now this is a more graphic passage, in that we have the imagery of a animal, such as an ox, pulling a load that is secured by a yoke. This is a lamentation, so it’s important to “hear” the poet telling us about living under the yoke.

    Frequently we think of sins in the plural, and see them as a sort of list of infractions against ritual or formal rules. We could imagine a workplace where a series of annoying or even stupid rules occur. Since we’re thinking about God, we imagine that we have to check off the boxes because that’s how you get to heaven.

    This is not just a mistaken, but an inadequate view in so many ways. When there are suboptimal rules in a workplace, freedom is to be found in finding a better job, thus working in a better environment. You can compare workplaces according to how rewarding they are as a work environment. So you can compare “better” and “worse” workers on a checklist, and “better” and “worse” workplaces in a similar way. Freedom comes by escape to a better place.

    But when we talk about “sin” in the biblical place, this is the wrong view. Note here that the sins are bound to the person. The penalty is, in one sense, a complete lack of freedom. The ox cannot escape the yoke, and the lament is that the Israelites were unable to escape the yoke made by their own transgressions. Finally, we have the observation that the punishment here is God abandoning the people to their sins. This is what is causing their strength to fail. It is not some invented judgment or punishment. It is rather the result of their actions.

    But this takes us back further to the specific nature of sin, again as displayed in the Bible story. We think generally of making a list of our faults and failings and trying to overcome them. I once had a terrible temper. In fact, I still do. If I overcome that temper, I’ll be that much closer to God, right?

    Not so. It’s a good thing to tame one’s temper, but the problem is that that’s just an item checked off the list. It all goes back to the basic rebellion, the desire to be independent of God and of God’s commands. And the gap made by that is great.

    We’re not in the workplace, deciding whether we like it, or perhaps that we should move on to a better employer. We’re in God’s universe. The rules are the rules of life. As it says in Deuteronomy 30:15, we’re offered a choice of a way of life and good or death and evil. We don’t have the option of choosing a whole other plan.

    This is a great lamentation. We’re abandoned, not to some externally planned torment, but to the results of our own rebellion against the way of life, the way that is life.

    The starting point to recovery is simple. It’s coming to the point of sincerely making this lamentation.

  • A Cause – Lamentations 1:5

    A Cause – Lamentations 1:5

    5 Her adversaries have become her masters,
    her enemies take their ease,
    for the LORD has made her suffer
    because of her countless sins.
    Her young children are gone,
    taken captive by an adversary.

    The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), La 1:5.

    One of the things my mother taught me was always to look for my contribution to creating a problem. The reason, she told me, was not that I was probably to blame, or was supposed to always load up on guilt, but that those were the only things I could actually fix.

    An underlying theme of Lamentations is that Judah bore responsibility for what had come upon her. That there were actions that had led to consequences. In our verse, it is the LORD who has brought these problems on Judah, yet that is because of their sins. Some people aren’t comfortable with this form of expression. It’s important, however, to remember that in the Bible stories God is seen as the cause of everything. There is little distinction made between things that result naturally and positive acts of God in specific circumstances. All of these result from God, God’s law, and God’s nature.

    Lamentation is a good thing. What is not a good thing is whining. Yes, I do my share of complaining, of blaming everyone else. And I am not responsible by my actions for everything that goes wrong. I’ve had circumstances where I can’t think of what I could have done. But many times there is some action possible.

    There are also those who look on any misfortune and blame the victim. Whatever the problem is, that person should have done something to prevent it. This too is destructive behavior.

    Lamentation recognizes the situation and the fact that it has brought problems, hardships, pain, suffering.

    Our verse today is solid with sorrow. Not a moment of joy. Not even the relief of finding someone else to blame.

    Even so, it’s a step toward a more healthy future.

  • Sin and the Church as Community

    Sin and the Church as Community

    In what he confesses is a long post, but is still shorter than my normal post, Dave Black discusses how to translate the Greek word ekklesia, both in terms of an English word (he chooses “community”), and in practice.

    I’ve been discussing this in connection with the question of dealing with sin in the church. Many mainliners don’t want to think about this, or even think we shouldn’t deal with it. It’s part of “not judging.”

    But then you have issues such as sexual abuse which must be dealt with, and we find that we really don’t have any idea what to do.

    In the several cases in which I have had the opportunity to discuss this, I have always come back to this: We cannot adequately deal with sin in the church because the church is not functioning as a community. There are many elements to this issue, including clergy-laity distinctions, or more precisely leadership-followership.

    People have been told not to report evil, because they will damage the reputation of a “good man.” (I suppose it could be a good woman, but I have heard it several times, and only regarding the reputation of good men.)

    We need to be looking at—and implementing—ways of making the church a functioning community. One characteristic (of many) of this would be that we do not excuse abuse by leaders.