{"id":3825,"date":"2024-10-06T17:03:36","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T00:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/?p=3825"},"modified":"2026-01-31T21:39:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T05:39:58","slug":"sin-and-forgiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/?p=3825","title":{"rendered":"Sin and Forgiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The language of sin is foreign to the positive and encouraging faith of Unitarian Universalism. But the High Holy Days remind us that we all stray occasionally from the ideal selves we can imagine and hope to be. To deny our transgressions would be to suffer yet one more transgression against the ideal. Instead, the healthy spiritual path is to recognize where we and others fall short, and, admitting our imperfection, ask for and offer forgiveness.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            We are looking, this year, at the fundamentals of faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            A year of considering during worship the building blocks of a solid, dependable, useful, faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            What do I mean by a useful<\/em> faith?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I mean during those times when life gets tough:  like when a hurricane whips through your community, or your nation is under attack, or a looming Presidential election makes you doubt your neighbors, or threatens your personal safety.  Or during those personally significant challenges like the death of a loved one, or losing your job, or receiving troubling health news.  When tough times come, is your faith able to comfort your spirit?  Can you still find meaning and purpose in your life in the face of tragedy or danger?  Do you still have a sense of who you are?  Is there still right and wrong in the world and values worth standing up for?  Can you hold on to a sense of hope and trust?  Can you still get up in the morning and face the challenges and say with conviction either, \u201cIt will be OK\u201d, or at least \u201cI will be OK\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            This is what I call the Hard Times test of faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            When times get hard, is your faith useful to you?  Does your faith do the job of getting you through the hard times, or does your faith fail, just when you need it the most?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Thirty years ago, when I served one summer as a hospital chaplain as part of my training to be a UU minister, I encountered a troubling example of a faith that didn\u2019t do what a healthy faith should do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            This was a family whose mother was in the hospital, gravely ill, and dying.  I wanted to pastor the family through their grief and make peace with their mother\u2019s imminent death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            But the family denied that her death was inevitable and wanted me to resist it with them.  The faith of the family was that God was all-powerful.  God could perform miracles.  Even a person as close to death as their mother could be saved.  God rewarded righteous people who professed unwavering faith.  They believed that if they prayed hard enough with no doubt in God\u2019s power, that God would restore their mother to health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            So they prayed.  And they called on God\u2019s mercy and the power of Jesus.  And their mother died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            So their faith then required them to believe either: a) that their mother wasn\u2019t worthy of God\u2019s rescue.  Maybe she had some secret sin that God needed to punish.  Or b) that their prayers weren\u2019t strong enough to persuade God to do something they believed God could easily do.  Their faith taught them, during that hard time, that either they weren\u2019t good enough for God to listen to, or that their mother wasn\u2019t good enough for God to care about.  That\u2019s a terrible faith to have when your mother is dying in a hospital bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            That\u2019s not a useful faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            A useful faith would have brought understanding to the situation.  A useful faith would have brought calm to the room.  A useful faith would have comforted the family, and given the mother peace in her final moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A useful faith should be able to place the tragedies of life and the beauty of life in the same system following the same rules of the spirit.\u00a0\u00a0A useful faith lifts us higher when we\u2019re feeling good and pulls us up when we\u2019re feeling low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            That\u2019s my intention for our worship this year.  I will share what I find useful to my faith, and encourage you to consider the same issues and find answers that are useful to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We started this year-long look at the fundamentals of faith by recognizing the importance of community in shaping our identities.  We are individuals, born in unique bodies with a unique set of gifts, and we are members of communities, shaped by and dependent on those around us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Next, we took a look at the question of freedom, which we\u2019ll come back to look at again, later.  As individuals we are free to do as we please, yet as members of communities, we\u2019re responsible to those around us, including in the ways we curtail our personal freedom for the flourishing of all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            And last week we looked at the question of whether human beings in themselves have what it takes to win the world we seek, or are we doomed to fall short of our goals unless something supernatural comes to save us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I offered my personal answer in the form of my elevator speech about Unitarian Universalism:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cUnitarian Universalists believe that human beings are good enough, smart enough, and strong enough, to create lives of health and joy for ourselves, for each other, and for the world we share.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I think we\u2019re enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            But hear the limits of that word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think we\u2019re enough.  I don\u2019t think we\u2019re everything.  I don\u2019t think we\u2019re all.  I don\u2019t think we\u2019re perfect.  I don\u2019t think our goodness, wisdom, and strength is so great that creating lives of health and joy is easy for us, or automatic.  I think we\u2019re enough.  Maybe just enough.  Maybe just barely enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think we have enough of what we need to make pursuit of our goals worth our effort, but winning them will be a struggle.  We will slip backward occasionally, sometimes fail grossly, even as we by and large inch forward.  Progress is possible, which means it\u2019s worth a try, but not guaranteed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So implied in this belief that we are enough in the long run, is the admission that we will surely miss the mark sometimes along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are good enough, but we\u2019re not all good.  We are sometimes good, but we\u2019re also petty, and mean, and selfish, and cruel.  We\u2019re honest and courageous and self-sacrificing, just enough to tip the balance toward the positive.  But we also deceive each other, and run away from necessary conflicts, and neglect the needs of others who are just as deserving of happiness as we are.  We are good, but not completely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are smart enough, but not all wise.  Our intelligence is an amazing thing.  And look at the great achievements we\u2019ve made with our human smarts.  But there are problems we haven\u2019t solved yet.  And in solving some problems we\u2019ve created new problems because of unintended consequences we weren\u2019t smart enough to foresee.  I believe we\u2019re smart enough to solve our problems, even the problems that we create for ourselves, but we\u2019re not all wise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we\u2019re strong.  But we\u2019re not all powerful.  We can do a lot.  But we cannot do everything.  There are feats beyond our ability.  We are strong enough, I believe, to win the world we seek, but the limits to our strength means that some work just won\u2019t get done.  We can do a lot.  But we\u2019ll always look at some needs of the world and have to admit, \u201cWe can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This acknowledgement that our portion of morality, wisdom and strength, comes with limitations is what I mean by sin, the foundational element of faith I want to talk about today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because we are not entirely good, completely wise, all-powerful, sometimes we will be motivated by our darker sides, we will choose badly, or we will fail to do something that needs doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We sin when we act in a way that leads us away from the ideal world we seek, rather than toward it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we make a bad choice deliberately, with clear intent, knowing it\u2019s morally wrong, with full knowledge of the consequence of our choice, and when we had the ability to make a different choice, that\u2019s evil.  Evil is a special case of sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But sin, merely meaning any action less than the ideal action possible, makes sin merely a corollary of the limits of our human natures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            An entirely good person would always choose the path toward the ideal.  But we aren\u2019t entirely good.  A completely wise person would always know the best path to choose, but we aren\u2019t completely wise.  An all-powerful person would always be able to do what the ideal path needs us to do, but sometimes we don\u2019t have the strength, and so we make a lesser choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Because our human natures are limited, our sinning is a natural part of ourselves.  It\u2019s not an aberration.  It\u2019s what we do, regularly, often, naturally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Not always.  We don\u2019t sin in every action, which is the doctrine of Original Sin, the doctrine that our natures are so twisted that it\u2019s impossible for us to act in a way pleasing to God.  In the orthodox doctrine of sin, our natures<\/em> are sinful, so sin is something we are.  Whereas I believe sin is something we do.  It\u2019s unhealthy theology to say \u201cI am<\/em> a sinner\u201d.  But it\u2019s useful, when we make a bad choice to be able to say, \u201cI sinned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes.\u00a0\u00a0And sometimes not.\u00a0\u00a0Much of the time we make good, healthy, positive choices that move us forward on the ideal path.\u00a0\u00a0I would even say that most of us make good choices most of the time. That gives me faith that we are enough to win the world we seek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            But all of us, including me, including you, sometimes, make a choice that is wrong, or stupid, or weak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I confess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I have withheld, when I could have given.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I have delighted in the suffering of others, when I thought they deserved it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I have consumed more than my share, and made waste that future generations will have to clean up<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I\u2019ve shifted work to others that is properly mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I have treated strangers like obstacles standing in the way of me getting what I want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I\u2019ve prioritized my present pleasure in ways that my future self will probably suffer for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I\u2019ve asked for sympathy for my failings while blaming others for their failings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I\u2019m not a terrible sinner.  But I\u2019m not perfect.  And that\u2019s the point.  We are, none of us, perfect.  As Chaim Stern said in our Call to Worship:  \u201cWho can say:  I have purified my heart, and I am free from sin?  There are none on earth so righteous that they never sin.\u201d  And, because I strive to hold a reality based faith, I admit it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I am going to screw up.  I am going to fail.  I will make mistakes.  I have made the path toward the lives of health and joy for ourselves, each other, and the world we seek, harder and longer than it had to be because I made bad choices from time to time and the path will continue to be longer and harder than it needs to be because I will make more bad choices in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I\u2019m sorry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            This is what the high holy days of the Jewish calendar are about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Once a year, just as the new year is getting started (and we\u2019re just getting started in our church year) The High Holy Days, or Days of Awe are ten days to reflect on the past year, and note dispassionately all the times when you made a choice that was less than the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Sin doesn\u2019t need to be more than that.  It doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re a monster, just that you\u2019re human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I confess to being human.  You know, I wasn\u2019t perfect.  There were times, many of them, when I could have made a better choice, and my life and the lives of those around me and the world we share, could have been a little closer to the ideal than it actually is, in consequence of what I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            That\u2019s sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            And after rounding up that list of sins.  To let them go.  Again, as Chaim Stern says, \u201cCast away all the evil you have done, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.\u201d  Cast away your sins.  Name them.  Confess to them.  And then get rid of them.  Don\u2019t carry them around with you, like a middle-schooler\u2019s overstuffed backpack.  Don\u2019t push your past mistakes down into your soul until they become part of you.  Say you\u2019re sorry.  Ask for forgiveness.  Let it go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I think of God\u2019s encouragement toward the right path and patience for human imperfection, to be like the way the GPS on my phone gives me navigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            There\u2019s a best path toward the goal.  The GPS tells me to turn right up ahead at the light.  I don\u2019t turn right.  I keep going straight.  The GPS doesn\u2019t say, \u201cYou idiot!  You should have turned back there.  I told you to turn.  Now I\u2019m done with you forever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Instead, the GPS simply is quiet for a moment, figures out a new best path toward the goal, based on where we actually are now, and then gives me a new suggestion.  We\u2019ll still get there.  It\u2019s OK.  It just might take a little longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            And the next time I get in the car and ask the GPS for directions it doesn\u2019t say, \u201cNow remember.  You\u2019re a terrible driver who can\u2019t be trusted to follow instructions.\u201d  The GPS simply figures out the path and we get started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The Jewish religion offers several rituals that make atonement for sin by symbolically throwing the sins away.  Tashlich is a ritual of throwing pieces of bread into a body of water that flows to the sea.  Literally casting your sins upon the waters.  The idea of the scapegoat comes from Leviticus (Leviticus 16:10).  It\u2019s a ritual in which a literal goat is symbolically loaded with the sins of the community and then driven into the desert taking the sins with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The idea is not to mope around feeling guilty, weighed down by the awfulness of our past, but to let it go, and to start again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the faithful stand all together and confess the many ways we fell short of the ideal in the past year.  Individually and collectively.  We make atonement as a community, because even if personally I didn\u2019t commit some sin, we\u2019re all part of a system in which we fell short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            It\u2019s a powerful day.  It\u2019s a solemn day.  It\u2019s a long day.  And then it\u2019s done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            That\u2019s the point.  It\u2019s done.  You\u2019re forgiven.  The year is over.  Let it go.  \u201cWe forgive ourselves and each other; we being again in love.\u201d  A new page.  We start from here.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Now is the time.  The only time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            We have choices to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Let\u2019s make the best choices we can, but, you know, being human, this coming year, we will compile a new chapter of errors.  We won\u2019t be perfect.  We can\u2019t be perfect.  Because perfect is not our nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            But we will be good enough, smart enough, and strong enough to move our lives and the lives of others, and the world we share, a little closer toward our goal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The language of sin is foreign to the positive and encouraging faith of Unitarian Universalism. But the High Holy Days… Read more Sin and Forgiveness<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3825"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4709,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825\/revisions\/4709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}