On Sin and Love

Faith Today - Moncton Times and Transcript

Recently a young gay man has featured in the Fredericton news for claiming to have been dismissed from a church job because of his sexuality. It sure sounds like he was right, and beyond that, it sounds like why he was really let go has to do with fear of homosexuality.

It is hard to know, I think the journalists covering it are trying to be impartial, but to be fair, it is a heated issue, everyone is self-protective, and most issues in life are not black and white.

What I want to argue against is the whole “hate the sin, love the sinner” attitude that a lot of people seem to adopt as a strategy. As you might expect, I disagree with it.

First and foremost, If you are really arguing from a biblical perspective, or more importantly a literalist interpretation of believing the Bible is the absolute truth, where do you find it ever saying such a nonsensical statement.

The closest I can find would be in Matthew where Jesus is supposed to have told us to love our enemies… but it says nothing about sin, and it does not say our enemies are sinful… quite the opposite, it says they are fellow humans worthy of love.

Even if you take a proof text that includes most of the words of the phrase: “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good” which we find in Paul’s letter to the church of Rome (12:9) it is surely a stretch to say this has anything to do with other people’s actions.

Far to the opposite point of view, Jesus says quite explicitly to the gathered mob, “whichever of you is without sin, go ahead, cast the first stone and kill this woman” when an adulterer is confronted.

Have you ever tried to make a list of what is sinful according to the Bible? I guarantee you are included, no matter who you are. After all, it is sinful to eat lobster, and to wear cotton/rayon blends. It is sinful to charge interest on a loan and to turn your lights on during the Sabbath. The list goes on and on and in fact includes something for everyone.

The whole point of Jesus’ little diatribe was that he knew there was not one person who could cast the stone, nor could any of us. My point being, we are all sinners so that is a whole lot of hatred going on if we truly believe that all of this is a sin.

But more important is cultural context. Do you know why it is a sin to eat a lobster? Because the Israelites lived in the desert, that is the only reason. I once ordered a bowl of seafood chowder in the rain forest of Guatemala. I knew better, but I was tired of chicken and corn tortillas for every meal. I was sick for a week. If you have no refrigeration, and live in the hot, hot sun, stay away from seafood. In fact, to keep you alive, I am going to make that a religious rule, voila, it is a sin to eat lobster.

God, Moses, Jesus, none of them have anything against eating lobster, it was just a rule that made sense 4000 years ago.

Same as the whole Fish on Friday idea of the Catholic Church; it was a petition to the Pope by almost bankrupt fishermen that got that onto the religious books.

Sorry, I don’t mean to make anyone mad, but use common sense, when we decide that actions are sinful, we truly are picking and choosing what we dislike from the Bible. All of us do it, we focus on what we want and forget about the rest.

I wager that there is not a single thing that God actually finds sinful except not loving each other. In fact, when asked to boil it all down, Jesus said, love yourself, love God, love everyone else… do this and you are fine… and guess what… I can do that while being in love with a man, eating lobster, in my mixed fabric shirt.

Pentecost

Faith Today - Moncton Times & Transcript

Ah, Pentecost. 

There is, I think, no festival of the church year which I like better. Perhaps it is because this is the only one I can truly wrap my head around religiously. I mean, Christmas is about Jesus being born, it is just a birthday party. Easter is about Jesus dying and being resurrected, and I can’t really figure out how that happened, or what it means…

But Pentecost… The day that we remember how the Holy Spirit empowered the disciples to start the church, and how that same spirit continues to empower us. That I understand.

It is like love. Love inspires me to be nicer to people than I normally would. Or it is like creativity, which causes me to all of a sudden have this great idea for putting mustard on corn on the cob. (try it, you’ll love it).

The spirit is something we cannot see, but we can feel. It is the power of the universe seeping into my pores and strengthening me to do things I was afraid to do, or giving me ideas I never would have come up with, or empowering me to do it anyway, even though I am afraid.

So, the story says that these followers of Jesus, who were having a pretty rough time, were all gathered in Jerusalem and they were talking… and suddenly it was like their tongues were on fire… it was like everyone understood what they were saying… it was like they were inspired to speak in such a way that everyone wanted to join the new movement…

So partly this is the birthday of the church. It was from Pentecost on that people flocked to hear the disciples preach. But more importantly, this is a time when we celebrate a concept, the concept of divine inspiration.

There is a passage in the Bible where it says that when we are too sad to speak, the Holy Spirit speaks for us, and it does it through sighs and tears.

I like that. Once more it is a practical explanation of how God is active in my life. God is that power that goes beyond the strength I have. The divine is what gets me through it.

Albert Einstein was one of the world’s most creative minds. He could imagine things that others had not even dreamt of. He once put what I am trying to say this way:

“The most beautiful and most profound experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.”

It is when I stand and stare at the sunset over the Miramichi River and feel joy, and awe, and love in my heart that I am empowered to go out into the world and help others, or write creatively, or paint a picture….

Religion really is as simple as this. Jesus said that all of the laws, all of the rules, all of the sacraments, all of God could be wrapped up in the idea of having love in your heart.

It is that love and the inspiration that bore it that we celebrate during this time. Once upon a time there was a man who loved so completely, honestly, and compassionately that everyone wanted to be like him. That same spirit lives on in those of us who try and follow to this day.

Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we fail, but once a year we stop and remind ourselves that the power of that spirit goes beyond our imaginations; and that when you truly feel it, it will change your life.

So happy Pentecost everyone!

EROS

Faith Today - Times and Transcript - February 11th 2012

As an aside, I have been researching an article for Valentine’s Day about how to celebrate it in the most creative ways without breaking the bank. What I have discovered is that 90% of the people out there are either traditional, buy a rose or a box of chocolate type people; or they are the “scrooge” of Valentine’s Day.

In the Ancient Greek language there were different words for different types of love. First off there was Storge, which simply means affection. Then comes Philia, which is an affection type love, like friendship. Then we have Agape, which might be seen as “true love” or deep love, or sacrificial love… some sort of love that risks everything. Finally, there is Eros, which is passion, plain and simple. The modern word “erotic” comes from this Greek word.

Now, you might be saying, “so what” by this point. But I maintain that the English language causes us problems because it has so few words. Course and barbaric as it is, we only have the word, “Love” which is supposed to mean everything from how I feel about Roast Beef right through my bond with my children, and on to the person I share a romantic Valentine’s Dinner with.

Clearly, those are all different feelings. That is where, perhaps, we get confused. Valentine’s Day is a celebration of and for Eros; plain and simple.

The day actually is a religious holiday, one of the many “Saint Days” of the original church declared to honour Valentine, or Valentinus in Latin, who was martyred in Rome. The problem is that there were actually 14 Bishop Valentinus (Valentinii?) martyred, it is a popular name meaning strong or powerful.

Then the story took on a bit of a romantic twist…

Although this is not actually what historically happened, and there seems to be no such law on the books, legend said that under Emperor Claudius II there was a law that all young men should remain single, probably so they could easily be drafted into the Legion. Valentine then supposedly acted as a go between, carrying love notes in secret, and even performing secret weddings. And because of this he was killed.   

Thus on his feast day we trade love notes and celebrate romance.

So back to my opening point; as I have been asking the question, what do you do for Valentine’s Day most people tell me they buy chocolates or go out to a restaurant. Neither of which is very special in our day and age, and both of which are celebrating Agape, not Eros.

I mean, if this Valentine guy was willing to go to the grave in order to preserve our right to be romantic, shouldn’t we? If Jesus came that we might have full and abundant life? Shouldn’t we?

Religion at its core is about how we are as people. It is saying that we were created to be fully in tune with our selves, our world and each other. Christianity is a religion that puts love at the centre of all we do; so does Judaism and Islam and they do not just mean this agape type of deep love.

Some of the greatest erotic love poetry is actually found in the Bible, in Song of Solomon, which begins with these lines: “Kiss me, make me drunk with your kisses! Your sweet loving is better than wine.” And only gets racier from there.

My point is this, if we are creations of God, and if we are to live life to its fullest as Jesus suggests, then that means loving to its fullest as well. Do not let another Valentine’s Day go by without embracing some passion for those you love. Many have lived loved and lost so that we could be free to take one day of the year and show our love in an over the top way.

Not doing so would be a sin.