"Original Sin?"

What I have been playing with, the last few days, is the idea of “original sin.”

What exactly is original sin?  

And where did the idea of it come from?

Are human beings born with a sinful, unclean, nature?

Or, my soapbox question:  “Who is able to  properly define sin?”

I am discovering, after all these years, that so much of what we believe as biblical is not.

So yesterday morning I ventured, once again, into the large book on the Greek and Hebrew terms we read in scripture: Theological Dictionary of the New Testament.

It is, to this, day my most reliable source.  

Online sources are subject to so much misinformation.

The first  interesting thing I read is: “No uniform or self-contained concept of sin is present in the Old Testament…Root words “that carry the idea of sin have varied sense “negligence,” “rebelling,” “guilt,” and “error.”

Has the sense of: “missing” e.g., the way.  “going astray”……transgression of custom, or law, or a treaty, or obligation, with guilt that this implies….”

“For the Old Testament as a whole, then, sin is a legal and theological term for what is against the norm.” 

The assumption: 

 “If God’s will is the supreme law of life, apostasy from God has come to expression in error….violation of God’s norm is the substance of the knowledge of sin.”  (p. 44 &45) 

What I am thinking is that for centuries the egoic mind has made multiples assumptions on the subject of sin.  And, multiple assumptions on how the Almighty dealt with, and still deals with, such assumptions.

Assumptions, both theological and secular, are  dangerous.  Not to say misleading.

So what I would like to do here, is to limit all the historical assumptions to only what Jesus came to model and teach. And how Jesus dealt with those who were labeled “sinner,” or "unclean."

I am not saying the the Old Testament is in anyway unimportant to our faith.

What I am saying is that with the first books of the Bible -- the Old Testament -- come with a huge amount of baggage.  Baggage, that in many ways, has misled the world as to God’s character. That part of history is encumbered with egoic traditions, ritual and beliefs that no longer fit into Jesus’ presentation of God.  

As a matter of fact he came to call into question that baggage.

For that reason I am wanting to focus on nothing but the love, and genuine character, of God that Jesus — physical being — bought to attention as he walked upon this earth.

As Cynthia Bourgeault puts it:  “There is no monster out there; only love waiting to set us free.” (p. 107)

When questioned about what commandment was the greatest, Jesus responded:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” ³⁸This is the greatest and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ⁴⁰On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’ (Matt. 22)

If we just focus on God in Jesus skin — and only that.  We will discover that we will have a much more accurate and precise picture of what is essential in our faith walk.

God Doesn't Promise Perfect Peace

This morning I would like to revisit this readers wonder:

“After reading your blogs on resonance: I was thinking there could be resonant evil as well a good.  Resonance  works in all ways some positive and come negative.”

As we reflect, on the many volatile situations in our world today; this reader’s wonder is very relevant to anyone’s faith. 

Relevant because the questions are multiple. 

People are wondering where God fits in so much conflicting confusion on the national scene, as well as  across the world.

Or, how can there really be a steadfast, faithful and actually active God in a world like ours. 

Or, to keep it on a more personal level, concerning the huge and small hurts of everyday life that never seem to quiet.

By the way these questions are not just questions for today — 2020.  They have been asked for centuries.

I am remembering a conversation, that my friend and I were having with her mother, in the early 1960s.  We were both just married and talking about having children.  

Her mother’s voice raised an octave:  “How can you even think of bring children into this awful world?”

Cynthia Bourgeault has something interesting to say about such things:

“Could it be that this earthly realm, not in spite of but because of its very density and jagged edges, offers precisely the conditions for the expression of certain aspects of divine love that could become real in no other way?  This world does indeed show forth what love is like in a particularly intense and costly way.  But when we look at this process more deeply, we can see that those sharp edges we experience as constriction at the same time call forth some of the most exquisite dimensions of love, which requires the condition of finitude in order to make sense — qualities such as steadfastness, tenderness, commitment, forbearance, fidelity and forgiveness.  These mature and subtle flavors of love have no real context in a realm where there are no edges and boundaries, where all just flows.  But when you run up against the hard edge and have to stand true to love anyway, what emerges is a most precious taste of pure divine love.  God has spoken his most imitate name. 

“….I am not saying that suffering exists in order for God to reveal himself.  I am only saying that where suffering exists and is consciously accepted, there divine love shines forth brightly.” (p 99 - 100 ‘The Wisdom Jesus)

I had a dear friend, once, who thought that since she was a believer — a Christian — that bad or unfortunate things were not suppose to happen in her life.  

That, is just not true.

Is it?

What Was Jesus Really Saying?

Very early this morning I remembered:  

                                                                         

^“Let anyone with ears listen!”

Now I am thinking:  We haven’t been such great listeners since those moments when Jesus walked on the earth.  

We weren't, such good listeners; because we didn't know how to listen to what Jesus was actually saying and doing.

In Matthew 13 Jesus speaks to this problem:

10 Then the disciples came and asked him, ‘Why do you speak to them in parables?’ ¹¹He answered, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. ¹²For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. ¹³The reason I speak to them in parables is that “seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.” ¹⁴With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:

“You will indeed listen, but never understand,

   and you will indeed look, but never perceive. 

¹⁵ For this people’s heart has grown dull,

   and their ears are hard of hearing,

     and they have shut their eyes;

     so that they might not look with their eyes,

   and listen with their ears,

and understand with their heart and turn—

   and I would heal them.” 

¹⁶But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. ¹⁷Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.(Matt. 13)

When someone is speaking we often hear, what our minds are saying about, what we think we are hearing.  

I think maybe Jesus was talking about, that natural human habit, in this section of Matthew; because what he was really saying was missed because he was saying things that the people listening didn’t want -- or didn't know how -- to hear.  

They didn’t want to hear it because it meant that they would need to make adjustment in their thinking or behaving — or both.

Because what he was asking, or suggesting, was too difficult.  Or, at the very least, it was so foreign to what had always been. 

Jesus’ suggestions not only covered individual thinking, speaking and behavior; he also included many Jewish religious traditions and rituals as well.

And It very well might be; because what he was saying and asking was — to the egoic intellectual logic and reasoning mind — just didn’t not compute.

Here’s the deal:  They were listening — hearing — words, ideas, concepts.  

They were not listening to the tiny currents, vibrations and wave links that carry the positive ways of thinking, speaking and being.

They were not able to use their hearts -- only their minds.

2 Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, ³the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. ⁴But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear. ⁵I have led you for forty years in the wilderness. The clothes on your back have not worn out, and the sandals on your feet have not worn out; ⁶you have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink—so that you may know that I am the Lord your God.(Deut. 29)  

God’s OWD (Original Wireless Design) surpasses all language barriers, all former things that were, all around the world.