“More Original than Original Sin” Vance L. Toivonen
READING Romans 5:12-19
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned - sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man's trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. If, because of the one man's trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
READING C.G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy
The individual loses his guilt and exchanges it for infantile innocence; once more he can blame the wicked father for this and the unloving mother for that, and all the time he is caught in this inescapable causal nexus like a fly in a spider’s web, without noticing that he has lost his moral freedom. But no matter how much parents and grandparents may have sinned against the child, the man who is really adult will accept these sins as his own condition which has to be reckoned with. Only a fool is interested in other people’s guilt, since he cannot alter it. The wise man learns only from his own guilt. He will ask himself: Who am I that all this should happen to me? To find the answer to this fateful question he will look into his own heart.
SERMON
The doctrine of original sin and atonement in a nutshell is this: Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden by disobeying God. They were banished from the garden, as has been all of humanity since. We have all been banished from paradise. We are birthed into this sinfulness and disobedience. Only God can fix the problem. God did this through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Only through Jesus Christ are we forgiven the debt of our original sin.
Those of us who have grown up in traditional Christian settings have heard this over and over again. In his book A New Christianity for a New World, John Shelby Spong likens this to parents trying to improve their parenting skills. These parents buy a book that tells them every day they must in some manner convey to the child that he or she is a wretched, awful, terrible sinner. The parents might say things like, “You are hopeless, and lost.” Or “You can never be good enough.” Or “You are destined to eternal damnation.” And finally, “Only by believing, acting, understanding, and knowing certain things will you have a chance at redemption.” This is the set up of traditional Christianity. And none of us would raise our children like this. At least I hope not.
That first reading from Corinthians echoes a little of this, but with a marvelous universality woven in. In so many words Paul is saying, “Okay, if you think Adam and Eve messed it up for all of us, I’m here to tell you that Jesus came to tell us that it’s not really messed up anymore. We are all righteous before God. We are all redeemed, all hopeful, all objects of God’s grace, mercy and loving-kindness…no exceptions. There are no hoops to jump through. We are born into this love, born into this grace. We are no longer born sinful. We are born pre-redeemed.” It’s like that passage from Paul’s letter to Rome, the eighth chapter, “Neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God shown to us in Jesus Christ.”
We begin life not from a place of utter depravation, but from a place of empowerment. We are loved from birth by God and the universe. The imposition of human judgment and hatred and pain and suffering makes it seem like God and the universe might feel differently about us. But this is darkness and a big, fat lie. We are born in beauty and wonder. We are born in the hope and joy that the light we emanate will brighten the world. We are born in God’s good favor, and remain so until the day we die – no matter how convoluted our path through life becomes.
That opening litany from 1st Corinthians reminds us that love, real love, divine love endures all things. God endures with us through life. Human relationships can be so fickle that we may be deceived into thinking that love has a limited shelf life. Love is evidenced not by the warm gushy feelings we might experience, but rather by our stick-to-itiveness in the tough times. When we wrestle with one another and still hang in there together, not forsaking one another, we are reflecting God’s love for us in our relationships. I have seen this happen among us here in this place, and I can tell you it keeps me going. I am grateful for your love, your grace, your mercy, your patience, and your commitment. Thank you.
When we refrain from begrudging one another; when we are careful not to withhold forgiveness; when we live compassionately with one another, we are aiding in the establishment of God’s kingdom among us, that kingdom we pray for every week. Imagine what this world would be like if we lived together in such a way that grudges were not held, and love and understanding were the norm. Can we even fathom such a human co-existence? Yet this is what the kingdom of God is about.
Instead of original sin, we can put the emphasis on original forgiveness. One of the biggest little movies of 2008 is Juno, about a teenage girl dealing with her own pregnancy. I have not seen the film, but it has been recommended to me countless times. I look forward to seeing it this Wednesday night when I go with our Senior High Youth. A parent who had seen the film told me how much she loved the scene where Juno tells her parents about her pregnancy. From what I understand the striking thing about that scene is that the parents do not get all upset or panicky. They take the news in stride, and love and support their daughter.
Applying this parental image to God will be helpful in our recovery from the fear and judgment fostered by traditional religion within us. There was talk on public radio the other day about truth telling, and why we refrain from it. The fear of judgment and wrath is a big factor. Yet the guests on that particular program suggested that the healthiest way for us to approach one another is with the truth. We can image God as a loving parent to whom we can always tell the truth. We can seek to foster a community here at Hope where honesty and truth-telling are the norm. We can gather here to experience acceptance and unconditional love. We can make forgiveness the norm.
And by the way, let me clarify forgiveness. Forgiveness is about not holding on to emotions, thoughts, and tensions. Forgiveness is about releasing others, and ourselves, from the tight grip of judgment, anger, and resentment. When we withhold forgiveness we get stuck in the past, obsessing about what has happened. I even got stuck in the future earlier this week by not forgiving the weather forecast. The forecast for this morning projected that Sunday, today, would be the coldest day this week; and I am very weary of the cold this winter. So I got into a funk because of weather that hadn’t even happened yet. I got stuck in the future. So we can get stuck in the past, going over and over things that have happened, or not happened; and we can get stuck in the future by dreading what is going to happen, or what we think is going to happen.
J. Krishnamurti was an Indian philosopher and spiritual guru. In the later years of his life he began to tell his audiences his secret. Some of the people in those audiences had been coming to hear him for decades, reading all of his books, and so forth; so when he said, “I am now going to tell you my secret, the key to my understanding of life,” they braced themselves for something stunning, magnificent, and awe-inspiring. Krishnamurti then finally said, “This is my secret. I don’t mind what happens.”
Think about that. I get so caught up in the ways that I myself, as well as others, do not behave. I go out into the world every day with this satchel of expectations, and find myself being disappointed over and over and over again. Isn’t there some sort of pill I could take to correct this defect in my character? You know, like an “I don’t give a rip pill?”
Oprah’s new book selection is Eckart Tolle’s A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. In that book Eckhart Tolle relates the following story (pp.199-200).
The Zen Master Hakuin lived in a town in Japan. We was held in high regard and many people came to him for spiritual teaching. Then it happened that the teenage daughter of his next-door neighbor became pregnant. When being questioned by her angry and scolding parents as to the identity of the father, she finally told them that he was Hakuin, the Zen Master. In great anger the parents rushed over to Hakuin and told him with much shouting and accusing that their daughter had confessed that he was the father All he replied was, “Is that so?”
News of the scandal spread throughout the town and beyond. The Master lost his reputation. This did not trouble him. Nobody came to see him anymore. He remained unmoved. When the child was born, the parents brought the baby to Hakuin. “You are the father, so you look after him.” The Master took loving care of the child. A year later, the mother remorsefully confessed to her parents that the real father of the child was the young man who worked at the butcher shop. In great distress they went to see Hakuin to apologize and ask for forgiveness. “We are really sorry. We have come to take the baby back. Our daughter confessed that you are not the father.” “Is that so?” is all he would say as he handed the baby over to them.
Eckhart Tolle now comments on the story with the following words
The Master responds to falsehood and truth, bad news and good news, in exactly the same way: “Is that so?” He allows the form of the moment, good or bad, to be as it is and so does not become a participant in human drama. To him there is only this moment, and this moment is as it is. Events are not personalized. He is nobody’s victim. He is so completely at one with what happens that what happens has no power over him anymore. Only if you resist what happens are you at the mercy of what happens, and the world will determine your happiness or unhappiness.
This Zen Master and my image of God are much alike for me. God is present with me, with us, with the world in this non-judgmental, present-moment way. God certainly desires always what is best for us and for the world, but understanding that the best is not always what is, walks with us through whatever happens. Forgiveness for us is that process of letting go of what was, or what wasn’t. The more we stay focused on accepting what is, the less forgiving we will need to do.
Original sin is just another way of clinging to the past, and setting us up for a false economy of spirit. Original forgiveness tells us that whatever we are clinging to is already forgiven by God and the universe. All that is left for us is to let go, and simply be.