In any journey of faith we take moments down long, winding
roads of self-examination, and these times are extremely important because it
helps put us in a head-space to really think about our relationship with
God. Part of that journey is
reconciliation.
But what are we reconciling with God about? I mean, what has caused this rift between us
and the Father? Well that would be
sin. But then there is that ever present
question of what exactly is “sin”?
Sin, in broad terms, is any action you knowingly take or
refuse to take that puts you at odds with God’s plan, will, and
commandments. We really don’t have the
time or the space to dive into all the different types of sin out there, nor do
I feel particularly qualified to do so.
Instead I’m going to shore it up with the root of all sin, the center of
sin. “I”.
When you look at the very word “sin” the center of it is
“I”, and that really establishes a foundation for understanding sin. When you go to confession, you can’t talk
about what everyone else has been doing, you can only hold accountable
yourself. “Forgive me father, for “I”
have sinned.” When we sin, we are
placing ourselves, our wants and desires, above what God has intended. We love ourselves more than we love anything
else. When we sin, it’s an egocentric
action, regardless of what the particular sin is.
Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden. Original Sin, as we understand it, is Adam
and Eve taking the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, eating it, and becoming
aware of basically everything. You’ve
probably heard this story a thousand times, but let me offer you a different
perspective: There wasn’t anything
special about that tree. Think about the
command in Genesis 2: 17: “but you must
not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from
it you will certainly die.” Now, in
Genesis 3:6 “When the woman saw that the
fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable
for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her
husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”
Notice what didn’t happen?
They didn’t drop dead. They ate
from the tree, and in doing so came to the realization that they could make
their own choices, and started coming to imperfect conclusions about the world
around them rather than relying on God’s instruction. They placed themselves before God, the ego,
the self, became more important, and that is when they lost their way. God placed the commandment “do not eat of it,
or you will certainly die”, but that was an outcome, a result of their
decision, not an effect of the act.
Let me unpack that last part, there is a difference between
the action and the decision to act and sin is a choice. You have to make a decision whether or not to
sin, whether or not you are going to place yourself ahead of God. Exodus 20:3 plainly states “You shall have no other gods before me.” Now, in an era of polytheistic societies,
that means you worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Period.
God comes first in the line of priorities. Christ himself expands on this in Matthew
22:37-38 “And he said to him, “You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.”
If you love something with all your heart and soul and mind,
then you love it more than you love yourself.
That is a very tall order, but there it is. Sin is placing God anywhere beyond #1. So, regardless of what your personal sins
are, they are all derivatives of placing yourself ahead of God.
Now
that we have identified what sin is, we can actually start looking for
reconciliation. God is a God of mercy,
grace, and forgiveness, and he is always wanting us to come home. A perfect illustration of this is “the Good
Shepherd”, where Christ is carrying the lamb on His shoulders, bringing it
home. That is what Christ has been
trying to do, He’s trying to bring us back to the Father, back to Paradise, and
we need him to do that, because if we try to figure it out for ourselves, then
we are going right back to placing ourselves ahead of God. So how do we reconcile this?
Well, if you’ve been reading this far, the answer should be
pretty straight forward. We need to
start by placing God ahead of ourselves.
That’s the “how”. When we find
ourselves tempted, either by our friends, our family, our addictions, the
pleasure centers of our brain, or the devil himself, then we need to examine
the action and ask “Is this pleasing to God?”
Years ago I was working with a gentleman and he asked me “Hey Michael,
would it be ethical if I…” and I stopped him right there. I said “If you ever have to ask “would it be
ethical if I did this…” the answer is probably a resounding “no.”” The same applies here. If you have to ask if something would be
pleasing to God, the answer is probably going to be a resounding no. If something is pleasing to God, we know that
pretty much right off the bat, it’s kind of a gut instinct for the most part. That’s not to say it’s easy, and I highly
recommend reaching out to a pastor or a priest or an accountability partner or
someone to get a second opinion if you ever find yourself confused. When in doubt, pray it out.
Now WHY do we need to reconcile with God? Because, in short, we’ve severely damaged our
relationship with him. Our sin caused
our divide from him. Our continued sin
required the sacrifice of Jesus to atone for sin, and our continued sin spits
in the eye of Christ every time we do it.
That’s a hard truth right there, because a lot of times we
like to gloss over sins by saying “well I’m not really hurting anyone.” But no,
we are hurting Christ when we do this.
Further we are damaging our relationship with not only God, but those
around us. So reconciliation is very
important.
Many, many years ago, while my grandfather was still alive,
my father was looking through the local newspaper and saw that an elderly woman
with our last name had passed away. Our
last name is not common in our area, so he reached out to my grandpa and asked
if he knew who this lady was. Boy did
he. My grandfather said that, when he
was about to ship out for the army in WWII, he was going around to various
friends and family saying his final goodbyes, just in case he didn’t make it
home, which you can imagine had to be a very sobering time. He arrived at this family members house and
saw a copy of “Mein Kampf” on the table, (the autobiography of Adolf Hitler)
and various Nazi party paraphernalia around the house. He was understandably upset and told her as
much in probably a very loud and colorful way.
He then reported her to the FBI, and that was the last we heard of her
until the day my dad read her obituary.
On one hand this story serves to illustrate the fractioning
war and choices can have on a family.
Obviously at some point in their shared history, this person meant a lot
to my grandpa, enough that he wanted to tell her goodbye. So to have this massive rift between the two,
to the extent that the greater portion of her extended family had no idea she
even existed, that is a devastating thing.
I calculated it out, that was fifty six-ish years. Over five and a half decades of no
communication. Five and a half decades
of missed weddings, of missed birthdays, of anniversaries, reunions, funerals,
celebrations of life, landmark events that were lost because of choices made in
the heat of the moment.
Yes, being a Nazi sympathizer is no small thing; neither is
being reported to the FBI. But no one
can say how she would have viewed the Nazi party during the run of WWII, a
month later, a year later, ten years later.
It could have been the very next day she opened her eyes and renounced
the party all together, but we’ll never know.
In her defense, had it not been for WWII, Hitler would have been
remembered by history as a great leader.
He was Time Magazine’s man of the year prior to the war. The man she was defending wasn’t declaring a
holocaust on humanity; he was the man who revitalized her nation of origin, a
place she felt very strong emotional ties to.
She might not have known, and for her ignorance was condemned.
When God became man, in the body and blood of Jesus Christ,
he sought to reconcile with us. He walked
the world from our point of view, saw the whole of humanity and understood on a
fundamental level what it is we go through.
He understands why we make the choices we make. Jesus dined with tax collectors and sinners
not to condemn them but to show that God understands, and still wants us to
come home before it’s too late. He wants
to carry us on his shoulders home. In
order to do that, we need to walk in his will and turn our back on sin. Nobody said it would be easy, but that’s why
we have the church and confession. The
Gospel is not about condemnation, but the fulfillment of a promise of father to
his children.
Thanks for reading.
