The Bungee Cord 3-28-22

The Bungee Cord 3-28-22

Hello,

What Ever Happened to Sin? is book that was written when I was in seminary (early ‘80’s) by an author whose name I don’t remember. Maybe one reason why I don’t remember the author is that I never read the book. I just remember the title because it was mentioned in a discussion with one of my classmates who believed that Lutheran pastors were getting too soft on sin.

The reason that this book title came to my mind is that I was at our weekly pastors’ gathering at which we go over the Bible readings for the upcoming Sunday, when the Pastor who was leading read from a commentary on the Prodigal Son, “people, today, do not relate to the concept of sin” (paraphrased).

You may know the story of the Prodigal Son that Jesus told was about a father who had two sons. One son prematurely demanded his inheritance, took off with it, and spent it all in “desolate living”. When knee deep in pig manure, “he came to himself”, and decided to return home and beg for mercy. Still when he was far away, the Father saw him coming, ran out to him, ordered him to be richly clothed and have the family ring put on his finger, and called for a celebratory party. His son had come home! The other brother heard the ruckus, wondered what was going on, and upon finding out a party for his wayward brother was taking place he became angry. The father came out to invite the angry brother in, but the brother responded by telling off his father for the lack of appreciation that he had received for his years of obedience and work, and the insane appreciation of that other son who had rebelled and squandered everything.

It is a parable that many Biblical scholars believe Jesus told to speak about sin, specifically the forgiveness of sin. Undoubtably, the wayward brother’s actions brought pain to himself and to his father. But so did the stay-at-home brother’s actions bring pain to himself and his father. Sin takes its forms in many ways, sometimes vile and repulsive, other times subtle and eroding. But either way, sin leaves pain in its wake, pain that casts the shadow of death.

You see, sin is not about being bad. It is about being part of pain. Although people can always debate about what is good and what is bad, not so with pain. If something hurts. It hurts. It is no wonder that people don’t relate to the concept of sin if sin is simply a way of separating good from bad. There are plenty of other ways to try and determine good from bad, often leading to a variety of opinions. But if we understand the Commandments as an important fence that protects us from pain, those Commandments are much clearer and it is far more clear as to why we would want to follow them.

So, was the father in the parable soft on sin?

Not as I read the parable. It is clear to me that the father in the story very well knew the pain that was torturing their lives for the sins they had committed. So aware of the pain that he did not wait for either of his sons to reach him, he went to both of them and did something that commandments cannot do. He embraced them. Commandments can be a protective fence, but as we all know, they are not an insurmountable fence. A loving embrace, however, connects hearts, as the Bible says, “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Cor 13)

Patching holes in a fence or making it higher is much easier than taking someone’s pain into your heart and hanging in there with them as they heal. That is what the father did. That is what God did when Jesus hung on the cross for our sins. That’s not being soft on sin. It is doing the most drastic thing that can actually do something about our sins.

What ever happened to sin? God was tough, as tough as can be, with sin. He nailed it to the cross and left it dead in the grave.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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