Sin is a loaded word. For those outside the faith, it’s a funny and dated religious term. For Christians, we repeat it so often that it loses its bite. Scripture reveals that sin is worse than we know. Jesus is so serious about it that he says, “If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out.” What is it about sin that’s so fatal it would require Jesus to go to the cross?
This Lent we do a soul examination, studying all the ways God describes the complex of sin. Lawlessness, adultery, rebellion . . . The cancerous nature of sin means that we need to go deeper than surface confession. The problem is worse than we know, which makes our Savior greater than we can imagine.
Invocation
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, who delivers us from all evil.
Invitation Prayer
Lord Jesus, you suffered evil at the hands of the religious establishment. Priests accused you of blasphemy. In their trial against you, they called the Good Shepherd evil. Forgive your people when we call evil good and good evil. We are sheep easily led astray. Renew us to be your people, clean and holy. Amen.
Word
1 John 3:7
“Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.”
Meditation: All Rise by Anna Jacob
An extreme case of deceit is played out in the story of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. A play written by Aaron Sorkin was performed at The Fabulous Fox Theater here in Saint Louis last week and I was fortunate to attend. Lee’s story was one I was familiar with, having read the book in high school and having seen the movie a couple of times. More recently, I read Harper Lee’s sequel, Go Set a Watchman. But it had been a while since I contemplated the characters of Scout, Atticus Finch, and the other characters of Maycomb, Alabama.
The play is narrated by a young Scout, her brother Jem, and their friend Dill. While the main plotline involves Scout and Jem’s father, Atticus Finch, as he defends Tom Robinson, the children have their own storyline involving Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley.
There is a lot of deceit happening in this story. Bob and his daughter Mayella wrongfully accuse Tom Robinson. The prosecuting attorney helps to deceive the jurors into charging an innocent man. Dill deceives his friends into thinking he has a relationship with his father who has been mostly absent from his life. Jem tries to deceive his father regarding how he lost his pants when the children go off to spy on Boo Radley.
All of these are varying degrees of deception and lawlessness. Not telling the truth. Just a little lie that, depending on the circumstance, can have an even greater effect.
This week’s reading has me contemplating another verse in 1 John from Chapter 1, verse 8: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
When a judge steps in the courtroom, you hear the phrase, “All rise.” Scout remarks about this phrase in the play. For us Christians, this too can be a call to action. As we worship on Sunday, we rise up, standing before God in judgment. We confess our sins weekly. We have to continually rise up, working against our desire to deceive ourselves, not avoiding the harsh truth of sin in our lives.
Unlike Tom Robinson, we should be found guilty. We deserve the ultimate punishment – death. Atticus Finch was unable to save Tom. But even as we sit in judgment before God for our lawlessness, Jesus steps in, taking the burden of our sin and its consequences upon his shoulder. Because of him, we too will one day all rise from death into new life through him. Dear Lord, thank you for your truth. Help me to avoid deceiving others. Let me continually rise up, knowing that you have saved me from my own lawlessness. In your name I pray, Amen.
Sending
In the face of evil, may the God of faithfulness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Jesus Christ. Amen.