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, you know the power of the evil foe. You endured his temptation in the wilderness for 40 days. Answer our prayer to “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Keep us from the devil and his schemes. Guard us from the fiery arrows of satan. Grant us life by the power of our victorious King, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Word
1 John 3:8
“Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”
Meditation: Rules for Pizza by Koleen Barnes
This week we are supposed to focus on sin as lawlessness. I won’t lie to you- I have struggled with what to write about. I keep going back to that pizza commercial (maybe Little Caesars?) from a few years ago where a guy walks in and says “there are no rules!” then takes his shirt off. He is told he has to put his shirt back on and he goes “there is one rule!” Why am I focused on this silly old commercial when I’m supposed to be writing a meditation? Your guess is as good as mine.
Maybe it is because the idea of lawlessness is completely foreign to my OCD brain. Not only is my life structured with legal rules as well as biblical rules, but also the rules my brain makes up for me. Right shoe has to go on first. No idea why, that’s just how it is. Pants before shirt, always. Routine and rules are a major part of my life and how I manage the often not-so-nice voice in my head. If I follow the rules, I know things get done properly and I second guess myself less.
So why isn’t that true for all rules? Why are some easier to break? Maybe it is because I want to break them. Maybe because they don’t seem as “big” as others. Maybe sin is that way too. The bible tells us that all sin is equal, but I think that is hard for our brains to comprehend. How can telling my friend she doesn’t look fat in a dress be the same level of offense as taking someone’s life? I guess because sin is lawlessness. All sin amounts to being stuck in the extreme of a world with no rules. At first, it may sound fun, but then that not-so-nice voice in your head gets out of control.
I wish I had a remedy, or some grand point that no one has ever made before that cracks this case open and helps you (and me) feel better about the fact that every sin is bad. Some little tip or trick to make it less scary. But luckily, I don’t have to.
The fact of the matter is, we don’t deserve any tips or tricks to make us feel better. We deserve that not-so-nice voice in our heads, plus way more. We have earned the punishment of living in that wrongness and lawlessness of our actions. But, in a few weeks we get to talk about the best holiday, Easter. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but that remedy and grand point that allows us to feel better about the lawlessness happens then and I can’t wait.
Dear God, please help us to notice when we slip into our own version of sin and lawlessness. Help us to really know what the repercussions of our actions look like. Please also help us to know that Easter is the light at the end of this dark and lawless tunnel. Help us to remember that we don’t have to be in a lawless world alone.
Sending
In the face of evil, may the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.