What is Sin: Love and the Mark We Miss

The word “sin,” as it relates to biblical scripture, comes from a word that means to miss the mark, fault, or moral failure (Strong 266). It is often where the conversation of Christian faith begins, in our failings before God. But what is that failure? What is the mark we miss? To listen to the American Church¹, the goal is an unobtainable perfection, and to sin is to break some prescribed code. Failing to keep the code–whatever the fuck that looks like–drives us from perfection. Each wrong step takes us deeper and deeper into spiritual debt. But what if this understanding of sin is wrong? What if the goal is something else entirely? What if the goal is not perfection, but love?

The author of the Gospel of Matthew writes of a confrontation between Jesus and a young lawyer.

36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 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 greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
(Mt 22.36-40)

The young lawyer challenges the disruptive teacher, Jesus, asking of all the commandments which is the most important. Jesus gives not one, but two commandments upon which “hang all the Law and Prophets.” God’s Anointed tells the audience that every law and every word of the prophets is founded upon loving God with all they are and loving their neighbors as they love ought to love themselves. He doesn’t say “don’t be gay,” “don’t have an abortion,” or “don’t vote for the Roman occupying forces,” he says that loving God and loving one’s neighbor encompasses the entire will of God².

However, some in the church will remind us that Jesus had not “come to abolish the Law or the Prophets,” and this is true, but Jesus also says: “I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished” (Mt. 5.17-19). This implies that the Law stands until it has been fulfilled. And the Law has been fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Christ. Paul, the writer of several New Testament letters affirms this, saying:

For [Jesus Christ] is our peace; in his flesh he has made both into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us, abolishing the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.
(Eph 2.15-18)

Paul tells his audience that the “law with its commandments and ordinances” has been abolished, superseded by the work of Christ on the cross. The law has been fulfilled and in Christ a new humanity is created³. This, of course, is not to suggest that we are now free to live in a state of lawlessness wherein humanity may act according to selfishness.

If sin is not missing the mark or goal of perfection, what is it? I believe sin is failing to love God and our fellow human beings. To love God, I argue, is to first love the humans around us, the same who bear the imago dei–the image of God (Gen 1.26-28). Throughout the Gospels and the epistles (letters) we are given example after example of love crossing the boundaries and borders erected by the old Law. More convincing is the final judgement Jesus describes in an apocalyptic warning given in the Gospel of Matthew concerning the least of these:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You who are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life.”
(Mt 25.31-46)

Loving one another is the divine edict of the new kingdom. The “least of these” are not identified as those who share in our beliefs, customs, or traditions, but our fellow human beings–our neighbors. Jesus makes it clear that this is the standard by which we are judged.

If love is the mark for which we are to strive in faith, what hope is there in an American Christianity known for its cruelty, hatred, and pride? What hope is found in the christofascists railing against the fair and just treatment of the culturally and traditionally marginalized? What hope is to be found in those who repeat the same failures as the religious elite whom Jesus condemns in the Gospels? There is none.

What is sin? I believe it is a failure to love not just in words but in action. If faith without works is dead, this means faith is demonstrated by our works–and that work is love (Jas 2.14-26). And this love is made possible in following the Way of Jesus, that is, the way of love.

Again, what is sin? Failure to love God and failure to love our neighbor.

_{1 The “American Church” is a reference to the traditional mainline evangelical, fundamentalist, and charismatic protestant churches, as well as the protestant influenced Catholic Church in the U.S.
2 Note that Jesus does not put conditions on loving the people around us. It is not “love your neighbor as long as they fit your expectation of an acceptable person,” but to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Period.}
_{3 See also: Acts 15.1-9; Rom 3.21-31, 7.6, 10.11-13; Gal 2; Phil 3.1-11; Col 2.6-19}

Bathsheba: Beloved of God–Examining 2 Samuel 11 & 12

There was something refreshing about the evening air in springtime. Much of the day had been put behind her save for those last nagging thoughts that tend to linger upon uncertainty. It was the season of war, and hubris pitted nation against nation (2 Sam 11.1). Her husband was among those fighting another man’s battle for glory–taken in by the illusion that bloodshed somehow brought honor or made men great (11.11). Fool, but still, she loved him (12.3; Kensky 155). Like the evening air, the water was cool and invigorating, providing respite in the midst of a tumultuous season. She was unaware of the gaze that held her like an object to be owned or the hunger rising behind those lurid eyes (2 Sam 11.2-4). When the king’s men arrived, Bathsheba had no recourse. Hers was but to submit.

—–

The structures of power are aligned against Bathsheba. To position her as villain or vixen in the account of 2 Samuel requires leaps the text does not provide. Neither does the Hebrew provide wiggle room to frame David as the unwitting victim of feminine wiles. In the clearest (and least academic) terms, based on what is revealed in the text, Bathsheba was minding her own damn business. It is David’s lustful eyes that happen upon her private moment, and it is David who sexualizes and objectifies her body. Like Simba, who disregarded Mufasa’s warning that the dark places were not his to tread, David considers all he lays eyes upon to be his, for he is king. Therefore, he sends his messengers into the shadowlands beyond divinely established moral borders to take what does not belong to him.

David does what David does because he believes he can. He is king; who can challenge him? There is no hard evidence to prove that his audience with Bathsheba was anything more than a friendly chat. Rumors, after all, are only rumors. It is when Bathsheba becomes pregnant that things get a little more complicated. David can’t just shove $600 into her hand and tell her to “take care of it.” Instead, he does the next worst thing–he brings her husband home for a bit of r&r in the hope of hiding the truth surrounding Bathsheba’s condition. When that doesn’t work, the king murders her husband by proxy.

What transpires between Bathsheba and David is a sexual assault. Regardless of how force, intimidation, or coercion may have been used, the encounter remains an assault. From the moment the male gaze of David falls upon her, Bathsheba’s life is in danger. She cannot refuse the king, for he can put her to death (or worse). If her husband discovers she is pregnant and he a cuckold, he can put her to death to restore his fragile honor. The power differential is far too vast for Bathsheba to cross safely.

Bathsheba is damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t. Her personhood is violated by a prick in a crown. She has no earthly means of getting the justice due her. Her assault and the murder of her husband go unresolved because the structural powers are set against her. Yet, the unfathomable injury against her does not go unanswered. The Divine Creator of the universe sees the harm brought against the “least of these” (Mt 25.31-46) and is enraged. Bathsheba, bearing the imago dei, has been grossly injured and God is not having it–not today, anyway.

—–

This divine intervention reveals that our sacred cows do not always get it right–they don’t even get it mostly right. Yet, because we do not want to critique our idols, we miss what is happening before us. To frame this story as “what you do doesn’t matter as long as you love God” is to miss Bathsheba. The man after God’s own heart inflicts undue trauma on her. As Tikva Frymer-Kensky suggests in Reading Women of the Bible, Bathsheba–and not her husband–is the poor man whose lamb is taken and slaughtere d (155). The “thing that David had done displeased the Lord” (2 Sam 11.27) and he is held accountable.

God loves Bathsheba. Though her society makes her lesser because of her gender and renders her male property, the Creator’s action casts her in a different light. The Divine brings judgment down on the king’s head for her. Her personhood and dignity matter. She bears the same imago dei as her male counterparts. God equally loves her.

This divine act almost seems to foreshadow the coming Christ, who will fulfill the Law and tear down the barriers erected to segregate us from each other–in whom there is no distinction between “us” and “them.” Certainly, this should call to mind the foundation of the Law and Prophets–to love God with all we are, and to love the human beings around us as we ought love ourselves (Mt 22.36-40) regardless of the segregating barriers culture would have us erect. BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, female, male, poor, rich, homeless, disabled, white, cisgender, heteronormative, non-heteronormative, and everything in between, in Christ, we are one, and by our love we will be judged (Mt 25.31-46).

Perhaps, then, it is imperative that we strive to see the overlooked among us—for regardless of our own perceived standing before God, we will be held to account where we withheld love in favor of cruelty and self satisfaction.

Reimagining the Sacred through AI Generated Art

Brewer, Michael. “Jesus of Nazareth.” Midjourney AI, Digital Medium, 2022.

Brewer, Michael. “Our Lady of Sorrows.” Midjourney AI, Digital Medium, 2022.

Brewer, Michael. “Mary Magdalene.” Midjourney AI, Digital Medium, 2022.

Brewer, Michael. “St. Monica.” Midjourney AI, Digital Medium, 2022.

Brewer, Michael. “Holy Eucharist.” Midjourney AI, Digital Medium, 2022.

Juneteenth Liturgy this Sunday!

Episcopal Church of the Saviour will be celebrating a Juneteenth liturgy this Sunday, June 19, 2022 at 9:30am! If you’re in area come out and celebrate Freedom Day!

“May God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this work, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done. Amen.”
Franciscan Four-Fold Blessing, The Very Rev. Kim L. Coleman.

The Four-Fold Franciscan Blessing by The Very Rev. Kim L. Coleman.

And now, may God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, exploitation of people, so that we may continue to work for justice, freedom and peace. Amen.
May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that we may reach out our hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy. Amen.
May God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this work, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done. Amen.
And the Blessings of God Almighty, the One who creates, Redeems and Sanctifies, be upon you and all you love, this day, and forever more. Amen.
The Four-Fold Franciscan Blessing, The Very Rev. Kim L. Coleman.

“Jesus Christ Pantocrator” through the Lens of Colossians 1.15-20

*Jesus Christ Pantocrator*, Instanbul, c.1261

The hymn found in Colossians 1:15-20 opens with: “[Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him.”(Col. 1.15-16, NRSVUE, 2022). The claim, according to the hymn, is that the Jesus Christ attested to in the gospels is the embodiment of the Creator whom we have not seen with our own eyes (Jn. 6.46). Through Christ, the Creator is revealed–meaning, the only way to understand God is to first and foremost, look to Christ.

The hymn also asserts what is found in the Gospel of John:

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. (14.8-10).
John 14:8-10, NRSVUE

The words and the work of Jesus reveal to us the Creator–referred to in the text and by tradition as the “Father.” The hymn reveals the work of the Creator is made manifest through the Son by whom “all things in heaven and on earth. . .visible and invisible. . .have been created. . .” (Col. 1.15-16). For me, it is important to start here in my examination of the claims being made by the late Byzantine mosaic located in Istanbul, Jesus Christ Pantocrator (c. 1261).

As Dr. Amy Whisenand shared throughout her June 14, 2022 lecture, “Pantocrator” translates into “Almighty” or “All Powerful.” This title, by its nature, is therefore making the claim that Jesus Christ is the same as God the Creator. The first text in the Pentateuch–the first five books in the Bible and Torah–identifies God the Creator by the title, “Almighty.” Genesis 17.1 reads: “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. . .'” Later instances of the usage of Almighty as a title for the Creator can be found in Genesis 28.3, 35.11, 48.3, 49.25, and at least 91 other times throughout the Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocryphal texts. The mosaic’s use of Almighty as a title for Jesus therefore asserts a claim in line with Trinitarian belief that Jesus is not only a member of the Godhead but shares a co-equality with the Creator.

The Trinity Iconography Institute confirms the Chironomia–the meaning of “. . .hand gestures in supporting oratory, or conveyance of unspoken meaning understood by the audience” (Trinity Iconographers)–as a blessing. The positioning of the hand creates the “IXIC,” or the initials of Christ, which appears to assert that the highest form of blessing comes from the person of Christ. After all, what greater blessing can one receive if not from the One through whom “. . .all things in heaven and on earth have been created” (Col. 1.15)? Additionally, the hand gesture not only conveys blessing, but it is also related to classical oration from ancient history indicating “the speaker is going to say something important, which can also be applicable to all icons of Jesus Christ and His saints” (Trinity Iconographers).

In my own journey, as I walked away from the cult in which I was raised and the modern American Evangelical lens of biblical interpretation, I flirted with Eastern Orthodoxy. I studied its traditions, attended their liturgies, and experienced their rich practices of faith and theological interpretations. I discovered icons–works of religious art depicting biblical and divine subjects–were viewed as windows into the divine realm. It is part of the reason religious Byzantine art might seem strange and disproportionate to our Western eyes. The icons are meant to draw us into the story they tell. From that perspective, I cannot help but notice the very ordinary humanness of Jesus in this image.

We have a declaration of Christ as equal with “God Almighty,” the Father and Creator, yet he is very human in his appearance. It brings to life the claim that “. . .He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything” (Col. 1.18). The Almighty took on human form, walked not just among us, but with us. His emptying of himself and obedience “. . .even [unto] death on a cross” (Phil. 2.6-11) and his resurrection has made Christ the “mediator between God and humankind” (1 Tim. 2.5) and our high priest (Heb. 8.1-2). It seems that the humanity of Christ is crucial in the salvific act of God in order to reconcile God and humanity.

Christ’s humanity establishes him as the “firstborn” not just of the dead, but of all creation (Col. 1.15). Therefore, being both God (Jn. 1.1-2) and human (Jn. 1.14-18), and being that he is also the begotten Son of the Creator in whom the Creator was pleased (Matt. 3.17; 17.5; Mk. 9.7; Lk. 9.35), it stands to reason that the value–or worth–of Jesus, from whom the greatest blessings are given, supersedes that of all creation. Therefore, the obedience of Christ to the Creator by way of his life and death, confirmed through the resurrection, is what allows all of creation, “whether on earth or in heaven” (Col. 1.20) to be reconciled to God. In this way, when viewed through the hymn found in Colossians (Col. 1.15-20), Jesus Christ Pantocrator proclaims the salvific work of Jesus Christ for all creation and reveals to us the character of God.

Mennonite Church USA Affirms the LGBTQIA+ Community

The Mennonite Church USA has passed a resolution acknowledging the harm it has done to LGBTQ+ folk, and removed a ban on same-sex marriage.
Lily Wakefield Pink News, 2022

On June 1, 2022, the largest Mennonite denomination in the United States, Mennonite Church USA, affirms the LGBTQIA+ community as equal members in the body of Christ. The church body acknowledges the harm they’ve caused by denying an entire community of people their identity, and they are lifting their ban on same-sex marriage. The denomination also vowed to be inclusive of the LGBTQIA+ community in its theology moving forward.

This is great news!

Happy Pride!

Let Us Mourn; Let Us Grieve. Let Us Change the World. This is holy.

“A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” -Jeremiah 31:15

Litany of Lament
_{(Episcopal Church, Enhancing our Worship vol. 5)}

God, hear our prayer
And let our cry come to you.
Merciful God, we come to you in sorrow. Help us to grieve; let our tears flow; and look upon our broken hearts. God, hear our prayer,
And let our cry come to you.
We have lost children. We have lost hope. We have lost our way. Consider our losses. God, hear our prayer,
And let our cry come to you.
Our faith has been shaken. We are haunted by memories and weighed down with guilt. We are sick with sadness, weak with despair. Help us know your presence. God, hear our prayer,
And let our cry come to you.
In our suffering, we turn away from those who suffer also. Our bonds have been strained, one with another. Show us your compassion and help us forgive others and feel their sorrows. God, hear our prayer,
And let our cry come to you.
[We longed for these children, but wickedness has betrayed our hopes. Help us to honor them, and trust in your faithfulness. God, hear our prayer,]
And let our cry come to you.
Help us envision a future filled with promise, even if we cannot know what lies in store for us. Help us have confidence in your love as we take each new step. God, hear our prayer,
And let our cry come to you.

Christless Christian Nationalism on the Homefront

The Adventure Church/Tower District battle in Fresno, California has been, and continues to be, a glaring example of evangelical Christianity’s relationship with white supremacy, colonialism, and American nationalism. There were a number of red flags in this situation from a moral, ethical, and theological perspective.

One problematic example which stands out is that particular cult’s relationship with the white supremacist group ‘Proud Boys.’ When the modern KKK comes to defend your cause, it would do well to review and analyze your cause. One might ask, “why is a hate group so interested in supporting me?” Or perhaps it would be worth the time to consider what a designated terrorist group finds so attractive about the church in question.

Secondly, Adventure Church’s hostility, belligerence, and cruelty demonstrated a behavior which might arguably be called ‘the spirit of the antichrist.’ At the very least, it appears to indicate an absence of Christ among both the congregation and its pastor.

For example, the excessively loud and obnoxious ‘Christian music’ blasted through oversized speakers to harass the homeless seems to be far from any sort of Christ-likeness. The unwillingness to love the community and the intentional injury caused to the Tower District’s community echo more the behaviors attributed to the Sadducees and Pharisees in the Gospel of Matthew than of Christ.

Honestly, I suspect the whole stunt was an attempt to follow through with a decades long wet dream of area wide evangelical (nationalist) churches to slip into the Tower District and clean it up “for GEEZUS.”

I don’t understand how the irony of Christian nationalists continues to baffle me, but it does. How in Christ’s name do they claim to be disciples of Jesus while actively doing ALL OF THE THINGS he condemned of the religious elite in the Gospels?

In short, the whole burning dumpster fire serves as another example of the generally Christless Christianity practiced by specific segments of American culture.

What hurts personally is that I think about how similar Adventure Church is to the cult in which I was brought up—Calvary Chapel. The same symptoms were, and frankly, are, present in that place. Elitism. Us vs. Them perspectives. Isolationism. Ends-Justify-the-Means public motivation. Dangerous indoctrination by uneducated, ill trained, and ill equipped individuals. Fascist and authoritarian sentiment and philosophy. Toxic masculinity. Fragile masculinity. Sexism. Mysogyny. The list of abhorrent similarities goes on.

The worst of it, for both Adventure Church and the cult I escaped, is all the suffering was caused “for geezus.” As if nailing Christ to a tree wasn’t enough.

Reading Assignment: “Adventure Church Issues Response after City’s Recent Agreement to Purchase Tower Theater.”
-Fox26 News