Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Epistle: Romans 6:18-23
Gospel: Matthew 8:5-13
“The wages of sin is death,” St. Paul proclaims to us in today’s Epistle. Sin is one of the most misunderstood concepts in Christianity. A whole host of psychological complexes emanate from this misunderstanding of the concept of sin. In Catholic and Protestant belief, sin is identified with legal transgression and guilt and salvation with justification and atonement, or even, appeasement of God.
Indeed, the post-Schism Western doctrine of ‘original sin’ asserts that we’re all guilty at conception of Adam’s sin. According to this perspective, salvation is about becoming individually ‘justified’, righteous, before God. Christ’s death is seen in this light, “paying the price” for our guilt, our sin, to right the scales of justice that have tipped against us, or any of a number of other theories along this line.
I remember when I was about 3, a Protestant Sunday School teacher used me as an example of ‘original sin.’ Much to my surprise, she pointed me out to the class, relating how she had caught me, an otherwise innocent toddler, in the act of sinning: I swallowed my gum after my mother had reminded me not to. This to the teacher was evidence enough of the reality of ‘original sin’. I had inherited the guilt of Adam and was doomed. In actuality, I remember having a hard time as a little boy not swallowing my gum. I used to think it would just build up in my stomach—there must have been enough gum in there to make a whole tire—or so I thought.
Now contrast this Western doctrine with our Orthodox belief: sin isn’t participation in collective guilt, but rather, ‘missing the mark,’ failing to live up to our God-given calling and purpose in life—to live to His glory, indeed, to be glorified as His adopted children, co-heirs with Christ. We’re not created as objects of wrath, “little hellions,” but rather, as objects of love—invited into a relationship, a participation in the life that God Himself is as Holy Trinity.
Sin is likewise described in the Orthodox faith as sickness for the reason that St. Paul states in today’s Epistle: “sin leads to death.” Why is this the case if it’s not because of God’s wrath? Because of the freedom that God’s planted in us to be capable of love, of returning and giving love, we must be free to choose or reject that love, to experience that love, which is life with God. Rejection of that life, of that calling, sin, leads us away from relationship, communion with Him who is Life, who created all life, sustains all life—Jesus Christ. It’s a living death.
The Western concept of sin leads us, however, in a dead-end street with no way out in which the goal becomes “an egocentric fear of transgression,” and/or the tendency to gloss over sin or to reach an accommodation with it,” as Orthodox theologian, Christos Yannaras, puts it. It’s as if we’re saying, “O, no big deal, I’m really a ‘good person,’ or, it was only a ‘white’ lie, a little one, or, “everyone does it…” We’ve all heard this before or maybe even said it ourselves.
This kind of misunderstanding of sin leads people to down-play sin and its sad affects on our lives, our personhood, our being with Christ. When the focus is on us, and we have to strive on our own to be justified, being judged by our sins, having upset the scales of justice, then we’re still lost, we’ve no way out, but to pretend that we’re basically ‘good’ people.
If being ‘good’ is the measure of our salvation, then we’re all lost with no way out. Christ proclaims, “No one is good but One, that is, God.” (Matt. 19:17). What seems like a “feel good” boost, to ignore sin and its consequences in our lives, actually makes us and keeps us spiritually sick, because it ignores our need for God, for salvation, for a real change that leads to our healing and our salvation.
Instead, it’s our very real recognition of sin in our lives, our confession of sin, which is the key to our liberation from its slavery, from our apartness from God and our fellow man. We call this recognition of sin and our turning from trust in ourselves to trust in God, repentance, metanoia in the original Greek.
It’s only in recognizing the truth about ourselves and our need for God, that we cannot become righteous or ‘good enough’ to inherit life with God, that we’re not ‘good enough’ as we are. In recognizing that we’ve missed the mark, that we’ve failed to be what we are each called to be, we have somewhere, Someone, to turn to, Jesus Christ, to heal us, to grow us, to save us.
By owning and grounding our identity, our self worth, in who we are in Christ God, as called to be a fellow heir with all the Saints, participating in the Body of Christ through the Sacraments, we become step by step through repentance, those servants of God and children of God we’re called to be.
Existing as an autonomous individual, even a ‘good’ one, doesn’t save us from corruption and death. But taking refuge in the Church, participating in the Sacramental life, acting out our repentance through confession, communing with God, sets us free from sin and grows us into the men and women of God He’s called us to be; and it bears fruit to salvation. For this reason, we want to confess our sins regularly, not to purge ourselves of guilt, but to be set free of their debilitating effect, to be healed of their spreading sickness, and be reunited to Christ God, and capable of upward growth in our communion with Him.
Christ says, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Matt. 23:12, Lk. 14:11). We see this humility exemplified in all the Saints. We think of St. John the Baptist, who says, “He (Christ) must increase and I must decrease” (John 3) And we see this humility in today’s centurion, a great leader of 100 men and in the eyes of the State, says to the Lord, “I am not worthy that You should come under my roof, But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.”
When we repent, we’re humbling ourselves before God, we’re being freed from the weight of sin, cured of its hold on us, oriented again to the life we are called into communion with, and enabled and equipped to live more fervently, more abundantly for God, just as we’re called to.
We can’t serve two masters: We’re either slaves to sin and self-justification, in which case, we’re stuck, immobile, or, we become slaves to God. In becoming ‘slaves’ to God, it means that as we die to self, our self-focus, our egos, our pride, we allow God to change us from slaves to sons.
And so, we take refuge in the Church, where we’re given meaning and purpose for our lives, an identity not grounded on this passing and transient world, but a name, an identity, a purpose that grounds us in God who is alone eternal. St. John Chrysostom’s asks in this regard, “Have you sinned? Come to the church and have them cleansed. However often you fall on your journey, as many times as that may be, you pick yourself up; in the same way, as many times as you sin, repent just as often. Do not lose hope or be lazy, that you may not lose your hope in the heavenly good things prepared for us… Here is the hospital; not a tribunal. Forgiveness is conveyed here… Come and see: repentance will save you.”
