February 2015
St. Mark’s News Volume 19/Issue 2
From the Assistant Rector “Sin” is a word you don’t hear used that often anymore. For many, it is a word with ugly connotations, because of the ways that some Christians have used it in the past. Too often, we have used the word “sin” in order to attack other persons—that is, used it as a label used to condemn or write off other persons as fundamentally different or worse than us—so performing a kind of rhetorical violence against them. There are many problems with this way of using the word, but Christians should be chiefly concerned with this one: that’s not how our scriptures talk about sin. In the first place, when the Bible talks about sin, it’s never to create an artificial division between peoples and persons––where some are “sinners” and others are “saints.” Rather, the language of sin always points to a shared human reality, and thus marks the profound likeness of all human beings. Sin, in other words, is ultimately egalitarian. As St. Paul writes: “we all have sinned” (Rom. 3.23). Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, the biblical language of sin implies that it is not itself fundamental to human being. In other words, human being is not “intrinsically” sinful, so that human beings are sinful by “nature.” Rather, the Bible says that In this Issue humanity is made in the “image of God,” and is thus (by nature) “good” (Cf. From the Assistant Rector ......... 1 Gen. 1.26-31). This goodness is therefore basic to our humanity, such that it Vestry Highlights........................ 3 can never be taken away. So, when the Bible talks about “sin,” it always refers to something that is unnatural to us. To sin is to act against our nature as human beings, to act in a way contrary to the goodness in which and for which we are made. This is why the most basic sense of “sin” in Scripture is to “miss the mark.” We do not sin because we are bad. What we do is called sin because it is not true to who we are.
Parish Life ................................. 4 Outreach.................................... 6 Day School News ...................... 7 Christian Formation ................... 7 Parishioner Highlights................ 9 Caffeine Ministry ...................... 10 Celebrations ............................ 11 ROTA ...................................... 12
That being said, when we sin, it is also not without effect upon our nature. To be more precise, when we sin, we slowly change ourselves over time. We develop sinful habits, which turn into sinful dispositions, which, finally, change our orientation toward the good for which we were made. Overindulging in food (i.e. the sin of “gluttony”) is a good (and safe enough to share!) example of how this works in my own life. When I eat in excess, it changes me. For starters, it not only causes immediate damage to my body—by raising my cholesterol and blood pressure—but also, it damages my health in such a way that it becomes harder to stay healthy. When I put on weight, for example, it adds stress on my joints, effects my mood and energy levels, and so makes it harder for me to exercise. But the effects are not limited to my physical health alone. There is analogy between the effects it has upon my physical health and the effects it has upon my soul. For, when I eat in excess, my appetites (i.e. my “desires”) change as well. I become more inclined to eat in excess. Eventually, I grow used to eating in excess. Eating in excess becomes a habit. Until eventually, this way of eating becomes natural to me. My fundamental orientation toward food has changed. Rather than receiving it as a good gift to be appreciated and used, it now
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