Speaking of Sin

I have just finished reading Barbara Brown Taylor’s “Speaking of Sin” and, as always, she has good things to say. Sin, as she recognises, has become an unfashionable theme, but that does not actually render it irrelevant. Part of the problem, though, is to fail to understand what it actually is, and another part is our inability to recognise the positive contribution that can be made when we recognise it in a good and useful way. As Taylor says, “I do not believe that sin is the enemy we often make it out to be, at least not when we recognize it and name it as such. When we see how we have turned away from God, then and only then do we have what we need to begin turning back. Sin is our only hope, the fire alarm that wakes us up to the possibility of true repentance.” She goes on to explore how we can engage with sin positively and how we might see it interacting with salvation. “Jesus might define salvation as recovery from illness or addiction, as forgiveness of debt, as peace between old enemies, as shared food in time of famine, or as justice for the poor. These are all outbreaks of health in a sin-sick world. Jesus saves because he shows us how to multiply such outbreaks, and because he continues to be present in them. Otherwise, we might call them good works or good luck. Instead, we have this sense that they come to us from outside of us. Our full participation is required, but that alone cannot explain the results, which are sometimes so astounding that we can only call them grace.” Perhaps the biggest problem with sin is that we don’t want to deal with it and its consequences in the way that we should. “Some Christians .. like to think of forgiveness as a giant eraser on the blackboard of life. But there is biblical precedent for the lasting effects of sins that have been forgiven. God forgave David for his murderous affair with Bathsheba, but their firstborn child still died. Jesus came to forgive the sins of the whole world, but according to his parable in Matthew 25, he will come again to separate the sheep from the goats. Forgiveness is a starting place, not a stopping place. It is God's gift to those who wish to begin again, but where we go with it gets up to us. … Most of us prefer remorse to repentance. We would rather feel badly about the damage we have done than get estimates on the cost of repair. We'd rather live with guilt than face the hard work of new life.” To quote the book’s title, ‘speaking of sin’ …..