Pushing Back the Horizon

In my hometown there is a WWII air museum.  It has one of the last intact Lancaster bombers on display.  Volunteers recently rebuilt and restored all four engines. Several times a year, this airplane will be brought outside and they fire up those mighty engines.  It’s an impressive display and always draws a large crowd.  Nanton, Alberta is a small community…with a population of only 2000 souls, but big enough that I’m always astounded at how loud the roar of the Lancaster’s engines are no matter where you are in town.  

Loud and ominous like a distant rolling thunder.  

Last summer I stood there in the crowd and observed the engine run as I have many times before.  On this occasion I imagined that I was back in time when this aircraft was fulfilling its intended purpose.  I imagined that I was on the ground and hearing the approaching death.  The terror that must have been felt as the last sound those people heard was the loud, angry roar of those engines with no place to hide.  

Albert Einstein once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”  What does this have to do with a Lancaster bomber?  It has to do with how we as humans have always tried to deal with conflict. How many wars have we fought with the idea that it will ultimately result in peace?  How many wars do we need to fight in the future before we finally figure out that we are indeed collectively insane?

There are those who have actually used nonviolence and diplomacy in the past.  They have left an indelible mark on the pages of history.  The most notable ones that immediately come to mind are; Mahatma Gandhi, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesus of Nazareth.  They showcased the power of non-violence and became beacons of hope that there might be a way out of the downward vortex of human hatred and fighting. Can you imagine a world in which people like this are not the exception, but the rule?  Imagine if they represented  a normalized response to conflict?  

We know that violence perpetuates more violence and it just keeps escalating with each retaliation. This is well documented. We also know that forgiveness absorbs the blow of violence and when that destructive energy is recycled into forgiveness, there is healing and potential for relationship.  Yes, it is risky. It is costly, but it ALWAYS leads to the greater good of humanity. 

Allow me to quote the inspired words of Andrew Klager as written in Brad Jersak’s book, “A More Christlike Way”:

“Those who say Jesus Way of nonviolence and peacemaking are naïve and unrealistic reveal that they think is the most real.  The kingdoms of this world are more real to them than the kingdom of God.

Violence never creates peace, only a lull. It defeats or exhausts your opponents without dealing with the conditions that first created the violence.  Defeating the other only puts us in the position of power (e.g. the Treaty of Versailles). We become the belligerent who exacerbates the problem. The pseudo-peace only buys time for the defeated to reload. The next war becomes the inevitable. Violence doesn’t work—killing only enrages the clan and escalation comes next. The next retribution must always be one step higher.  It’s a naïve non-solution. 

Compassion and kindness, by contrast, have real potential to tap into and draw out the true self of our world-be enemies. Compassion and kindness are more effective than bullets and bombs because they awaken what is more real than this life. However twisted, we are still humans created in the image of God. Peacebuilding is effective in awakening the kingdom of God in this world because it IS more real.”  

This remembrance day, let us indeed remember. 

Not the glory of victory. Not the triumph of standing with our boot on the neck of our enemy. 

As we attend remembrance day services, stand there at museums, air shows and military demonstrations, instead of celebrating our victories and superior weaponry, let us feel sorrow at our lust for violence. Let us regret our creation of the war machines on display.  Let’s remember the senseless deaths of our soldiers. Let’s also remember the needless deaths of our enemies. And mourn both. 

Let’s remember that there is no such thing as just war. There is no such thing as righteous violence. Let’s remember that war has never worked to create lasting peace and never will. 

Let’s remember and work towards the sanity of non-violence. 

Want to know what scares me almost more than anything else?

Dentists

I think I’m not alone in this. Let’s face it. Nobody goes to the dentist for pleasure.  I think I might have a deeper fear than some others though.  It’s a childhood fear having to do with my upper right front tooth. When I was ten years old, I was pushed lips first into a cinderblock wall by two bullies. That tooth broke and for the next dozen years I underwent multiple procedures in an effort to have a permanent false tooth.  I finally got my permanent tooth when I was twenty two years old after my last temporary one broke. The procedure involved grinding down the broken tooth to a small stump.  Also a root canal with pins inserted into the bone to give the permanent tooth a good foundation.  It was a good fix and the tooth still serves me well twenty five years later. The problem is, I was so nervous about going to the dentist after that (in 1995) that I didn’t go again until I had a horrible toothache from multiple cavities in 2018. I went again a couple of weeks ago to deal with another four cavities. I still don’t like going there, but the fear is slowly going away.

Fear is an interesting thing. It can be helpful to be fearful of reasonable things in order to keep us save and alive. We can also develop unreasonable fears, which are counterproductive and keep us from living healthy, joyful lives.  Neuroscientists tell us that the prefrontal cortex and amygdala in your brain are responsible for fear based responses. When we have a traumatic experience, It causes us, when triggered, to bypass reason and engage the fight/flight response. It is automatic, just like when you burn yourself and your hand moves away from the hot object before you can even process what happened.  

One of these unreasonable and unhelpful—even detrimental fears that we can have, is religious, existential fear.  I always find it interesting…also frustrating, how when I end up having a conversation about theology with my family and friends who still believe that God punishes most of His created beings in an eternal torture chamber called Hell, most times they just shut down.  Fear and anger are triggered and they simply cannot have a calm, rational conversation anymore. They do not want to hear information that is contrary to what they have been taught all of their lives.

Why is there such a fear based response to the good news that God is actually as nice as Jesus and that He is more like a restorative doctor than a retributive judge?  Why are the religious fundamentalists not jumping for joy that the gospel really is good news? Why can’t they listen when I show them how historically, exegetically, morally and philosophically, the idea of eternal punishment is man-made, unreasonable and just plain untenable?  What keeps them from being excited and hopeful that the gospel is not only an eschatology, but a present reality of universal restoration?

Most of these people have been taught as I was—as young, impressionable children that there is an all powerful being out there who is rather disappointed with you because you were born sinful.  Of course it doesn’t matter that you were apparently thrust into existence apart from personal consent and immediately burdened with original sin which wasn’t even your fault.  Of course the only way to escape the infinite, unimaginable torture which lasts forever (the human brain cannot even process the concept of infinity) is to believe the correct idea about God in a world with thousands of ideas about God.  Of course it gives you an advantage if you are born in the right country and into the right family. And what you have to believe, is that God can’t forgive without being paid off first—which doesn’t really even make sense.  God killed His own son (who is also God) and got it out of His system so that He doesn’t have to punish you.  But if you don’t believe this, He will STILL punish you!  Forever!

Teaching children this nonsense is child abuse.

This kind of mental trauma gets stuck in the prefrontal cortex.  There is irrational fear when confronted later on in life with ideas of a God who really is love and cannot coerce, or hate, or punish retributively or behave an any way that is not love.  They are actually scared that God will punish them for listening to these ideas. Reason is bypassed and the fight/flight response kicks in. 

What’s the solution?

Patience. 

Trauma like that takes time to heal. The more I go to the dentist to fix the years of neglect to my teeth, the more I realize that he is there for my healing and restoration.  The punishment I endure is not comfortable, but he is working to ultimately take away my pain and to give me a better life. I’m less nervous every time I book an appointment. 

You will never change a religious persons mind by arguing with them.  Believe me…I’ve tried that and it does not work!  I’m realizing as time goes on that the only way to convince these people, is to patiently be God’s love to them. To meet them where they are and accept them as they are, ironically without the agenda of convincing them.  Perhaps as they experience God’s unconditional love from you, they will come to understand that no matter how loving you are, God is far more loving. One day they might come to the life changing realization that one simply cannot overestimate God’s love and mercy. From my own experience I can say that once I felt safe, my mind was ready to learn what my heart had always known!

Now the healing can begin as the divine dentist is able to extract the toxic decay of poor theology and self identity, leading them to wholeness of life. 

This is salvation!

“I just hate having to sit in front of a black person!”, said the young boy to his friend—quite loudly on the school bus. This brash statement was observed during the third week of the new school year, and what made it particularity significant to me, is that it was observed by my youngest daughter who sits two rows behind this young boy.  

You see, my daughter is black.  And yes, she came home in tears that day.  Someone thought she didn’t deserve any dignity because she happens to have beautiful dark skin. That’s all.  My daughter is one of the sweetest and most empathetic souls I personally know. I may very well be biased, but I do believe that she is also the prettiest girl in the whole school. And yet, this white boy was not able or willing to look past the colour of her skin to see that.  Why?  Because she is different from him. I don’t believe for a moment that racism is something inherent in humanity. It is a learned behaviour. But what causes it?  

I believe that racism can be traced back to fear, which comes from living your life with an assumption of scarcity.  When you live day to day with the assumption that life is a zero sum game. That there is not enough for everyone, this leads—quite naturally to fearful competition for limited resources.  Self preservation is a strong instinct. And most people are more than willing to do what it takes to look after # 1. 

Me.

This kind of mentality shows up in religion and politics as well. In religion, there is often an assumption that God doesn’t have enough love to go around for everyone.  Therefore, only the few people who believe the correct things can experience God’s love. It becomes important to embrace certitude, that I am right about what I believe about God and those other people are wrong.  In fact, their wrongness is a threat because they are obviously leading people that I care about (and possibly even me) into deception and thus divine punishment. In their minds, love is conditional and limited.  

In politics, working together for the common good by gleaning quality ideas from other parties we don’t necessarily entirely agree with is traded for partisan politics. We demonize and disregard those of other political affiliations, becoming societally fractured and backward in the process.

They are different from me and therefore a threat. And so we turn our gaze to others that look and think like ourselves and surround ourselves with them. This is a means of ultimately protecting myself, by advantaging others who are just like me. It’s like having a layer of insulation around yourself. Subsequently, we push others away who are different and in our perception are a threat to my self preservation. We dehumanize because it’s easier to hate those whom we can perceive as less human.  We identify them not by who they are, but by how they are different from me. 

That person is black

That person is a liberal

That person is a Muslim. 

What’s the solution?  The opposite of fear is love. Love as defined by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 does not leave any room for fear.  That is why John in John 4:18 says that “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment.”  Most often the punishment we fear is the actualization of scarcity that we bring upon ourselves by living in that very mindset of scarcity. 

What would happen if we woke up to the reality that we do live in an abundant universe where there is enough for everyone?  Where self preservation is not necessary because others are looking out for me as I look out for them?  What if we realized that the One who is being itself exists as unconditional, limitless, self emptying love?  What if we realized that we are all one with the One who is existence and if we participate in that praxis of self emptying love there will be no division, no lack, no perceived difference?  

No fear

No racism

What if John Lennon was right in his song “Imagine”?

As I sit in my kayak, floating on the placid mountain lake, I take the paddle out of the water and just glide slowly.  

The cool breeze refreshes me as I have been paddling hard. The summer sun is powerful and makes me feel more than alive.  The only sounds are birds chattering, an occasional insect buzzing past and the distant sound of children laughing on the rocky beach.  The gentle swell of the water laps against my boat.  My eyes take in the panoramic view of tall, snow capped mountains surrounding me. 

Floating on water, yet immersed in the moment.  I am only aware of beauty and majesty surrounding me and am struck by one thought.

God, the one who is being, though whom everything exists and has being, is also enjoying this moment.  The eternal one is experiencing this moment through me. 

As me.

There are mystics that say that there is only one joy—and only one suffering.  There is only one being in this universe and one consciousness who has given us distinctiveness apart from Himself. And yet we remain one.  Hardly ever aware of it, but that doesn’t change the fact that we are.  

Entwined

Inseparable

Rumi once said, “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.”  Sometimes I wonder—where does God end and where do I begin?  That is not to embrace pantheism which believes that everything is God.  This is panenthiesm.  The recognition that God permeates everything while letting everything have it’s distinctiveness.  It’s as Richard Rohr says, recognizing that we are in a “Christ soaked world.”

It’s one thing to experience joy and peace—to recognize God with me, experiencing this with and through me, but what about when I feel like I am swallowed up in the darkness of pain.  What about the times when I feel God has abandoned me?  I have to realize that God also experiences this with me as well.  I know that God has experienced this in the person of Jesus as He hung on the cross, dying and had he not been suffocating, would have screamed to the heavens.  Instead, He choked out a breathless, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?”  

It’s these times that makes me realize that God is not all powerful.  I think we insult and minimize God by thinking of Him as such.  This gives me comfort. I don’t feel safe with a God who is all powerful, who can stop bad things from happening, but doesn’t. I do feel very safe with a God, however, who is all vulnerable.  Who’s power is in irresistible invitation.  One who co-suffers with me.  One who completely understands my human condition and situation—and still pours love into me like an artesian well.  One who will never give up on me, even if I should go to the grave rejecting this love.  This love has no expiry date.  

“You are that part of God that He does not control, but let be. In the God for whom all things are possible, you are one of those possibilities in the process of being realized. A unique aspect of Her beauty is unfolding in your existence … never before did God exist the way He/She exists in you!”—Andre Rabe

Freedom is a great concept.  And for most of us, it remains as that.  

Just a concept. 

An ideal that we want, that we fight for, but something that hardly anyone actually experiences in this life.  Us Canadians celebrate the incorporation of our country on July 1st. And you Americans of course celebrate your independence on July 4.  Freedom from Britain.  Freedom from the man.  We can do whatever the hell we want now! Right?

Well, I just bought a piece of land recently and guess what?  I’m not free to do anything on it without a government issued permit.  I can’t build my house, garage or anything else without permission—on my own land! In fact, I can only build a certain amount of structures and am flat out not allowed to build anything on certain parts of my land.  Know what else bothers me?  Speed limits. My motorcycle can easily do 250 kph, but I’m only allowed to go 110 on the major highways. 

I don’t feel very free.  Poor me.

There seems to be a lot of government interference in this country of mine. 

It’s interesting going to a country with very little government interference where people are indeed allowed great freedom.  I’ve been to Haiti numerous times.  There aren’t a lot of rules there.  And the rules that exist are rarely enforced for lack of resources.  You can build whatever and wherever you want if you are so fortunate as to own land, as is obvious by the random and chaotic streets of poorly built structures throughout Haiti.   You can drive as fast as the potholes in the road will allow.  There’s little or no traffic control, so you are free to enjoy a one hour commute through Port Au Prince…covering three whole kilometres. Employers are free to underpay their workers.  Thieves are free to break into your home. 

Hmmmm…doesn’t feel like freedom either. I don’t think that freedom can be freedom if it becomes a zero sum game.  My freedom is no longer your freedom if it tramples over your freedom and vice versa. 

What then is true freedom?

In John 8:31-36, John recollects this story of Jesus—someone who was living under oppressive Roman occupation whom most of us would not consider to be very free: “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word (Logic—way of thinking)*, then you are truly disciples (followers)* of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.  So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”

*My explanation of terms in brackets

Jesus doesn’t seem to conflate “freedom” with the ability to do whatever we please with no one telling us we can’t do it.  This freedom Jesus speaks of seems to have everything to do with not being held down and controlled by sin.  If you have read a previous article of mine called “What’s So Bad About Sin?”, you will be familiar with the idea that sin is not a failure to measure up to God’s moral perfection. Sin is when we reckon ourselves to be less valuable than God says we are. It’s when you believe what the church has told about yourself—that you were born morally depraved and separated from God.  It’s when you believe what your parents or teachers have perhaps told you—that you will never measure up to their standards—that you will never amount to anything in this world.  It’s when you believe what perhaps your friends and coworkers tell you—that you just aren’t good enough.

When we privilege the voices of others over what God has already said about us, we lose who we are.  We aren’t free to live like who we really are.  

Sometimes when we feel like we aren’t good enough, we can latch onto substitute ideas as to who we are.  We can end up believing that we are what we do. It’s really tempting too, especially if you are good at what you do.  You may “gain the world”, but you just may lose your soul—who you really are in the process. Though you may appear free and successful in this world, you have lost your freedom and are enslaved to the false idea of the image you are trying to project of yourself.

If I am a successful businessman, I don’t want to be seen as a failure.  I cannot afford to!  As soon as I am perceived as such, it has a very direct effect on my financial success. I have become a slave to my success and have traded my freedom for a false image and the temporary financial luxuries that come with it. Poor people are no better off as they are often stuck in a mentality of failure and won’t even bother attempting great things.  In the religious world, people who are known to live by high moral standards are terrified at the idea of being connected to anything or anyone immoral and are not free to be around people of low moral standards.  They are enslaved by their own sense of morality.  On the flip side, people of low moral standards already think of themselves as failures and just like the poor person, won’t even bother to try to behave well as they believe they can never change.

Who am I really?  The writers of Genesis had a very healthy idea of human identity. They recognized that there is only one source of life and love in the universe. That this source (God) is good. That nothing besides good can possibly come from this source (including us) and that we are in fact made in God’s image (we are an expression of God).  Evil and non-freedom only exist when we refuse to participate in the reality of who we truly are. 

It’s really quite impossible for anyone to experience true freedom until they believe the truth that Jesus presents to us.  That being, that God is good and by extension—not by any virtue of your own, but by the virtue of the one you are an extension of, you are good too.

I wonder if the more we let go of the false images and expectations of ourselves, that maybe personal freedom to do what we want becomes less interesting and attractive?  I’m not sure. I know I’m not there yet.

As we celebrate freedom this weekend, don’t settle for celebrating a cheap knock-off version.  One that depends on an us vs. them dichotomy—one that needs to be a zero sum game.  I don’t think that there’s actually a lot of free people out there. Let’s introduce freedom to the world around us by treating others with dignity, regardless of who they are or what they have done. 

It’s time to free those enslaved by the religious and cultural ideas of success. This weekend, let’s begin to participate in the continuing work that Jesus started—in taking away the sins of the world, bringing true freedom!

Today marks my 22nd Father’s Day.  I am continually learning what it means to be a father and part of me wishes that I hadn’t entered fatherhood with so little knowledge of what it means to be a dad.  However, that is the way of things.  We always live from our current ignorance and hopefully keep learning and growing along the way. Perhaps that is why grandchildren are such a blessing (I hope to have some one day) as they offer us a second chance at being knowledgeable and wise parental figures.  Anyhow, here is what is going through my head this Father’s Day:  

In Richard Rohr’s excellent new book, “The Universal Christ”, he writes, “Everything visible, without exception, is the outpouring of God. What else could it be? ‘Christ’ is a word for the Primordial Template (“Logos”) through whom ‘all things came into being, and not one thing had its being except through Him’ (John 1:3).”

If Rohr and the apostle John are correct, it would seem that God is in fact, not just the Father of professing Christians.  He is the Father of all and all are His Children. He is also the father of every thing!  This is simply an objective truth that quantum science even points to. (Without of course naming God as God.  The terms “universe or field are most often used.  There is only one source of energy in the universe and all matter originated from it.)

Now, if the term “father” doesn’t exactly give you the “warm and fuzzies”, I get it. I never enjoyed a close relationship with my father.  But this is not really just about a title.  It’s more about what it takes to have a healthy relationship. 

It’s all about relationship born out of participation.

Imagine if you would, a father who has 3 daughters.  (I’ll use this example because I happen to be the father of 3 daughters). This man is objectively the father of these three young ladies. The problem is…He is always working. He is well intentioned, just misguided.  He wants to provide well for his family, but at what cost?  He leaves for work before anyone else is awake and comes home late, going straight to bed.  Maybe he takes one day off during the week, but only has the energy to sit and watch T.V.  Of course, feeling bad about not spending time with his children, he buys them lots of nice stuff which they appreciate, but what’s missing?

There’s no participation. Thus, no relationship.  He’s only their dad in the objective sense.  Subjectively, he isn’t a father.  This is also the case with fathers who physically present with their family, but emotionally absent from their children.  

Imagine a second scenario.  This father is attentive to his daughters, reaching out to them and spending time with them, playing an active role in their personal development and just enjoying being with them.  The only problem is that one daughter tells the father that she hates him.  She tells him that he’s not her dad and refuses to have meaningful engagement with him.  There is complete rejection on her part for any potential relationship.  

Again, He’s only her dad in an objective sense.  Subjectively, he isn’t a father to her.  How can he be if she won’t let him?

For any potential of relationship, in order for it to be actualized, there must be participation both ways.  Everyone in the family belongs there and are already part of the group, but cannot enjoy the benefits of being a family until there is mutual participation.

Ever wonder why there is so much division, hurt and evil in the world?  It’s not because some people belong and others don’t.  It’s because we see others as not belonging—as less important than me.  It’s because we refuse to participate in the flow of Love which IS the engine of the whole universe. 

If you live in a family which is divided and unpleasant because one or more members refuse to participate in being a family, you have a good picture of what hell is.  Hell is NOT a place where you go after you die to be tortured for all of eternity because you didn’t believe the “correct” things about God.

Hell is anytime you believe someone doesn’t belong—and treat them that way.  Hell is what happens when you block love from others and you withhold love from them. Hell is the life you have when you don’t participate in relationship. Have you ever noticed in the gospels, that the only people who Jesus talked to about “Hell” were the religious and political leaders who excluded others?  Whereas, He embraced and accepted the prostitutes, thieves, and other “sinners”.  Do you go to a church where you are taught that some people are excluded for not believing the “right” things or doing the wrong things?  Do you teach such things?  Jesus just might have something to say to you…

The way of Christ is recognizing that we all belong. Jesus didn’t come to give us a list of things we must believe and a bunch of rules to follow so that God will let us into heaven some day.  He came to show us our true value as people who are all a part of the family. People who all belong. People who are already accepted by God.  People who are an expression of the only source of life that there is—the I Am.  The one who IS existence!

This Fathers Day, take a look in the mirror and know that you belong.  God already loves and accepts you no matter who you are or what you have done and there’s nothing you can do to change that!  You exist because God wanted to express Himself as you and wants relationship with you.  Look at others around you. Recognize that they also belong.  They exist because God thought them important enough to bring into being for the purpose of relationship.  

We all belong.  Let’s participate together in that. Life is relationship!

What’s So Bad About Sin?

I was brought to the hospitals emergency entrance with a gruesome and painful injury. My left shoulder had become completely dislocated. My arm hung uselessly with my shoulder totally out of the socket and the pain was building to an intensity that was almost unbearable.

The emergency doctor looked at me with anger and disgust yelling, “What the hell are you doing here looking like that?  That is absolutely disgusting!  What makes you think that all of us here need to see that?  Did you think of me?  Did you consider what seeing that is doing to my well being?  Besides, it is against the law to dislocate your shoulder.  You will be punished for this!!!”

They gathered around and beat me.  The doctors and nurses knocked me off of the gurney and punched and kicked at me for what seemed like an eternity.

Hopefully at this point you are wondering, “What kind of a sick and twisted hospital is that?”  After all, this is not how patients are treated at hospitals.  The story is partially correct.  I did in fact suffer such an injury.  The treatment that I received at the hospital, however was nothing short excellent, with caring staff who had one thing in mind for me:  The restoration of my body.  Repairing my injuries in order to make things right again. I told the story of this unmerciful hospital to make a point.  If you have been a part of either the Roman Catholic or Protestant Christian religion, you have likely been taught that God sees sin as the merciless hospital sees injury.  

Where do we get this idea that sin is a moral failure—a coming short of following God’s laws?  Looking back at the history of religious development from primitive to modern times, there seems to be a commonality of fear, superstition and anthropomorphism at the heart of every religion.  In primitive times, people recognized the obvious design of nature and from that, knew that there is either a force or a person who is in control of, or at least influences what happens around them. 

Kind of like at a hockey game where your favourite team wins and you happen to be wearing a certain shirt, you may assume that if you wear that shirt again, your team will win.  It becomes your “lucky shirt” and you wear it every time your team plays in order to bring your team good luck and influence their victory. The same thing happens in the development of religion. For example, you have a good hunting season after you have had a feast on the night of a full moon.  The assumption is made that the feast on that point on the lunar cycle  was an influencer in your good hunting season.  Superstition is born.  

You recognize that people who are more powerful than you need to be appeased in order for you to live in peace and safety and the assumption is made that whatever force or being (let’s call this “God” for the sake of reference) who made the world you live in must also be like this, anthropomorphism is born.

Sin, therefore becomes something of an infraction of the expectations that this deity expects in order for us to enjoy safety, food and health.  A religious system of rule keeping and ceremony is born out of fear of this God in order for Him to provide for your needs. It’s a transactional relationship and anyone in the tribe who breaks the laws is assumed to be putting the whole tribe in danger and is subsequently punished.  

We see this in the Hebrew language of the Old Testament scriptures.  There are three main words for “sin.”

     -chaţţâ’âh chaţţâ’th: (An offence caused by falling short of someone’s expectations of behaviour)

     -chêţ: (A crime.) This is also a subjective term, for example, in Deuteronomy 23:21,23 (NASBS)

 “When you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the LORD your God will surely require it of you.  You shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips, just as you have voluntarily vowed to the LORD your God, what you have promised.”

The person in question only had to pay whatever he promised God because he promised it.  If he doesn’t pay, it is a “sin”, however if he hadn’t promised it, it wouldn’t be a sin to not pay it.

     -châţâ (to miss)

Interestingly enough, looking at the masoretic texts, there seems to be an evolution of thought as to what “sin” is at some point for the Hebrew people.  It is châţâ and its corresponding imagery for “sin” which seems to make it into the language and thinking of the New Testament.  In the Septuagint, which came from much older manuscripts than the masoretic texts, we see a consistency of thought in the wording pertaining to the nature of sin. 

In the Koine Greek language of the New Testament (and the LXX), we find two main words for the word “sin”.

     -Hamartia: (miss the mark) This word has no moral implications.  It carries the imagery of an archer shooting an arrow at a target, but coming short of hitting the “bullseye”.  

Francois DuToit, who is a Greek scholar was kind enough to send this definition of “hamartia” to me:

“The word hamartia, from ha, negative and meros, portion or form, thus to be without your allotted portion or without form, pointing to a disorientated, distorted identity; the word meros, is the stem of morphe, as in 2 Corinthians 3:18 the word metamorphe, with form, is the opposite of hamartia – without form. Sin is to live out of context with the blueprint of one’s design; to behave out of tune with God’s original harmony. Hamartia suggests anything that could possibly distract from the awareness of our likeness. See Deuteronomy 32:18, “You have forgotten the Rock that begot you and have gotten out of step with the God who danced with you!” Hebrew, khul or kheel, to dance.”

       -Paraptoma:  This word gets rendered into either “transgress” or “trespass” in English. Personally, I like the imagery of “transgress” better.  The imagery seems to be more consistent with the Greek. It makes sense when you consider the words “progress” and “regress”. “Pro” means “forward motion” and of course “Re” is “backwards motion”.  The word “transgress” is a combination of the Latin words “trans” which means to “go across laterally” and “gradi” which is “to walk”.   Here’s the imagery that forms in my mind.  I think of a Canadian winter in which there is snow and ice covering the ground.  I am walking towards a goal.  I am “progressing” and am “on target”.  Suddenly, the terrain changes and I find myself walking along a side slope which is slippery.  I start sliding sideways, which takes me off course of my intended goal.  I have “transgressed”. 

Now that we appear to have a completely different definition for what it means to “sin”, the big question becomes:  What is the mark we miss?  What is the goal that we slide away from?

I can no longer believe that sin has anything to do with falling short of Gods moral perfection. I have become convinced that it has everything to do with not recognizing our ontological worth and identity.

In the creation narrative of Genesis, we come away with one essential truth:  We as humans were created in the “image of God”.  We have divine origin.  We were declared by our maker to be “good”.  The Hebrew word used here is “ţôb” which means “complete, and as it should be”.

There is another interesting word in the Hebrew language and a corresponding word in Koine Greek which speak to human value. The Hebrew word is “kâbôd”.  Here is the imagery this word gives us:  Back before the invention of paper currency, if you wished to buy, say a cow for example, the worth of that animal would be equivalent to a certain weight of silver or gold.  Pretend for a moment that our economy still works this way. If you wish to purchase a live cow, in todays valuation, a cow would be worth approximately 1.8 Troy ounces of gold.  In other words, that cow has the kâbôd of 1.8 ounces of gold.  

In Greek, we have similar imagery in the word “doxa”.  To understand this word, picture this:  You are at an auction.  A beige 1979 Plymouth Horizon comes up for bidding.  I know.  It’s unlikely that anyone would actually want to purchase this particular car and that there might even any of these in existence anymore, but work with me here.  The first bidder sees the chance of buying a cheap first car for his kid and offers $100.00. You see the car and it brings back a wave of nostalgia as you had a car just like this in high school. (True story for me unfortunately)  So, you offer $150.00. The bidding war is on!  Others, delusional with auction fever join in, suddenly determined to have this fine automobile.  At the end, the car is sold for an unbelievable $5000.00. Is the car worth that?  Yes.  Why?!?  Because someone was willing to pay that money for it.  Value is a very subjective thing.  Something has value because someone has demand and desire for it.  “Doxa” is the assessed value of something.

How are those two words, “kâbôd“ and “doxa” connected?  They are both translated into English as “glory”.

Read the words of Jesus high priestly prayer in John 17 with this imagery of “glory” in mind:

After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

“Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Note how Jesus says, pertaining to Himself: “you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.”  Who has God given Him?  All people of course.  Yes, He acknowledges the loss of one person, presumably Judas.  This does not imply  a static or irreversible state of being.  For being lost simply makes you eligible for being found.  

Near the end of this beautiful prayer, He says, “The glory (assessed value) that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.“

In other words:  “The assessed value that You have given to me I have given to them.”  Jesus, I believe is the perfect manifestation of the eternal Christ (the enfleshment of God) and thus possesses the same value as God the Father.  He has given us the same value!  How awesome is that?  And why?  So that there may be a praxis of unity.  

Have you ever been in a crowd of people who are incredibly rich, famous or successful in some way that you are not?  There is a hierarchical social structure that automatically forms.  If you are of a low place in society, you don’t feel like you can approach people of higher position as equals. There cannot be unity if there is a perceived difference in the value of people in a crowd. Jesus levels the playing field between us and our maker by giving us the same value…or perhaps by restoring the value we have always had.

At the national mint where currency is printed, a $100 bill is given the value (glory) of $100.  That is the objective value it has.  No more.  No less.  If that bill falls out of its owners pocket and is dropped into a mud puddle on the road, becoming soiled, if cars drive over that bill, damaging it and tearing it, is it still worth $100?  Of course it is.  Neither its poor appearance or its lostness has altered its value.  Should you be so fortunate to find that bill, it can still be traded for something of equal value.  If you trade this $100 bill for something that is only worth $5, you have “missed the mark” and have not treated it according to its true value. 

Each of us as humans have been made in Gods image.  We are declared to be good—complete—as we should be.  This is the assessed value given to us by God Himself!  Throughout our lives however, we are told that we have lesser value.  People do this.  Organizational systems do this to us. The church does this.  Ever heard of the doctrine of “original sin”?  You see, it’s much easier to create a social or systemic structure to your advantage if you can convince other people that they are worth less than you.  This is what we call the “sin of the world”.

That’s right.  Things we do like: murder, theft, coveting, lying, etc., are not sin.  They are symptoms of sin.  The real sin is this:  When you either give to another person or receive from a person or system an assessment of value which is lower than what God has already given you.  This is sin.

When you have a cold, you get a runny nose and a cough. The snot, phlegm and noise of coughing is not the cold.  The rhinovirus is.  The gross stuff that is offensive to everyone around you is simply the symptoms of the virus.

If you have been told and believe that you are ontologically flawed from the get-go, that you are worth nothing and are utterly sinful, that is how you will behave.  Your perceived, assessed value will ultimately be reflected in your behaviour. From your lowered sense of worth, comes “sinful” actions.  It is impossible to consistently live a life that reflects a value higher than what you think you are worth.  Ever wonder why so many religious people tend to fall and fall hard into a lifestyle of “sin”?  They live a disingenuous life with the belief that they are sinful, but hold themselves to a higher sense of morality, because that’s what they believe God expects of them.  It’s the same transactional mindset of primitive religion.  The problem is, that you cannot keep up the facade.  You will ultimately fail in your quest for a “moral” life. It doesn’t matter if you are a high profile preacher or just an average person.  The only difference is that the high profile guy gets noticed more.  

The gospel has nothing to do with a prayer you must pray, a set of beliefs you must hold to and behaviour you must keep in order for God to be pleased enough with you that He will let you into heaven one day.  The gospel is the announcement that you have never lost your value. You are worth the same as God Himself.  You are as you should be. You are good.  The gospel is that we don’t have to live from a low valuation of self.

The words of Jesus in Luke 10:26-28 (NASBS):

“And He said to him, ‘What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?’ And he answered, ‘You SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’  And He said to him, ‘You have answered correctly; do THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE.’” 

Jesus is not telling this inquisitive lawyer how to act in order to please God.  He is telling him how you act naturally when you behave from a knowledge of what you are already worth!  He is describing how to live as one who is fully and beautifully human!  Whenever you treat someone with kindness, whenever you refuse to respond to violence with violence, whenever you put the needs of someone else ahead of yourself, you are behaving in the most natural, truly human way. You are behaving from who you are. This is what pleases God. When we engage in relationship with Him, we participate in the healing of the world. 

In the first chapter of the gospel of John, John the Baptist sees Jesus coming toward him and announces, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  That is indeed what Jesus started, but did not complete.  You see, it was important for God to become enfleshed as one of us, to bring back dignity to humanity and to restore our “glory” as humanity had completely lost sight of our value.  Jesus gives us permission to believe that we are good.  And because we are good, we can behave in a way that reflects who we are.  I believe that “taking away the sin of the world” is a task that needs to continue.  It is a job that each of us is called to. Each of us needs to communicate to other people that we come into contact with everyday that they too are priceless.  They too are created in the image of God and are complete and good as they are.  We need to participate with God in taking away the devaluation of humanity and restore proper worth revealing every person as equal.  It seems like a big job, but it really comes naturally when you live from your true self.

Once more…and if it seems like I am repeating myself, I am.  You are NOT morally depraved.  You do NOT have a sin nature.  

You ARE good.  You ARE created in the image of God and share His value.  Your nature is love and you can only thrive when you participate in what is natural for you.  

Repeat this to yourself every day. Change your mind about who you are and watch how your behaviour naturally shifts as you understand who you have always been!