Many years ago when I told my neighbor Jeff Walbruch that I was thinking about going into the ministry he said, “I thought about going into the ministry but then I realized that if you want to reach the real sinners in the world you won’t find them in the church. If you want to reach the real sinners you have to go out into the world to find them,” and I said, “Jeff, you have obviously never been to my church.”
In the Unitarian Universalist Church we do not place as much emphasis on “sin” as some other denominations including my friend Jeff’s. Even so the topic does come up periodically. I remember when the Reverend Peter Sampson was a minister of this church he told the story of a young minister fresh out of seminary who preached a sermon about sin to his new congregation. After the service an elderly woman approached the young minister and said, “Son, you haven’t lived long enough to have sinned enough to have repented enough to have been forgiven enough to talk to this congregation about sin.”
This morning I am going to take a similar risk as that young minister and talk to you about sin even though some people in this room may not feel that I have enough experience to be an authority on the subject.
In the Bible Belt, here in the South, the word “sin” has been overused to the point of trivialization. I had a summer camp counselor who thought that comic books were sinful, listening to rock n’ roll was sinful, dancing was sinful, co-ed swimming classes were sinful and to ask too many questions during his Bible study was a sin. In other words, so many things were sinful, that it became hard for me to take the word “sin” very seriously.
The educator activist Nicholas Ferroni spoke to this dilemma when he wrote, ““I was born a sinner. My sin is mentioned in the Bible 25 times. I tried to change but I couldn’t. Luckily society has learned to accept left handed people.” My brother Bill was left handed and throughout elementary school was forced to write with his right hand. The prejudice against left handed people was (and possibly still is) a real thing.
So the word “sin” can be abused. Indeed, in the Bible Belt the words “sin” and “sinner” are often used as a form of gaslighting. In this circumstance gaslighting involves accusing someone of something and then putting the burden of proof on them to prove otherwise. If I say to you, “You are a miserable sinner” putting the burden of proof on you to prove otherwise – that’s gaslighting. If I tell you, “You are going to hell” putting the burden on you to prove your own innocence – that’s gaslighting. This kind of treatment is gaslighting because it can make us doubt our own sanity, second guess our own perceptions and leave us feeling like we are on the wrong side of every argument. Instead of being innocent until proven guilty gaslighting makes us feel guilty until proven innocent.
The word “sin” is problematic for many reasons partly because there are many different definitions of the word. I once heard a counselor make a distinction between guilt and shame. She said, when we feel guilty we say, “I made a mistake.” When we feel shame we say, “I am a mistake.”
So there are two different ideas about sin that correlated with these ideas about shame and guilt. One definition of the Hebrew word for sin is “to miss the mark” like an archer who does not quite hit the target. To miss the mark is to fall short of the goal. If we accept this definition of sin then we will say, “I made a mistake.”
Another definition of sin is offered by John Calvin who once proclaimed that “Human beings are so poisoned by sin that all we can let off is a noxious stench.” That’s a pretty low view of human nature. Sin is not just something we do, it’s who we are. If we accept this definition of sin then we will say, “I am a mistake.”
Of course, in the Unitarian Universalist Church we have a higher view of human nature. Our forebears liked to quote the scriptures from the book of Hebrews where the biblical writer speaks to the Almighty saying,
“What are humans that you are mindful of them
or mortals that you care for them?
You have made them a little lower than the angels;
you have crowned them with glory and honor.”
This is the high view of human nature. When we hold this view we understand why Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” All too often religion can feel like we are giving our consent to feeling inferior, we are giving our consent to feeling like we are a mistake.
In the South it sometimes feels like the separation of church and state does not exist or is not respected by elected leaders. And so the church and state align to make people feel inferior. In our day and age we see church and state aligning to make women feel inferior, gay people feel inferior, transgender people feel inferior, people of color feel inferior. Anyone who is a little bit different is made to feel inferior. Every day many churches give aid and comfort to our elected leaders who pass laws that tell our children, “You are a mistake.” This is not only bad politics. It is bad religion.
There is another way to look at life. The scripture tells us to “Judge not lest we be judged.” We hear echoes of this sentiment in the Eastern religions. Swami Vivekananda once declared, “It is a sin to call someone a sinner. It is a libel against human nature.” The moment we call someone a sinner we commit one of the gravest of sins. Not only that, the moment we think of ourselves as sinners we commit a grievous sin. Vivekananda wrote, “The remedy for weakness is not brooding over weakness but thinking of strength.” “By declaring we are weak, we become weak. Suppose we put out the light, close the windows, and call the room dark. What good does it do me to say I am a sinner? If I am in the dark, let me light a lamp.”
In the 19th century Unitarians and Universalists declared that there is a divine light inside of every person. Whenever we encounter another human being we encounter someone worthy of reverence. In India there is the greeting NAMASTE, “the god in me sees and honors the god in you.” Everyone we encounter is worthy of respect.
A few weeks ago I was asked to be the minister for a memorial service for Todd Cramer who was a co-founder of Knox Pride. At the memorial service the Appalachian Equality Chorus sang the old spiritual This Little Light of Mine. After the song I pointed out that when light shines through a prism we see all the colors of the rainbow. And we are called to let our light shine before all people. Not hide it under a bushel, no! Not let anyone blow it out! We’re called to let it shine.
As Marriane Williamson once wrote, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
It is for this reason that it is a sin to call someone else a sinner. It is a sin to ask someone to dim their own light. It is a sin to ask someone to hide that light under a bushel. It is a sin to try to blow that light out. Our goal in life should be to see the divinity within each other.
This week we are mindful of Nex Benedict, a non-binary child from Oklahoma, who was beaten to death in a public school restroom by bullies. When an elected leader from that state was asked how he felt about the violent death of this child he said, “My constituents don’t want this filth in their community.” In this toxic climate it becomes our job to hold up the banner “Love Your Neighbor” and stand up for our children against all bullies in our schools and in our legislatures.
This week I was listening to an interview with my friend Chris Battle, who left his job as a minister of a large successful Baptist church in order to create an urban farm in the middle of a food desert. Planting a garden in a field in a zip code where there are no grocery stores. Growing nutritious foods for the people who live in subsidized housing nearby. Chris Battle is a Baptist minister but he often notes that the people who come to his farm include atheists, skeptics and pagans. He said that when he was younger he was taught to be holy. And the definition of holy was “to be set apart.”
Believers set apart from unbelievers
The righteous set apart from the wicked
Saints set apart from sinners
And then one day, Chris Battle said to himself, “If this is what it means to be holy then maybe Jesus wasn’t holy.” For Jesus hung out with everybody. Jesus loved everybody. Here is how the scriptures describe him. “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a heavy drinker, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” In other words Jesus did not set himself apart. Jesus could say as country music singer Garth Brooks once said, “I’ve got friends in low places.”
In Alcoholics Anonymous the goal is “progress not perfection.” If you stay sober for 30 days you pick up your 30 day chip. If you stay sober for 60 days you pick up your 60 day chip. If you stay sober for 90 days you pick up your 90 day chip. But if at any time you relapse well then you just start back over again, living life one day at a time. Which is to say, “You can make a mistake. That does not mean you are a mistake.” For even when we are in a darkest room with the windows shut, we can still light a lamp so that everything is illuminated.
My friend Jeff decided not to go into the ministry because he felt that real sinners of the world did not go to church. I, on the other hand, decided to work for the church and contrary to my friend’s concerns, I’ve never had to travel far to find opportunities for ministry. But that may be because Jeff and I have different ideas about the meaning of ministry and our definitions of the word “sin.” Ultimately, I am glad that I found a church to serve where it’s okay to make mistakes, where the emphasis is on progress not perfection, where we do not strive to be set apart but seek to build the Beloved Community that includes us all and where the most serious sin is to call someone else a sinner.
(This sermon was given at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church on Sunday February 26, 2024 by Rev. Chris Buice)
The Tao of Tennessee 