The all saints blog has a rather blunt post on sin and confession. The kind of post you cringe to read because you really don't want to think about those evils and sins in the world. Then you sort of get offended because all the sins are treated with equality. How dare my relatively benign sins of discontent and secretly judging my neighbor be listed without distinction with child abusers, sexual perversion, adultery and murder? What is this person insinuating? Then my judging and pride comes in, oh gosh if people are really committing these sins no wonder the church, the world, society is so messed up.
And then of course the gospel speaks up and reminds me, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of god. We are all deficient and do not measure up to god's standards. And all are freely redeemed through god's grace by jesus' blood.
But there is also the reminder of the older brother in the parable of the lost son. Sin destroys from the inside out- those of us who haven't committed more serious crimes against our god and neighbor and ourselves are relieved a bit of the struggle of healing from brokenness. There are parts of our soul, our humanity that are kept intact and the kingdom of god is ours. "All that i have is yours" says the dad to the older son. Whoa, that's a huge concept to swallow.
Dante Alighieri had a great way of putting it in his book "Paradiso." In his heaven, there are ten rings and depending on your sins on earth, you would be on a lesser or greater ring(closer or farther from the point of love that is god that around all things revolve). To those in heaven it didn't matter what ring you were on- you were full, in heaven, happy, content, in love with God the point that makes all things move. It played a little bit with our sense of justice as the nun that was raped was on the least ring. The law is blind and since the law was broken, even though it wasn't her choice, she had to comply with the consequences . She explained that it was alright because people are like cups in heaven: we all may be different sizes but we are all full to the brim of god's love and glory. Size of cup is directly correlated to the righteousness of one's life.
I guess I explain that allegory to say that I agree that what we do on earth matters. While we can say sin is sin, as all of it takes us away from love and knowledge of God, there are different repercussions for different sins, on earth and maybe in heaven(?). Grave and destructive sins come with more demons and deeper healing process (with the potential to love greatly) on earth and with our souls and their potential to produce more sin in ourselves and in others. It's really a deterrent for me to realize that my actions will have profound consequences not only for me, but for all those around me. Something that I don't think we think about enough. The chain reaction of sin, like a huge track of dominoes, only has to knock one thing down to set off so many more.
This idea makes a strong case in my mind for living rightly and making godly choices. The consequences of not doing so are so ghastly! Sin begets more sin and more destruction and we get farther from what God intended: farther away from the good, the beautiful, and the true.
Think about cycles of poverty and how bad choices beget more wrongness in the world. Violence, abuse, lots of yucky things my students experienced that I don't like to think about, happen over and over again. It happens in the burbs, too. Greed, pride, vainglory. If parents are obsessed with money and status and things, good chance that will be passed on to progeny who will also strive for a life of comfort and material possessions at whatever cost and miss what will bring true life. Mammon is an exacting god and there is no room for grace. You either have or have not.
So yes, it is important to confess sin. We all need to repent in order to fulfill the will of God. We all need to submit to god's law and grace. Just, if you feel indignant like the older brother, know there are benefits to having lived a righteous life. While it seems a little unfair that you were paid the same as the guy who worked one hour when you worked 12, know that there are great benefits in working longer and learning from the master longer- you helped build more of the kingdom (if I need to appeal to our humanly nature of acquiring more of something). That is- being a prodigal ain't all it's worked up to be. There is a place for right and true living. If anything, it keeps hurt and evil at bay which is huge when you think about how easy it is to hurt and be hurt.
In the end, in heaven, we will all be restored and full- not sure if dante's ranking of more holy rings will be there, but all that will matter is that we know and worship the one true god who rights our wrongs and heals us mind, body, soul, and spirit.
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