Just a reminder, it is Sin. Not sins.

"Have the men of our time still a feeling of the meaning of sin? Do they, and @@do we, still realize that sin does not mean an immoral act@@, that "sin" should never be used in the plural, and that not our sins, but rather our sin is the great, all-pervading problem of our life? Do we still know that it is arrogant and erroneous to divide men by calling some "sinners" and others "righteous"? For by way of such a division, we can usually discover that we ourselves do not quite belong to the "sinners", since we have avoided heavy sins, have made some progress in the control of this or that sin, and have been even humble enough not to call ourselves "righteous". Are we still able to realize that this kind of thinking and feeling about sin is far removed from what the great religious tradition, both within and outside the Bible, has meant when it speaks of sin?"

"I should like to suggest another word to you, not as a substitute for the word "sin", but as a useful clue in the interpretation of the word "sin", "separation" . Separation is an aspect of the experience of everyone. Perhaps the word "sin" has the same root as the word "asunder". In any case, sin is separation. To be in the state of sin is to be in the state of separation. And separation is threefold: there is separation among individual lives, separation of a man from himself, and separation of all men from the Ground of Being. This three-fold separation constitutes the state of everything that exists; it is a universal fact; it is the fate of every life. And it is our human fate in a very special sense. For we as men know that we are separated. We not only suffer with all other creatures because of the self-destructive consequences of our separation, but also know why we suffer. We know that we are estranged from something to which we really belong, and with which we should be united. We know that the fate of separation is not merely a natural event like a flash of sudden lightning, but that it is an experience in which we actively participate, in which our whole personality is involved, and that, as fate, it is also guilt. Separation which is fate and guilt constitutes the meaning of the word "sin". It is this which is the state of our entire existence, from its very beginning to its very end. Such separation is prepared in the mother's womb, and before that time, in every preceding generation. It is manifest in the special actions of our conscious life. It reaches beyond our graves into all the succeeding generations. It is our existence itself. Existence is separation! Before sin is an act, it is a state."

The Shaking of the Foundations by Paul Tillich - Chapter 19: You Are Accepted

The Cracks are a Feature Not a Fault

In 2011 Will Ferrell was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Here is the first two minutes of his acceptance speech and it is greatness.

There is a story within the Jewish tradition in which God creates the world by taking in a breath in order to contract God's self in order to make room for creation. Then the divine light was put into ten vessels and sent to creation but the vessels broke the light got out. Some of the light returned to the Source and other parts fell all over creation. We see the divine lights in stars, grains of sand and in the sparkle in the eyes of others. Human beings were created with the task to "repair the world" - Tikkum Olam. 

While it was part of a bit, when Will Ferrell dropped the award his instinct is what our instinct would be. Pick up the pieces and try to repair it. 

The Gospel is the story that says, the cracks in the world are important. When Jesus was resurrected his hands and feet were still cracked. The self-help industry see cracks as a fault. The Good News sees cracks as a feature. Jesus did not cover up the cracks in his body, rather it was the cracks that became the conduit for others to believe it all to be real. The cracks in our lives are what make us real. As it was said by Leonard Cohen, "There is a crack in everything, that is how the light gets in." 

You see, when we repair the world the self-help world will teach us that we need to eradicate the cracks, mask over them, repair them so they are gone. The Gospel says that when we do that, when we hid the cracks, we also hide the light. Repairing the world with God is about exposing light, it is about embracing the cracks and trusting that God uses the cracks to heal the world.

The cracks are a feature not a fault.

Be teflon, not velcro

For all the commentary and reflection on the evils of consumerism (and there are many), I submit to us all on this Black Friday a saying from Abba Zosimas: "It is not possessing something that is harmful, but being attached to it." 

There are many people who are beginning to see the silliness of the over indulgence that has come in the past decades of Christmases. Perhaps small, there are voices that are being heard that we all need to simmer down with the amount of Christmas spending we do on "stuff". Frankly this post is not encouraging anyone to buy less. 

This post is a question - what are we attached to?

May we be teflon, not velcro.

The Human Being is on the Endangered Species List

In case we all have forgotten, we are all human beings. By that I mean not only that we are all created in the image of God and should therefore endowed with rights and anytime those rights are violated it is an injustice for all. 

It also means that we are human beings as opposed to human doings. 

As much as we value productivity, efficiency and mastering skills in order to "crush it" in life, these values drown out the value of being. And human being is in jeopardy of extinction to be killed off by the human doing. 

We do not value those things that are not instantly productive - such as taking a class on Shakespeare if you "know" you are going into business. We do not value the face to face time that we once enjoyed because it takes too long to get to the point in a conversation when we can just send texts and exchange data. We do not value sitting and being still, and when you do you are either sick, inefficient or lazy.

But we are not robots fueled by solar power. We have to take time to rest and recharge - but even that is too much being for us. And so we take our food to go, we answer email while sitting at a stop light, we check instagram when we are in like to get meat at the grocery store (assuming we don't order our groceries online). All of this makes us feel guilty when we step back into being. Guilt follows us everywhere we go tellus us that we are either growing or dying, that we need to work hard in order to prove that we are valuable or at the very least not a slacking freeloader. 

For as much as we need human doings in the world, we need that many human beings. You are more than a doing (like a robot or a computer or a car) you are a being.

Help save the human being.