Sunday, September 06, 2020

Three Ways to Deal With SIn

This Sunday's readings present the preacher three ways to deal with sin. I wonder how many will avoid the subject altogether. 

First we have Ezekiel 33:7-11 in which God says, "Fess up and turn back from sin",
So you, mortal, I have made a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked ones, you shall surely die’, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from their ways, and they do not turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but you will have saved your life.
Now you, mortal, say to the house of Israel, Thus you have said: ‘Our transgressions and our sins weigh upon us, and we waste away because of them; how then can we live?’ Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?


Then we have Romans 13:8-14 in which Paul tells us to give up our evil ways and wear the armor of Christ,
Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Lastly, Jesus in Matthew 18: 15-20 gives us a strategy on how to point out the sin of a fellow Christian so that they might be restored to the Church, 

‘If another member of the church sins, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’

I am willing to bet that the last sentence of the passage from Matthew will be the basis of most sermons given by revisionist preachers as their small congregations check in on their virtual services.  

3 comments:

  1. Katherine6:56 PM

    Are these Scripture readings taken from a source that gives you the text week by week? They routinely use the politically correct translations, avoiding using "man" and "son of man." In the passage from Ezekiel, "mortal" is rendered "son of man" in the ESV/RSV/KJV tradition. In some cases, this can make a difference. Just a picky comment, no doubt, but speaking as a woman I can handle hearing a translation which is as close to what the Hebrew or Greek says without fainting on my couch.

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    1. I make this blog approachable for the average Episcopalian so I use the translation found in most of their parishes, the NRSV. I don’t like it and we do not use it in our ACNA church. The online version does star most of the variations such as “brothers and sisters” instead of “brothers” or “brethren” and a pop up of “other ancient texts use” appears. In today’s reading, the NRSV says “If another member of the church sins against you” where other translations Read”If your brother sins, go and point out the fault”. The NRSV has altered the meaning entirely. Unfortunately most Episcopalians will never know that they are being fed the wrong food.

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  2. Katherine5:20 PM

    Ah, aiming at that audience makes sense. Thanks. With the altered translations and the omitted verses, they're able to make their own new religion pretending it's the original.

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