I’ve been thinking a fair amount about sin this week.
It started on Sunday. I’ve been reading and reflecting on an adaptation of St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises and the theme this week is “The negative force of sin in the world.” Real warm fuzzy stuff. But it’s not often that I really dive into sin and the adaptation of these exercises have caused me to think closely about original sin and about my own sin and its impact (or lack thereof) on the world.
My good colleague Trey Hall had some helpful reflections on sin Sunday night at our Wicker Park service as part of Urban Village’s sermon series called “The Biggest Loser.” Each of Urban Village’s pastors are leading a team of story tellers that travels to each of our sites to share stories about loss, limitations (which is Trey’s focus), and longings (which is mine).
Finally, I went to see the above movie on Monday morning ($6 for a matinee!) and “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” explodes with all kinds of sin: torture, murder, sexual violence, greed, to name a few. Not sure if saying that I thoroughly enjoyed the movie directly after that previous sentence is a good thing, but it certainly has stayed with me this week.
The reflection I did this morning asked to think carefully about self-love that goes awry. That’s where I think sin gets its foothold (Genesis 3:1-19 has been an interesting text in this regard). Let me say that it’s certainly not a bad thing to love self. One of the biggest challenges for people who come to our church is having a pretty low regard of themselves. But when love of self makes it difficult to love God and neighbor, that’s when issues arise. Extreme desires for pleasure, money, and power become a way to satisfy only one person (oneself) and that can have a deleterious impact on others and the planet. In the midst of this reflection, I’ve also realized that I spend quite a bit of time thinking about how others put me out (their “sin”) and not a whole lot of time about my own stuff. I’ve found a pretty easy way to reflect on this. Do my decisions and actions lead only to love of Chris or love of Christ? The only difference is a “t.” And that looks an awful lot like a cross.