One Sunday a church we visited confirmed an adult man in his 20s. The pastor in jest had made it a point to tell the congregation, “Hey ladies, he’s single, he has his own job, and now he’s Lutheran!” It was a funny joke, but the guy didn’t seem too amused. I was asked if I thought he might be gay, and I had no answer.
If the guy was, then one of two scenarios would be in play. First, having just gone through confirmation, he was aware of the sinful behavior, repented, and received forgiveness. Or secondly and much more unthinkable, the pastor flubbed his job and allowed the man to think his behavior was acceptable.
It’s easy (for me, too) to rail on people who commit a sin we find ourselves unthinkable of commiting, as if our behavior was some high holy standard everyone else ought to hold to. As if some sins are more deserving of hell than others. As if you avoided breaking even one of the Ten Commandments today.
There is no one righteous. All of us sin, and all of us die. The Proverbs 31 woman. The 1 Corinthians 11 woman who covers her head. The Ephesians 5 man who continuously reads holy scripture to his bride. The children who honor their parents. Dead, dead, dead, and dead. Deserving not of eulogy and doves but of hellfire and damnation.
Our God does not desire the fires of Hell for us. He offers mercy at the cross. He offers confession, forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, through means: hearing the Word of God, baptism, and holy communion. These means are meant for sinners; otherwise, no one should go to the communion rail!
We don’t look at our sin (whatever that sin is) as proof that God is not working in us. We look at it as proof that we still need Him. If we don’t confess our sins, we are saying that we don’t need God. We can imagine what God would think of that.
The Church takes gays. She takes mothers who have had an abortion. She takes idolators, practitioners of witchcraft, haters of the Word, disobedient children, murderers, adulterers, thieves, liars, and coveters, and she forgives us. She teaches us that these are not behaviors which benefit us as God’s children, and that we should not do them.
None of us ever stop sinning. Don’t move the goal posts and kid yourself by saying you haven’t commited any major sins today. Remember Romans 3, and have mercy for your fellow sinner, not by denying what he has done is sin, but walking with him to the sanctuary, where you confess your sins and receive forgiveness.
A critical point: the distinction between what Walther calls “mortal” and “venial” sins. It’s not the same distinction the Catholic church makes, an it certainly doesn’t dispute the point that all sin, in itself, is “mortal.” But it’s still a very important distinction.
“Venial” sins are the kind all of us commit every day. They’re sins of weakness. No, they don’t befit us as Christians. But we have Old Selves as well as New Selves, and…. well…. sometimes the Old Self wins out.
“Mortal” sins are things like living in fornication, carrying on a sexually immoral lifestyle (of whatever kind), abusing drugs or alcohol with no attempt to resist, and other ways in which the Old Man is given free rein. In such cases, the New Self is nowhere in evidence. Faith cannot coexist for long with unrepented sin.
Of course, we don’t always know it when even members of our congregation are involved in such sins. Sometimes- without knowing it- we even baptize or confirm people who lie to us about their lifestyle. Yes, sinners of all kinds are members of the Church, and there really are no “little” sins. But we go to the Font to drown the Old Adam. That’s a point a surprising number of Christians don’t understand. We even have an LCMS pastor in our community who was fired by his congregation because he wouldn’t tolerate fornication!
We have to be counter-cultural of we’re going to be faithful. It’s tough. It’s the part of the job pastors hate the most. But we don’t have a choice.
That said, with your permission I’d like to share this entry with the email group I have for people suffering with scrupulosity– religious OCD!
I agree, and I don’t intend to suggest that we continue to willfully pursue sinful, destructive behaviors “so that grace may abound”.
I especially like two sections of the Heidelberg Disputation, where Luther says, “In the sight of God sins are then truly venial when they are feared by men to be mortal,” and “A theologian of the cross calls the thing what it actually is.”
Also, permission granted. Thanks for letting me know.
Great post Dan. More and more I’m hearing from churches and pastors that are having to deal with problems that were never dealt with before in most Lutheran churches like homosexuality, older couples living together and refusing to get married for the sake of pensions, etc. You rightly point out that the solution to these things is both complex and utterly simple – complex in that it causes us to take a look at the church culture we’ve created, and simple in that Christ died for sinners – like you, me, and oh…that other guy too. Thanks.
in Christ,
jW
Perhaps the man “in his 20′s” wasn’t amused because he has too many relatives asking when he’s going to get married!
But the second comment is even more disturbing!
Why does every man who hasn’t married “in his 20′s” (or 30′s or 40′s) have to deal with the assumption that he might be “gay”!?
Over a long life I have known people who never married, not for lack of interest in the opposite sex but for lack of opportunity. Perhaps the woman he wanted didn’t want him. Perhaps he is only recently in a financial position to take on a wife.
Perhaps (gasp!) he has read Paul and Jesus on the gift of celibacy (which the BOC also mentions as more desirable than marriage for those who have it).
I would hope Pastors at least would be inclined to the “best construction” but even they tend to look oddly at one of their number who has remained single.
Good points, Helen.
Go, Helen, go! I was about to write a similar comment, and clearly I couldn’t say it better.
As a single, 35 year old male, I find that comment not offensive so much, but almost an example of ignorance. And yes, I have had people think I am gay because I am single. Maybe, just maybe, that guy has standards and isn’t willing to settle.
Thanks Dan, for this, I may “riff” on this entry in my own blog very soon. I’ve needed some pumppriming.