Speaking of Sin...

     Last Sunday we had an very lively discussion in our adult Sunday school class about sin. This in the wake of the Sandy Hook killings. The discussion revolved around the classic theodicy question: how can or why does our good God allow evil?
     I am not going to attempt to recount that discussion in this post, nor will I take a stab at answering the question myself. I do, however, desire to clarify a statement I made in regard to sin during my sermon earlier in the day. I had noted that the worst form of punishment God could pronounce over a person would be to turn a person over to his sin. (This was noted in contrast to God's pronounced punishment over the people of Judah in Zephaniah; as bad as exile was, it always came with the promise of restoration.)
     We often have a sort of backwards chronology in place when we consider sin in our Christian culture. The focus is on cause and consequence. The suggestion by many is that we sin, which serves as the cause for our alienation from God. A (moral perversion) + B (God is angry) = C (alienation from God). This is basic causality. Paul has a different view in mind: C (alienation from God) + B (God is angry) = A (moral perversion).
     Romans 1:18-32 is Paul's case in point: "According to Paul's analysis, God's 'wrath' against his fallen human creatures takes the ironic form of allowing them the freedom to have their own way, abandoning them to their own devices" (Richard B. Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament [San Fransisco: Harper, 1996], 385). Ernst Kasemann says it this way: "Paul paradoxically reverses the cause and consequence: moral perversion is the result of God's wrath, not the reason for it."
    All of this suggests much deeper roots to sinful behavior--the curse. There is something wrong inside of us that may or may not bubble up to the surface (certainly not in such a way that our words or actions will make headlines). The human condition, however, is one of rebellion. It is an unfashionable phrase, but "total depravity" captures our condition quite well. Total depravity does not suggest that we are as bad as we can be. It simply means that, except for the grace of God, we are no different from Adam Lantz or Dylan Klebold. This is not a misanthropic statement. It is a statement that is quite realistic about the nature and extent of sin.
     In his song "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." Sufjan Stevens seems to understand all of this:
"And in my best behavior
I am really just like him
Look beneath the floor boards
For the secrets I have hid."
So we depend on God to come and rescue us from the evil of the world and from ourselves.
God help us.