Love the sinner, hate the sin?

“Love the sinner, hate the sin.” Brad Jersak in Christianity without Religion

Jesus never said that. We’re now at a place where the once-popular Christian trope has come into disfavor. Something about it just didn’t ring true. It kind of seemed true but somehow, felt off. 

First, Jesus never said it. The closest primary source we have is Gandhi, who said, “Hate the sin and not the sinner.” Not bad for the political and religious climate in which he led a major peace movement. Given his daily reading of and obedience to Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, we could even call him a Christ-following Hindu—a far cry from India’s current context.

My minimal response is three-fold:

The phrase is employed in the service of exclusion.

It’s not dissimilar to saying, “We’ll love you BUT…” or “We’ll love you WHEN…” or most explicitly, “We don’t love you as you are. We love our idea of who you should be.” Or “We love you and welcome you … to the outer court. Welcome to our game (we love you) but no, you can’t play. We’ve identified the disqualifying sins and sorry (we love you) but you’re sidelined. You’re quarantined from the inner circle because you’re still a carrier of the pandemic sin virus.” This is just as true within both conservative purity-culture and progressivist cancel-culture. Neither conceives of a truly inclusive gospel. Someone always has to be “out.” David Hayward (@NakedPastor) visualizes the reality this way:

For those, like me, who’ve lived on the privileged inside for a lifetime, we have no idea what it feels like to ask ourselves every time we walk into a room (restaurant, church service, home) whether we’ll be asked to leave or welcome to stay quiet. Is what I do or who I am considered sin here? Nothing matters more right now when it comes to exclusion than the revival of a true and visceral empathy. “Love the sinner, hate the sin” fails to reach the register of cruciform empathy and therefore, does not align with the Jesus Way gospel.

Love the Sinner?

Seems noble. After all, we do have this beautiful Gospel text from Mark 2:

15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

It’s obvious here that Jesus is not applying these labels literally. He clearly did not regard the Pharisees and rabbis as “righteous.” It’s just as unlikely that he regarded a slice of the socio-religious strata as “sinners.” He’s co-opting the us-them/in-out labels of self-righteous religiosity in order to subvert or erase them. In fact, it’s harsher than that: he makes inclusion contingent on identifying with the marginalized! The “righteous” have no place in the Great Physician’s hospital. Happily, if they drop their haughty charade, even the in-crowd will not be driven out.

Here’s the good news. Jesus will say elsewhere, “I will never send away anyone who comes to me” (John 6:37).

So, please, “sinner” in this text should be read with scare-quotes. It’s not an identity and should never be applied to any other person. In A More Christlike Way, I shared how I am no longer triggered by using it of myself because I know my identity in Christ as a son. For me, it’s simply an admission of my daily need for God’s kindness and mercy. It’s my acceptance of the human condition and Christ’s love for me in it, just as I am. And it’s my rejection of self-righteous assumptions and entitlements that I would otherwise harness in contempt of the excluded other. With Paul, I can adopt the phrase “chief of sinners,” without shame or an identity crisis … and ONLY for myself.

As for others, “Love the sinner”? NO. The Bible never speaks of that directly. BETTER: Jesus says, Love your neighbor; love your brother and sister; love your enemy. In short, Love Everyone. Without distinction. While love the sinner does invite us to love those we see as sinners, what it fails to do is heal our eyes from seeing them that way. They are children of God. They are beloved. They are included. They are those for whom Christ died. They are those he reconciled to himself at the Cross. Lord, heal our eyes from seeing others through that lens, square-quotes or not!

Hate the Sin?

I do hate sin. I hate what it does to me and what it does to others through me. I hate what sin does in our world. I hate war. I hate rape. I hate murder. I hate adultery. I hate greed. I hate abuse. I hate neglect. I hate hypocrisy. I hate cowardice. I hate bigotry. I’m sure God does, too. He hates to see how our collective and personal self-harm rob us of fulness of life.

But is that the gospel? No. With God’s arrival in Christ, we know that his orientation to “sinners” was hospitality expressed as open table fellowship, which becomes his chief metaphor for Abba’s invitation to the kingdom. It’s a banquet and, oddly / wonderfully, Christ is the fatted calf slain for dinner.

Instead of “hating the sin,” Christ forgives and heals the sin. Forgiving our sin is a “done deal.” It is finished, right? Not “You will be forgiven if…” but rather, “You were forgiven because…” While its fair to speak of how we experience forgiveness now or forgive others now, both are simply our active participation in a fait accompli, that beautiful French word meaning something that has already happened or been decided before those affected hear about it. So, we love the sinner everyone and hate forgive everyone, most of all because God has already forgiven them.

Less familiar is the idea that God “heals sin.” The conjunction of forgiveness and healing is common in Scripture but we often distinguish them so that forgiveness is for sin and healing is for disease. But Christ saw that “sin” is fundamentally a disease that requires healing. Back to the earlier story. He begins: “They that are whole have no need of a physician; but they that are sick. I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Luke v.31, 32).

What is the sickness of sin? Primarily self-will, the fatal turn described in the garden. It goes deeper than law-breaking to a deep suffering of the soul that can never be healed by condemnation and judgment. It needs a healing touch. So, for example,

• “Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness” (Jeremiah 3:22).

• “I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them” (Hosea 14:4).

• “… confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:15).

• “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Again, the forgiveness is already accomplished but God wants to get right into the roots of our disease so that we are healed or cleansed of all those impulses that drive us to self-harm and the compulsions that lead to harming others. As I’ve said so many times before, the meth addict is grateful that they’re forgiven for using harmful drugs … but they also want to be healed of the addiction and the wounds they seek to self-medicate. At some level, most addicts hate their addiction and who they’ve become. You cannot heal them by sowing more hatred. It simply doesn’t work.

So, here we are, ready to edit our pithy platitude. Not “Love the sinner, hate the sin,” but rather, “Love everyone, forgive and heal the sin.” Some have gone further and refuse to use the word “sin” because intrinsic to it is a long history of condemnation. We’ve forever confused it with misbehaving. But there’s no use denying human brokenness.

How about this, then: instead of focusing on sinful behavior, what if we saw past it to the suffering heart that is diseased with self-will. The heart. That’s the locus of what Jesus is forgiving and healing through his loving touch. Love heals. It’s more like, “Love, forgive and heal every heart.” 

Or wait… forgiving and healing: that’s God’s job. What’s our role? Following God and participating in what Christ is doing. I’m sure you can do better with the lingo, but what a beautiful way to live. The Jesus Way! By grace (not more self-will), become like him! Imitate him. So, here’s my last try for today, noting that this is not about them. It’s for us; it’s for everyone:

“God loves everyone. Christ forgives us and heals our hearts. Follow him.”

It may not be as catchy. But it’s certainly more true.

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Watch The Goodness Project Video — Thin Places: Sunrise on the Hill

Minding Your Story

As much as I dislike giving too much attention to what is happening south of the border, I would be remiss in not commenting on the US Election. My reluctance, however, is connected to what I want to say: for many, politics has become their guiding story. People at Two Rivers have heard me opine many times that everyone is looking for a story to makes sense of their lives. There are many competing narratives from which to choose (consuming, sex, competition, etc), but currently politics has become the foundational story for many; a religion of dark fundamentalist behaviour that demonizes at the drop of a hat and finds no nuance or complexity. 

Being faithfully committed to your story is important; that's the way it should be if it is your inspiration and your guide. However, I have no interest in making politics the story that defines my life and behaviour. It is a dimension of life and public responsibility which all citizens should engage, but its capricious nature, temptation to abuse of power, and constant flirtation with false witness leaves me looking for a better story. 

The story that makes sense of my life is the Jesus story. The story of the God who in great love and mercy draws near and becomes our home and our peace, and who becomes the center from which all other things can be engaged. In the Jesus story, we are free to put politics, consumption, sex, competition, and any other contenders into proper perspective and usefulness.

What is your guiding story? What narrative gives your life a ground and grammar from which to live and speak? This very Jesus said that the choice is critical because it is a little bit like choosing what ground you want to build your home upon - one is sand, and the other is rock. When the storms come, you know which one will hold.  GS

Watch The Goodness Project Video — Stories of Our City: Dan Evans

Dan Evans explains the work of the Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition and the disconnection he has discovered in the city through his work there. He also mentions the meaningful relationships formed on the streets that often go unnoticed and speaks about several individuals fostering connection in the community.

A Sacrament of the Ordinary

As we continue to draw your attention to the Goodness Project videos week by week in this blog, I’m reminded of the beauty of ordinary people and places. It is human nature to exalt and draw attention to celebrity, extraordinary human achievement, and exceptional places in nature and the built environment, but at Two Rivers we have always emphasized the sacrament of the ordinary.

In fact, we want to be set free from the addiction to hyperbole that we mainline day in and day out on our media machines. The irony is that we’re using media machines to tell these stories, but, maybe while there, we can learn the arts of temperance and modesty and humility, those unwelcome strangers in our lives.

The people in these videos are not slick or polished, particularly eloquent or brilliant, they are simply aware (and becoming aware even as they are asked great questions by the interviewers off camera) of the importance of having an ordinary story that is woven into the fabric of goodness that exists here in our neighbourhoods.

We also have discovered that this kind of practice leads us closer to encountering God in the ordinary, and the awareness that God inhabits the small and ordinary things of our lives with great love. GS

Watch The Goodness Project video — Stories of Our City: Lisa Downey

Lisa Downey describes the similarities she sees between her home of St. John’s, Newfoundland, and Guelph, the connections she has formed with The Vienna customers, and how the restaurant has become a cornerstone for many generations of Guelph citizens.

O Lord, Deliver Us!

I'm not ashamed to own that I need deliverance. It may be considered a sign of weakness; well, it is weakness, because you're admitting you need help. I sat down to pray and said "Lord, deliver us from this pandemic!”. But, I reconsidered that prayer and changed one word, "Lord, deliver us in this pandemic!"

I still fear that if we get out of this too quickly, we will think about how brilliant we are as humans. We will congratulate ourselves on our ingenuity and ability to work our way out of our dilemmas, and stoke the fantasy that we are invincible! There is a humbling that needs to happen right now, something different from anxiety and fear based shrinking of the ego. Rather, a conscious repentance from our arrogance and ignorance and entitlement. This might be what it means to be delivered 'in' the pandemic. Truthfully, I want both, but, for now I'm asking for the latter. O, Lord deliver us in the pandemic. Teach us your way.  

GS

Watch The Goodness Project video — Thin Places: The Hanging Gardens

On Woolwich Street, behind the County of Wellington Courthouse is a beautiful garden characterized by the extensive ivy that crawls along its stone walls. The courthouse buildings were formerly the county jail and the garden was the location of public hangings between the 19th- and early-20th centuries. The song playing in the background is a cover of the song “A Falling Through” by Ray LaMontagne, performed by Sember Wood.

The Goodness Project

The Goodness Project video features a story on how a common interest in sporting competition creates opportunity for young people to learn effective skills for navigating life. That’s all good, but, what I found most inspiring was the notion of mentoring. In this ‘goodness’ story, here was a clear relationship identified where a wiser and experienced individual took an active interest in passing on what he had learned to younger people needing direction. 

Robert Bly’s book ‘The Sibling Society’ laments the loss of mentoring. The great flattening of our world, where the ‘freedom’ to be ourselves eschews structures and ancient ways, in order to be authentic. He argues that no one is being called into a life of growing up, becoming an adult. What we fail to see is that we are always being formed by forces and pressures that overtly, and perhaps more often subtly, have an agenda for us.

The question to be asked is, what will we allow, or choose, to form us? This requires a great deal of careful thought and attention. At Two Rivers Church, we believe that the life of following Jesus benefits greatly from thinking of ourselves as his apprentices, being trained and formed in his ways. That means finding wiser and more experienced mentors to help us in that task.

Are you looking to be formed in a meaningful way? Consider joining us on the journey of being mentored in the life of Jesus for the sake of a healed and beautiful world.

Glen Soderholm 

Watch The Goodness Project video — Shaker and Ayden Adeyanju-Jackson

Shaker talks about starting his basketball training program, creating more courts, and the inspiration he draws from the kids he's worked with that have overcome adversity. Ayden, a basketball player and student at Queen's University, speaks about the role basketball and Shaker have played in his life.

Closer to God

One of the practices we try to encourage at TRC is culture making. Every human is a culture maker, because each one is required to make something out of all the raw materials that life gives. Here is a great reflection on making by Jeff Tweedy the frontman for Wilco:

“I just like writing songs. It’s a natural state to me. I like to believe that most people’s natural state is to be creative. It definitely was when we were kids. When being spontaneously and joyfully creative was just our default setting. As we grow we learn to evaluate and judge. To navigate the world with some discretion. And then we turn on ourselves. Creating can’t just be for the sake of creating any more. It has to be good. Or it has to mean something. We get scared out of our wits by the possibility of someone rejecting our creation.

It bugs me that we get this way. It bugs me a lot. I think just making stuff is important. It doesn’t have to be art. Making something out of your imagination that wasn’t there before you thought it up, and plopped it out in your notebook or your tape recorder, puts you squarely on the side of creation. You’re closer to God. Or at the very least, the concept of the Creator.

If a work of art inspires another work of art, I think it’s accomplished its highest sense of duty. People look for inspiration and hope. And if you have it, you share it. Not for your own glory but because it’s the best thing you can do. It doesn’t belong to just you.

No one has ever laid on their deathbed thinking, ‘Thank God I didn’t make that song. Thank God I didn’t make that piece of art. Thank God I avoided the embarrassment of putting a bad poem into the world.’ Nobody reaches the end of their life and regrets even a single moment of creating something. No matter how shitty or unappreciated that something might have been.”

Jeff Tweedy

Watch The Goodness Project video — Thin Places: Heffernan St. Bridge

The Heffernan Street bridge has a long history dating back to 1914. Its elevated position provides not only an excellent point to look out over the river, but its high arches are beautiful to view from the shore as well, casting impressive reflections into the river below it. The song playing in the background is a cover of the song “Places We Won't Walk” by Bruno Major, performed by Sember Wood.

‘Our Days Have Always Been Running Out’ by Margaret Renkl

(From a New York Times article by Margaret Renkl)

Autumn light is the loveliest light there is. Soft, forgiving, it makes all the world an illuminated dream. Dust motes catch fire, and bright specks drift down from the trees and lift up from the stirred soil, floating over lawns and woodland paths and ordinary roofs and parking lots. It’s an unchoreographed aerial dance, a celebration of what happens when light marries earth and sky. Autumn light always makes me think of fiery motes of chalk dust drifting in the expectant hush of an elementary school classroom during story time, just before the bell rings and sets the children free.

In fall, the nights are cooler and clearer, too, with the harvest moon floating steadfast in the night sky, the most reliable promise in our lives. Along the roadsides, wildflowers are blooming: ironweed and white snakeroot and the glorious goldenrod, all as high as my head and all food for the monarch and painted lady butterflies, and the ruby-throated hummingbirds, on their long migrations. Every kind of New World warbler is on the wing now, heading south like the raptors and the water birds, but they linger a little while before moving on again, and for a time Tennessee is filled with exotic songs.

(If you want to read more, check it out here: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/20/opinion/our-days-have-always-been-running-out.html?referringSource=articleShare )

Watch The Goodness Project video — Stories of Our City: Susana Miranda

Susana talks about being in a touring theatre group in Cuba, the help she received from her friends during her move to Guelph, and her involvement with ballroom dancing.

Cultivating a Community of Resilience

The image of church as garden appeals to me. There’s a lot you can do with that, which is why I like the word cultivate for the kind of thing we are trying to do here. Cultivation is about preparing space and tending to plants in a patient, hopeful, and non-manipulative way. We also know that plants can be bred to be hardier stock when tough conditions threaten. 

We’re all agreed that we are in tough conditions right now. Our intention is to learn from one another, as a community, about what it means to be resilient. Most of us have experience that we can draw from to encourage and teach each other. This will be the theme upon which we will hang talks and discussions in our Living Rooms, Liturgies, and Learning Rooms this Fall. 

Resilience is not synonymous with victory, overcoming, or success as the world defines it, it is about persevering, remaining, and abiding while everything else is falling apart. We do this with courage that God is with us, and that it will form the kind of church we dream of being, and that it will create a haven for all those looking for a way to make sense of their place in the world in turbulent and uncertain days.

Watch The Goodness Project video — Thin Places: Speed River Kayak:

Sharing Goodness

I think it is often confusing to know what is good, and what isn’t. Have you ever heard someone say they loved some Netflix series, and inside you are thinking – I thought that was rubbish!

But in the end, what is good is not just personal taste, it is adjudicated by some standard or value we trust. Those standards and values are up for grabs in our culture; we are deeply divided about what is good and bad, wrong or right, oppressive or anti-oppressive, because there are many distortions of what is good that compete to shape our judgement.

The sponsorship of The Goodness Project this summer was a way in which we as a faith community sought to discern where goodness was evident in the ordinary lives of our Guelph neighbours and citizens. Identifying, recording, and publishing those stories is a way of helping shape a robust and healthy vision of what it means to be a good human in our community!

I’ve always been intrigued by the story where Jesus is called good teacher by the rich ruler and Jesus says to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.” (Luke 18: 18-19) For followers of Jesus, that’s our starting place – the good God seen in Jesus. He was deflecting attention from himself in this encounter, but in the end, he became the standard by which we judge what is good and what is not. Our ‘project’ so to speak, is to attend to his life, learn and share his goodness, then celebrate and honour where it is played out every day in our world.

Watch the Goodness Project video featuring our very own John Martin-Holmes:

(Many thanks to Ben Wallace, Sember Wood, and Dan Veldhuis for their great energy and gifts in putting the whole project together.)

The Goodness Project Guelph

This summer Two Rivers Church had the pleasure of sponsoring two students, Sember Wood and Ben Wallace, in developing a video series highlighting local stories of goodness in Guelph. Over the next number of weeks and months, we’ll be sharing videos from their series on our blog. Here’s their introduction to the project:

The Goodness Project Guelph

Created by Ben Wallace and Sember Wood

Sponsored by Two Rivers Church

The Goodness Project is a video series about how people connect and feel fully alive in our city. We’ve tried to visit the places that are often overlooked, connect to the spiritual sources of beauty, and make sense of how we can still work towards goodness despite brokenness, injustice, and the negative impacts of a pandemic.

Stories of Our City

Short interviews of people from all walks of life: waitresses, musicians, administrators, dog walkers, and everyone in between. We’ve talked with people from across the city to find out what they love about Guelph, how they’re involved, and where they’re hopeful for change. 

Thin Places

Eight meditative videos that view locations in our city in a new light. Each video starts with a quotation to prompt thought and reflection. Some of the places featured should be familiar to most people who call Guelph home, but some may be more unorthodox. If you watch all eight in order, you should get a sense of time progressing through the day from sunrise to sunset. 

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Beginning Again

We are committing to a consistent presence here with weekly contributions. Stay tuned!