The Hope of Sin.

"Sin is our only hope, because the recognition that something is wrong is the first step toward setting it right again. There is no need for help for those who admit no need of help. There is no repair for those who insist that nothing is broken, and there is no hope of transformation for a world whose inhabitants accept that it is sadly but irreversibly wrecked." Barbara Brown Taylor

Do you think the Sin-word is overused in the church for too often we wear it as a badge of honor? I was thinking this morning about Jesus’ words in Matthew, "I have not come to call the righteous, but the ‘sinners’". I wonder how this speaks to the church today? That can be comforting or it can be a challenge. Has the church become the righteous ones in the story? Am I one of the righteous ones or am I one of the "sinners"? Have we worn our badges of sacrifice as symbols of honor and no longer recognized we are in need of mercy? Is it possible the we've used the label "sinner" as our way of being humbly righteous? As long as we think we've "got it" there is a good chance that we don't and transformation is impossible.

Barbara BrownTaylor is right, sin shows us that something is really wrong, doesn't it? I would feel hopeless if it were not for repentance. The opportunity to turn away and pursue a new direction. As one of the "righteous" ones I can join the in with those Jesus claimed he came for-- those on the outside of the Law as defined by the righteous. By joining the ranks of the sinners, I acknowledge a need for mercy.

"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick." I think in ways this passage can speak to the Church. Perhaps it is time the Church re-join the ranks of the sinners by acknowledging how sick we are and turn toward the Hospital. This is our hope.

I wonder if Christ is asking his Church, "Do you want to be healed? Do you want to be made whole?" Dare we stretch out our hands. Dare we acknowledge our sickness and join the ranks of the sinners who need the doctor. This is where the healing happens.

May we dare as the beloved to show each other our wounds and join with the wounded. This is our hope.

There is good news in repentance for we receive forgiveness and encounter Divine Love. It is our sin of righteousness that keeps us in fear. It is our sin of righteousness that hurts. It is our sin that wants to strip us of our dignity. It is our sin of righteousness that robs us of humanity. It is our sin of righteosuness that tempts us to hide from God in our shame and guilt. That is why the call to repent and for ongoing repentance is so great throughout scripture; it why our prayer books call for our repentance in our liturgies, because the call is from the voice of Love, who cries for God’s people to come closer. We repent and turn away from those things that take away from the fullness of life that is offered in Christ. There is good news in repentance for as God’s redeemed children we can begin again, that is our promise in repentance that is our assuredness as Christians and that is the hope of our salvation. "But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice."