What is Your Story about Reality?

One of the things we are invited to do during the season of Lent is to acknowledge and confess our own sinfulness.  As straightforward as this may sound on the face of it, careful reflection requires that we define what we mean by the word “sin”.  Historically, it has often been defined primarily from a moralistic perspective: to sin is to transgress against God’s commandments. This is an overly legalistic understanding of “sin”. Theologian Serene Jones offers what I believe is a helpful, more nuanced understanding of sin:

“Sin simply refers to all aspects of life where the reality of grace is not manifest and evil flourishes. It’s what happens when we’ve got the wrong story about reality in our heads. If we do not recognize grace, we latch onto lies about who we are. These lies are manifest in an endless variety of godless dispositions: hatred, violence, greed, injustice, pride, despair, isolation, self-loathing, unbridled arrogance, a hardened heart, a cold soul. When these lies are aggregated over time, they get compressed into social systems and cultural patterns that look to us as if they are true, when in truth they are not. They are evil and profoundly destructive. This is what it means to be godless—to not be awakened to the light of God’s love. It describes grace-asleep people as well as whole grace-asleep societies.…” 

Sin “is what happens when we’ve got the wrong story about reality in our heads”!  I had not heard it stated this way before, but I find this to be a remarkably helpful way of thinking about it. From this perspective, Lent becomes a season not of guilt and shame, but rather a season of reflecting on the “story of reality” that we have in our heads.

Is it a story in which our value is dependent on what we do, how much we make, what we possess, or our social status?  Or is it a story in which our inherent value has nothing to do with any of these things and everything to do with God’s unfathomable, unearned love for us? 

Is it a story in which a scarcity mindset leads to anxiety and greed?  Or is it a story in which Christ’s promise of abundant life engenders a grateful generosity?

Is it a story that divides and excludes?  Or is story that brings reconciliation and unity?

Is it a story that encourages prejudice and systemic injustice?  Or is it a story that calls for justice and mercy?

As we enter the homestretch of this Lenten season, I invite us all to spend a little time reflecting on the story about reality that we have in our heads.  If it’s a story that in any way limits our capacity to recognize God’s grace, we need to open ourselves to a new story: the story that was made manifest most fully in Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection; it is the story of God’s abundant love.

Yours in Christ,

Kevin+