Sin: an old fashioned term?

It’s not often that a Methodist minister makes headline news, but Rev Paul Flowers managed just that a few months ago.  Flowers was for a time chairman of the troubled Co-operative Bank.  He relinquished that role last year amidst both the Bank’s ongoing troubles and certain allegations which were made against him.

I was interested to watch a recent Newsnight interview of Paul Flowers by Jeremy Paxman (for whatever reason, Paxman seemed to be very gentle during the interview and not at all the dogged interrogator which we have come to expect!)  At one point in the interview Paxman posed the following question: “Given your religious background, do you think you have sinned?”

In his response Paul Flowers commented: “Of course I have sinned, in that old fashioned term which I would rarely use, I have to say.  I’m like everyone else, I’m frail.”  Is sin really an “old fashioned term?”  I’m not so sure.  Perhaps the term is not used as much today as it once was (though rugby supporters are very used to the term “sin bin” where a player is sent from the pitch for violating a rule!)  The word sin does seem to be still in common usage (e.g. in the phrase “for my sins”)

So what is sin?  In simple terms, the Bible describes sin as anything in a person’s life which is not in alignment with God’s will and purpose.  One thing is clear, it’s often far easier to see sin in another person’s life than in our own!  A few days ago Sue and I watched a dvd of “How Green Was My Valley” a film which tells the story of a 19^th century Welsh mining family.  There is one scene where the elders of the local chapel publicly denounce a young unmarried mother.  The Pharisaic vindictiveness of the church elders made me shudder.

In the same scene in the film another woman stands against the elders and reminds them of the story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery.  A remarkable story, not least in the challenge which Jesus issues to those waiting to stone the woman for her actions: ‘Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’  He forced them to look into their own hearts and see that none of them were without blame.  Jesus did not condemn the woman, but he did say to her, ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’  (I have no desire to comment specifically on the Paul Flowers situation, as I have no knowledge of the facts.  I do wonder, however, how those who have been quick to vociferously condemn him would react in circumstances similar to the story of the woman caught in adultery!)

The Bible makes it clear that sin causes a separation between us human beings and God (‘the wages of sin is death’, says the Apostle Paul).  Of course, none of us likes to be thought of as a sinner.  Yet Paul Flowers is absolutely right when he says that ALL of us are frail, ALL of us have said and done things which we bitterly regret.  But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus on the cross took on himself the penalty for our sin, so that through faith in him we might be forgiven and reconciled to God.  Yes, ‘the wages of sin is death’, but Paul also goes on to state, ‘but God's free gift is eternal life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.’  Sin is just as real and just as big a problem in the world as ever it was.  But the remedy is just as affective!