Growing up, I was always taught that sin meant missing the mark. God has some sort of standard that God hopes we live up to, and when we fail to live up to that standard-- when we miss the mark, we sin. Just like an archer shooting an arrow at a target and missing the bull eyes, when we sin (I was taught) we have missed the mark in our life and in that moment we separate ourselves from God.
Recently, I heard of an alternate definition to sin. Apparently, in Judaism sin is not defined in this way, it is defined as forgetfulness. Sin is a moment in time when you fail to remember our identity as children of a loving Creator.
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19
As a Christian I believe that the grace of God is even bigger than my sin, even bigger than the ways that I miss the mark. And I also believe, as the above passage says, that God will not count my sins against me. Rather, God’s freely given love and grace comes to us time and again, even when we forget.
Rather than striving for some sort of impossible vision of perfection that will eventually drown us in guilt, what if instead of beating ourselves up for missing the mark we simply prayed, "Dear God, I'm sorry, I forgot."
When God created the heavens and the earth God stepped back and called it “Good”-- and I am convinced that this label applies to you and me as well. We were created in the very image of this gracious God and while our forgetfulness ensures that we will forever be far from perfect, God forgives us and calls us “good”.
We weren't meant to be separated from God and we weren't meant to live lives of sin and forgetfulness but unfortunately, we fall into these traps all the time. And so again and again we need to remind ourselves that God calls us “good” and that God will do whatever it takes to remind us about the expanses of God’s love and forgiveness.
May we learn to forgive ourselves as freely as God forgives us. Amen.
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