PART II. SECTION 4: WHAT IS SIN?
Lesson 259 Let Me Remember That There Is No Sin
- Sin is the only thought that makes the goal of God seem unattainable. What else could blind us to the obvious, and make the strange and disturbed seem more clear? What else but sin engenders our attacks? What else but sin could be the source of guilt, demanding punishment and suffering? And what but sin could be the source of fear, obscuring God’s creation; giving love the attributes of fear and of attack?
- Father, I would not be insane today. I would not be afraid of love, nor seek for refuge in its opposite. For love can have no opposite. You are the Source of everything there is. And everything that is remains with You, and You with it. [1]
Notes and Personal Application Today our lesson informs us that the idea of sin is foreign to God. Believing in sin is the one thought that makes us believe that the path to God is simply too much for us, in our human form, to attain. When we think of ourselves as sinful, fallen, cursed of God there seems to be simply no point in seeking God, holiness, or heaven. Why would we want to serve such a harsh mean Fellow who would create a universe in which we were expected to worship grovel before Him forever in exchange for atonement, anyway? Such a belief system traps the ignorant and unsuspecting in fear and superstition. It encourages fanatical, violent witch hunts against the true message and mind of Christ. It seeks to turn our natural love and longing for God into fear and attack.
Today we give up such insanity. We no longer fear our devotion to God and for one another. We are no longer afraid to say how much we love our Father and Creation. We are no longer afraid to claim our holiness as His Son. We are no longer afraid to accept our rightful place in His Kingdom as we stand with Christ. Thoughts of sin no longer keep us from God or from our true identity in Him! We do not weaponize the gospel of Christ against those who rise against us for sin and death and destruction is an image of the insane world’s perception and has no place in our eternal mind and home with God.
Our hope, our peace, and joy is found in this: Love has no opposite. God is Everything. God is Everywhere and Everlasting. God is Reality. All else that would try to establish itself against Him is a lie which cannot stand against the truth.
When we realize that our salvation from sin is deliverance from a lie that presents itself as truth, our hearts and mind will leap in holy recognition of what has kept us from loving God and accepting our rightful place as His Son. Suddenly the traditional teachings of the church, of the bible, of our established institutions and organizations will be seen through the eyes of Christ rather than with the eyes of the ego.
When Jesus lived on earth in a human form, he did not pastor in a church, collect tithes and offerings, or establish a group of musicians to lead the participants in song. He did not waste his time studying liturgy, ministry, biblical studies, and theology. Jesus followed His heart, His holy mind, His calling. He simply did what God told him to do and told his disciples to do the same. He told stories that illustrated God’s love and devotion to Creation. He gave people hope. He delivered them from belief systems that purposefully trapped them in servitude and slavery, draining them of their sovereignty. Instead of avoiding the lepers and outcasts, he ministered to them. He told the people He healed “sin no more.”
There are all kinds of theories about what Jesus could have meant by this. We are told in one section of the bible that it is impossible for us not to sin. We are told that sin must be punished. In the book of James we are told we are liars if we say we have no sin! The idea that we are sinful, guilt-ridden creatures who are an offense to our Creator is the basis for nearly every religion in the world.
Yet today in Lesson 259, Christ informs us to remember there is no sin. Sin is not of God. If God is Everything; then sin is only an idea that lifted itself up against Him. It is something we do not give a second thought. We simply let the idea of sin go. We cannot take that idea or any of the consequences of believing in its imaginary power with us to His Kingdom. When the prodigal comes home, he does not bring the idea of sin with him, his sense of guilt and shame or his imaginary offenses are lifted. He takes off his rags stained with pig dirt. They are not put into an archive to keep forever as evidence of his having squandered his inheritance. The grime from his journey is washed away, not kept in a jug to remind the sinner of how thankful he should be to be taken back in. He is home! He is grateful to have learned from his mistakes, welcomed with open arms and joyful heart to his rightful kingdom. He is given a clean robe, a ring, and the best seat of the house while a feast is prepared in his honor. The Father reproves any talk of sin, of punishment, of spite and vengeance and accountability. Remember there is no sin! He was lost. Now he is found. He made a mistake. He learned a lesson. He is back where he belongs.
Let us go again and again to this simple but powerful story to remind ourselves of the insanity of believing in sin. The idea that we are born in sin obscures the fact that we are born in separation. When we believe in our sinfulness, we believe that we have earned God’s wrath and condemnation. We believe that the only way to return to our Father is through systems of fear that involve sacrifice, shame, guilt, and bloodshed. Our relationship with Christ becomes tainted because we believe that our sinful natures caused our Lord to suffer. We miss the point of His ministry and focus on the cross, His bloodshed and suffering rather than on His command to forgive and to seek God and His Kingdom. We are taught that God cannot be appeased without blood, even that of His Own Son, while all God asks of us is our love, our devotion, our return.
From around the world, we join as one in putting down our ideas of sin. We have simply made a mistake. We fell into a realm of separation. Like the prodigal we thought to leave the sure thing of Everything and make our own way in a world of Unreality, of opposites, of love and hate, peace and war, gentleness and violence, truth and lies, courage and fear, health and decay, life and death. We would set up our own Kingdom where we could be boss, only to find that without our Source we are lost, confused, driven mad with uncertainty, forgetting our way, and swamped in thoughts of sin. We want to come Home! We learned the lessons of separation. We see that without our Everything we are nothing. We have made of ourselves a hellish version of that which is Holy, Innocent, and Sublime.
Today we pray:
Our Father Who is Everything, we love and devote ourselves to You. We have made a mistake. We want to come Home. We want Your kingdom. We want Your Will. We miss Your Love, Your Holiness, Your All in All. Deliver us from thoughts of sin, despair, and death. Let us see this madness for what it is! Let us no longer fill our minds with the Unreality which makes the strange and distorted seem real while blinding our eyes to Your Kingdom. We give You our eyes in exchange for the vision of Christ. We give You our divided minds for the unified mind of Christ. We give You thoughts of sin and shame for thoughts of mistakes corrected by Your love, patience, and mercy. Let the rest of our sojourn in time be devoted only to You. You are the Everything and sin, which cannot be part of You, is nothing but a vain attempt to separate ourselves from Your Love. In the name of Jesus, with Whom we are one. Amen.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 259. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).
Audio credit: the friar patch @ http://www.eckiefriar.com
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