April 17th

Mis-Directed Love

To my dear TFMC family,
In adult Sunday school this past week, we were trying to pin down when one was being slothful and when one wasn’t. And we were having a difficult time. In many scenarios we came up with, we could argue either way. I think that speaks to how complex these Sins are, and now they’re not a clear cut and dry, this is when you’re Sinning and this is when you’re aren't.
Each of these Sins is complex and contextual. Is it Pride to seek some approval when you think something has been done well? Is it Gluttony to want a second helping of something, because you’re still hungry? Is it Greed to aggressively invest to ensure a secure retirement? Sometimes it’s hard to say when one is explicitly sinning or not. I think that’s part of the complexity of the Seven Deadly Sins. If we’re too strict on naming them, we can be more judgmental than we need to be, and on the other hand, if we’re too gentle in naming them, perhaps we’re not holding ourselves sufficiently accountable.
So how do we know when we’re committing one of these Sins? If they, by and large, operate in the grey, when do we call ourselves to attention? I would argue that awareness matters.
Gluttony isn’t taking a second helping, as mentioned above. Gluttony is a lack of awareness of how our consumption affects others. Greed isn’t aggressive investments, rather Greed is a lack of awareness of how such hoarding affects others.
It’s the awareness matters, when we’re aware of what we’re doing, and continue to do things that mis-direct God’s love, of harming others, I would say that moves us into the realm of Sinning. This is why I think that Love is a helpful metric. Each of these sins is a matter of the Heart. Either it’s love that’s too focused on self, too focused on stuff, or not focused on anything at all. When we become aware of how we are mis-directing God’s love, grace gives us the opportunity to redirect it.
This is why I find it life giving to talk about Sin as mis-directed love, because if we can mis-direct our love, we can also redirect our love. Cultivating virtues re-orients this mis-directed love and it also transforms us. We are empowered by God’s Spirit to reorient that mis-directed love into a love that heals rather than harms. And again, these virtues bring an awareness with them. The more humility we live, the more it will feel out of place when Pride seeps in. The more generous we are, the less appeal Greed has. The more we recognize how content we are, the less power Gluttony has over us. As we cultivate these virtues, we become transformed too.
Easter is a season of transformation. Grief is transformed into joy. Death is transformed into life. Our mis-directed love is redirected to reflect God’s love. And we are transformed by living into these virtues to shine the light of the Resurrected Christ into the world.
Yours,
Craig Janzen Neufeld, Pastor