In the sermon I mentioned that, these days, one hurdle to talking about ourselves as sinners is the psychological era in which we live. We fear that viewing ourselves as sinners may undermine our self-esteem. Certainly the notion of sinfulness can be misused as a club, on ourselves or others. Ironically, those who struggle with self-regard often do so as a result of the sinfulness of their parents or others with whom they grew up (through shaming behavior).

However, to jettison belief in our sinfulness because of its misuse or abuse seems like an exercise in throwing the baby out with the bathwater. That we are sinful is simply a short-hand way of saying that we are not content to be creatures of the Creator, but insist on being self-creators, gods unto ourselves--the old story of Adam and Eve, which is our story. That story illustrates our tendency to rebel, disobey, and take the world into our own hands. 

In our discussion time during the first worship service, someone mentioned that, as Christians, we're able to admit our mistakes and move on. That is--and I'm interpreting here-- we're not stuck with our past failures and sins. We have a resource called forgiveness that prevents sin from having the last word, and that enables us to be honest about ourselves. As someone else said, We don't have to be perfect.

It's worth noting that the Apostle Paul speaks mainly, not of 'sins' as moral failures, but of 'sin' as the alien and enslaving power that leads to 'sins.' And so he rarely speaks of the forgiveness of sins, but rather of sin's defeat and conquest by Jesus Christ. In fact, that's how radical and universal sin is: it takes the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ to break it.

As Will Willimon puts it (paraphrasing here), when we, in our rebellion against God, ended up lonely and pitiful, and all seemed lost, just then God risked all, condescended, came to us, and embraced us. And this is the good news of Jesus Christ.