Death Dealing Sin

The Daily Prayer of the Church continues today with the Epistle from John’s first letter where we read:

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him. If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one—to those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin that is mortal; I do not say that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not mortal.

We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them. We know that we are God’s children, and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. (1 Jn. 5:13-21).

John tells us that “All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not mortal.”  In the original Greek, this is what John writes: “πᾶσα ἀδικία ἁμαρτία ἐστίν, καὶ ἔστιν ἁμαρτία οὐ πρὸς θάνατον.” The literal translation is: “Every unrighteousness is missing the mark (sin), and there is missing the mark (sin) that leads to death.” In other words, there are sins that kill our relationship with God, while others weaken our relationship with God, but do not sever the relationship.  What kind of sins are death dealing?  There are those sins which are so contrary to God’s will, for example taking innocent life, that when we willing do it, the act literally severs our relationship with God.  Yet we must be on guard.  If we are ready to do those small acts that do not seem “that bad”, we will be primed to do ever increasingly evil things that will eventually sever our relationship with God. 

Let us pray:  O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

CALENDAR REMINDERS

Adult Christian Education: The Resurrection by Bishop N.T. Wright. Join us at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings as we explore the ideas of the afterlife in the ancient world, what people during the time of Christ believed, what the reality of the Resurrection means for us as Christians.

Community Garden Meeting on Saturday, 20 April 2013: the next garden meeting between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. We'll have potluck at noon, and try to get updates and do some planning for the garden. I sent in the form to be on the Clean Galveston Backyard Garden Tour on June 1 and 2.

3^rd Annual St. Augustine’s BBQ, Saturday, 27 April 2013. Here is a link to the Houston Press’s article about the upcoming event: http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2013/04/celebrity_pitmaster_neil_bigmi.php

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially, Lou, Virginia, Hal, Hazel, all of the victims of the bombings in Boston and those who lost their lives and were injured in the explosion in West, Texas.

Your servant in Christ,

 

The Rev. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550