It’s the most famous pun in the history of the foreign office. In 1842, Major General Sir Charles Napier, commander of the British army in India, was ordered to quell an uprising in a province called Sindh, today the region around Karachi in Pakistan. He succeeded, and sent back a message consisting of one word, Peccavi, which is the Latin for ‘I have sinned.’
Puns aside, the hardest thing to say in any language is just that: I have sinned. I did wrong. Forgive me. Which is why, in Judaism, we have Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which begins this Friday night.
For us, it’s the holiest day of the year, and it is given over to saying in a hundred different ways, I have sinned.
It isn’t easy to do. But it’s essential to a happy life. I have seen marriages fail, families split apart, friends become estranged, whole communities divided, all because neither side was prepared to say: I got it wrong. Forgive me.
Thank you for posting this thoughtful reflection. I have also been reflecting about “sinâ€.
It is my understanding [n.b. I invite comments by Greek and Hebrew experts] that our term “sin†comes from a Greek archery term that literally means “missing the markâ€. If that is the case, it appears different than the modern American understanding that seems to impart a much more intrinsically evil connotation to the word “sinâ€.
E.g., if I stay too long at the office, I have sinned in that I have missed the mark of getting home to my family and fulfilling my role as husband and father. But there is nothing inherently evil in being at the office. It is what I perceive to be this more starkly negative American connotation of “sin†that I believe has given rise to much of the polarization around sexuality issues.
If we see that God’s plan for intimate human relationships is heterosexual marriage, then anything else misses the mark, and is, therefore, sin. Ironically, I don’t know of many gays or advocates who contend that gay relationships “hit the markâ€. Indeed, the ubiquitous plaint of gays, “Do think I would have chosen to be like this?†seems to reflect an understanding that they are missing the mark, the ideal, the bullseye.
However, once we bring the term “sin†into the discussion, the negative connotation seems to freeze any discussion and push people into defensive postures. I don’t know if merely changing the semantics of the discussion would help us move foreword, but I note that there are many who reject the concept of gay marriage but would accept civil unions, a parallel distinction.
Of course, more extreme gay advocates will accept nothing less than total equivalency with marriage. In essence they are saying, “We aren’t missing the mark; you need to move the target!â€
I don’t pretend that a revision to the semantics will bring about any ultimate resolution of our crisis. I still feel that continued, intentional missing the mark would disqualify for ordination. But I do think a re-examination of our terminology might allow us to have more civil discussions. And without those discussions there is little hope of breaking through our current polarization.
Supposedly, for Christians, we have two days upon which to reflect on our sins and seek God’s Forgiveness, in imitation of Yom Kippur:
Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent and
Good Friday, while not ‘technically’ in Lent (rather in Holy Week), the end of the Lenten season.
But how many of us have made that connection, I wonder?
Ok, Bill, a web search yielded this bit of information, for those who have direct knowledge of Biblical Greek, please chime in! 🙂
On the [url=http://www.biblefacts.org/lang/greek_sin.html]Biblefacts website[/url], the words themselves are given in Greek. The cut and paste changed them to english-equivalent, or so I presume:
In order to study the definition of Sin, here is a list of Greek words translated as sin:
‘amartia – to miss the Mark
agnohma – an act done in ignorance of God’s will
Hebrews 9:7 (Sin committed in ignorance)
1 Timothy 1:13 (Sin committed in ignorance)
‘uperbainw – going beyond the will of God
1 Thessalonians 4:6 (overstepping or trespass) in Josephus and Philo lit. “going beyond the head of the risen Lord.”
skandalon – a cause of sinning or causing someone else to fail
enoicoV – guilty or liable
ponhroV – guilty or evil, as a noun one who has done an evil deed.
ptaiw – stumbling or failing to live up to God’s will
proskomma – taking the opportunity to sin or cause someone to sin
paratoma – a transgression of the will of God
I have seen marriages fail, families split apart, friends become estranged, whole communities divided, all because neither side was prepared to say: I got it wrong. Forgive me.
But whose fault is it? The person who fails to confess, or the people who, in effect, punish confessions?
I say ‘punish’, because admission of error is universally – both inside Christendom and outside – considered a display of weakness and an invitation to disrespect. Sure, marriages break apart because of refusal to admit error, but that’s *after* marriage. Before marriage, crazy is the man who shows any such diffidence in himself. And crazy is the politician or executive who admits error at any time – electorates aren’t forgiving.
We would do well to examine the culture that deters apology.