This morning, a song by Simon and Garfunkel happened to playing in the background and caught my attention. ‘The Sparrow’ was not a song I had particularly remembered. As I listened to the haunting words, I was unfortunately reminded of the callousness and apathy of humankind. The artists describe the pleas and subsequent rejection of neighbors in the created world. For example, the title sparrow asks for a place to rest; the oak tree refuses with the sentiment that it is too much trouble. The song does conclude on a positive note that the earth accepts all creatures.
As a theologian, I appropriate this description as the manifestation of original sin. Bluntly described, sin is the attempt of human to elevate themselves in the place of God. The temptation of the ‘tree of good and evil’ was to become more like God. Human beings have been fighting (and often failing) to fight this temptation since the beginning of time. In all three Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) – trusting or valuing anything, including ourselves, more than God is considered idolatry and is generally categorized as the ‘number one no-no.’
As a human being, I experience deep despair witnessing the manifestation of that sin in the world and in this nation. There is a profound difference in analyzing the reality of human sin as theory and supposition and watching its reality rear its ugly head resulting in violence, oppression, and injustice. There is a difference in examining the theory and witnessing the manifestation of sin.
As far as the song goes, it is all fine and good for each component of creation to be self-serving, practicing their own creaturely version of isolationism. It is a different story to hear the sorrow and desperation of said creatures that ensues from that doctrine. Creation was not intended to exist as isolated elements, but as a cohesive ecosystem. Nothing in creation is truly separate from another.
This song also elicited memories from long ago of a favorite poem by Wolfgang Borchert. Few may know (or remember) this poem whose dramatic reading brought me success in my brief foray into forensic competition. Apparently, I was able to adequately embody a fusion of post war angst and urgency.
This poem is titled, ‘Dann gibt es nur eins!’ (Then there is only one thing!) The recurrent exhortation is ‘Sag nein!’ (say no). Written by the German poet and soldier Borchert directly following World War II, this poem depicts an emotional plea to not only the German folk, but people and nations throughout the world. Roughly summarized, the poem systematically itemizes various common vocations, enumerates their inadvertent contributions to war, and offers the uncompromising alternative of ‘saying no.’ He puts forth pretty forcefully that there only option is to ‘say no’ when faced with choices in daily life that inadvertently contribute to war. From the routine duties of a clerk in an office to the pastor in the pulpit to mothers bearing sons, Borchert calls on individuals to use the basic essence of their individual vocations to better humanity.
Borchert’s poem invites us examine the routine choices we make in our daily lives and the overall impact such choices have on the larger world. In deference to another Simon & Garfunkel tune (not on today’s playlist), none of us actually qualify for ‘rock’ or ‘island’ status. The world is too interconnected. As beings created to live in community, none of us has the dubious distinction, either as privilege or as insult, of existing as solitary entities. We are bound to one another, God, and creation – whether we want to be or not.
The choices we make each day have the potential to have a ripple effect that do not cease with our nearest acquaintances. As citizens of this earth, we are bound to one another in ways we are wont to notice. The interconnectivity of the human race, let alone the whole created world, can be overwhelming. Part of Borchert’s plea is for people to take responsibility for all of their actions, whether intentional or not. The choices we make are not solely individual; our choices impact the larger society. This interconnectivity of life has traditionally been referred to community. As our prevalent sociological understanding of community has shifted throughout history, so has our understanding of communal responsibility.
Ancient peoples tended to have a greater awareness of communal responsibility. The community was emphasized over the individual. For example, in the Book of Jonah, the entire city of Nineveh was subjected to condemnation and the entire city repented. “And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.” The entirety of condemnation, repentance, and absolution was a communal experience. Ancient peoples tended to see sin (along with consequences and repentance) as more of a communal experience as opposed to a personal, individual experience.
Although we have seen some advantages to a more individualized understanding of sinfulness, there have been some drawbacks. It has become easy to demonize individuals; it become trickier to maintain a sense of communal responsibility and repentance. This has made it more challenging to address communal sin, which is often now referred to as ‘systemic’ rather than communal. Even that choice of diction further removes us from a sense of communal responsibility by pushing the responsibility either on historical events or some impersonal ‘system’ for which we take no responsibility.
No matter how we name it (or chose not to name it) human sin is propagated by and impacts the lives of human beings. Communal sin, the sin perpetuated by groups of human beings, impacts the lives of groups of human being, namely communities. Our feeble attempts to distance ourselves from communal sin do not lessen the impact of that sin as witnessed in historical events prompting the poetry of Borchert in the late 1940s, the lyrics of Simon and Garfunkel in the late 1960s or current events.
Paul wrote to the Romans, “For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” The body of Christ is a complex system of believers that interact with one another, relying on the strengths of one to counterbalance the weakness of another. This whole system is built on the foundation of Christ Himself. It is God’s power that hinges all those ‘parts’ together into that one body. Paul is addressing the intrinsic temptation the early Christians faced to exalt themselves over others.
While Paul was writing this specifically to new Christians, the same truth arguably exists for all of God’s children. The truth that none of us stands in place of God remains true even for agnostics and atheists. Even the belief system professing not to ascribe to a belief system, places the individual in the position of submission to that very system of thought (or belief).
Within any faith system, there is a system of connectivity. Humans, for the most part, do not thrive in isolation. We are not created to be apathetic. We are not created to reject one another. Rejection, self-preservation, rampant individualism, self-importance, and apathy are all manifestations of human sin. Those qualities are intended for the demise of goodness.
In instructing confirmands concerning the definition of ‘Amen’, I explain that it is an exuberant assent to the prayer. (warning: this can result in young souls shouting ‘YES!’ very exuberantly at the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer during worship – providing a periodic reminder of AED locations for more sedate worshippers.) ‘Amen’ is the confident, bold, vocal, boisterous, “YES! Let it be so!” It is the conclusion to our prayers that asserts the power of God and His promises. It is the confident trust in a God is greater than anything force on earth or in heaven.
For people of faith, this ‘Amen’ is both Borchert’s ‘no’ and the Earth’s ‘yes’ as depicted in the song, ‘The Sparrow’. It is the embrace of God’s Spirit given to us. It is the blessing of humanity. Humanity, despite its state of sin, was indeed created, redeemed, and is sustained by a merciful and benevolent God. Despite our failings, we continue to participate in a larger system gathered and decreed from the beginning, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31a) AMEN.
pastorcarla 