Zero Sin

Romans 8:6-11; Ezekiel 37:1-14; John 11:1-45


No. NO. NO! I am sure that there was a time when Drew thought that “No” was the only word that Paula and I knew. That’s not true, but it did get a lot of use.

We have a lot of “No” in our times. No GMOs. No gluten. No trans fats. No running in the halls. No artificial colors. No fat. No MSG. No parking. No waiting. No texting and driving. No cost to upgrade. No deductible. No shirt, no shoes, no service. No down payment. No hidden fees. No in Congress to anything or anyone proposed by the other party. Remember a couple of decades ago when the public mantra was “Just say ‘No’”? I guess that a lot of people took it to heart in all the wrong places for all the wrong reasons.

The problem is that “No” for all its simplicity is complex. Yes, it is negative. But sometimes negative is good. The reason that we sterilize medical utensils is that no germs, bacteria, etc. is good thing. No internet is not good a good thing (witness the commercials from one provider demonstrating how bad that is; get a life, folks). 

“No” often means “zero.” Zero can be a bad number. No one wants to get a zero on a test or performance review. We don't want to see a zero balance in our checking account or retirement fund. We don't want to be stuck in traffic going 0 miles per hour.

However, zero can be a good number. Like zero messages in your inbox. Zero payments left on the car loan, student loan, or house mortgage. Zero cancer cells detected. Zero interceptions (if you're a quarterback). Zero time left on the game clock and your team just won by one point. Zero mistakes on a project.

When we talk about negative things in life, zero is a very attractive number. No this or that, nothing, can be celebrated, like the toothpaste commercials from when I was growing up: “No cavities.” Yes, zero can great.

TED talks are 18 minute illustrated talks on “Technology, Entertainment, and Design.” The speakers address a wide range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture, often through storytelling. They present their ideas in the most innovative and engaging ways they can. Retired Microsoft founder, philanthropist, and innovator Bill Gates gave a talk to motivate some of the best and brightest minds in the world to a particular task. He called the talk, “Innovating to Zero.”

On the TED stage that day, Gates shared his dream of finding a way to produce energy for the planet with zero emissions or waste that is harmful to the environment. Reduction, he said, isn’t enough. There are no acceptable, tolerable levels. The goal must be total elimination. We need to innovate to zero, he said.

The “innovating to zero” initiative has spread beyond environmental concerns. The world of innovation has done “zero” work. Small pox was eradicated in 1977. A number of years ago Rotary International set a goal of eradicating polio. Former President Jimmy Carter’s Carter Center is working to eradicate guinea worm disease and river blindness in Africa. The auto industry is taking on accident fatalities. To achieve zero, it is developing cars with automatic braking and self-driving features. Towns and cities are innovating to zero poverty and zero hunger by housing and feeding those in need, and doing it in new and creative ways, such as tiny houses.

Other such projects exist:
• zero people without clean drinking water (Living Waters for the World is one organization working on that);
• zero children without access to education;
• zero domestic violence;
• zero security breaches;
• zero birth defects;
• zero waste;
• zero crime;
• zero bullying.
Just think how different the world would be if we could eliminate those things that cause harm to ourselves and others.

This includes sin. We must innovate to zero sin. “Go and sin no more,” was said by Jesus on a number of occasions.

The apostle Paul doesn’t use Bill Gates’ word, but he says the same thing. We should be working to eliminate sin from our lives. The world doesn’t see it that way. We are taught to manage it. It is as if there is some acceptable, tolerable level of sin allowed within our lives. “We can’t be perfect,” we tell ourselves. “We are only human.” In fact, the word “sin” never shows up in public discourse. A number of euphemisms are used to avoid the “S” word: mistake, misstep, blunder, gaffe, error, etc.

Of course, if we put our theological minds to thinking about the task of eradicating sin, we should quickly realize that we can’t do it. 

Let’s not forget that sin is a powerful force that is impossible to control. Sin is not just something we do; it's an active and controlling impulse that is deeply rooted in our hearts. It’s an “attitude that comes from selfishness [and] is hostile to God.... People who are self-centered aren’t able to please God.” Paul talks about “the self” – frequently translated as flesh – our sinful selves. He argues that because of this disposition, we’ll never be able fully and completely to submit to the very high standards expressed in the law of God. We cannot please God on our own.

Anyone in Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous knows this very well. The first of the 12 steps is to admit to yourself that you are not in control of your addiction. “We admitted we were powerless over our addiction; that our lives had become unmanageable,” people in recovery say. It takes more than a Wharton MBA to manage addiction or sin. Sin takes over and we are powerless to manage it. Sin seizes our lives like a malware trojan software program seizes our computers and ruins everything.

The second reason we can’t manage sin is that, as the Bible tells us, all sin leads to death. Even if we do not see our sin, it is there doing harm, just like the toxic pollutants in the air that Bill Gates challenged his TED hearers to reduce. It’s an interconnected world. Those who produce the least amount of harmful emissions feel their effects the greatest, while those who produce the most feel them hardly at all.

Sin in our lives also has unintended and destructive consequences. While we may feel the pain directly, others are often deeply affected by our mess-ups: family relationships, professional lives, friends. What we do affects other people. Sin is dangerous. We must innovate to zero sin.

Zero sin seems like a “catch 22.” If we claim that we don’t sin, we are liars. Jesus told his mountainside audience, “Be complete, perfect, whole, as the heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Without help, there is no way we can be what we are called to be.

The key to zero sin is to break down our lives into small parts, hours, minutes, seconds; paragraphs, sentences, words. Yard by yard life is hard, but inch by inch it’s a cinch. If we can take each moment, each relationship, each situation by itself and work with it to eliminate sin, then we will gain some momentum towards zero sin.

As every recovering addict will tell us, there are setbacks, there are relapses. Recovery from sin is no different. As Paul tells his Roman readers, “If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your human bodies also, through his Spirit that lives in you.” With Christ and his Spirit our perfect minutes and hours will come more often. 

So, the more we can fill ourselves with the Spirit, the less room there is for our self-centered nature, the sin. We don't need to pray for more patience, more love, more joy, or more kindness. We need to pray for more Jesus, for more of the Spirit. It doesn’t happen overnight. Eradication of sin is never finished. It is a work in progress. But with the Spirit of Christ growing in us, we can be assured that the work of the cross and the empty tomb is not wasted. If Christ is in us, the Spirit is our life because of God’s righteousness. And God’s righteousness is zero sin.

Thanks be to God.


General Resource: “Innovating to Zero Sin,” Homiletics, April 2, 2017, 41-43.

Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com. 
Copyright © 2017 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.