In the movie \u201cThe American President,\u201d Annette Bening plays Sydney Ellen Wade, an environmental lobbyist. Her job is to convince the White House to advocate for higher automobile emission standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During her first trip to the White House, she meets with A.J. MacInerney, the President\u2019s Chief of Staff, played by Martin Sheen. During their meeting, Sydney Ellen Wade becomes frustrated, turns to a colleague, and tells the colleague plainly, \u201cThe White House won\u2019t let us leave until AJ delivers the bad news.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her colleague is aghast at her brashness, but AJ answers, \u201cI\u2019m afraid she\u2019s right,\u201d whereupon he tells them that the President won\u2019t support the high emission standards they want. And worse, that the President expects them to support his position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bad news. The uncomfortable truth. Most of us don\u2019t like bad news or uncomfortable truth. It makes us, well, uncomfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rather, most of us want to hear what we want to hear. What some people call \u201cwords that tickle the ears.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Psychologists call this phenomenon \u201cconfirmation bias,\u201d the tendency to seek out or believe only opinions and reports that confirm what we already believe to be true, not words that challenge us. We like people to agree with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Hans Christian Andersen\u2019s fairytale \u201cThe Emperor\u2019s New Clothes,\u201d the emperor wanted everyone to tell him how stylish and exquisite his new clothes were. But he was naked! Nobody would tell him the uncomfortable truth, except for one little girl. \u201cHe\u2019s not wearing any clothes!\u201d She exclaimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is Lent, the Christian season of Uncomfortable Truth, and your nakedness is being discussed openly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even discussing why bad things happen to good people \u2013 such as towers falling and killing innocents \u2013 Jesus oh-so-uncomfortably tells us, \u201cRepent, or you will likewise perish.\u201d Not the ever-popular \u201cI\u2019m OK, you\u2019re OK.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRepent!\u201d Jesus tells us. \u201cYou have sinned. You have done things you shouldn\u2019t have, and you have failed to act when you should have.\u201d Jesus spoke raw, uncomfortable truths. Our problem is that Jesus still speaks the Uncomfortable Truth, only we can\u2019t hear him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One reason we can\u2019t hear Jesus is this: the word \u201csin\u201d has lost its edge, its meaning. It carries too much religious baggage. For some, the word \u201csin\u201d conjures up images of Catholic confessionals in which teenagers are forced to admit precisely how bad they are. For others, the word conjures up evangelical images of God angrily hoisting helpless people as marshmallows over open flames. Because of its baggage, the word has lost its razor-sharp ability to challenge us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did you hear the story of the little girl in the confessional? She confessed to the Catholic priest, \u201cFather, I have sinned. I cannot stop looking at myself every time I pass the mirror, and I keep telling myself how beautiful I am.\u201d To which the priest replied, \u201cMy dear, I have good news; yours is not a sin; it\u2019s only a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To reconstruct the term \u201csin,\u201d consider its existence in two forms: as big S and little s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Big-S \u201cSin\u201d is the state of the world. The fact that the world cannot, despite the best and heroic efforts of so many people \u2013 from Jesus to Gandhi to Martin Luther King, Jr., to you in this room \u2013 cannot seem to right itself. The world is shrouded in darkness. War continues. Brutal killing continues. Abuse and manipulation continue. Hunger and homelessness continue. Syria, Afghanistan, North Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Little-s \u201csin\u201d represents the actions, the things you, as an individual, do and the things you fail to do. Like cheating on your spouse or on your taxes. Kicking your dog or lying to your friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of us don\u2019t like to admit the sin in our lives \u2013 big-S or little-s \u2013 so we try to hide. Adam and Eve certainly denied their sinful plight, metaphorically, which is what it means when the story says they hid their nakedness with fig leaves. We try to hide the shame of our own nakedness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One way we hide the shame is by changing the language, using softer words. Which is a variation on confirmation bias, if you think about it. \u201cI tried my best,\u201d we might say. Or \u201cOn balance, I\u2019ve lived a good life.\u201d Or \u201cI\u2019m a pretty decent person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Euphemisms are inadequate fig leaves; you can\u2019t hide nakedness from God any more than Hans Christian Andersen\u2019s king could hide his nakedness from the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God sends Jesus along, who in his very public words, slaps us rudely across the face with the stark reminder that we are naked. That we require forgiveness. Restoration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n