In case you are wondering, one of my favorite restaurant experiences was in Va Beach for a wedding anniversary celebration where Tracee and I enjoyed a phenomenal meal at Salacia.. Excellent restaurant.
Below are some reference notes and ideas to get you started.. on our own slippery slope.. Lets all hope that we will spend the next few weeks climbing.. rather than digging... that is assuming you understand that we are already in a hole with our lifestyles and culture of "meism".
Little Sins/Big Sins... separate us from God and put our feet firmly on the "proverbial" slippery slope.
Proverbs is a book presenting the Wisdom of the Sages where the goal is to provide a roadmap to "live well and right"
Proverbs 1:1-6 These are the wise sayings of Solomon, David's son, Israel's king— Written down so we'll know how to live well and right, to understand what life means and where it's going; A manual for living, for learning what's right and just and fair; To teach the inexperienced the ropes and give our young people a grasp on reality. There's something here also for seasoned men and women, still a thing or two for the experienced to learn— Fresh wisdom to probe and penetrate, the rhymes and reasons of wise men and women.
Seven Deadly Sins: is a human construct/interpretation of SINS that lead to... death and eternal separation from a God who loves us and sacrificed himself for us to pay our ever accumulating debt.
- What exactly is SIN? yep, answering that question is the most central issue for us. If you don't know, then that should be your focus.
- Do you respond to positive reinforcement or judgemental punishment models? and how do you believe that the guidances for wise living set forth in Proverbs, should be dealt with... Are they laws, should they be?
- What is the punishment for not obeying this wisdom? What is the punishment for SIN?
- Why do we continue to sin even if/when we know that it is both wrong and bad for us?
- Do you know what the "seven" things are that God despises?
- Do you know the Seven Habits of highly successful people?
- Do you think regularly about your personal "Tools of the trade"? Benjamin Franklin used a table to track his personal progress and regular practice of 13 Virtues.
What is your PLAN for LIVING WELL AND RIGHT? Perhaps... it starts and ends with Love and an occasional trip through the Open Door. I would also suggest a regular review of the Wisdoms of the Sages presented for us in Proverbs.
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Welcome to Unit 2--The Seven Deadly Sins
I once spoke with someone about the spiritual roots of our current social ills. He commented, "I prefer not to use the word sin but rather 'failing' or 'mistake.'" I remember thinking that if we avoid the word "sin" we relinquish a foundational biblical teaching. Unfortunately, to many people the word "sin" has lost its edge. We are more apt to hear about sin in reference to a piece of chocolate cake or in a pop song than in its true theological power. Understood biblically, sin is more than merely something that is "naughty but nice"; sin is a destructive pattern of life. It is anything that breaks our relationship with God, others, or ourselves. Reclaiming the word "sin" is the first step to reconciliation with God. When we recognize patterns as sinful, we recognize our own desperate need for the saving power of God in Jesus Christ.
What exactly is sin? Just as we organize our cupboards and our schedules to make sense of our lives, Christian thinkers have organized sin into a number of categories in an attempt to understand and surrender these patterns to God. The notion of "seven deadly sins" emerged as a way to recognize specific dangers to our spiritual lives. The origins of the list are unclear. Many scholars say that they emerged from a list of eight bad habits created by Evagrius of Pontus, a fourth-century Greek monastic theologian. Some 200 years later, Pope Gregory the Great reduced the list to seven while writing on the book of Job.
Throughout the Bible, we read about the struggle between humanity's sinful nature and God's desire to free us from bondage. In the book of Proverbs, we have an anthology of wisdom teachings. These collections were customarily attributed to King Solomon. Most biblical scholars now conclude that the title is honorary. The authors of Proverbs were the "sages, a social class that served as counselors, bureaucrats, and teachers during the Divided Kingdom and as preservers of tradition in the later periods" (Camp and Fontaine, 938). The purpose of the book is to guide people away from sin and into a wise and godly life.
Claudia Camp and Carole Fontaine, "Proverbs, and Introduction," The HarperCollins Study Bible, NRSV (London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993).
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About the Writer
Darcey Gritzmacher Johnson is ordained in the United Methodist Church. She originates from Texas, where she completed undergraduate studies at Texas Christian University. Darcey attended seminary at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. After seminary, Darcey and her husband Drew, a Disciples of Christ pastor, moved to Devizes, England, where she served for three years as the pastor of four Methodist churches. She later served a church in Idaho for five years. Darcey now lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband, two young daughters, and a cat named Max. She currently serves part-time as a pastor and full-time as a wife and mother.
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