SIN AS DEBT

When you and I say The Lord’s Prayer, we ask the Father to “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”, or in the newer form: “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” My Presbyterians friends, however, are accustomed to say “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” In fact, one of the more famous musical versions of The Lord’s Prayer uses the Presbyterian form.

Not to argue what is correct or, perhaps, what is more correct – trespasses, sins, debts – but a good case could be made that debt is the better term, or at least gets to an issue about trespasses and sins that we hardly ever think about. Both trespass and sin are words that indicate that something wrong has been done. The trespasser, the sinner, has hurt another and asks for forgiveness just as s/he asks for the same when s/he is the one who has been done wrong.

We all know that we are sinners, that we have hurt others, and deliberately so, with our words and actions. We make no bones about it and are never hesitant to say The Lord’s Prayer. We’ll even make a public confession of that fact during the Eucharist. We do not shy away from such admissions because we know we cannot and because we also know that everyone around us, everyone period, is in the same boat as we are. We are all sinners, no questions asked.

That is all well and good as far as it goes. But does it go far enough? Does simply admitting our sinfulness suffice? The Presbyterians, at least as far as their version of the prayer goes, do not seem to think so. We should not think so either. Think about it: whenever we hurt another, we owe them something. We are in debt to them. What we certainly owe is an apology. We might be in even more debt as well. We may have to make amends, repay, somehow in some way, what we have damaged. There may be occasions when we are in debt big time.

Too often, I think, we do not think about the consequences of our sinfulness, do not even consider that we are indebted to the one we have hurt just as the other is indebted to us whom he or she has hurt. We owe and are owed as a result of our sins and trespasses but we often think little or nothing about this truth – or, even worse, how we are going to pay off the debt that we owe.

Years ago a prominent psychologist asked the question, “Whatever happened to sin?” because he believed we human beings were simply taking our sinfulness for granted and were satisfied that that was sufficient. “We’re all sinners, so what’s the big deal?” we said and asked and went on with our lives. In doing so all the debts we built up because of our sinfulness and selfishness only got higher and higher and we became more and more alienated one from another.

The only way to remedy such alienation is to take responsibility for our sins and somehow begin to repay the debts we owe. Perhaps if we were more cognizant of the fact that our sins require debt payment, we would sin less and love more. Perhaps.