“John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.’”
What is the sin of the world? For millennia religious rulers have claimed the sin of the world is disobedience to a Supreme Lord who thus requires payment and death. The religious claim can be found in Genesis, “The Lord said, ‘You disobeyed me, eating from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat.’” Payment is suffering, through “childbearing” and “toil,” till punishment of “death” when “you return to the ground.” The religious claim about sin continues across time and across the world in political, financial, and theological systems that religiously promote the holiness of supremacists who force payment and death. For example, the claim continues, aggressively so, in insurrectionist pastors, particularly of the growing U.S. Patriot Church Network led by Ken Peters. Peters believes in “the effects of Adam and Eve’s disobedience” on all humanity, and that the Supreme Lord demanded payment, so “Jesus died on the cross… as sacrificial” punishment. Peters and Network members transfer their beliefs about holiness onto white Supremacist Lords, especially GOP, who, if people disobey, should be made to pay by suffering through a “civil war” ending in their death. Network members criticize a secular world, especially its media, for hindering them. But Peters and his errantly fawning Patriots are actually in league with the secular world and its equally fawning media they criticize. For example, both worship supremacists, be they Yahweh, pastors, soldiers, presidents, celebrities, or CFOs. Stepping back from both groups we can ask deeper questions. What if the sin of the world is not disobedience to a Supreme Lord who demands payment and death? What if the sin of the world is Supreme Lords who demand obedience, payment, and death from conscientious people? What if that is the sin of the world Jesus takes away? What if we are saved/salved – or healed – of the sin of the world when a conscientious commoner – like Jesus, like each of us – ends supremacy by spreading communion, ends payment by sharing love, and ends deadly violence by enacting healing power? We can stop worshipping supremacist elites. We can stop paying the wages of sin they demand which is really just their plunder gained from looting us. We can stop sanctifying their violence. Christs always take away the sin of the world that has always been supremacists, plunderers, and violators – who have always operated a global cult of supremacy, a global creed of plunder, and a global code of violence. The sin of the world has always been the cult of ranked supremacists, from Brahmins and Chief Priests and Caliphs to Bannons, Bidens, Bushes, Clintons, Falwells, Netanyahus, Putins, Trumps, Xi Jinpings, and more who operate supremacist only gated neighborhoods, churches, Communist Partys, Hindutvas, G-7 Summits, KKKs, and empires. The sin of the world has always been this cult of supremacists whose creed has always been to plunder us from Arjunas and Caesars and Abu Bakrs, to Al-Sauds, Bezoses, Houses of Windsor, Kochs, Murdochs, Shahs, Zuckerbergs, and more who operate wealth only Deutsche Banks, Big Pharmas, BlackRocks, Davos Forums, Disneys, Exxons, Fox News, and MSNBCs. The sin of the world has always been their code of violence from Kshatriyas and Davids and Muhammads to Chauvins, Epsteins, General Flynns, Hoovers, Joint Chiefs, Erik Princes, Weinsteins, and more who operate violence only CIAs, KGBs, Marvel Comics movies, MI6s, Mossads, Smith-Wessons, SWATs, and Sharias. Anti-democratic demagoguery is not a trend. It is the real sin of human history. What is being described is not a conspiracy theory. It is a religious reality. That is because the sin of the world is religion: the cult, creed and code of the world’s only religion, Militarism – in which ranked supremacists, plunder us, and violate us, and sanctify committing these sins. We face what Jesus faced. We face the challenge to be Christs who “take away the sin of the world.” We take away supremacy and bring forth communion, take away plunder and bring forth love, and take away violence and bring forth creative healing power.
“To stir the masses, to appeal to their higher, better selves, to set them thinking for themselves, and to hold ever before them the ideal of mutual kindness and good will… is to render real service to the cause of humanity.” (Eugene Debs)
Prayer: Spirit, strengthen us for the challenge at hand.
Question: As a conscientious Christ, how am I helping take away the sin of the world?
January 15, 2023 Gospel John 1:29-34 Second Sunday in Ordinary Time