Читать книгу Salvation on the Small Screen? - Nadia Bolz-Weber - Страница 11

THE LATIN ABOVE means “simultaneously saint and sinner,” and, as a matter of fact, is tattooed around my right wrist (because, as I mentioned before, I’m just that much of a theological fancy-pants). Why, you may ask, get a fancy-pants Latin tattoo about sin on my wrist? Because in my tradition we hold that we are all 100 percent sinner and 100 percent saint. But wait, Nadia, you say, that’s 200 percent. Well, yes and no. You see the two 100 percents are simultaneous. There is no process of sanctification, good works, prayer, yoga, recycling, Bible study, or holy living that makes us even 99 percent sinner and 101 percent saint. Much less like 10/190. As Luther says, we are at the same time the Old Eve (or Adam) and the New Creature. The really liberating thing about this is that when we all come to the table fully aware that we are sinners, that we are broken on some level and never perfect, then the temptation to pretend otherwise is greatly diminished. To embrace your sinfulness and saintliness is not the same as being intentionally immoral. It is to be realistic and to recognize that no one can possibly be 100 percent honest all the time, can always think of the neighbor before the self, can always honor God in everything we do, can at all times decrease in self so that others may increase. Even if our actions come close to this (they never do, but if they did) then we still are stuck with the reality of our minds and the thoughts of our hearts. When Jesus said in Matthew 5:28 that even if you look on a woman in lust you have committed adultery, this was not to set the bar so high that you feel defeated, or then again maybe it was exactly that. You see, the spiritual poison of our own righteousness is problematic (saying “here are the rules we must follow to please God and to be sanctified, and I follow those rules so I have good reason to be prideful about my sanctification because I earned it”). Jesus knew this was ridiculous. I like to think of him basically saying to those self-righteous guys, “If you seriously think you are without sin, you’re just kind of an idiot.” Of course that’s the sarcastic Jesus in my head. Thank goodness the real Jesus is more gracious than I am.