“Away With Structural Sin!”

“Away With Structural Sin!”(Is. 33:13-17&22-24).
“The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless…Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire?…He who walks righteously and speaks what is right, who rejects gain from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes, who stops his ears against plots of murder and shuts his eyes against contemplating evil…”
What easily comes to mind is “personal sin” as in “the soul that sins will die.”
But when we understand that one man’s sin can contaminate the majority, that personal sin becomes social or structural sin.
When a prophet speaks to a nation, his worry is more about structural sin which is the cankerworm that breeds disequilibrium in societies.
Somebody has added to personal and structural sins, what he calls “Church sin.” He considers Church sins to be “all those historical activities the church tried to cover up. The episodes of church history that are never mentioned…”, like “slavery…the Inquisition,the crusades, witch hunts, slaughter of non Christians…”etc.
Structural sins include evils such as oppression, exploitation and all evils that are built into the system. This is what campaigners for peace and social justice battle against.
These sins are structural and has nothing to do with personal morality. If we were to make everyone good, that would still not reform the world in the midst of racism, famine in the midst of plenty, abuse of the weak, making second-class citizens of some people. These things and many others are more serious than the “Yield not to temptation…” that we sing daily.
One of my professors, Gerald O. West, says, “The real danger of structural sin is that we usually do not recognize it. In order to see structural sin for what it is we need those who are victims of particular structural sins to teach us. For example, women will teach us about pervasive structural sin of patriarchy; black people will teach us about the enduring structural sin of racism… and the poor will teach us about the structural sin of global capitalism.”
Imagine a Cameroonian church praying against anglophone spirit in the midst of a war that is not supposed to be if the structural sins of playing second fiddle, marginalisation and assimilation of some by some had not been deeply structurally entrenched!
When Jesus stood on the opposite end of the Pharisees, teachers of the law, the rich and Herod he was merely decrying the entrenchment of structural sins and advocating for a just and humane society.
As indicated in today’s text those who walk in unrighteousness and do not do what is right, those who enjoy gain from extortion, those whose hands itch to accept bribes, those whose ears are wide open to plots of murder and those who open their eyes to contemplating evil are within the framework of structural sins.
The unfortunate thing about structural sins is that the system becomes endemic as those who stand to benefit by it – either by being born into it or adopted into it – fight tooth and nail to destroy those who fight against it. Jesus hung on the cross fighting against it. Long before him, the prophets died fighting against it. And along the line since Jesus whoever stands to challenge any structural sin anywhere in the world becomes a scapegoat!
Still the struggle continues! Those who overcome see Christ the King in his beauty and their hope is assured. “For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our King. It is he who will save us…and the sins of all who dwell (t)here will be forgiven.”
Dear friend, it was a personal sin when Adam and Eve enjoyed the fruit, but it became a structural sin because it established a culture of its continuity. There are many who have burned down or looted properties and taking the lives of thousands just to support a political candidate or party ideoligy – an ideology which they do not even understand. All because of the ambitions of an individual! That burning, looting and killing by the protesters or those sent to quell the protesters is structural sin caused by a personal sin of the person they protests against or whom they support.
Do not be part of it! Be a solution and not the problem!
Prayer: LORD, establish your rule among us so that we should not be the reason for structural sins. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Prayer point: Pray for Church and political leaders against perpetrating decisions and actions that lead to structural sins.
Rev Babila Fochang.