In the Bible, sin is never just an individual affair; it’s a consequence of the sin of nations and cultures and people.
In my church, we repent of the “evil … done on our behalf . . . ” (Enriching our Worship, Church Publishing).
That sense of evil can be overwhelming or it can lead us to take the steps that we can: lobbying our elected officials, changing our personal habits so that we consume less, upgrading our technology less often, buying our food from local sources, cooking instead of eating out so often, supporting social services to help those in need, opposing racism and sexism and heterosexism and classism at every turn, feeding the poor and helping the weak.
This orientation toward systemic, social sin should prompt us to heed the call to work for justice in our world.
This message was adapted from “Out of the Depths” by Robert O. Wyatt that appeared in the March 2014 issue of Gather magazine.