"We're ALL sinners." Yes, but you left the best part out.

Recently I have heard the oft-repeated rhetoric from Christian sisters and brothers--"we are all sinners." It is used in a sinister way, though the person saying it doesn't always realize it (sometimes they do). Here's how the rhetoric sounds: "I will welcome gay people into my church even though they are sinners, because, well, we are ALL sinners."  (Sorry about gay-ing everything up these days...it seems to be the talk of the town in Christian circles...or maybe everyone just wants to talk to me about it. Can't imagine why.)  It is usually accompanied by a convenient list: "Gluttony is a sin just like homosexuality...and murder...and adultery...and fornication." And is often followed by an explanation "I'm a sinner, but I ask forgiveness." Here's the translation--yes, we're all sinners, but I recognize that I'm a sinner for eating too many potato chips and you're an unrepentant sinner trying to force your agenda on me of making me accept your sin and you're entire life and relationships and who you are as a person and declare it ok...we'll welcome you, so long as you know it's because we welcome all despised sinners and we all hope they'll become the better class of Christians like us who ask forgiveness for our sins. Amen. And hallelujah for "grace."

The next time you are tempted to use that rhetoric, just replace the word "sinner" with "Saint."  Because we are all Saints too...and therein lies the problem of all the "equally awful" talk.  Even though you are in error, I believe, to think that the Bible has given a universal and timeless condemnation of gay people (and possibly other groups), you are right to say we are all sinners.  What you think makes me or my sister or brother a sinner is really irrelevant (to me...not to you, I know).  Because, really, the other truth that is coupled with that statement so readily asserted in times of disagreement about the very nature of "sin," is that we are all Saints.

This month, the epistle readings in the lectionary have been from Galatians.  Paul has a lot to say about the law and faith.  When you say "we're all sinners" and what you mean to do is to label and condemn someone in order to "help" them, you are setting yourself up as a lawkeeper.  Good luck with that.  "I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love." (Galatians 5:4-6, The Message).  I won't belabor the point, but Paul basically says that Jesus doesn't really care if we are "good Christians" or not...discuss amongst yourselves.

No one needs you or me to tell them that we are all sinners.  We all see the brokenness in this world and in our lives...the law preaches itself.  I see that brokenness when I hear the words we hurl at each other, doing each other "favors" by making sure that woman knows she'll never be able to lead in church because she's the wrong gender, and that homosexual will never be used in ministry until s/he stops having sex and lies about who s/he is (for most people it's mostly about the sex part...the church historically is obsessed with sex which accounts for many dark stories in church history and contemporary church history).  We take God's name in vain when we say these things, and we ignore the real need of humanity.  We all know there's brokenness...we all know we hurt each other (though some of us fail to recognize it in many instances)...we know we're all sinners.  What keeps us from being made whole as individuals and what keeps us from being one as a body of Christ, is that we refuse to believe that we are all Saints.  We refuse to believe grace is that audacious, that transforming, that freeing.  We refuse to believe that the Spirit alone is enough and we fear stepping aside as gate keepers of the Divine.  We accuse other sects of refusing to be people of grace and point to our "gracious" reception of these "sinners" in whatever capacity we think we are welcoming "all ye sinners"--but we are just like those "more unloving" groups. Why?  Because, when we are so quick to group ourselves in with all the sinners and then just as quick to draw another circle just narrow enough to include us and exclude the others, we preach the real truth of what we are saying "Yes, we are all sinners, but we are NOT all Saints.  I am a Saint...and you are not."  We then usually blame God or the Bible for that..."sorry, I think it's crazy too...don't hate me--hate God.  He's the one that said it" (and God is almost invariably male in these discussions...just saying).

"Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you. These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ’s suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don’t keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible! For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God—his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!" (Gal. 6:11-16, The Message)

When we come to the Lord's table, we really are what we eat.  The invitation goes out into all the world in the words of Hart's great Calvinist hymn of grace..."Come ye, sinners, poor and needy."  Those who have found Christ at God's banquet table, in lowly gifts of bread and wine, echo back the refrain in the words of the hymn of the Mormon pioneers "Come, come, ye saints."  Yes, we are all sinners...but, you left the best part out. We are all saints. Or, as Paul puts it to the uncircumcised Galatian sinners, "But now you have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe—Christ’s life, the fulfillment of God’s original promise." (Gal. 3:25-27, The Message, emphasis mine)