Burton Dasset, on one of his rail journeys, sends me this picture of a church notice board. I should say that it's very shiny and reflective, so I've cropped Burton out of it the bottom of it
And I guess I've mixed feelings. It's a pun sure enough, quite a neat one, of its kind.
"God's not interested in your sin - he's got it covered! "
But who's it aimed at?
My suspicion is that this is quite an evangelical church. Now, the average passer-by won't get it. Quite a lot of them won't have much concept of "sin"; and won't worry nights about an abstract theological concept. They might know they're short-tempered when tired. Might be short on patience with the kids. Maybe they don't like the way they snark about their workmates and wonder why they can't stop doing it. But they probably don't worry, as such, about sin, as such.
And then we have "covered". In this context it's probably even a bit of an obscure concept to the average passing Anglican or - for someone who grasps "sin" as a meaningful thing, rather than an outmoded idea best dealt with by psychiatry or self-realisation means - Catholic.
So an unfashionable concept followed by a pun fathomable only by someone deeply immersed in evangelical redemption theology. I think it's pretty clear whom they're trying to attract, consciously or not.
The Baptists up the road.
I suspect that God isn't interested in our sin if we have repented. And the phrase "He's got it covered" seems to me to imply that he's done all of those things we shouldn't have done and more? Which is why he's got it covered.
ReplyDeleteIf we work on the supposition that Jesus was pure and without sin - how did he managed to convert his Father, who had our sin covered?
This sounds so much like Liberation Theology (in a Catholic context) that I'm worried that the local Catholic's are going to be out evangelizing with an AK47 anytime soon :(