Today marks Part 3 of our Lenten Journey through the Catechism.  Catechism is just a fancy same for instruction.  It is my hope to present the basic teachings of the Christian Faith here through the lens of my Episcopal heritage and the Book of Common Prayer.  This week we'll be looking at the topic of Sin and Redemption, which is discussed in the same prayer book on pages 848-849. Sin is the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God, thus distorting our relationship with God, with other people, and with all creation. It's pretty common to hear that seeking our own will instead of God's is sin.  It's less common to hear how that distorts our relationships in life - our relationships with God, others, and all of creation.  In Genesis 3:6 our first parents ate the fruit of good and evil - or more specifically, the knowledge of good and evil.  The serpent tempted them by claiming that they would be like God, knowing both good and evil.  First...

Today marks Part 2 of my Lenten Journey through the Catechism - the Ten Commandments.  (BCP pg. 847-848) When I was a teenager I remember commenting in Sunday School how we hear a lot of Thou Shalt Nots, and isn't there anything that tells me what I should do.  My classmates quickly flipped in their Bibles to the two greatest commandments, which are to Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (Dt 6:5) and to love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18).  Yes Jesus described these two as the greatest commandments but in reality he was quoting from the Torah.  They had already been around for quite a while. In The Episcopal Church, our Catechism uses these two commandments as a frame work to understand the Ten Commandments given to Moses on Mt. Sinai.  To be fair Moses was given another 603 at that time but after the first ten the rest of Israel thought the experience was too intense and sent Moses to learn the rest, and then co...