Sermon, 06-20-04
Covering Sins in Quantity

I Peter 4:7-11;

copyright © 2005 Robert J. Elder, Pastor
John 8:1-11
First Presbyterian Church, Salem, Oregon


Sunday, September 11, 2005

Above all, maintain constant love for one another,
for love covers a multitude of sins.
NRSV

“Love covers a multitude if sins.” This is sort of a theology according to Costco in action, isn’t it? If one bottle of dish soap is good, then surely you will want four of them shrink-wrapped together. That way you can store the three you don’t yet need, forget you have them, and then go and buy more, discovering only after you get home that now you have 7 bottles of dish soap in the pantry, three of them vintage. If one is good, two is better, and a half dozen must be even better than that, right?

Where does this idea come from, that love “covers a multitude of sins”? I have heard the last five words of the phrase used axiomatically in dozens of circumstances, probably without most of the speakers knowing the source:

Two coats of fresh paint can cover a multitude of sins.
A little makeup can cover a multitude of sins.
A unit of bark dust can cover a multitude of sins.

You may have used the phrase in this proverbial way yourself. It occurs also, at least in part, in the letter of James, 5:20, where it says, “whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” The phrase “covers a multitude of sins” likely took on a proverbial role for early Christians, all of whom — along with all of us — were more than well-aware of being in possession of sins that needed covering. All the references find their source in an obscure verse from the Old Testament book of Proverbs in 10:12:

Hatred stirs up strife,
but love covers a multitude of sins.
NRSV

Probably the essence of the thought as we have it in I Peter is the truth that those who show love and mercy are the ones who will receive it. This is interesting to me. It does not say, “perfect obedience to all the rules covers a multitude of sins.” It does not say that personal faultlessness or perfect piety or at-least-I’m-not-as-bad-as-youism will cover up that large quantity of sins we carry around with us. No, it is love that atones for sin, even as Christ’s perfect love atoned for the sins of all of us perfectly. I find this verse to be so clearly in the spirit of Christ himself.

The type of love recommended by Peter for covering sins in quantity is agape love, the kind of love that takes no notice of the self but spends itself on its concern for the other. Again, as the very spirit of Christ himself.

In the Gospel of John there is the familiar story of the woman charged with adultery:

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”1NRSV

Parenthetically, I have always been struck by the fact that the scribes and Pharisees did not bring the woman’s partner in adultery before Jesus to answer for his sin, haven’t you? Which says a lot about the kinds of blind spots to which we all are vulnerable when the subject turns to whom is guilty of what. In any case,19th century Danish theologian, Søren Kierkegaard, once wrote about Jesus’ remarkable assertion, “Neither do I condemn you...:

“When the scribes and the Pharisees had taken a woman in open sin, they brought her into the midst of the temple before the face of the Saviour; but Jesus bowed down and wrote with His finger on the ground. He who knew everything, knew also what the scribes and the Pharisees knew, before they told Him. The scribes and the Pharisees soon discovered her guilt, which was indeed easy since her sin was open. They also discovered a new sin, one of which they made themselves guilty, when they artfully laid snares for the Lord. But Jesus bowed down and wrote with His finger upon the ground. Why, I wonder, did He bow down; why, I wonder, did He write with His finger upon the ground? Did He sit there like a judge who listens attentively to the story of the accusers, who, listening, bows down and jots down the principal points so that he may not forget them, and may judge strictly; was the woman’s guilt the only thing which was noted by the Lord? Or did not He who wrote with His finger on the ground, rather write it down in order to erase it and forget it? There stood the sinner, surrounded perhaps by those even more guilty, who loudly accused her, but love bowed down and did not hear the accusation, which passed over His head into the air; He wrote with His finger in order to blot out what He Himself knew; for sin discovers a multitude of sins, but love covers the multitude of sins. Yes, even in the sight of the sinner, love covers a multitude of sins. For by one word from the Master the Pharisees and the scribes were struck dumb, and there was no longer an accuser, no one who condemned her. But Jesus said to her: “Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more,” for the punishment of sin breeds new sin, but love covers a multitude of sins.”2

Clear in his understanding of the necessary cure for sin, and alluding to a final judgment, Jesus spoke unflinchingly in this vein, that those who show mercy will receive it. “... just as you did it to one of the least of these ... you did it to me.”3

It is pretty clear that Peter believed the teaching of Jesus suggests that the community of faith, when confronted with any kind of difficulty, should look to strengthen the elements of community life that have come to be associated with the people of God: prayer, mutual love, hospitality, ministries of service.

In our time we have come to hear constantly about “personal faith,” and the expectations of the churches to meet our own personal wishes. I remember a year or two ago listening to one person complaining about a prayer in worship, how they “did not get anything out of the prayer” that I finally had to remind them, “You know, that’s OK because we weren’t praying to you.” So often, in our modern preoccupation with personal choice as a supreme good, we have missed one of the most central affirmations of the Christian faith: that we are the body of Christ when we are together. Peter’s words serve to remind us that faith requires community. As important as individual commitment to our faith may be, it does not surpass — in fact, the New Testament would suggest it does not equal — the importance of commitment to the good of the community of faith.

“Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another...” Peter says. Again — as with the word “multitude” — we have an image of quantity in the word “manifold,” a rather old-fashioned word meaning “marked by diversity or variety,” chosen by scholars to translate the Greek poikiles, which in Greek can mean literally — and I find this very appealing — “many-colored.” It suggests that the grace of God is various, has many features, many applications, broad usage. The feeling of amplitude, of plenty is suggested in it as in the way that love for one another within the community can cover a multitude of sins. It turns out that love, if not the answer is at least an answer to the question of how we may expect to gain salvation as well as get along with one another in the meantime.

Now, in the end, why should we behave in these ways toward each other? Peter closes this section in his letter saying, “So that God may be glorified in all things through Christ Jesus.” Indeed, that is the reason, sufficient enough, for our commitment to one another in bonds as strong as our commitment to Christ. So that God may be glorified, and our sins, which are multitudinous, may be covered over, so as not to matter any more.

Copyright © 2005 Robert J. Elder, all rights reserved.
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Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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NOTES

1 - John 8:1-11.
2 - “Love Covers a Multitude of Since,” in Edifying Discourses: A Selection, ed. Paul Holmer, trans. D. Swenson, (Collins, Fontana, 1958), pp 78-79.
3 - Matthew 25:31-46.


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