Do I Have to Talk about ... Sin?

(Yes--but this can help.)

Hey there! Thanks for reading the Kids + Faith newsletter! As always, we’ll tackle a parent question, a kid question, and a Bible Story Breakdown.

Today they all center on an issue that may make you squirm a bit: Sin. Let’s make things a bit less squirm-worthy by clearing up what we’re talking about when we talk about Sin, how to talk about it in more life-giving ways (it’s possible!), and why it matters so much to do so. Ready? Need a coffee first? Go ahead, I’ll be here…

Ok, here we go!

You Asked: Talking about sin makes me nervous. I don’t want my kid to carry a bunch of shame about themselves or be judgy of others (seeing them as ‘sinners’.) Do I have to?

Yup. 

Here’s why:

• You may have noticed, but the world can be a bit of a mess from time to time. Maybe most of the time. OK, seemingly all the time. Kids notice this too, of course. If you’ve ever watched your kiddo rage against the unfairness of it all when things don’t go the way they expect or want you’ve seen their deep-seated sense of justice in action. The question naturally arises, for us and for them as they get older: If God is so good, what’s the deal with the world? If God is worth trusting there needs to be a good answer to that question.

• The writers of the Bible also noticed this reality, and much of the Bible is concerned with answering that same question. It’s important to remember that most of the Bible was written by people who had been promised good things by God, but whose everyday reality was living in exile in Babylon, or under the oppressive thumb of one empire or another: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, one after another after another. Why weren’t things the way God had promised they would be? The answer the writers of the Bible give, consistently, is Sin. And it can be just as useful an answer for us and for our kids as we look at the broken world around us today.   

So since we need to talk about it, we need to make sure we’ve defined Sin well. 

You may notice that I’m capitalizing Sin. That’s on purpose. When the Bible talks about Sin, it’s rarely focused on the mistakes and foibles of individual sinners. Making you feel shame for each individual piece of wrong-doing is just not what the Bible is going for. 

Realizing that shame is a great tool for setting up systems for controlling other people and that twisting what the Bible has to say about Sin is a great way to create shame? Those are innovations of later power-hungry preachers, not the writers of Scripture. 

Speaking of structures of power and shame, that’s exactly what the Bible tells us Sin leads to.

Sin, in the Bible, is usually spoken of in an almost personified way, as a force that exists in the world and tries to corrupt and deface God’s good creation. If God offers us ways that lead to life, Sin twists and corrupts that life, ultimately leading away from God and away from the goodness and justice God desires for us and for the world. Sin, in the Bible, is what creates systems and structures of injustice and oppression, selfishness and violence, isolation and despair. 

The greatest trick Sin plays is convincing us that those systems and structures are “just the way the world works” and that we would be a fool not to go along. This leads to us participating in those systems, sinning, but the focus is far more on the big picture. When we sin, we are buying into the system of Sin, instead of the life of God.

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Your Kid Asks: Why doesn’t God just fix it?

Kids are, of course, remarkably perceptive. If God is good, and if God is powerful, and if God’s ultimate goal is for goodness and justice to spread throughout Creation, then why not just, you know, do it?

This is a massive question, one that, probably literally thousands of books have been written on. 

But try starting here:

“Wow, what a great question. I wish God would just fix it too. Wouldn’t that be great? What are some of the things you really wish God would fix right now?”

This open-ended question might create some interesting opportunities for conversation, and for you to share some of the ways the world is broken that really matter to you. 

“One of the things that is really important to God is to work with people. Over and over God invites people to be God’s teammates in bringing goodness and justice to the whole world.

But God won’t to force us to join the team. If God did that it would work against God’s own goal, because that wouldn’t be good. And God can’t fill the whole world with good things by doing something bad or in a bad way. So God gives us a choice of whether to work alongside God or to go a different way. 

Someday God will fix it–Jesus being alive means someday everything is all good, no bad. But right now we see both good and bad, because people can choose good and bad.”

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Bible Story Breakdown: Genesis 3

Age range: 5 and up

Read or paraphrase? While both work, consider paraphrasing God’s description of the consequences in verses 14-20, both for length and age-accessibility.

Before this story: Talk a lot about Genesis 1, because it is the starting point that shows us what God is ultimately up to, and how humans are invited into that work.

Talk about:

• How in Genesis 1 we see God’s dream of the whole world working in a way that matches who God is, that God’s character would be reflected in every single corner of creation. And, that the way in which that goal is going to become reality is not God using power and force, but instead God sharing power with humans, partnering with us to bring God’s goodness and justice to the world. 

• How the story shows 4-way goodness and connections between us and God, within ourselves, with each other, and with creation.

• What it means to be image bearers, to be made in God’s image. It’s more than just that we are loved by God. It’s that God is partnering with us, that our own creativity, agency, and choice are part of God’s hope. 

• If you’d like a deeper exploration of some of these ideas, Lisa Sharon Harper’s The Very Good Gospel is a must read.

3 Helpful Contextual Details:

• In the story, God sets boundaries for humans, telling them a path that leads to life and warning them that other paths lead to death. This may at first seem confusing, but think of it like a parent: Setting boundaries is a good thing. In fact, in the Ancient Near East (the culture in which this story was first told) people would have said that one of the most important character traits of a good and powerful god is whether they are able to set good and wise boundaries. Chaos is frightening, boundaries are good (i.e. lakes and oceans stop at the shore and don’t flood).

• Trees: In the ancient world, trees were symbols of sources of life. Often myths would include some sort of cosmic life-tree at the center of creation. So in this story, the two trees represent two alternative places to look for life. Trusting God leads to the fullness of life offered by the first tree. Not trusting God, wanting to be able to decide what is good or bad for ourselves seems to lead to life and freedom, but really only leads to death.   

• Talking snake: Remember above how we talked about the Bible portraying Sin as an almost personified force in the world? This is that. Sin is the voice inviting humans into a different path, one where they would have more control, more power, where they wouldn’t have to trust this God who puts boundaries on things. Where they could decide for themselves what was good or not. Also, the story never says the snake is Satan, and if it were me, I wouldn’t either.

3 God-Centered Storytelling means you might highlight:

• God is close. After things all go wrong, God’s reaction is really important. God seeks the people out. Far from “God can’t be in the presence of Sin”, this is God getting right up close to it, showing that They still love us, still care for us, still will take care of us, even when we have walked away. 

• God cares. The tangible aspect of this is that God clothes the people. They can’t stay in the garden, having now chosen the path they’ve chosen, but God is still on their side, providing for and protecting them. 

• God’s love cannot be stopped. While Adam and Eve’s relationship with God changes, it isn’t over. Sin, in other words, does not separate us from God. In fact, the very next stories in the Bible (Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham) are ALL about God working to get close to humanity, to restore what has been lost by staying right in the midst of us.

Whew! We made it! Toss yourself some confetti for wandering through the complicated garden! And drop any questions/can-you-clarify’s in the comments!

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Before you go… Four Fun Things!

• Have you had the chance to check out The Bible Binge’s I Kid You Not? I am thrilled to be co-hosting this podcast with Erin Moon and February 2 our 2nd episode drops all about… you guessed it–Genesis 3!

• Ask Away is back! We’ll be releasing new episodes every-other week on Thursdays starting with… Genesis 3!  (True story: I don’t love doing this story on the podcast, but I got to make some episodes with the awesome kids at Church on Morgan. When they came in, I asked if they had a story they wanted to do first, and this was chosen for me. So, into the discomfort I go!)

• You can preorder my book- Woven: Nurturing a Faith Your Kid Doesn’t Have to Heal From now! Eep!

• I was a guest on You Have Permission Podcast with Dan Koch. We talked research (swoon!) and the key lens through which we see the endeavor of raising kids in faith.