Out Our Way: The road to Malta

Jesus said, "Believe this truth, all sins may be forgiven except to sin against the Holy Spirit. This sin can never be forgiven." He said this because his enemies accused him of being demon possessed."

- Paraphrase of Mark 3:28-30

Back in prehistoric times when I was in seminary, I roomed with a guy from Maine. He had attended Bowden College and over the years had become quite a fan of Maine humor. Not only did folks up there talk funny, they had a pretty dry sense of humor. Most often their humor was at the expense of tourists and especially folks from New York City who were often perceived to be a bit arrogant.

A favorite story was of the New Yorker who managed to get himself lost and the old Maine farmer who had a field day playing the bumpkin and making the dude look more and more foolish.

DUDE: "Say, old man, where does this road go?"

OLD FARMER: "Don't go nowhere - just lays there. You be the one has to go somewhere."

DUDE: "Say, don't get smart with me, you old hick."

OLD FARMER: "Well, I may not be that smart, but I ain't the one as is lost!"

DUDE: "Never mind! I can use a map and figure it out and I'm heading this way to get to the city! What do you say to that?"

OLD FARMER: "Well you might get there going that way, but it's about 150,000 miles away if you go that way and part of that is mighty wet wheeling. Ayup."

I often think of that farmer when I read this passage about the unforgivable sin because it reminds me that the cure for stupidity is humility, and that is a price proud people will never pay.

It may help to remember some key words in the Bible and what their root meaning is. Two words come to mind: "sin" and "repentance."

Most of us don't really understand what those words really mean, and so we tend to dismiss them as outdated and old-fashioned, especially in this secular age when political correctness is more important than truth.

Sin is not a religious opinion, but it is about right or wrong. Turning West on Highway 2 is a choice that in itself is neither good nor eveil. But if the plan is to go to Malta, then it is a wrong turn. The word "sin" simply means to be going "the wrong way."

It may not be sin to be a drunk, meth adddict and absentee parent who has abandoned his or her kids, if that is the goal. But how many of those living in the gutter, alone, abandoned, sick and empty of meaning are all that proud of it? Who sets out to become this? Yet they made the choices that led there. If they are not pleased with the results then maybe they took the wrong road. That is not judmentalism, that is mere observation.

Now that brings us to that other politically forbidden word: repentance. But once you understand what the word means, you realize it is anything but judgmental. To the contrary, to fail to repent is the ultimate foolishness. For consider: the word "repent" means "to change your mind," "change direction, "turn around."

Highway 2 leads to Malta, but also to Shelby, depending on the direction you are going. If you made a wrong turn and are heading in the opposite direction from where you want to go, for Pete's sake, turn around. To keep going farther and farther away from where you want to go is sheer lunacy.

That brings us back to the unforgivable sin. God will forgive you having made the wrong turn, and He will help you turn around. But in your foolish pride you refuse to accept the clear fact you are going the wrong way when it is plain and obvious, what hope is there for you? Because there is freewill, you have the right to be a fool. You can ignore every road sign, compass, map, the sight of the Sweet Grass Hills and insist you are heading east even as the sun sets right in front of you, but that doesn't change anything. You are heading to Shelby and not Malta no matter how you deny it. What hope is for you?

So too the unforgivable sin - the one that cannot be forgiven because it cannot be repented - and it cannot be repented because you refuse to acknowledge it despite all the evidence that showed you it was the wrong way. Blame the county road department, the map makers, the Highway Commission and the state Legislature in Helena that Shelby is not Malta and Malta is not Shelby. It doesn't change the facts. And it doesn't get you to Malta.

The Rev. John Bruington

First Presbyterian Church