What If We Laid Sin Down?
We have been called unworthy, unwanted, second class citizens, less than, made from ribs, sinful.
These stories, translations, redactions, and traditions stretch from Eve to our very own diaries. We have wrestled with centuries of being ‘put in our place’ and reminded that we are to ‘be silent’ and to remain in the background. That we will be called upon when we are needed…
What if we just laid down Sin?
What would happen?
Would the world stop spinning?
Would creation groan?
Would mountains crumble?
Would the creeds of the early church fathers have to be edited?
Would shame resolve?
Would love expand?
In this Expansionist Podcast Episode we tackled the question and ease into this exchange as it appears in the Gospel of Mary.
Jesus is asked by Peter, “What is the sin of the world?”
Jesus replies, “There is no sin, but it is you who make sin when you do the things that arelike the nature of adultery, which is called ‘sin.’ That is why the Good came into your midst, coming to the good which belongs to every nature, in order to restore it to its root. (Gospel of Mary 3:2-6)
When I first read this verse in Mary’s Gospel I could see an option that was left out of Scripture. The blame had to be written into the story and so it was. It was written, passed on, passed down, rewritten, and told around campfires, walks across the desert, at storefronts in Jerusalem, on dusty roads when Peter wanted to challenge Mary’s story in front of Jesus.
When we keep telling ourselves that we don’t measure up. That we are not equal. That we are not strong. That we have little to contribute in the world, the mind believes it and sees it as prophecy.
The tracks are laid.
The foundation is established.
The choir is singing the tune.
The neighbor has stopped calling you.
The church has a closed communion.
Mary’s Gospel was hidden for a reason. Pieces of it destroyed and burned and missing. And yet, this story is a reminder that as women, as men, as humanity… to seek the Good.
To lay down sin and to seek the Good.
To stop passing along the stories of sin and to write a better story.
To see the Blessing.
To see what Jesus saw when he answered Peter, there is no sin.
To walk towards the light, towards love and be the embers that ignite the soul.
Shelly Shepherd
Expanding the Sacred Feminine Spirit
