[acimlessons_list] LESSON 259 - SEPTEMBER 16

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 259 - SEPTEMBER 16

"LET ME REMEMBER THAT THERE IS NO SIN."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See complete Part II practice instructions in a separate document. A short
summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

COMMENTARY

The concept of sin includes the idea that what I have done or thought or
said has in some way irretrievably altered what I am. We think of sin not as
a smudge of dirt on a clean surface, but as some kind of dry rot that has
settled into the fabric of our being.

When Jesus says there is no sin, he is saying that our ideas are wrong.
Nothing we have done has altered what we are in any way. The surface is
uncorrupted and can be simply wiped clean. We are created with an amazing
psychic layer of Scotchgard protectant. Underneath the layers of grime, we
are still the holy Son of God.

If we think of sin as we normally do, the goal of God seems unattainable
(1:1). If we see it as Jesus does, we can understand that the goal is
already attained; it is not something to attain, it is something to
celebrate.

When we see sin in another as dry rot, we feel justified in our attacks
(1:3). When we see it as surface smudges, our love responds with a desire to
wipe the surface of our brother's mind to reveal the beauty hiding in the
dirt.

We are all aware of some self-destructive habit patterns. All of them come
from the sense that we deserve punishment and suffering because we are
guilty (1:4). We are unworthy of health, happiness, and uninterrupted joy.
We think the evil is <in> us rather than <on> us.

When we fully accept the truth of our own innocence, we have opened the way
to complete abundance and health. The universe is set up to support us, good
is continually flowing our way, but we constantly block it off because,
unconsciously, we don't think we deserve it. All this comes from the belief
in sin.

Sin makes us afraid of love (2:2). To be afraid of love is insane, but then,
"sin is insanity" (W-pII.4.1:1). If God is the Source of everything that is,
then all there is must be Love; there can be no opposite, no fear, no sin
(2:3-5). To remember that there is no sin is to accept our own perfect
innocence, and the perfect innocence of all that is. And all the evidence we
perceive that seems to prove otherwise is an illusion made up by our own
minds.

WHAT IS SIN?

PART 9: W-PII.4.5:1-4

How long, we are asked, will we maintain this childish game of sin? That is
all it is, a foolish game. Not an awful, terrible thing; just immature minds
playing with "sharp-edged children's toys" (5:2). I think it is no
coincidence that in the famous biblical chapter on love, 1 Corinthians 13,
the Apostle Paul speaks of how, when we are children, we speak as children
and act as children, but when we are grown, we "put away childish things" (1
Cor 13:11). That is what the lesson is asking us to do. It is asking us to
grow up. "Sin" is a sharp-edged childish thing we have been playing with for
eons. It is time for us to lay it aside, and to assume our "mature" role as
extensions of God's Love.

It is time for us to put away these toys. Time to lay aside the whole
concept of sin and guilt, the idea that we can do (and have done) something
that immutably changes our nature. Something that merits everlasting
condemnation and punishment. It is time to look around us and to realize
that nothing, absolutely nothing, falls into this class. Sin, as a class or
category of human behavior, simply does not exist. There are no sins, only
mistakes. Nothing is beyond correction. Nothing bans us from God's Love.
Nothing takes away our eternal inheritance. Nothing can separate us from the
Love of God.

How soon will you be ready to come home? Perhaps today? (5:3-4)

We have left home. We have run away because we believed we were evil and had
done something unforgivable. But nothing is unforgivable. It is only our own
belief in sin and guilt that keeps us here, homeless. Home is still waiting
for us. Like the son in the parable of the prodigal, we sit in our pigsty
lamenting our loss, while the Father watches at the end of the road, asking,
"How soon will you be ready to come home? I'm here; I still love you. I'm
waiting for you." Today, now, in this holy instant, let us be still a
moment, and go home.