Sin can still be a significant word and reality for our faith community, it's just that it needs some reframing, which is why I've always clung to the fact that the Garden story is a myth. A myth, I remind you, is based not on the facts of historical time and place, but on the facts of reoccurring themes from the human psyche. In a myth, the facts are from the story of human development. As a myth that rehearses the reoccurring themes of human denial, responsibility and isolation, the garden myth of Genesis 3 is as truthful a fact as WWII, troops in Kosovo or Hurricane Floyd. Call it evil or flawed behavior, call it missing the mark, call it denial, repression or reaction formation, it's all sin if it separates, ostracizes or isolates us from the ground of our being, from that which defines us as human beings.
Sin is behavior that prevents a person from living out their potential for human being-ness.
Sam Keen, in his most recent book, uses the flying trapeze as a metaphor for living. Whether just learning, as he was doing, or being an established legend, all trapeze artists perform with a safety net below them. I suppose there are exceptional men and women whose lives are an unbroken series of successes, but for most of us the ascending path is punctuated by times of descent, downfall, and depression. My failures have taught me there is always a second chance. What I have managed to create after falling has often turned out to be better than the trick I planned.