Tuesday, July 18th – Sin isn’t Contagious

Tuesday of the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time 
Psalm 26, 28
1 Samuel 19:1-18
Acts 12:1-17
Mark 2:1-12

Sin isn’t Contagious
Psalm 26

In much of American Evangelical Christianity, there is a sense that if we can avoid being in contact with those who are wicked, we ourselves can remain clean. Perhaps this is best illustrated by Angela Martin’s character in the American version of the hit show, The Office.

Early in the third season, another character, Oscar, is outed as gay by the manager, Michael Scott.  When Angela finds out about Oscar’s sexual orientation, her behavior around him changes.  There’s a shot of her using hand sanitizer after touching something that Oscar has touched.  She even goes out of her way to avoid any type of physical contact with Oscar.  The fear is that if Angela touches Oscar or something that Oscar has touched, she’ll be defiled in some way.  Perhaps she’ll even catch his homosexuality.

Fans of the show will know that Angela isn’t exactly a paragon of Christian virtue.  Besides being downright mean, insulting, and cold, it turns out that Angela also engaged in a love affair with another office worker, Dwight.  This affair carries on even after she becomes engaged to someone else.

A friend of mine is fond of saying, “Holiness is always more contagious than sin.”  And I think he’s right.  There are some great Christian folks who would read Psalm 26 and quote verses 4-5 as proof of their own holiness.  Like Angela, they have gone to great lengths to avoid contact with those who are wicked.  They offer up their separation as a prayer to God, declaring their righteousness.  I think this largely misses the point of the Psalm.

To be fair, who we interact with and how we interact with them is important.  We cannot expect to remain holy if we engage in wicked behavior.  No, our actions are still important.  At the same time, if we look at the life of Jesus, we’ll find that he’s constantly engaged with those whom the larger society has deemed evil and unclean.  Yet, he’s unafraid to engage them.  Jesus isn’t afraid that he’ll catch their sin.

You might say that because Jesus is God, and so it’s different for him.  That might be true.  But you and I are called to be like Jesus, to act like Jesus acted in our world.  This always means engagement with those who are unclean or evil in our eyes.  If we truly claim to be righteous, if we truly claim to be holy, then we won’t catch the world’s sinfulness.  The world just might catch our holiness.  After all, this is the point of Jesus’ incarnation, the redemption of a sin filled and unclean world into a grace filled and holy place.

Prayer: Oh God, forgive us for thinking that sin is more contagious than holiness. Help us to live holy lives in the midst of sin so that those who are in bondage to sin might be freed from it.  Amen.