Homo incurvatus in se.

Human beings curved in on themselves.

That's how Martin Luther defined "sin." That picture, of a human being in it for himself/herself, is still the most widely used caricature of sin in use today. One is sinful primarily when one considers his/her own good. It's a very individualistic, atomized picture.

It's a straw man.

Let's face it, there are very few individuals who are so sinful as to focus only on their individual selves. It's a picture that we can easily look at and say, "Whew, that's not me."

Most of us care genuinely about, at least, our immediate and extended families, our communities, our religious and social groups. Most of us would sacrifice, to some extent, our selves in furtherance of the good of those larger circles.

If we do, and do so consistently, are we not then sinners?

We certainly are, to the extent that we do so under the rubric of caterva incurvatus in se, groups curved in on themselves (BTW, I don't know a lick of Latin, so leave me alone, all you Latin grammar experts...you know who you are).

If we love and are willing to sacrifice for our families, to the exclusion and at the expense of all other families, we are in the clutches of sin.

If we love and are willing to sacrifice for our communities, to the exclusion and at the expense of all other communities, we are in the clutches of sin.

If we love and are willing to sacrifice for our nation, to the exclusion and at the expense of all other nations, we are in the clutches of sin. And perhaps more firmly in those clutches, since we often fail to realize it, given what we've been sold about sin.

It's just a question of where you draw the circle, of where the arc starts curving in on itself.

It is when we love and are willing to sacrifice for God and His good creation, in its entirety, that we begin to step away from sin and unto life.

It is when we begin to glimpse our particular systems as, yes, unique and glorious, but also interconnected parts of larger and larger systems, which are as unique and glorious in God's eyes, that we begin to catch the true meaning of concepts like "mustard seed" and "kingdom."

In other words, where love stops, sin begins. Or, as Paul puts it in Corinthians:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

God created a universe, composed of galactic clusters, composed of galaxies, composed of star systems, composed of (at least one) life-sustaining planet(s), composed of (at least one) species capable of awareness of all these larger systems, composed of nations, societies, communities, families and individual human beings, composed of biological systems, composed of organs, composed of tissues, composed of cells, composed of molecules, composed of atoms, composed of subatomic particles...

The same subatomic particles that make up the stars, the galaxies...

...the universe.

A perfect circle.

No incurvatus.

Grace and Peace,
Raffi