Now this is interesting. I saw this morning that the Pope has made an update to the list of the deadly sins. He decided that Catholic church should have a more modern spin on the age old sins. What was added was the sin of pollution, the sin of using drugs, and the sin of genetic experiments. To best understand what the Pope has done here, I think it is important to go back to the first list of sins that were revealed to us (the church) by Moses.
When the Israelites were making their trek from Egypt to the promised land, God revealed the 10 Commandments to Moses. These "do's and don'ts" were to be the first set of rules if you will. What is interesting in all this to me is that these "rules" were not made out to keep individuals in line per se. The whole point of these rules was to keep the new community of God or church in order and safe. Let's face it, not killing each other and running off with each other's spouses is probably a good thing when it comes to cohesion in a group setting!
Fast forward to today. It sure seems like we as the community of Jesus followers have taken this idea of sin and "rules" and made them personal guidelines for living. We have a personal relationship with Jesus and our personal walk with the Lord. Everything at some point in time has turned very personal away from communal when it comes to how we relate to God. Why is this? I think much of it has to do with the individualistic nature of people who live in the US for one. We don't like being told what and what not to do, especially from the church. Life is easier when we simply narrow down the relationship between the Holy God and ourselves to a personal relationship instead of a corporate one.
Maybe this is what the Pope is trying to slowly bring back into our conscienceness. The sins he listed, pollution to the environment, drug usage, and gene experimentation all effect the community as a whole. Lets focus on the environment. We all live here, so to take pollution in all it's forms and make it a sin brings about a communal sense to the equation. For me to harm something that you breathe, live in, and utilize is sinful, whether or not I believe this set of scientists, that set, liberal or conservative. Drug usage is effecting the entire community. We cannot turn our backs on people who simply choose to to recreationally use as they certainly DO effect us all. I don't have to be a rocket scienctest to connect these dots do I? Genetic experiments are also very communal in their very nature of effecting individuals who become part of the whole.
While this is all very controversial in parts, does it not make sense as a whole? I think that the most important lesson to take from here is not the new list of sins. I think the most important lesson to take is that sin is communal. My personal relationship with Jesus is irrelevant when it comes to the community relationship. When taking this attitude, all of sudden much of the Bible and God;s actions in and throughout history begin to be read more clearly. Now when I see God acting in a way that seems mean or spiteful (like hitting the smite button) I can see where He is acting for the good of the whole. Yes, we as individual should are loved and important, but the community of souls, His church, is far greater than I ever will be.