SINNERS AND THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS

The sign says very simply that “The Episcopal Church Welcomes You.” There is no asterisk anywhere on the sign or words in smaller print listing exceptions to the welcome. Everyone is welcome, sinners included, which would be redundant because we are all sinners, every last one of us.

Granted some of us may be more sinful than others, and probably are, but it is only a matter of degree. And when it comes to degree as far as sins are concerned, difference in degree really makes no difference. A sin is a sin is a sin, to sort of paraphrase Gertrude Stein. Stealing a dime or stealing a million dollars is still stealing; both actions are sins. The fact that one sin may be the lesser as far as civil law is concerned is of no concern when the issue at hand is that of morality. Little sinner meet big sinner.

This does not hold, of course, when our self-righteous gene kicks in, and it kicks in regularly. It is so easy to measure our own self-worth or self-loathing if we compare our sins to those of others. When doing so, we can always pick a more notorious sinner than we so that we come off, if not smelling like a rose, at least not as stinky as that other person, horrible sinner that he is.

But the sign says that everyone is welcome, even the notorious sinners among us, even us. Let’s face it, we’re all notorious, all known in God’s eyes. And we are all, in fact, forgiven. The problem the self-righteous have (or we, when that gene is in full bore) is that we won’t forgive those whom we deem to be worse sinners than we deem ourselves to be. We set the standards, the measuring stick and, in the process, proclaim that’s how God sees it as well.

We do well not to play God, however. The old dictum that we should not judge lest we be judged holds true even though we all tend to ignore it on a regular basis. We instinctively make judgments about the actions of others almost immediately upon becoming aware of them. And when we are convinced that that action is beyond the pale, certainly something we would never do, it makes it that much easier for us to justify our sins. When self-righteousness rears its justifying head, look out.

None of this is to make light of sin or to think or act as if it is no big deal. It is. Sin is selfishness and any act of selfishness not only demeans those whom our sins hurt but it also demeans us in the process. Self-righteousness, however, allows us to take our own sinfulness less seriously because we are, at least in our own estimation, not as bad, not as sinful as someone else. Even if we are not, that does not lessen our guilt.

Jesus always seemed to hang out with those whom proper society and the church of his time considered sinners, even notorious sinners. Jesus never condoned their sins nor did he either demean them or deliberately avoid them. And he did not judge them either. What he did do was forgive them just as he forgives us so that they and we can acknowledge our sinfulness, do our best to be less sinful in the future and move on. Unfortunately, the self-righteous sinner can or will not do any of this.