Corruption

          God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. (Genesis 6:12)

Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have exploited no one. (2 Corinthians 7:2)

When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” 

            Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. (Matthew 8:1-3)

           Since the subject of the week has been repentance, my mind has drifted from that word to the word corrupt a number of times. It’s a term that’s often bandied about. It was borrowed from Old French corropt, from Latin corruptus, past participle of corrumpō, corrumpere (“to destroy, ruin, injure, spoil, corrupt, bribe”), from com- (“together”) + rumpere (“to break in pieces.”) It’s a term we tend to like to save for people who have violated our trust in some official capacity, especially if they then try to cover p their crime. It’s also often reserved for those whose policies we don’t approve.       
          Then the story comes to mind of Jesus touching the man with leprosy. There’s some question about whether what is currently called leprosy is what they called leprosy back in the first century, but it disfigured the body of the sufferer, and to touch someone with the disease made a person unclean. It reminds me of COVID-19, and of a movie and a story I’m reading. The movie is the updated version of The Fly, where the transformation of man to insect is given graphic attention. The story is Andromeda Evolution, in which the virus that turned blood and later plastic to powder is once again on the loose, and spreads like a mold on steroids and crack, often melding human flesh, clothing, and metal into one. It’s the sort of them that makes one say, “Ew.”
           Corruption is a little more like leprosy or COVID-19. It doesn’t start out visible. You may not know you have it. It may take a long time before symptoms appear, if they ever do. And  yet, it’s there, and it’s spreading. Everything is fine, until that first cough, or that first numbness of the fingers, or that first bad publicity. Like a disease, we often discount corruption. It’s nothing, really, just a minor picadillo. No one gets hurt… really…much… at least not that we notice. It’s not like this or that politician, now “they’re corrupt!” 
         But the reality is that even the smallest corruption is deadly. God called Israel corrupt because they made and worshipped idols. America is a nation of idols. We don’t even notice our worship of them. I’m not talking about the statues that people want to tear down. I’m talking about money, power, fame, fast food, food of other sorts, TV shows, celebrities, politicians, alcohol, drugs, the earth itself, ourselves, sex, ideologies, our physical fitness and health… The list seems endless. We tell others and ourselves that we’re not really serious. It’s just a little thing. Don’t we deserve to enjoy life a little? And we don’t even notice when the corruption spreads.
         But what are we supposed to do? Spend our lives staring through a spiritual microscope at ourselves, eternally vigilant for the slightest clue of corruption? Probably not, but we should certainly be ready, willing, and able to give ourselves an exam whenever we notice a spiritual symptom. It’s not easy, in fact, it’s probably easier to avoid corruption. Stay away from places where you’re likely to be tempted. Filter every breath through the mask of the Word of God.