The new face of Christianity
From the mid-fourth century until the
sixteenth century, Baptism defined the Christian faith. An individual's
religious and civic identities were indistinguishable. Everyone who resided in
a geographic area belonged to the same faith, that is, the same branch of
Christianity. This ended with the Protestant Reformation's emphasis on doctrine.
The meaning of the word faith shifted from denoting the community's religion
to denoting belief in a set of theological ideas. Anglican's version of this
approach to faith is the "Articles of Religion," found on pp. 867-876
of the Book of Common Prayer in a section devoted to historical documents.
Christianity is now experiencing another sea
change. Pastor and author Brian McLaren has identified three aspects of this
change. First, Christians are jettisoning the image of God as judge and
embracing an image of God as the renewing Spirit who works for the common good.
Second, growing numbers of Christians define faith not in terms of belief but
as a life shaped by love. Third, Christians are identifying less with organized
religion and more with organizing religion, becoming "spiritual activists
dedicated to healing the planet, building peace, overcoming poverty and
injustice, and collaborating with other faiths to ensure a better future for
all of us."[1]
Collectively, these three shifts align Christians more fully with Paul's
guidance in today's lesson from Galatians.[2]
The Christians in the churches in Galatia
(part of modern Turkey) were Gentiles. After Paul left Galatia, other Christian
leaders arrived.[3] They
taught that in order to be Christian, one must obey the 613 commandments of the
Torah, found in the first five books of the Jewish and Christian Bibles.[4] People who
obeyed those rules pleased God; persons who disobeyed the rules displeased God;
they were sinners who fell under God's judgment. The rules governed every
aspect of life: when to work, what to eat, how to treat immigrants, regulated
the economy, etc.
I meet very few individuals who try to
please God by obeying all of the Torah's commandments. Instead, people in
general, and Christians in particular, cherish the freedom that is ours in
Christ. The God we seek is truly the renewing Spirit and not the Judge. Thus, the
Episcopal Church welcomes absolutely everyone because we believe that (1) God
created us to be an incredibly diverse species, (2) God expects us to respect
the dignity and worth of every human being, and (3) nobody is ever beyond the
reach of God's infinite love and healing embrace.
In the eleventh century, the Eastern
Churches and Roman Catholic Church split over the issue of whether the Holy
Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son or only from the Father. The
version of the Nicene Creed in the Book of Common Prayer, and the normative version
for western Christianity, including the Roman Catholic Church, declares that
the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. In recent years, as the
Episcopal Church and the Orthodox Churches have drawn closer, some
Episcopalians have omitted the phrase "and the Son" from the Nicene
Creed.
From the time in seminary when I first
learned of this controversy, my response has been, "Who knows or cares?
This is a silly debate." No human understands the doctrine of the Holy
Trinity. Nor was anyone present to observe whether the Holy Spirit proceeded
from the Father and the Son or just from the Father.
These debates about the origin of the Holy
Spirit exemplify the difficulty of establishing a credible foundation for many
theological propositions in the twenty-first century. Historical, scientific,
and other lenses cast doubt on some doctrines. Globalization, which increased
our awareness of the diversity of the world's religions, casts further doubt on
overly narrow theological claims. These largely unresolvable difficulties
explain the shift from faith as belief to faith as action.
The shift from emphasizing theological
beliefs to living a life shaped by love mirrors the shift from law to freedom
that Paul described in Galatians. The Jewish law represents a deontological
ethic. To connect with God, obey the rules. The fruit of the Spirit – love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control – describe a virtue ethic in which a person's behavior is governed
by who the person is rather than by a set of rules. Virtue ethicists, from
Aristotle onward, have correctly observed that people seldom pause to list and
then to weigh applicable rules before acting. Instead, our actions tend to feel
more intuitive or automatic. That is, our actions emerge out of unconscious mental
processes shaped by our values (or virtues) and are consistent with our
habitual way of doing things. Rephrasing that in Paul's language, Christians desiring
to act in a Christ-like manner should cultivate, intentionally and habitually, the
fruit of the Spirit.
McLaren's third observation, the shift from
organized religion to organizing religion, is apparent here at Holy Nativity. We
no longer have the full pews, 2100 communicants, or our extensive 1950s
organization. Recruiting people to serve on committees and boards can be
difficult. Concurrently, persons who now attend Holy Nativity do so because
they value the opportunity for spiritual renewal, they want to work at shaping
their life in Jesus' image, and they expend considerable time and effort in
trying to help others and to care for creation.
A solitary piece of sculpture sits in the
grassy area near the side entrance of the magnificent old cathedral in
Salisbury, England. The sculpture is the statue of a young woman in flowing
black robes who appears to be walking away from the Cathedral and toward
visitors. There is no identification with the statue. Visitors who want
information about the statue must ask one of the cathedral's docents. They
explain that the Walking Madonna's sculptor, Elisabeth Frink, specified that she had to be seen
walking away from the cathedral. The church had become too self-serving, Frink said, and her Madonna symbolized the need to carry the message of love
to a hurting world.[5]
Seek the living God, the renewing Spirit.
Put Jesus' love and not theology at the center of your spirituality. And then
join me, and all of God's people in this place, in loving our neighbors near
and far. Amen.
[1] Brian
McLaren, The Great Spiritual Migration: How the World's Largest
Religion Is Seeking a Better Way to Be Christian (New York: Random House,
2016).
[2]
Galatians 5:1,
13-25.
[3] J. Louis
Martyn, Galatians (New York: Doubleday, 1998), pp. 18-19.
[4] Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
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