Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi
8 Sept 2013 - 16th
Sunday After Pentecost
Christian
Hawley
Jeremiah 18:1-11
Philemon 1-21
Luke 14:25-33
The word moral is getting thrown around
quite a bit these days. One minute we hear how we have a moral
responsibility to the innocent children of Syria, and in the next
minute we hear how we have a moral responsibility to the overtasked
men and women of our military.
Many of these moral claims are coming
from the government, the media, the university, and the
consumer-industrial complex, but what does our faith tell us about
making moral decisions?
As Episcopalians, I think our faith
tells us at least two things about morals, the first is wonderfully
Anglican, that how we worship is how we should live, and the second
is perfectly Pauline, that we should practice our faith in every
aspect of our life, large and small.
We Episcopalians have this fantastic
saying lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi, which roughly
translates to “How we worship, so we believe, so we live.” I use
this clever little phrase all the time when talking with other
denominations. Methodists have the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, and
Presbyterians have their Westminster Catechism, but we Episcopalians
basically have the Book of Common Prayer. Our theology, our
doctrine, and yes, our morals grow out of our liturgy. How we
worship indicates what we believe and how we live our lives. So
let's take a look again at our bulletins and see what moral insights
we can mine from our liturgy.
We begin with singing and blessing God.
This opening habit of praise helps us recognize that God's will is at
the center of our lives and that personal or national or even human
concerns are all secondary to the needs of the kingdom of God. The
alpha and omega of our moral system resides with the Holy Trinity.
Moving on, we spend time with the Word
of God. As Karl Barth pointed out, the word of God is not some
leather bound collection of scriptures. The scriptures only become
the Word of God when they are read in the presence of prayer, the
Holy Spirit, and Christ's gathered community. In making any moral
decision we engage the Bible, the Spirit, and our Christian brothers
and sisters.
The Prayers of the People follow the
scriptures, and they remind of us that our faith directs our ethics.
Yes we have a responsibility to participate in God's Kingdom, but the
world does not hinge our actions alone. As the ladies of the
lectionary group reminded me, when I put the Syria issue before them,
our first and best response is to find our knees, bow our heads, and
pray for all those involved - victims and aggressors alike. Which
brings us to confession and absolution.
Confession keeps us humble. Every week
we recognize our own sins and our own complicity in evil. By
acknowledging the log in our own eye on a regular basis, we condition
ourselves to be more compassionate in dealing with spec in our
neighbor's eye.
And then there's absolution, where we
practice forgiveness. While love is the most important virtue in our
moral formation, I think forgiveness is the most crucial and the most
challenging part of our Christian morality. Our faith asks us to
forgive others and to forgive ourselves, both of which are hard moral
mandates that would be impossible without grace. If it wasn't for
Christ, I don't think I could have forgiven myself for decisions I
made as a wartime military officer. Likewise, if it wasn't for
Christ, I wouldn't be headed back up to a maximum security prison
next month. On my last trip to the Northeast Correctional Complex, I
prayed for forgiveness with a white supremacist, a murderer, and a
pedophile. I couldn't have even thought about doing that on my own,
but through Christ and with the help of the Spirit, we are able to
practice a reconciliation and peace beyond our own limits.
Finally, we come to the Eucharist and
our moral foundation of love. During Holy Communion we remember the
love of Christ, how he didn't sit idly by as the evils of the world
assaulted the marginalized and innocent, how he resisted evil by
speaking truth to power and offering up his own body in nonlethal
resistance, how he asked for forgiveness for his executioners and the
criminals surrounding him, and how his love was not defeated by
death. In the Eucharist, we participate in that life, death, and
resurrection; we join ourselves to Christ, and we practice the virtue
of love.
Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex
Vivendi. How we worship, so we believe, so we live.
So if Christ and our worship of God
give us the substance of our morality, then Paul gives us our method,
and it's pretty straight forward – practice, practice, practice.
If we want to make good decisions in the big parts of our life then
we prepare by making good decisions in lots of our little
situations.1
Take another look at Paul's ethical appeal to Philemon.
The letter of Philemon has been
controversial in generations past, because it deals with the big
moral problem of slavery. Confederate clergy once appealed to
Philemon as a Biblical example condoning the slave trade because Paul
sent a runaway slave, Onesimus, back to his owner, Philemon. But
Paul does not conduct his ethical discussion with Philemon around the
huge issues of institutional slavery or Christian freedom. Instead
Paul appeals to Philemon's Christian character as ingrained by all
the little moral decisions he made in the past. Listen to verses 4-9
again,
“4 When
I remember you in my prayers, I always thank my God 5because
I hear of your love for all the saints and your faith towards the
Lord Jesus. 6I pray that the sharing of your faith may
become effective when you perceive all the good that we may do for
Christ. 7I have indeed received much joy and encouragement
from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed
through you, my brother. 8 For this reason, though I am bold
enough in Christ to command you to do your duty, 9yet I
would rather appeal to you on the basis of love”
Notice how Paul reminds Philemon of his
pattern of Christ-like decisions involving the saints, and notice how
he encourages Philemon to continue to make decisions in accordance
with these habits of love. Since Philemon has been formed in the
virtue of love in these other circumstances, Paul appeals to this
character trait to make the right decision in the tough situation of
treating Onesimus as a Christian brother and not as a slave.
We American
Christians are a lot like Philemon. We wield a great amount of
power, and how we use our power is determined by our moral formation.
In order for us to make the right decisions in large issues like
Syria, we must first practice making good decisions in all the daily
parts of our lives.
We can practice putting God first by
literally putting God first and starting our days with Morning
Prayer. It is a blessing of unmeasured value to be in a church that
offers the daily office, and one that I am truly thankful for.
Or we can spend time in community with
God's word by joining a Bible study, the Daughters of the King, the
Brotherhood of St Andrew, or drinking beer with Fr Brett.
We can practice prayer on Monday
mornings in the Pilates and Prayer class, although I must admit my
prayer is mostly limited to “Please God make Cathy stop.” Or we
can practice some centering prayer on Thursday afternoons with Fr
Rob, where my prayer is more like, “Please God keep the peaceful
silence coming.”
And finally we can practice forgiveness
and love in just about every activity we undertake here at the church
of the Ascension, from the healing Eucharist on Wednesdays, to an
afternoon with FISH, to an evening with Family Promise.
That's my plug for Rally Day. So
let's get on with the creed and a little lex credendi, before
we check out some ministries and practice some lex vivendi.
And if you want to talk more about Syria, please come and see me, as
it is my honor to walk with you and with Christ through all the joys
and the struggles of this earthly life.
1The
field of Virtue Ethics underpins this Pauline part of the sermon.
Especially influential to this section is the work of Alasdair
MacIntyre and Stanley Hauerwas.
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