Rethinking Ethically

We all need to be challenged to go deeper, to think more biblically about what we're doing morally, why we're doing it, and who we are. It is an incredibly rich experience to gather with other believers, with diverse experiences, in order to ask each other the hard questions about the underpinnings of who we are as a community. What does it mean to live for Christ, in Christ, in the dawning of His Kingdom on this planet? We, the city team leaders of Western Europe ReachGlobal, had the rare opportunity to interact with a brother and scholar who has given himself to the study of these questions for the sake of the Kingdom. Dr. David Gushee, author of Kingdom Ethics (IVP Academic, 2003), joined us in Lyon, France for three solid days of lecture and discussion on some very pertinent topics:

1) Sexuality in post-modern, post-Christian Europe

Hmm. There is a lot we could say about sex in Europe. That's not really the point. What does the Church have to say to Europe about sexuality and the nature of God? So far, the organized church of most stripes has said a lot more about what is not permitted than it has said about what God has intended. Part of the reason is that believers are not always so clear on what God has intended. God has certainly intended a covenantal, intimate partnership that mirrors his own image. Europeans (and most human beings) are desperate for this sort of relationship, and it is an integral part of revealing the character of God to our society. Problem: believers have also bought into Walt Disneyan, and Colin Firthian ideals of marriage: the be-all end-all pinnacle of human experience. Even our Evangelical churches (I include myself in the criticism) have sometimes given us a fantastical idea of marriage that has little to do with the day-to-day reality of living out Christ in a broken world. Bottom line: the world needs to see committed married believers, walking out their lives in an authentic way, and reaching out to those around them. It is a lifeline.

2) Political Impact

It’s important to pay attention to definitions. What do we mean by politics or political activity? The fact is that the Christian community has always had a political impact on the society that surrounds it. Dr. Gushee brought us back to the origin of politics, that is, all that has to do with life in the polis, Greek for the “city.” Living our life in any other situation than the cloister or the monastery is an exercise which always has political ramifications. (And, indeed, the monastery has its own politics!) Many believers have varying views on what we classically understand as political engagement. I have come to understand (and even more deeply this week) that at worst or at best, the mechanisms of politics are by definition spiritually neutral . At one end of the spectrum, experience might suggest that political engagement by classic political means (numbers, pressure, voting) requires a certain amount of compromise, an involvement in what in practice is a corrupt sphere. The other end of the spectrum sees political tools wielded by believers as a necessary part of being a Christ-like influence in this world. You and I are somewhere on the spectrum. What kind of tools should we as the Church, we as citizens of heaven, we as strangers and aliens in this world pick up? Sometimes we pick up a hammer to turn a screw. If you're really lucky, that might work. I would like to call my brothers and sisters in Christ to pick up our spiritual gifts in Christ, employing them in such a way as to make an impact in our neighborhoods, in our world. I know for a fact that the Kingdom reverberates in the polis.

3) Justice

The word justice usually evokes the forensic idea of punishment of those who have infringed rules. The Bible most often uses the overlapping concept of righteousness/justice as doing what is right for the good of all concerned. The application of justice sometimes means the punishment of wrongdoers. Most often it challenges believers to do the right thing, be the right person. The point of the Good Samaritan story is to point out to the religiously proud that being a right kind of neighbor is more important than talking about it. The Golden Rule before Jesus was posed in the negative. Don't do what you don't want others to do to you. Jesus turned this saying on its ear, telling us to do righteousness/justice. Do to others the very thing that you would consider the right thing done to you. Justice is not something we exact from others, but something that we owe to our neighbor.

4) Sanctifying Life

Dr. Gushee hopes to finish a new book with this title in 2011, to be published by Eerdmans. It is a holistic look at life and its sacredness at every point on the age spectrum, and at every point on the globe. We know that fetuses are little people who often have their rights trampled. Their voices are not heard. Decisions go against them in court. It would be the right thing to have laws that did not permit the murder of these innocents. And supporting the sanctity of life, of all who are made in God's image, goes much further. Supporting life means that we as a community of believers must be ready to take in those who have been left outside to die. Sarah told Dr. Gushee over lunch about the catacombs outside of Rome. It has been discovered that many of the occupants of Christian family burial galleries in the catacombs do not have the same DNA. Why would that be? It turns out that Christians, unlike their pagan neighbors (the majority population), took in the babies that were left out in the fields to die. Our brothers and sisters in the early Roman empire would go out searching for the most vulnerable in the population; those who had no power, and little voice. These children became a part of the family, and part of the family of Christ! Our commitment to the vulnerable goes beyond armchair politics. Are all humans human? Let's ask ourselves about those who have no rights, no voice, no pull, no judicial process. Are our "enemies" human?

It's been a stimulating week.

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(Photos by Lonnie Smith)