Convicting Christians

Friday, April 28, 2006 -- Week of 2 Easter

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this link -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 959)
Psalms 16, 17 (morning) // 134, 135 (afternoon)
Exodus 16:23-26
1 Peter 3:13 - 4:6
John 16:1-15

I remember someone leading a church group asking the following question: "If you were on trial for being Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" I also remember being in some doubt at the time whether there was enough evidence for my conviction. I felt myself to be pretty much like most other people.

Because our culture has been so influenced by Christianity, it is not too difficult to function socially and remain Christian. Christians usually don't stand out as being very different from non-Christians. Often when they do, when Christians bring attention to themselves through witnessing or public moralism, it seems more obnoxious than gracious.

For the most part, the early Christians looked pretty much like any other folks in the Roman empire. But there was one big difference. The members of the early church did not participate in the state religious rituals. They were conspicuous by their absence.

Many religious activities in the Roman world were also civic activities. Because the emperor was included in the pantheon of gods, a community event at the shrine of Apollo took on patriotic as well as religious significance. The elite families, who were usually those who also held political power, would underwrite these festivals with sacrifices that produced what amounted to a vast bar-b-que. For many peasants it might be their only opportunity to eat such expensive food. The whole community turned out for the celebration and feasting. Except the Christians. They took some care to avoid participating in events that might compromise the religious honor that they reserved exclusively for "Jesus the Lord." It caused them problems. Was this a seditious lot who refused to acknowledge Caesar as Lord?

Maybe the Epistle of Peter is referring to the Christian absence from these civic events in a passage we read today. "You have already spent enough time in doing what the Gentiles like to do, living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry. They are surprised that you no longer join them in the same excesses of dissipation, and so they blaspheme."

What might we in our generation abstain from for the sake of the Lordship of Jesus? I know what my friend Jay McDaniel would say. Consumerism. Jay says that consumerism is the religion of our culture, the idolatry of Americans. I know what some liberation theologians would say. Domination. They say that military and economic domination of the poor and the exploited is the sin and patriotic idolatry of the first world. I know what some critics of the Episcopal Church might say. Elitism. They say ours is a church of elitists, both intellectual and cultural elitists, willing to pass down our largess but unable to be so hospitable and so egalitarian as to truly welcome and embrace as equals those who aren't like us. For these folks, Christians are different because they refuse to participate in consumerism, and because Christians relate to all people from a position of service and non-violence, and because Christians honor all others with such respect that they move with easy familiarity and gracious humility in the lowest circles.

If the critics in the paragraph above were to place you on trial for being Christian according to the criteria they profess, would there be enough evidence to convict you? I think I'm in the same place of some doubt as I was when I heard my first version of that question.

Lowell
_________________________



Anyone may subscribe to "Morning Reflections" by sending a regular email to the following address: lowell-request@arkansasusa.com
Then, type the following command in the main body of the email:
JOIN lowell your-email-address (example: JOIN lowell JaneDoe@aol.com)