Today’s Readings: Psalm 25; Genesis 37:12-24; Luke 3:1-14; Acts 17:1-4; Psalm 143
If you were to ask me how I would describe my faith, you might be surprised with the phrase I would use. I wouldn’t use words that most folks these days have come to expect – words like liberal, conservative, progressive, or evangelical. No, the phrase I would use to describe myself would be pre-Constantinian. Some folks would have no clue what I meant by this, so they’d politely smile and walk away. Let me tell you what I mean. In the first 300+ years of Christianity, there were no established creeds that could be used to decide who was in and who was out based upon their beliefs. The Christian communities learned to co-exist with a variety of beliefs. Then the Roman Emperor Constantine converted. When he did so, Constantine decided for a variety of reasons to establish Christianity as the religion of the Empire. Of course politics dictated that in order to establish a religion as THE state religion, firm boundaries had to be set so people knew what was acceptable and what was not. The establishment of the first creeds soon followed to accomplish just that. At that point, the essence of Christianity shifted dramatically. What mattered in this post-Constantinian period more than anything else was “right belief” (orthodoxy). I mourn this fourth century shift in the essence of our faith. I miss the pre-Constantinian days of the first four centuries when right action stemming from right relationship with God and others was more important than right belief. This emphasis on right action over right belief is known as orthopraxis. As a pre-Constantinian Christian, I LOVE today’s Gospel reading from Luke. I love it because it quotes John the Baptist as clearly coming down on the side of orthopraxis (i.e. “What counts is your life” – Luke 3:9 – The Message). When the crowd asks him how best to respond to their faith, John continually responds by pointing toward actions and not professions (i.e. give half of your clothes/food away; don’t extort; don’t blackmail; be context with what you have). How do you see the character of your faith? Are you more focused on saying the right words (orthodoxy) or doing the right things (orthopraxis)? How you answer that last question will have a lot to do with the nature of your spiritual life. Tile next time…
If you were to ask me how I would describe my faith, you might be surprised with the phrase I would use. I wouldn’t use words that most folks these days have come to expect – words like liberal, conservative, progressive, or evangelical. No, the phrase I would use to describe myself would be pre-Constantinian. Some folks would have no clue what I meant by this, so they’d politely smile and walk away. Let me tell you what I mean. In the first 300+ years of Christianity, there were no established creeds that could be used to decide who was in and who was out based upon their beliefs. The Christian communities learned to co-exist with a variety of beliefs. Then the Roman Emperor Constantine converted. When he did so, Constantine decided for a variety of reasons to establish Christianity as the religion of the Empire. Of course politics dictated that in order to establish a religion as THE state religion, firm boundaries had to be set so people knew what was acceptable and what was not. The establishment of the first creeds soon followed to accomplish just that. At that point, the essence of Christianity shifted dramatically. What mattered in this post-Constantinian period more than anything else was “right belief” (orthodoxy). I mourn this fourth century shift in the essence of our faith. I miss the pre-Constantinian days of the first four centuries when right action stemming from right relationship with God and others was more important than right belief. This emphasis on right action over right belief is known as orthopraxis. As a pre-Constantinian Christian, I LOVE today’s Gospel reading from Luke. I love it because it quotes John the Baptist as clearly coming down on the side of orthopraxis (i.e. “What counts is your life” – Luke 3:9 – The Message). When the crowd asks him how best to respond to their faith, John continually responds by pointing toward actions and not professions (i.e. give half of your clothes/food away; don’t extort; don’t blackmail; be context with what you have). How do you see the character of your faith? Are you more focused on saying the right words (orthodoxy) or doing the right things (orthopraxis)? How you answer that last question will have a lot to do with the nature of your spiritual life. Tile next time…
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