Jesus at the Center of Christian Ethics

I'm taking a Christian Ethics class at the Seminary this semester. I love it. I wanted to take it because I love hearing people debate about theology. I also expected it to be challenging. The thing I didn't expect was for it to shake, rattle and re-shape me. (The re-shaping part will be long-term, of course, but I see it already happening.)

We read a chapter of Stanley Haurwas' book, The Haurwas Reader, for class on Monday. It was a chapter titled Jesus and the Social Embodiment of the Peaceable Kingdom. Haurwas was arguing that Jesus' life is often overlooked when thinking about/discuss Christian ethics. He says that most ethicists will focus on Jesus' coming to Earth, and on the fact that Jesus died for our sins, but fail to look to the way Jesus lived his life to shape and form our ethical view. Thus, most Christians shape their ethical view this way.

At first I wasn't sure I bought Haurwas' argument. Until I stumbled onto page 127. On page 127 he says, "In Jesus' life we cannot help but see God's way with Israel and Israel's subsequent understanding of what it means to be God's beloved. For God does not impose God's will on Israel. Rather, God calls Israel time and time again to be faithful to the covenant, but always gives Israel the choice of disobedience." If you read through the Israelites struggle in the Old Testament, you'll see story after story of Israel not obeying God, Israel being punished, and Israel crying out to God in lament and begging for assistance and sustenance. God complies, but sometimes only after a prophet intercedes to the Lord in prayer. (This raises an interesting question of whether or not God can be swayed by prayer. I won't start that debate, here.) =)

In terms of ethics, I see the free will we have. God calls us to be faithful of the New Covenant through Jesus Christ, yet we like to twist and shape that into what we want it to be and what society tells us are social and ethical norms. I was squirming a bit as I continued the chapter, thinking about my own areas where I tell myself that I'm not 'bad,' so it's okay if I go against what I know God does/does not call me to do, or let my behaviors be such that I know he would be disappointed.

My squirming reached a spastic level when I reached p 133, "Discipleship is quite simply extended training in becoming dispossessed. To become followers of Jesus means that we must, like him, be dispossessed of all we think gives us power over our own lives and the lives of others. Unless we learn to relinquish our presumption that we can ensure the significance of our own lives, we are not capable of the peace of God's kingdom."

I could stop right there and say that I live a good life, and continue to do so. I work with youth pastors and do a lot to benefit ministries. I am involved in my church. I mentor and disciple more college students than I really have time for, but continue to sacrifice for them. I give money to missionaries and Compassion kids and mission trips and to ministries in Chicago. But do I really know what it means to be dispossessed in Haurwas' definition above?

I could say I'm a product of being raised in white America, and blame my ethical shortcomings on that. With that comes privelidge, and unfortunately, prejudice. I'm used to being treated a certain way. It's perfectly normal for me to walk across the street from homeless beggers and judge them for being drug addicts or alcoholics. I was raised to reach for goals and continue to work towards them - goals that involve accumulating more wealth and power, because I grew up on the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum. I learned to not share what I have attained and accumulated. I have been shaped to be leery of and even afraid of people who look or live differently than me, and to support political and economical systems that will continue to oppress them so I can continue to accumulate wealth and power. I think about immigration and our nation's desire to have anyone who practices cultural activities that we European descendents aren't familiar with or whose first language isn't English, out of our country by any means necessary. But that's not what God told us to do, nor what Jesus taught us to do. The OT and the NT are filled with accounts to love and care for the alien living in a foreign land.

I could take the easy route and blame that on the environment in which I was raised. But that isn't what I'm going to choose to do. I've already made some good choices in terms of re-shaping my thinking and ethical habits. I have a place to look to, to shape my ethics, and that's Jesus' life. It should be an easy place to look, but it's hard.

Why is it hard? I had to take a long look at myself, and I came to the answer. I want to do what I want to do, when I want to do it, in the way most comfortable to me. I also want to be in control of the outcomes of my life and really don't always trust God to lead me. This season of Lent is a great time for me to practice dispossession of a small part of my life. It's already been hard, and I've viewed it as something I have control over. Hmmm....I'll keep working on that one.