ETHICS AFTER EASTER

Dear Friends in Christ:

Four years ago, we had an Eastertide adult class that discussed a book with the intriguing title, Ethics After Easter. A central premise of the book is that Easter changes the way we think about ethics, about morality, about the choices we make. After Easter the ethical choices we make are made with the awareness that we are loved by the one whom Jesus called Abba, Father.  After Easter, we make choices in response to that love with the awareness that even when we make wrong choices we are still loved, that we are “ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven.” (Hymn 410)

A similar thought has been expressed by one of my favorite writers, Fr. Robert Capon:

... The church is not in the morals business. The world is in the morals business, quite rightfully; and it has done a fine job of it, all things considered. The history of the world's moral codes is a monument to the labors of many philosophers, and it is a monument of striking unity and beauty. As C.S. Lewis said, anyone who thinks the moral codes of mankind are all different should be locked up in a library and be made to read three days' worth of them. He would be bored silly by the sheer sameness.

What the world cannot get right, however, is the forgiveness business – and that, of course, is the church's real job. She is in the world to deal with the Sin which the world can't turn off or escape from. She is not in the business of telling the world what's right and wrong so that it can do good and avoid evil. She is in the business of offering, to a world which knows all about that tiresome subject, forgiveness for its chronic unwillingness to take its own advice. But the minute she even hints that morals, and not forgiveness, is the name of her game, she instantly corrupts the Gospel and runs headlong into blatant nonsense.

The church becomes, not Ms. Forgiven Sinner, but Ms. Right. Christianity becomes the good guys in here versus the bad guys out there. Which, of course, is pure tripe. The church is nothing but the world under the sign of baptism. ...

This, of course, does not mean that the choices that we make aren’t important; they are, often very important, and we need to devote a lot of thought and prayer to the major decisions that we make. But we do that thinking and praying with a wonderful freedom, with the awareness that our relationship with God is not dependent on our making the right choices, but on God’s love for us. It is Grace from start to finish.  The Catechism in The Book of Common Prayer defines Grace as “God’s favor toward us, unearned and undeserved; by grace God forgives our sins, enlightens our minds, stirs our hearts, and strengthens our wills.” (page 858)

The church always face the temptation, as Fr. Capon pointed out, of being in the morality business, of seeing itself as the world’s moral police force. I pray that as we “share with” Christ “an Easter life” (Hymn 296), we will resist that temptation and offer one another and the world the Good News of God’s love and forgiveness.

Your brother and priest.

Daniel