Tuesday 28 October 2008

Following up on story and Christian ethics - from Stanley Hauerwas.

The fact that Christian ethics begins and ends with a story requires a corresponding community existing across time. The story of God as told through the experience of Israel and the church cannot be abstracted from those communities engaged in the telling and hearing. As a story it cannot exist without a historic people, for it requires telling and remembering if it is to exist at all. God has entrusted his presence to a historic and contingent community which can never rest on its past success, but must be renewed generation after generation. That is why the story is not merely told but embodied in a people's habits that form and are formed in worship, governance, and morality.

In some ways, the story telling of the community called the church is not a "once upon a time" tale that took place way back in time. Rather it is a community that is telling a story that has a past but it is also a story that continues to roll into and through the present making those of us who are followers of Jesus part of a grand storyline that has been and is and will be rooted in the history of real people. When we look back at the life of Jesus and the embodiment of the Reign of God in his life, we look back so as to inform us of how that story is to be interpreted in and through each of our lives as the community participates in the life of that Reign even now. In years to come, the followers of Jesus may refer back to these days and how the saints of old (yes, that will be us one day) passed on a life that they are now being invited to actualize in their day. It is important to remember that even if there is only a remnant of people living as the community of the resurrected Lord, Jesus, it is enough to make history...the history of the living Reign of God.

Connection: Sometimes it is helpful to see our ordinary day as a part of the grand history of the churches witness. There was no time as important as now - even if we consider some of our past days as the "glory" days. Today we begin again and make history.

Lord of All Time, remind us of the way you open up our lives to the adventures of new life that come as we follow in the way of our ancestors in the faith. Grant us the courage to walk boldly within this history of witness. Amen.