ETHICS AFTER EASTER - Axioms #5-8

5. Moral theology has two primary reference points: creation and scripture. Moral theology looks both to the world and our experience of life together within it, and to scripture and our tradition of reasoned reflection based upon it, as sources of moral principles. (Chapter 2)

6. Moral theology works in light of an understanding of the four principal phases of salvation history: creation, fall, redemption, and the end of all things in Christ. (Chapter 2)

7. In coming to agreement concerning the pattern of life that is worthy of the calling, Anglicans have looked for consensus. We have the greatest degree of assurance for what has been most widely received. (Chapter 2)

8. Anglicans have looked for consensus in several interrelated spheres: the praying community of the church throughout the world; the wider community of the Body of Christ through history; and the academic community, when its work is founded upon Christian principles. (Chapter 2)

Ay, there's the rub!

As Stephen Holmgren wisely points out, Anglicans do NOT have an "answer book," with all of the difficult questions of life neatly responded to in terms that transcend age and epoch, addressing all humanity in all of its infinite variety and wonderful creative design. In point of fact, the Anglican ethos has always been a kind of meditative reflection of the many ways that Christian ethics have expressed themselves from culture to culture.

Note: this is NOT moral relativism, which is commonly the accusation from the extreme right of society. There is not a desire to simply turn a blind eye, live and let live, "Anything Goes" mentality. We believe strongly in Hookers three-legged stool: we look to scripture, tradition, and reason.

Scripture captures the wonderful relation between humankind and its Creator God, and how that same Creator has reached out with the desire to save, to redeem, to reconcile humanity to God's own self. We read scripture, noting how the original authors were communicating to their original audience, yet also discerning what God is saying to the contemporary faithful. It isn't an easy thing, and is filled with discriminating points of view in translating and interpreting God's word.

And that word is seen through the light of tradition. Our tradition is not something to be swept away in an attempt to embrace modernity - or in our case, post-modernity. We recognize that those faithful who walked the path before us have much to share with us, in their extraordinary accomplishments, but also in their extraordinary failures where human frailty and brokenness caused them to miss the mark.

And we look at all of this through the intelligent and discerning minds that God has given us, using our powers of observation and discernment to look at scripture, to look at tradition, and to look at God's ongoing creation happening before our very eyes. To be Christian and moral is not to shun our God given abilities and intelligence to voluntarily remain ignorant of what God is showing us in science and technology. We are called to embrace ALL of it.

Still, we must always recognize the cultural barriers that remain obstacles to our ongoing church, community, and personal understandings of what God wants for us in a life lived to celebrate the wonders of creation and to offer thanksgiving for our being made a part of that creation. We must not label one another as archaic or radical in our use of God's gifts - for we are not all given the same gifts, as Paul reminds us, but are each given individual gifts and strengths to offer to the whole of the church.

We, as Anglicans and Episcopalians, are called ever to affirm this complexity in discernment of God's call to us to live a holy and blameless life. And we must always remember that we are not called to denigrate or shun anyone who doesn't live up to what we understand to be God's standards for living; rather, we are to reconcile each to one another and to Christ.