Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 7, 2008
Exodus 12:1-14
Romans 13:8-14
Have you ever been told, “Do
as I say, not as I do!”? It was one of
my mother’s favorite retorts when I was a child, especially if I had the nerve
to question the hour of bedtime, leave the table without asking permission
first, or ask for something without saying the magic word “please”. It was invariably declaimed with an air of
absolute authority, and there was no use trying to argue with it. It is not just parents who are tempted to
resort to this sort of statement.
Politicians, ministers of religion, doctors, psychotherapists, teachers;
anyone who sets themselves up as the arbiter between right and wrong has had
recourse to this phrase in one form or another.
We can think of many such examples of the uses of this phrase in our own
time; from politicians who preach ‘family values’ in one moment and visit
prostitutes the next, to religious leaders who preach humility and simplicity
while possessing several houses and a private jet.
“Practice what you preach,”
is the traditional reply to someone who tells you to do as they say and not as
they do. There are many people in the
world who have very strong beliefs, but do not always live up to their creed.
Every single one of us has fallen into the trap at sometime or another. We know what we should do to stay fit and
healthy, but we don’t always do it. We
know what morality, honesty and kindness require of us, but we do not always
act in a way that is consistent with our high ideals. We should take very seriously the advice
that
When it comes to religion,
the difference between what we believe and what we do is sometimes even starker
than it is in the domains of politics or civic responsibilities. “Orthodoxy” is the word that theologians use
to describe correct belief. It comes
from the Greek ortho
meaning “right” and doxa,
meaning “belief” or “opinion”. Theologians use the word “Orthopraxy” to
designate correct behavior. It comes
from the Greek ortho
(“right”) and praxis meaning
“behavior” or “conduct”. In theory, you
cannot be a Christian if you behave well but have erroneous beliefs; neither
can you be a faithful Christian if your beliefs are orthodox, but you fail to
act with love or compassion. In
practice, we often hear people preaching about what we should (or more often shouldn’t do), and then behaving in the
way that they have just condemned. It is
a rare thing to come across someone who acts in a just, kind and moral way,
even while they claim to reject any concept of morality or right behavior.
Our language reflects this
way of thinking. We know the difference
between a “believing Christian” and a “practicing Christian”. We use expressions like “a practicing Jew”,
or a “lapsed Catholic” (but never, curiously, a “lapsed Protestant”). All of these expressions and circumlocutions
reveal the fact that belief and practice relate to each other in very subtle
and complicated ways.
Let us take for example our
reading from the Book of Exodus. At
first sight, it looks as if God is giving very precise instructions to the Jewish
people about how they should celebrate Passover. It appears to be an instruction manual on how
to behave. Perhaps it is all the more
striking if you have read the Book of Genesis and the Book of Exodus up to this
point; they have told vivid little stories – of the Patriarchs Abraham,
But it is not as
straightforward as that. If you read the
passage in context, you will see that God is telling the Hebrews how to
commemorate an event that has not yet taken place. The instructions for the way
in which the Passover meal has to be celebrated are given before God has
delivered the people of
What does this have to do
with the relationship between our beliefs and practice? We sometimes take it for granted that belief
precedes practice; that we figure out what we believe and then act accordingly. We might have certain beliefs about abortion
or buying things on credit for instance, and our beliefs dictate the way that
we respond to a surprise pregnancy or an urgent and necessary purchase. But
life is rarely that simple. Our behavior
sometimes dictates our beliefs, and our beliefs sometimes dictate our
behavior. Most of the time we simply
operate “on instinct”, and don’t reflect very much on why we do what we
do.
When God calls us by name, we
are obliged to offer him our whole lives; not just what we believe or how we
behave. God sees us as we really
are. We are susceptible to all sorts of
feelings and instincts, prone to changes of opinion or victims to the latest
ideas or trends. When we meet together
to worship him; above all when we meet to celebrate communion together, we are
called to do just what the Hebrews were required to do
on the night of Passover. When we meet
together every Sunday, are we hoping to be redeemed, or are we remembering and
celebrating the redemption that
The Revd.