Renew Your Mind

Esther Reed gives this definition of christian ethics- Christian ethics is the study of the Christian ethos because it concerns the character and practice of life in Christ. (The Genesis of Ethics: On the Authority of God as the Origin of Christian Ethics) It should have been obvious that ethics has something to do with ethos, but somehow I had missed it. I like the connection- ethics being the verb, where ethos is the noun. Ethos is nicely woolly too, which gives everyone room to play around with how to describe it. Some of the best descriptions I've read have been metaphors- using music, theatre or poetry to describe how an ethos permeates decision making, behaviour, character, at both an individual and community level. And if ethics is the study of an ethos, it becomes less about rules or procedures, and more about discerning a flavour, a melody, a colour palette.... I'm reminded of Eugene Peterson's translation of Matthew 5:13-16- Let me tell you why you are he...

this phrase came up at our preaching team meeting this week, and has stuck in my head. It says a lot to me: who said a church should have walls anyway? In the NT, the church is always the people, not the building. If we start getting too pre-occupied by the "hardware" of our church (how many chairs do we need to put out? do we need a new amp for the music group? why can't the powerpoint team put the right words up for the song? etc.) we have lost sight of what we ought to be about. a lack of walls, real or metaphorical, means that the boundaries cease to exist, and the "in or out" debate stops being relevant.  I like the image of the church seeping out all around the edges, like a bright red T-shirt put into a white wash by mistake- everything else starts to turn pink :) So we should be colouring our world with truth, grace, justice, forgiveness...