This past Sunday I was struck by the words of the opening collect. (we are now using collects written, compiled and edited by Steven Shakespeare, a priest of the Church of England and professor of contemporary ecclesiology at Liverpool University. These collects use fresh and powerful language which track the lectionary content preparing us for what we are about to hear read throughout the church year) The words that struck me, and are still with me are the following: “release us from the lie that we are born unclean and shape a new community where all may be accepted.” The Old Testament reading was Naaman being cured of leprosy by Elijah, and the gospel reading of course was Jesus making “clean” the leper. “Release us from the lie that we are born unclean.” The rumble you are feeling beneath your feet are certain theologians long dead spinning in their graves.
Augustine believed quite the opposite. Attribution is given to him for coining the term “original sin.” That our mothers very wombs are tainted with sin and therefore so are we. Paul much earlier preached that in Christ’s death and resurrection all are made alive….but in truth the church has backed away over the centuries from such proclamations of universal salvation. That is certainly true in the modern church, the church of exclusionary doctrine… “just believe as we believe and you will receive eternal life”… but even as early as the fourth century such exclusionary theology was being promulgated. Augustine believed despite the message of freedom in Christ, he who was in the beginning and the light of humankind according to John’s gospel….Augustine wrote that only an elected few would enter paradise, the so-called “City of God” and the rest, the vast majority dubbed the “City of the World” would be cast off into the darkness as ballast. Calvin much later reiterated this same exclusive doctrine, that only an elected few would pass muster for life after death….I am certain such teaching has spawned racism and bigotry and exclusion for centuries giving rise to wars in the name of God….a theology that has caused and causes dire collective projections of unfathomable low self esteem etched in the memory of our species that cause us to demonize the “other”. We see it today still, on a personal, communal and global level.
We were taught as children that in the garden of Eden, the woman ate the fruit of the forbidden tree and caused the man to eat as well, and therefore humankind fell from grace….but the fruit was the fruit of knowledge….something necessary for human development…It is as if the man and woman are set up in the garden for this inevitable partaking of such knowledge….Knowledge about which God says in the narrative “will make them like the God(s)”….knowing the difference of good and evil…this is a story of the evolution of the human psyche…not a “Fall” but a coming of age…becoming like the one who made us.
It is undeniable, however, that there is evil in the world. Rene Girard, renowned anthropologist, claims that it is envy that is at the root of all evil and the violence it begets (the Cain and Abel story a myth thereof)…and we all are susceptible to it; But still we are born clean, unfallen in the eyes of God, and it is for us as people of faith to claim our God-likeness, and our God-goodness to stand against evil in what ever form such evil takes…To call ourselves unworthy, or fallen is to deny who we are made to be… to deny our innate goodness is an abdication of our responsibilities of being co-creators with God still creating the universe, the whole of it God calls good. Surely God is drawing all things to Godself…all of humanity…and all things made, and not yet made, nothing, no one excluded, else we worship a lessor god. O God release us from the lie that we are born unclean, and set us free to courageously and joyfully be about your work in the world, so that all will see the salvation that is given freely to all, so that nothing may be left in the end unclean.
Hi Jim, Thought-provoking post. It explains some of the historical and theological hang-ups that have caused the Church to lose its prophetic voice. Your point about envy strikes me as being entirely relevant to the arguments Gustavo Gutierrez puts forth in The Theology of Liberation (which, for blog readers, is the book presently under study in the Rector’s Forum). The economic systems capitalism and socialism have not, throughout modern history, provided the kind of liberation about which Gutierrez or the Church speaks. Both systems have created their own oppressions, alienations, and injustices as any human-made institutions are bound to do. And oppression, alienation, or injustice in any form, in any context, in any institution, including the Church, is always a manifestation of death’s power at work in the world.
The liberation about which Guiterrez and the prophetic Church speaks is a liberation from the power of death, which means also a liberation from the fear of death. This is seen in every saying or story of Jesus, from the healing of the leper, to the Beatitudes, to the crucifixion and resurrection. In the baptismal and eucharistic liturgies, as well as in Scripture, the Church learns that this is its vocation and ministry in the world: to live humanly in the midst of death, and to share not only that message but the means to live it with others. It is audaciously, scandalously Good News. Easy enough to proclaim on Sunday among friends in the comfort of a free and relatively stable political, economic, and social environment. But it is often much harder to live during the week because the Church’s faith always confronts the powers and principalities at their core. And the powers are legion and they are strong and they play by a different set of rules. They are eaten up with envy. The Church should not be naive about its prophetic vocation, nor should it shrink in fear from that vocation. As Jesus says in Mark, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house” (6:4). And as the Church sings in Easter, “Death is conquered, we are free, Christ has won the victory” (Hymn 180). To that we say, Alleluia, Amen.
I was a cradle Episcopalian at All Saints many years ago. Read your posts from time to time. Have a question: Does the Episcopal Church believe in the inerrancy and infallability of Scripture?
Dear Mrs. M, The Episcopal Church has never believed in the inerrancy nor the infallibility of scripture. Scripture was written by fallible humans certainly inspired by God, but be that as it may, scripture is highly contextualized, that is, subject to cultural norms and the limited knowledge of the age within which it was written. We know for example that the earth is millions of years old, not the mere 5000 plus years indicated in the Bible; we know the earth revolves around the sun; not the reverse; we agree as modern people that slavery is morally untenable. There are hundreds of example where scripture in historically inaccurate….but does that make it any less the word of God? I think not. It is incumbent upon us people of faith to continue to read scripture in the context of our own time…to mine the Truth that resides still in Holy Scripture, as I believe it does…but to take it literally belies the larger truth scripture hopes to convey. Thanks for your question. Jim Flowers+
Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I do have more questions about the position of the Episcopal Church on salvation. I recently attended a funeral at an Episcopal Church and the service was out of the BCP. What does the church believe on salvation, i.e. what is required of the person and when does it happen? Does the church believe in regeneration at infant baptism?
I really don’t remember much in detail about what was taught growing up in the Episcopal Church.
Also, does the church believe that only Christians are saved?
Dear Mr. Flowers,
Again, thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I specifically want to try to put together my history for a presentation and do not want to assume what the Episcopal Church holds with beliefs, since I am 30+ years out from attending church there. I don’t recall being “taught” the Gospel while I was growing up there, at least not in a way that I understood it clearly, but I’m not saying it was not. Just relating my own remembrance.
Just to make sure that I am understanding you clearly: are you saying that all mankind will inherit eternal life in heaven with the triune God whether or not they have a salvific relationship with Jesus Christ?
I won’t belabor you with any more questions, but since I was recently at the funeral of a relative (and she was a cradle Episcopalian), I am curious as to the foundational beliefs in your church.
Thank you most kindly.
The above comment is supposed to be under “Of Being Saved.” I put it in the wrong place. Sorry about that!