A Way of Life

John August Swanson: Festival of Lights

Hello to all my friends out in cyberspace! I shocked myself when I opened up Seedlings and realized my last post was four weeks ago. I have been on vacation, but not that long. One of those weeks took me up to the Presbyterian heaven known as Montreat, so blogging was far from my mind. Thank you for your patience – if you are still there!

               When I return to the pulpit this Sunday at Seneca Presbyterian Church, my thoughts will be focused on a new theme. Perhaps that theme can be summed up by the question: Is there a peculiar way of being Christian?

               I don’t mean peculiar in the sense of strange, though I understand completely how many non-Christians would characterize us in such a way. 
               By peculiar I mean distinctive, set apart, in the way the dress of a faithful Muslim woman sets her apart. Peculiarity can also be seen in the way Eric Liddell (Chariots of Fire), a competitive British runner in the 1924 Olympics, set himself apart when he refused to run in a race scheduled for a Sunday.  

               So – is there a peculiar, distinctive way of living the Christian life? The Apostle Paul would say yes, and does so eloquently in the 12^th chapter of Romans, our text for Sunday.

• Let love be genuine.
• Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good.
• Bless those who persecute you.
• If your enemies are hungry, feed them.
• Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

               Many would argue, and rightly so, that Christianity has no monopoly on love or compassion.  Yet still I believe it is the way we are called to live out our faith. It may look like everyone else, but it is still a peculiarly Christian way of living.

               As we gather for worship in the coming weeks at Seneca Presbyterian, we will be exploring just how that can be true. We will use the concept of Christian practices, a concept introduced by Dorothy Bass and Craig Dykstra in their 1997 book Practicing Our Faith. The concept was unique then; it is foundational now. Foundational to understanding how Christians can live out the Christian witness in a world that is increasingly secular and increasingly prone to characterize all Christians by those given prominence in the media.

               A Christian practice is a cluster of activities, ideas, and images, lived by Christian people over time, which addresses a fundamental human need in the light of and in response to God's active presence for the life of the world in Jesus Christ. (From Dorothy Bass, “What is a Christian Practice?” www.practicingourfaith.org) I hope you can sense from that definition something of what makes a practice peculiarly Christian. It goes beyond what we do to why we do it, the confidence behind the doing, and the strength we have to persist in the doing.

               Over the coming weeks, we will put the concept to the test as we explore more deeply what it means to live as Christians in the world God is working to redeem. Please join us as we do, but if you can’t: watch this space!