December, 2004 Calendar In This Issue: Core Values: Walking in Integrity Everyone's Responsibility Unchurched St. Nicholas and the Pawn Shop Balls of Gold New Years Prayer Religion, Politics and Theology Angel Songs & the Star of Wonder: Christ is Born Today Susan Tree St. Nicholas to Visit St. A's on his World Tour!

by The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy

One of my senior clergy mentors in the South recently sent me an email with his distillation of an article that appeared in the Christian Century some time ago. The central question the author and my mentor were struggling with was: "How do you know when something is a core value?" He shared with me five criteria used to determine whether or not a professed value is, in fact, central to one's life. I share them with you along with some observations that arise in seeing these criteria through the lense of Christian experience.

1. Core values are chosen from among known and considered alternatives.
   Pagans who joined the Christian sect of Judaism in the decades following the death and resurrection of Jesus made a conscious choice to do so. In 1st century Roman culture, there were myriad religious traditions (classified as "mystery religions" today) and people were encouraged to participate in as many traditions as they could afford to sacrifice to (call it: "covering all the bases"). The proclamation of "one, true God" seemed to the Romans impoverished and presumptuous. To choose to be a Christian involved a lengthy period of instruction (the "catechumanate" - so named for their meeting place in catacombs - could last up to three years) and indoctrination (receiving doctrine) through mentoring by a host family. Baptism by immersion at Easter represented a symbolic washing away of pagan life, a "dying" of that life and its presuppositions in a watery grave and a rising to new life in Christ. Baptism was symbolic of a conscious choice and thus both the consummation of a process of discipline as well as initiation of a fully committed new life with new presumptions and obligations. To choose to be a Christian means to choose not to be something else. It means to go deep.

   "Houston Smith makes (this) point with the metaphor of digging a well: if what you're looking for is water, better to dig one well sixty feet deep than to dig six wells ten feet deep. By living more deeply into our own tradition as a sacrament of the sacred, we become more centered in the one to whom the tradition points…" (Marcus Borg, The Heart of Christianity.)

2. Core values are sustained and held over a long period of time.
   Core values are not transient. To encounter a person at the level of their core values at the age of 20, or 40 or 80 would be to see reflected the same core behaviors. One of my core values is punctuality. It is important to me to be on time and I become anxious when I am unavoidably late. I would hope that others would be surprised when I am late because their consistent experience of me is of someone compulsively punctual.

   We benefit from reading the lives of the saints not because they are uniquely blessed by God to be faithful but because they remain faithful in the face of real obstacles faced by all humankind. St. Francis, that most admired and least imitated of all the saints, remained joyful and hopeful in spite of disappointment, hunger, deprivation and excruciating pain. He lived "in praise" all his life.

3. Core values are publicly affirmed.
   A core value is not a secret commitment. In a sense, when something is a central value, we are driven to be evangelical (evangel = "to tell") about it. At the Festival of Pentecost, the disciples began to praise God in ecstatic speech. Luke writes:

   "Everyone was amazed and unable to explain it; they asked one another what it all meant. Some, however, laughed it off. `They have been drinking too much new wine" they said. Then Peter stood up with the Eleven and addressed them in a loud voice. `Men of Judea, and all you who live in Jerusalem, make no mistake about this, but listen carefully to what I say…'" (Acts 2:12-14)

   And thus Peter who had denied even knowing Jesus three times before the cock crowed, becomes the first public preacher of Jesus. He was highly effective: "They were convinced by his arguments, and they accepted what he said and were baptized. That very day about 3,000 were added to their number." (Acts 2:41)

   If being a Christian is a core value, we need to proclaim it by word and example.

4. Core values are maintained in the face of costs: financial, personal, professional and social.
   As the infant church grew, the Twelve were led to select seven Hellenists, "men of good reputation, filled with the Spirit and with wisdom" (Acts 6:3) to appoint as Deacons for the distributing of food to widows and orphans. One of the Seven, Stephen, is arrested and charged falsely of blasphemy and in his defense, condemns his Jewish accusers:

   "You stubborn people, with your pagan hearts and pagan ears. You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do…They were infuriated when they heard this, and ground their teeth at him. But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God's right hand. `I can see heaven thrown open' he said `and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.' At this all the members of the council shouted out and stopped their ears with their hands; then they all rushed at him, sent him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses put down their clothes at the feet of a young man called Saul. As they were stoning him, Stephen said in invocation, `Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' Then he knelt down and said aloud, `Lord, do not hold this sin against them'; and with these words he fell asleep." (Acts 7:51-60).

   The Greek word for witness is "martyr." To witness to Christ always involves the risk of death; whether literally or experientially. Early converts to Christianity found themselves in a new family as well as worshipping a new God as their families typically disinherited and disowned them. Christianity should be costly if it is to be authentic.

5. Core values are lived into.
   Early Christian converts found certain professions no longer appropriate for them. Professional artists, who could no longer accept commissions to make images of Greco-Roman gods for pagan Temples (because to do so would be idolatrous), had to find new vocations. Professional soldiers, similarly, could not serve in the army as the church was opposed to all killing. Magistrates could no longer serve as judges lest they be compelled to condemn a criminal to death. Core values are not just theoretical or verbal but are acted upon; they are lived into.

Copyright © 2004 St. Augustine by-the-Sea