CHARACTER AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
4th of a 4-parts series on Character: Christian Life Practice
Isaiah 58: 1-9, John 11: 45-50
[Since spoken communication differs from written, some of the grammar and syntax of this transcript may seem awkward in written form. To keep integrity with the spirit of the original delivery, the transcript seeks to stay close to the exact words spoken.]
In this series on character, which we've been calling Character: Christian Life Practice--and this is part four of that four part series--we've been comparing the living of human life to learning how to play a musical instrument. That's a comparison--a simile--that goes back to the ancient Greeks. So, we can speak about learning how to play the violin with excellence--we can teach certain techniques that allow us to play with skill. And in the same way we can learn ways of living--and we call these ways of living virtues--that allow us to live a life of excellence. Today the topic that we're going to consider is this: can we truly and fully enjoy the music of life as a soloist? Is it not true that a full experience of music requires harmony--the music of others around us? And is it not true that the music, the quality of music, that we play is in some ways dependent upon the way that others around us are able to play?Well, maybe I'm stretching that metaphor to its farthest extent--but you get what I mean. I shared with you one of the most famous quotes from Martin Luther King, and printed it at the beginning of the bulletin--his quote about how "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." The claim that "we are in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny, and what affects one directly affects all indirectly." So today we consider how our character, our own individual character, is in some sense bound up in the character of the people around us, in our social situation. We're going to consider the social dimension of character, and especially how it relates to a just society. And we're going to look at Isaiah as a sort of biblical lens through which to look at that question.
What does it mean to be an individual of character in a social context? And the first point I want to make is maybe a very simple one, but I think it bears some exploration. That is that culture matters in the formation of character. Last week, I again gave a working definition that we've been using in this series on character: that character is an inner quality that is changeable--it's not fixed--that determines our outward actions and experiences. And I went on to talk about how we…since that nature within us is not fixed…that we have a responsibility to cultivate our character. Certainly in partnership with a higher power that we believe in, with God, who is able to shape any human life according to the will of God. But we're responsible for cultivating our own character. Is it not true, though, that our culture, the cultural norms that govern our social relationships, have a huge effect on the character of those individuals within that culture? So culture matters in this business of understanding how we form character.
In 1988, researchers Samuel and Pearl Oliner published a study about rescuers in Nazi Germany. They were looking at the question, "Why is it that some people went out of their way, and in many ways risked their life, to rescue Jewish people, and why did others not do that?" And what they discovered was, in many ways, surprising. They discovered that those who chose to risk their lives by rescuing Jewish people…when the question came as to whether they should do that…they didn't think much about it. They just did it. And they discovered that their motivation to do that came from a deeply internalized sense of morality and justice that came from their upbringing--from their religious life, and their family life, and the culture in which they grew up. So again, they didn't have to think about it when the question came--when the great moral question of their life came. They just said, "We did the right thing," because that standard had been so internalized for them.
In another interesting study that I encountered in doing some research on this series--there is a study that was published in Readers Digest many years ago called "The Lost Wallet Experiment." One of the popular definitions of character is: what you do when no one is looking. So with that definition in mind, they had a whole bunch of researchers go throughout the world, and they "lost" a whole bunch of wallets. Each wallet had $50 in local currency, and the name of the owner of the wallet in it. And they would go by, you know, a public fountain, or a bus station, or in front of a church, and they would, sort of…lose the wallet. And then they'd look and see what happened: who found it, and what they did. And of course they were interested in how many people--how many times the wallet was returned.
Do you want to know what the percentage was? Of those who returned the wallet? 56% of the wallets were returned, and 44% were kept. But what was really interesting is that it mattered a great deal where you were, as to whether a wallet was returned. Different places in the world, had different cultures, apparently, around honesty. The most honest place in the world, apparently, according to this study--Norway and Denmark. They didn't mention Sweden in this study (laughter), so I don't know--there're the Wilfrids back there. But Scandinavians, a full 100% returned the wallet. And in the 30% range, I think they mention that Italy, Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Mexico were the ones apparently, by that measure, that did not practice honesty as much.
Of course what's not figured into that study are economic factors. Like, you know, it's a lot easier to return a wallet if you're living in a highly developed welfare state, as opposed to a place like Mexico, where $50 is a pretty tempting way to feed your family for a week. But the point is that culture matters as we form character.
One of the people that I was able to be in email contact with about this sermon series…and one of the neat things about this series has been the ability to have an extended conversation with people in the congregation about this. This person pointed out how we all need to be aware that we're having this conversation about character--in primarily a Caucasian middle--to upper-middle-class environment. And that affects how we understand the question. This person mentioned, "What is that question like for Pastor Luc in Haiti?" I got this email after Pastor Luc had left and didn't have a chance to talk with him about this, but at some point I'd really love to pick his brain about it. But even in our experience in Haiti, it's clear that these questions about character formation are highly dependent upon culture. Even getting our bags past Port-au-Prince airport customs required somebody to give what's called "encouragement"--you know, "encouragement"--to somebody. Otherwise the medicines that we brought--the stuff that we brought for those people--wouldn't get there. And so questions of virtue and character are highly dependent upon the cultural surrounding one finds oneself in. So that's my first point, really. That we need to observe the effect that the culture has upon us as we think about our own character.
Now the second point I want to make sort of flows from that. Namely, if we're responsible for our individual character, to what degree are we responsible for the character of that culture we might find our self in? Our family culture; the culture of our work life; the culture of our nation--to what degree are we responsible for the culture of whatever society we find our self in?
Another person actually emailed me about a question around this. And this person was saying that it's easy to be a person of good character--maybe not easy, but I can control the kind of character that I use in my work life--I can be honest at work. But what really is hard is to see other people who are not following the rules. You know, people who are bending the rules and are getting ahead. And what do I do about those people? I think that's a really difficult question. But it seems to me that such a person is in an environment that may have some sort of dysfunction. And so what do we do when we find our self in that kind of environment? I don't know that I have all the answers about that, but maybe we begin by asking the question, "What is my responsibility in impacting this culture that's around me?" Maybe that means leaving that culture if it's so dysfunctional. Or it means questioning the values that the whole group is following in its work culture.
Obviously one person can't do that on his or her own, but the question is, "What can I do to affect the culture in which I'm living? My family culture, for example. You know, as families--we talked last week about how what we do in families, and the habits that we practice, have a huge effect upon our children that has--the character that they will develop later in life. And as a church, we're responsible to create a culture in which we form people in the faith that we profess. One of the most important things we do, when we baptize children, is take a sacred vow to form those children in the faith that we hold dear. As a society--is not our vote the most important way we have to shape the character of our nation?
Aristotle--whose thinking actually has been part of this whole conversation all along, whether you realize it or not--Aristotle divides virtue into two categories: right action in relation to myself as an individual--things liked fortitude, and humility, and self-control; and right action in relation to others: things like fairness, and honesty, and gratitude, and love, and justice. And the theory for Aristotle was, if you create a society of individuals who have virtue, you'll create a virtuous society--and vice-versa. It's important for a just society to pass on those values and transmit those values to the individuals living in it. And so you could say that what matters most in this discussion about character is how the character of the individual contributes to a just society--to a virtuous society. Maybe some of you might remember in our exploration of the biblical prophets--that one of the things that was important to almost all the biblical prophets was this: that God is not as much concerned about individual morality as God is concerned about the morality of the nation. God is concerned about individual character to the extent that that character contributes to a just society. And so, did you hear the words of Isaiah? You know, what he's doing is he's seeing this individual piety in front of him--these people who are fasting and saying, "Why is God doing what we want God to do?" And the Word of God that Isaiah receives is basically this: "God says, 'I hate your stinking fast. I hate your self-serving piety. It is not the fast that I choose to do justice--to throw off the thong of the yoke of oppression. It is not the fast that I choose to pay attention to the most vulnerable in society--the homeless poor, and the naked. What matters is the justice of society.'"
I want to end this series on maybe a very strange note. We might hear Isaiah saying to us, "I don't care about all your stinking talk about character. What really matters is the kind of society that we live out together." So I'm going to end with a bit of a critique of this whole conversation about character. I'm going to end in a somewhat strange way. Here's a critique of character: is it possible that this whole conversation about character and instilling virtue into people is a way of acculturating them to "stand in line"? Is it a way that perhaps we convince people that they ought to "work for the man," as we used to say when we were young?
As Christians, one thing that we realize we can't avoid, is this: [pointing to the cross]. If we read the book here, we realize that we may be the most virtuous human being possible. We may have the best self discipline, the most loving constitution--but we can't avoid--we can't build a wall high enough to fence off human sin. That's our anthropology, and we're stuck with it. We can't avoid running into this thing right here, the cross. Caiaphas, the high priest of the nation, whose job it was to preserve the moral character of the nation, said, "Is it not better that we kill one man, than for the whole nation to perish?" Good people--people of good character--killed God, on a cross. And so we end this conversation about character where I think Christian character really begins: at the foot of the cross. The place where we know the sword of God's love that both cuts and heals. At the foot of the cross we realize that we're responsible for this. We're responsible for the yoke of oppression. We're responsible for the human degradation that happens every day outside these walls. We're part of that. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Yes, we were there. We're part of this.
And yet it's here that we realize the incomprehensible love that God has for us--the magic of God's love for us that is able to renovate any human life, no matter how virtuous or unvirtuous. It's here that we know that God died for us, for you, and for me. And it's at this place that we begin to form and reform that inner nature into the image of Christ by realizing God's amazing love for us.
So that's where we're headed. Through the season of Lent, and into Holy Week--toward a cross, and the mystery that we find there. The love, the deep love we find there. And so, onward ho. Amen.
February 24, 2008
Third Sunday in LentThe Reverend Jeffrey A. Vamos
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