[OBW]

The thing about discussing Orthopraxy to me is not only the gross practices that damaged people, or cowed them into submission, but also the tendency to make practice all about spirituality.

Of course the more correct understanding of Orthopraxy, or more simply, the Christian life, is that everything is spiritual. But in most Christian groups, and very specially in the LRC, only religious things are considered spiritual. So to them, Orthopraxy is about how you baptize or hold communion. It is whether you have a worship band, or a pipe organ, or sing a capella. It is about stained glass or plain glass or no glass. It is about a well-thought-out liturgy or a more contemporaneous one.

And it is about how we engage the world for Christ. In other words, how we entice them to let us preach the gospel to them.

It is only marginally about how you act in the store. For example, pick something up, then decide against it, and just put it down wherever or put it back where it came from. (Not talking about leaving clothes in the fitting room which is often what the store wants you to do.) Or how we respond to the realization that we just got one-too-many dollars back from the cashier. Or how we react to the guy who cut us off on the road (my hand is raised as sometimes guilty on both sides of this one).

Yet when I look at the teaching in both the NT and OT, it would appear that the daily living that had nothing to do with anything "spiritual" or religious is almost more important than the religious stuff. In fact, it seems that it is the obedience to righteousness that is the hallmark of the NT more than a call to act religious. Hunger and thirst for righteousness. Don't even think about that woman. Don't even curse at your brother. (And don't give that one-finger salute.) Forgive others when you ask God for forgiveness. Don't just forgive them in your heart (unless they don't know about the offense).

Live like that and people will eventually notice that you are not like everyone else. They will ask. And even if you don't have the words, your life will help invite them to where the words flow freely. And hopefully that place is full of similar people.

And, unfortunately, at some level, the quiet, humble, overly liturgical people who feel compelled to do their "works" actually portray this better than we evangelicals do. We have better theology, but are too dismissive of our sins. We just claim grace and move on. We do the religious rituals well, then try to get through the week so that we can get back to our sanctuary from the world.

I note that before Babylon, there were no synagogues. They only "got together" religiously when they went to Jerusalem. And not that often. At some level, I am not so sure that our constant efforts to get to another meeting, service, small group, bible study, etc., is as spiritual as we think. We are too worried about sacrifice and less about obedience. We are looking for that spiritual escape.

And then there are the healthy, wealthy, and wise gospels. Those are about getting their sugar daddy to fill their pockets and pantries. And if you don't want to be that overt about it, you can feel better about it by saying it is for the whole country and trying to shame people into joining in by saying it is about prayer. But even that is ultimately about the blessing we want to receive.

I read a post this morning that was talking about how communion used to be about the Lamb that was slain for the sin of the world, but has become the personal blessing we receive for doing it.

I think that Orthopraxy is too often about my personal relationship with God rather than about my living as an icon (image bearer) of God. And God doesn't need (want) image-bearers in the meetings. He can bear his own image there. He has made it so that his influence on the earth is heavily through his human image bearers.

There is your Orthopraxy.

That does not take away from the analysis that has been requested. But in my mind it makes the sense that the LRC's Orthopraxy is even further off than we might think. Even the seemingly good parts are missing the point, or the mark. The high calling is not to better meetings because of the alleged basis of division of your church from any other, but to living an entire life according to the righteousness of God.