Monday, October 19, 2020
Beth Margeson
Practice
When Rob asked me to write about the word “practice,” I figured that he might be interested in thoughts about being a “practicing Christian.” Now that is not an expression I use often, nor a concept I think about much. So it seemed that one way of approaching Rob’s request would be to consider how we regularly employ the term “practice” in other contexts and see if those familiar secular uses could shed any light on its religious application. Spoiler alert: in what follows, there’ll be no discussion of what the practice of Christianity requires in specific situations. That vast subject would take up more time than we have, and should in any case be left to those better qualified to address it. Here, it will be enough to explore something of the general character of “Christian practice.”
One commonplace use of the term “practice” is that which appears in the familiar moral dictum “Practice what you preach.” Despite the occurrence of the word “preach,” the phrase is not directed solely at preachers: it enjoins anyone who commends to others any guidance for right conduct to rule his own conduct with that guidance. The phrase does have a pedigree in Christ’s own teachings, though. It is an abbreviated wording of a statement in the Gospel of Matthew 23:3. In the King James version, which I am currently reading, it says, “All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.” Matthew goes on to report Jesus’s view of the Pharisees that “. . . all their works they do for to be seen of men . . . .” In other words, their religious practices are all for show. Though addressing adherents of Judaism, these statements might equally apply to practitioners of Christianity: if you counsel others to follow its precepts, then make sure to follow them yourself; and in doing so, don’t be motivated by a concern for appearances.
I am an attorney, so another non-religious use of practice that came readily to mind was “professional practice,” as in “the practice of law.” This refers to one’s conduct in a chosen line of work. For lawyers, it includes knowing the law – or at least, how to look it up – , recognizing the legally pertinent facts of one’s case, arguing the case persuasively, and so on. In a least a couple of respects, there’s little analogy between professional practice and Christian practice. For one thing a lawyer may be disciplined or sued for failing to meet the performance or ethical standards of the profession. A lapse in ordinary Christian practice, by contrast, carries no penalty, except perhaps – if the person is aware of the lapse – feelings of guilt. For another, effective lawyering that fully complies with the profession’s ethics code will not always yield a result consistent with the high demands of true justice, whereas Christian practice cannot by its nature have less than a benign effect. There is, however, one feature of the practice of Christianity that does have an analogy with that of law, and that is that Christian practice should be our chosen field of work, work from which there is no retirement. Its obligations are largely few, but significant and we should recognize them when they arise and meet them as best as we are able.
There is also a more general sense of practice-as-conduct, the sense we have in mind when we say “It once was my practice to walk to the Post Office, rather than driving.” This refers to conduct that is habitual, done over and over, eventually perhaps without thought. Some might wonder whether the practice of Christianity can rightly be engaged in thoughtlessly, that if it were it would somehow lose its “merit.” But the merit of many actions said to have a “Christian” quality – kindness, for instance, or treating others with decency and respect – often inheres in their effect, in the good they do for others. We hope to make such practices habitual by educating our children to follow them without thinking, and the world is made better if they do.
Finally, there is “practice” as used in the phrase “practice makes perfect.” Here, “practice” refers narrowly to conscious effort aimed at perfecting one’s execution of an action. Can we in this sense “practice” taking the steps on the way of Christ? Certainly we can and should work with purpose on those aspects of Christian practice that don’t come easily to us, that may never become habitual.
So there we are. Hypocrisy and the desire for public approval are alien, even inimical, to the true practice of Christianity. We are better Christians when we acknowledge that following the way of Christ should be seen as our spiritual life’s work, much as following a profession may be our worldly work in life. Christian practice is no less Christian for having become habitual, but there are steps along that practice challenging enough to require conscious, iterative exercise before they can be taken with ease and grace.