Assisted Suicide vs. the Incarnation

This posting from the issue of Liturgy dealing with “Death and the Liturgy” is by the issue’s Guest Editor, Lizette Larson-Miller, whose own contribution to the journal (excerpted here) explores the theological implications of physician-assisted dying.

Two documents, written roughly eighteen years apart, reflect a tremendous shift on euthanasia, or assisted suicide, in the reflections of one Christian church, the Anglican Church of Canada. The first document, Care in Dying, makes an argument for palliative care and against a society or a “human community” that would resort to supporting assisted suicide. . . 

 The second document [In Sure and Certain Hope], reflecting on the reality of the Supreme Court's 2015 decision to move to legal euthanasia (passed by Canada’s Parliament in June of 2016), is a “new resource for the Anglican Church of Canada that would provide updated perspectives in light of the new legal situation.”

 Like . . . Care in Dying, the 2016 document argues that expanding and supporting palliative care continues to be important and should be available to more people, particularly for the socially and economically disadvantaged. But In Sure and Certain Hope changes direction with regard to purpose and intent.

 The theological section is not only shorter (deliberately so as not to repeat all that was laid out in Care in Dying) but considerably weaker, arguing that no clear biblical teaching is relevant to the realities of the contemporary situation, that the classic theological argument against suicide (“life as gift of God”) is not to be assumed to be counter to physician-assisted suicide. . . and that the various historical arguments of suicide as sin do not encompass the current situation. Following that, the document turns to a rebuttal of the meaning of suffering offered in the 1998 document, before moving to pastoral and sociological issues surrounding assisted dying.

Larson-Miller raises here the issue that assisted suicide is problematic for Christians because it discounts arguments against identification of Christ with the baptized and through the on-going participation in the holy eucharist.

. . . . We have died to ourselves in baptism, our lives are not our own. We continue a baptismal journey into the heart of the Triune God throughout our lives, crystallized in sacramental participation in the body and blood of Christ, and practiced in the act of kenosis, emptying ourselves of whatever allows our own desires to overshadow the indwelling of God, so that with the Apostle Paul we can say, “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:19b–20). Because we are quickened in baptism—made alive in Christ Jesus—that transformed and ever-transforming relationship means that we die in the Lord as Christ’s own, too.

 . . . . The focus of this essay on assisted suicide or physician-assisted dying is centered on the baptismal unity of the Christian with Christ and the Trinity, and with the corporate body of Christ the church in a manner that suggests if our life belongs to God, if we are Christed, our life is not ours to take. 

This is a theological approach not mentioned in the Canadian Anglican documents on physician-assisted dying, and an omission that seems particularly odd because of the emphasis in the Anglican Church of Canada and other Anglican member churches on baptismal ecclesiology.

The full essay is available in Liturgy 33, no. 1 available by personal subscription and through many libraries.

 

Lizette Larson-Miller, “Dying in the Lord: Theology, Pastoral Care, and Legislation in the Example of a Canadian Context,” Liturgy 33, no. 1 (2017): 34-40.

Making Baptism Matter

The previous blog presented material from D. Jay Koyle’s essay in Liturgy on baptism, offering reasons for the decline in importance some churches have placed on this initiatory sacrament.

Many congregations, even denominations, not only wonder what kind of future they have, but whether they have a future at all. As a result, survival strategies are placed at the top of the agenda. Such an emphasis hastens, rather than reverses, decline. Although dying can bring stunning clarity, fear of death blurs vision. . . .

Nervousness about dwindling numbers in plate and pew stokes our reluctance to embrace any practice or policy that could deter even the most casual involvement in our churches. Over time, our anxiety has engendered a membership that is less and less shaped by the mind of Christ. Instead, inclusivity that is unrelated to the way of Jesus has become our guiding principle. The convergence of font and paschal feast in the ancient church that our rites today prompt us to recover may have much to teach us. It does not easily suggest itself, however, to a church for which survival is a dominant motivation. . . .

How might we break our Christendom habits, counter our consumerist presuppositions, overcome the preoccupation with survival, and recognize baptism for what it is and what it can do to unleash a vital and faithful church? . . .

Here are some of Koyle’s ideas for returning to the life-changing meaning of baptism. He holds out the prospect of congregations responding to the future with baptismal promises at the forefront rather than fear of dying.

We might begin this work by prompting Kingdom conversations in every facet of congregational life. If conversation truly is the currency of change, then what we invite people to talk, think, and pray about blazes the path into the future. . . . Therefore, in meetings, study or working groups, and in any devotional time, we should ask questions that differ from the usual fare. Too often, we read a snippet of scripture and then quickly look for how it applies to our lives. Dwell instead on who God is and what God is doing. Ask questions such as:

• What word, image, phrase stands out for you?
• Where is God in or behind this text? What is God/Christ/the Spirit up to in this passage?
• What characteristics of God or God’s reign does this story reveal or suggest to you?
• What promise of God for the world do you hear in this passage?
• Where have you seen or experienced this action or promise of God in your life? In the church/this congregation?
• Is there anything in our worship that this story brings to mind? Anything in other aspects of our congregation’s life?
• Do you see God at work to fulfill this promise in the world today? If so, where? If not, what do you think it would look like if God were doing so?
• How do the affirmations and pledges made in baptism reflect and respond to God’s promises?
• . . . What would it look like if this church lived in expectant anticipation of the promises we have identified?

D. Jay Koyle, is a presbyter serving as Congregational Development Officer for the Diocese of Algoma (Anglican Church of Canada) who also teaches at Huron University College in London, Ontario.

D. Jay Koyle, “The Mistaken Identity of Baptism,” Liturgy 31, no. 2 (2016), 11-19.