HAYMES The Moral Miracle of Faith 331
Church is not called to control the world so much as to be a witness to it of
the grace and love of God in Christ. So Paul can write to the Galatians,
calling on them to live out their baptism. Those who have put on Christ
like a garment must live realizing that there is no longer Jew or Greek,
slave or free, male or female, for all are one new humanity in Christ Jesus
(Gal. 3.27-28). In other words, the kind of distinctions of which the world
might make so much, to the detriment of others, have no place in the
Church, the community which lives under the sovereignty of Christ. The
gospel stories of Jesus' radical approach to table fellowship, wealth, fami-
lies, violence and truth-telling all encourage this implication of difference.
Baptism in the name of Jesus has moral consequence.
This emphasis on the Church reminds us that baptism is a corporate act
of the Church. For sure, we are individually baptized but the context is that
of the Church. In each person's baptism the Church confesses faith in
the Lord. This corporate sense is important in Christian moral formation.
All too easily ethics can become the study of discrete dilemmas. Cases are
brought for study, analysis and resolution. However, there is an older tra-
dition of moral reflection that focuses on formation, both personal and
corporate. This emphasis on character or virtue ethics is receiving increas-
ing attention.^9 It is significant for the Church because it relates to narra-
tives that help shape and form a people. Whatever story you tell influences
the kind of people you will become. Thus the moral miracle of faith
focused in baptism is active as the Church gathers to worship God, to
hear the story told in Scripture and to remember and be remembered at the
Lord's Supper. With the corresponding practice of the faith together in
relationships the Church is nurtured in the faith. Every baptism enacts a
part of the great story of the God revealed in Jesus Christ. The regular
telling of this story and reflection on it shapes the Christian life and mind.
This can be cast theologically, as the Spirit recalling for us through Scrip-
ture and tradition the things of Christ. Thus, formation is a work of God
for a people allowing the story of God to shape their faithful living.^10
Baptism, then, indicates our identity, the one to whom we belong.^11- For example, in the work of Stanley Hauerwas, Character and the Christian
Life: A Study in Theological Ethics (San Antonio: Trinity University Press, 1985), and
A Community of Character: Towards a Constructive Christian Social Ethic (London:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1981). - There is an important connection between formation, virtue ethics and narrative.
- This affirmation is explored by T. Bradshaw, 'Baptism and Inclusivity in the
Church' in Porter and Cross (eds.), Baptism, pp. 447-66. A more popular treatment of