Ken Liu, OCAN Executive Director
In the Orthodox Church, we’re often tempted to think that only clergy do “work” for the Lord. But this is not only false, it’s a shirking of our duties as Christians to serve the Lord in all that we do.
The Apostle Peter tells us that we are all “living stones” built up as a “spiritual house” and called “to be a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5,9). Fr. Alexander Schmemann reminds us that humanity is fundamentally priestly in nature, offering back to God as a Eucharist in thanksgiving all that He gives to us.
Priests do have a special role as ordained clergy, but we as laity are also all priests nonetheless. Prof. Peter Bouteneff (St. Vladimir’s Seminary) says the priestly vocation common to all humanity is to offer up all of creation to God. We are called to “till and keep the earth” and to “make the ‘chaos’ of the disordered world into a God ordered ‘cosmos’ as mediator of the created universe.”
What does this have to do with the practice of law?
From Shakespeare’s Henry VI comes the quote, “The first thing we do is, let’s kill all the lawyers,” usually used to disparage our profession. But this wasn’t a call to get rid of unscrupulous ambulance chasers. This was uttered by the villainous character Dick the Butcher who was part of a plot to kill the king. He knew that lawyers would help thwart his plans.
Our field of work is called a “profession” because we have higher standards of ethics and duties than other occupations. And of all the professions, lawyers have a crucial role in maintaining order in the midst of the chaos of this world.
Without a legal system restraining the worst impulses of man, our world would be “nature, red in tooth and claw” (Tennyson). We lawyers are stewards of justice and servants of the people. And as Christian attorneys, we of all lawyers ought to be constantly vigilant about this high calling, as such a calling ultimately comes from the Lord, not from man. After all, without God as the source of all good, “justice,” “ethics,” and “goodness” are meaningless.
So when we negotiate a contract between two businesses, litigate against a party in violation of a client’s rights, or fight against an unjust governmental action, we are doing more than just a client’s bidding. We are all mediators, in a broad sense of the word, serving a priestly role.
No matter how mundane our work may seem on a day-to-day level, let us recognize the calling we have to live out our profession with utmost integrity and dedication, “in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called” (Ephesians 4:1).