Higher, Wider, Deeper: Faith Evolved

I found faith at a young age, was an incredibly irritating teenager and studied theology at a Pentecostal theological college. My Christian faith was, and is, very important to me but I was always prepared to think and question. Christianity and churches offer lots of opportunities to think and question even if they don’t always encourage it! Why, for example did the older lady, who told us off for playing pool after church because it was Sunday, ask me to pick up her newspaper from the shop this week before the service began?  What on earth do those 3-4 people holding King James Bible quoting banners and bellowing about repentance and judgement to passers-by think they are doing?  

For some mature Christians the strangeness of Christianity has led to a deconstruction or abandoning of faith: I get it, some people have had a very grim experience of the worst aspects of church and religion. Other Christians don’t want to move at all, instead doubling down or retreating into the strictest and narrowest form of Christianity they can find; everything slightly different is interpreted as an existential threat. They loudly proclaim their certainty on all manner of subjects, oblivious to the effects on others.  

I would argue that a third way is possible; a way where faith develops in a richer and healthier form. A kind of ‘Religion bad but Jesus good’. So, what does this look like? The Bible talks about ‘growing’ and growth necessarily involves some sort of change. It would be very strange if we stayed the same; all relationships change and mature over time. When I think about this journey of trying to follow Jesus as best we can - but in a different way, the words higher, wider and deeper seem to sum up this evolving faith.

Higher: What is the most important thing?

In the Old Testament, we are encouraged to ‘love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.’ (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) This is the most important thing. In the New Testament Jesus reminds us that the second most important command is to ‘love our neighbour as ourselves.’ (Matthew 22:39) Jesus teaches us to ‘seek first the kingdom of God’ (Matthew 6:33) rather than material possessions or other things. Rightly understood, each of these things is a huge challenge.

Sometimes we can miss the ‘higher perspective.’ For some of us, this means getting bogged down in the ‘cares of this world’. Worries about our finances, the future, our careers, and our plans for our houses can dominate our thoughts. It’s hard to keep faith as the main thing. For others there is the risk of getting side-tracked by hobby horses: getting caught up on sexuality-gender, Israel-Palestine, pro-life/pro-choice, creation/evolution, the latest culture war. This brings the twin dangers of adding to the gospel (Jesus + my hobby horse) as well as alienating those on the other side of that particular discussion – and many of these discussions are very complex discussions.  It was a problem in the early church too. The Galatian church tried to add circumcision back in and the Colossian church seemed to have some sort of mysticism going on; they couldn’t accept that it really was all about Jesus.

A higher perspective on faith requires that we keep the main thing as the main thing. Whilst some of those things may (or may not) be important, they are contentious issues and at times a distraction from the core Christian message. In the New Testament, Paul advises believers to steer clear of what he calls ‘divisive’ believers. We see in 1 Corinthians 8 and in Romans 14 that there were ‘hot topics’ back in the day about eating food offered to idols and whether Christians would be better being vegetarians. Paul seems to allow a difference of opinion and a flexibility that considers the feelings of others. It seems to me that this is a useful principle when it comes to today’s hot topics. Perhaps a sign of mature faith is not authoritative pronouncements but being ‘the bigger person’ on difficult issues rather than picking out endless quarrels.

It is worth asking ourselves…

·        Am I comfortable with mystery? God has the highest view: His ways are ‘higher than our ways.’ (Isaiah 55:9) Am I humble, not presuming to know God’s mind on every issue?

·        What are my actual priorities? A journey that makes progress means sometimes leaving what is good behind for something that is better. We each have our passions, our skills, interests and role in Christian life/the church. Do any of my ‘good’ interests risk adding to the gospel or alienating others who take a different view?

·        What are my real motives? Am I really motivated by love for God and others, or might I slip back into legalism, judgement and bad religion. Am I ‘tithing my herbs’ but missing the big picture on love and justice?

·        How do I approach contentious issues or contentious people? The New Testament suggests we bear with those we consider as having ‘weaker’ views but that we reject/avoid those who cause unnecessary division. Where do I draw the line in each case?

Wider: Who is Christianity for?

The New Testament accounts of Jesus show a wide view of who is to be loved. Asked about who is to be understood as our neighbour, Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. Jesus’ love extends to all especially those excluded in his society: women, lepers, tax collectors, even those awful Samaritans. ‘Love your neighbour’ was never a soft and fluffy love; it comes with a challenge. We are to love our enemies as well.

Our religious instincts find this difficult. According to the old joke, the angel advises the new arrival in heaven to walk quietly past a certain room as ‘the Pentecostals* are in there and they think they’re the only ones here’. Just like the Pharisees we can find ourselves setting up rules that focus on the wrong things, that exclude rather than include.  I’m not sure why do this but it seems to be an unhelpful feature built into human nature. Perhaps it is pride in wanting to be part of an exclusive club or maybe a lack of faith that can’t grasp the enormity of God’s love? In the Old Testament, Jonah main failing is that he cannot grasp that a people very different to him also need God’s love. He literally sulks when the Ninevites repent.

*feel free to insert another group

God’s love is wider than we can possibly dream of. A mature faith is wider and more inclusive; more inclusive in our welcome, more flexible in our practices and traditions. It asks what we can do to accommodate people who may be very different, may be less religious, people that we may or may not particularly like. In a quote attributed (perhaps falsely) to Augustine, the church is a ‘hospital for sinners not a museum for saints.’ This means that good church is also likely to be ‘messy church’. There will be lots of real people with very real and unexpected issues. We cannot claim to know what God thinks so grace requires that we give the benefit of the doubt. Maybe that is a legitimate interpretation of what Isaiah meant by ‘enlarging our tents’. (Isaiah 54:2)

It is worth asking ourselves…

·        Who is my neighbour? Who are the people that particularly need God’s love? What will I do, and what will the church do to show them God’s love? How can we enlarge our tents so that they can be accommodated?

·        Losing my religion. Is my inner Pharisee (We all have one!) under control? Is love being shown rather than judgement and condemnation?

·        Are other people genuinely welcomed? Do they feel valued and loved in their interactions with me/us; have those interactions ‘done them good?’

·        Am I prepared for a little bit of mess, or do I secretly resent my cosy religious club getting disturbed?

Deeper: How am I growing?

A mature faith is also a faith that is genuinely deep. Sometimes we can unwittingly operate at quite a shallow level. Depending on our setting this can involve pursuing the spiritual highs of religious experiences, taking comfort in our rituals and traditions, resting in the comfort of knowing we have THE accurate interpretation of certain scriptures! In Ezekiel 47 the prophet is gradually encouraged to trust God in ever deepening waters. Our human nature means we prefer the comfortable waters that we have grown used to, but faith often requires the uncertainty and loss of control that comes when our feet no longer feel the ground.

Going deeper is a change; it requires a movement or action on our part. Steps (even if small) in a forward direction are taken. Yet change is difficult, it is almost always easier to stay where we are. We tend to stick with our favourite Bible passages, the way we’ve always prayed, the role in the church that we’ve always done

As we wrestle with the Bible, we discover that it is possible to go deeper in our studies and not be afraid of theology, not be afraid of mystery. The God we worship is mysterious; he is beyond our comprehension. This is inconvenient to our religious instincts as we have a tendency for neat simple boxes and God refuses to fit into our boxes. As the writer to the Hebrews says (5:12-14), we need to progress towards a solid diet and not stay on milk forever. We also come face to face with this mystery if we spent more or better time in prayer; stepping beyond our shopping lists or parroted Lord’s prayer. As we go deeper in prayer, we may discover rich Christian practices that are more contemplative in nature in other waters than we are used to.

There may also be a deepening of relationships and of service. Christian communities can sometimes be quite superficial but at its best, there is the potential for people to genuinely walk through life together carrying each other’s burdens, rejoicing and weeping together. A deeper faith also serves whether within the church or by meeting the needs of others in the community.

It is worth asking ourselves…

·        Is my faith authentic? Do I, like the Pharisees, look good on the outside singing and saying the right things, or am I focusing on the real inner life of faith?

·        How mature am I in my study, prayer and actions? What would an honest friend say?

·        ‘My people are destroyed through lack of knowledge’ (Hosea 4:6). Am I taking time to study scripture, study difficult issues, reading widely and reflecting? Can I ensure that I am ‘wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove? (Matthew 10:16)’

·        As Ezekiel discovers, going deeper is a movement; it is not stuck in the same place. Am I moving forward and how do I feel about the possibility of not being in full control of where God leads?

Keep Pressing On…

Maybe like me, you continue to be drawn to the message of Jesus and are trying to be some of the things described above.  The word ‘trying’ is the significant one in the previous sentence. I feel I know less than I did – there are more things that I am uncertain about – but that’s ok. It is good to be comfortable with the mystery. In the words of St Paul in Philippians 3:12, we haven’t got there yet but it seems important to keep pressing on.