FAITH

10Jan
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
-John 1:1-5


Five letters; huge word: Faith.


My first attempt at writing thoughtfully about Faith was in the spring of 1966; Religion 202 at Sewanee with Professor, Rev. Herbert Wentz. It was a pop quiz – one question: “In the context of this class, what is Faith?” My answer started something like this, “Faith is a deeper acceptance, often in the face of uncertainty, of the tenets of ones of one’s religion. It is forged in the crucible of prayer and deep introspec…”; blah, blah, blah.


My Edwardian sounding soliloquy of religion-babble earned me a red ink-stamp across the first page of my writing. It depicted a snorting bull, head down, pawing at the words “BULL SH#T!” Dr. Wentz was known for his rubber stamp; and because of it, I do not take lightly this, my second pass, at writing about Faith.


The following class was short. Dr. Wentz had placed a thin, unremarkable looking book on our desks with our quiz paper. He directed us to read the book, The Dynamics of Faith, by the theologian, Paul Tillich and return Monday, prepared to discuss Faith. Class dismissed! 


It was the kind of reading that causes one to ask after every paragraph,“…wait, wait…What did he say?” Despite the fact that it was a book of words, Tillich presented the matter of faith, not as an intellectual construct, but as an existential force. He called it “Ultimate Concern” (before the word “ultimate” was made trivial by pop culture). Whatever we treat as ultimate; that to which we commit our lives, that which gives our lives direction, that for which we are willing to sacrifice functions as our faith. It is a matter of our will, our emotions, our actions, and our reasoning. The ultimacy of our concern is why Jesus said we cannot love God and money at the same time. Pick one.


The Dynamics of Faith reminds us that reasoned confusion and doubt are implicit in Faith because Faith needs renewal through a cycle of questioning its myths, beliefs, and icons. 


In Christian Faith, that to which we commit with ultimate concern is the foundation of our existence. It is not dependent on our concern but delights in it.


I am comforted by this understanding of faith because it helps me to accept watching the final breaths of a parent as a whispered, homecoming prayer of ultimate concern. It helps me to trust, in the disappearing memory and recognition of a beloved, the ultimate concern incandesces to light the way home and provide meaning. The Word is always calling.


Musical Reflection - "When Memory Fades" by Jayne Southwick Cool, arr. by Eric Nelson


God that always has been, help us to order our Concern for you, that we may be able to discern the light of the Word in the darkness that gathers around us. Light our way to you, one day at a time. Amen.

Faith

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