Faith, Belief, and Spirituality

The Gospel reading from last Sunday recounted the story in the Gospel of Mark, where Jesus feeds a multitude with just seven loaves and a few small fish. Interpreting this event invites us to reflect on the concepts of faith and belief.  We also should allow spirituality to sneak into the discussion through the back door as well. 

In his work, The Future of Faith, theologian Harvey Cox outlines three major epochs in Christian history. The first, which he calls the Age of Faith, began with Jesus and the early disciples. Cox describes this as a time when a vibrant and uplifting faith energized the Christian movement from its earliest moments.

Cox then identifies the second epoch as the Age of Belief. This period started when the first generation of Christians no longer had direct contact with Jesus or his disciples. During this time, beliefs concerning Jesus began to be defined and solidified, shaping Christian doctrine for the next fifteen hundred years.

The Third epoch is the Age of the Spirit.  This Age is more amorphous and harder to pin down being identified in many different aspects.  The Age, which is identified with the Third Person in the Trinity, is appropriately like trying to catch a breeze in your hands. 

Cox holds that faith begins with awe which is in response to an encounter with mystery such as a miracle recorded in the bible or the wonders of the natural world.  Cox states that, “awe becomes faith only as it ascribes some meaning to that mystery.”  In this way faith is very much an outcome of experience.

The Age of Belief has resulted in an agreed set of statements or Creeds which Christians are to adhere to.  As the organized structure of the Christian Church emerged, the hierarchy of the church, “distilled the various teaching manuals into lists of beliefs.”  These have been adapted and replaced in some instances due to schisms and disagreements, while in other cases such as the Creeds have basically remained unchanged. 

The differences in the approach between faith and belief was well summed up by Carl Jung in his famous statement in response to being asked if he believed in God.  He stated emphatically, "I don't need to believe in God, I know."  Jung’s response seems to me to be based on his experience of exploring the human psyche in all its complexity and depth.  In effect, his faith gave him the assurance of the existence of God.

It seems to me that it comes down to how we respond to our experience of mystery.  In this way faith and spirituality have much in common - both are based on experience.  How do we understand mysteries today?  Do we try to demythologize them and turn to belief in science and rationality for answers?  Do we awaken the awe that may be buried under the mountains of scientific facts and theories that permeate our culture?  Then there is the convoluted thinking that muddles the distinction between faith and belief.  I believe we would be in a much better place if we just ‘let the mystery be’ – to quote one of my favourite songs. 

I hope that you will be open to mystery in all its forms on your journey.  

 

Let the Mystery Be

 This morning I am pondering the mystery of life.   I have been fascinated by the Book of Job for many years.  It is something of a mystery why the book of Job was included in the canon of the bible as it puts God in a less than favourable light.  Job becomes the pawn in a celestial wager between God and Satan with dire consequences for Job and his family.  However, the story does have a happy ending for Job – if not for his children who perish. All that Job loses is restored to him including new children to replace those who perished  - as if a child you lose can be replaced by a new child or children - and he lives happily ever after and dies at a ripe old age of biblical proportions.

In the course of the story Job demands an audience before God and demands justice.  However, God is less than sympathetic to Job’s plight and states that God and God’s works are beyond Job’s comprehension.  Job humbles himself and admits to God that it is beyond his comprehension:

Then Job answered the Lord: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; ⁶therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”     

It is hard for us human being to live in the mystery of life.  We can deny it as some people with a scientific bent try and believe that we will solve the mystery of creation.  Or, as religious people we can try and put God in a nice box that we define and tie up with a bright bow.  However, if we are honest and humble enough, as Job was, we can try and live in the mystery of life. On this subject I will quote Helen Luke, one of my favourite authors who is one of the great explorers of this mystery:

true mystery is the eternal paradox at the root of life itself—it is that which, instead of hiding truth, reveals the whole not the part.  So when, after having made every effort to understand, we are ready to take upon ourselves the mystery of things, then the most trivial of happenings is touched by wonder, and there may come to us by grace, a moment of unclouded vision. 

True paradox can be difficult to understand and to live with but it is in paradox that we can discover God.  I believe that we are called to let the mystery be in all its wonder and respond to God with praise and thanksgiving.  I will close with a verse from my favourite song on this mystery; Let the Mystery Be by Iris Dement:

Everybody's wonderin' what and where they all came from.
Everybody's worryin' 'bout where they're gonna go when the whole thing's done.
But no one knows for certain and so it's all the same to me.
I think I'll just let the mystery be.

May you be blessed by the mystery in your life.