I believe

In my previous post I tried to frame the question, what ministry am I called to through my faith.

Having spun my wheels for a couple of days thinking about this, I have come to the thought that my starting point should be, what do I believe, and by extension, what, if anything, does that belief call me to do. Belief and faith being, in some respects, different.

I'm not sure why I haven't had this thought before. We Anglicans live in a very big tent vis a vis beliefs and for many of us there is a certain reticence towards examining the specifics of our beliefs. On an individual basis those beliefs will surely inform the direction in which one is called to service within the community. It seems to me that absent an enunciation of personal belief the individual will have no hook on which to anchor call(s) to ministry. Absent knowing ones belief, any call can lack the point on which to precipitate and instead of growing floats about untethered and might be easily ignored or avoided.

I recall hearing an interview with the Dali Lama at some point in the past where he was asked what he believes. His answer was that it was not important what he believed. I liked that answer. He knows what he believes, one hopes, and clearly his life is informed by his belief, but the living of his life is more important than the details of his belief system.

So...

I have had, and hopefully will continue to have, direct personal experience of God.

I want to say that I know God, but that seems to call for a description of who and what God is and I could not begin to give that description.

Some of those moments when I have experienced God have been sublime and welcome. Most have been, in the moments of their occurrence and beyond, unasked for and unwanted.

All have rocked me, shaken me, overwhelmed me and, in the moments of their occurrence, taken me away from me. Not, most times, a comfortable experience.

All of my experiences of God have been mediated by or cast in the understanding that I have of the Christian tradition. Jesus has been present.

Jesus? I think that Jesus was a man, who our tradition's memories recall God being present in.

The manifestations of that centering are recorded as Jesus radical response to the world within which he lived.

In the manner in which he answered the call of God Jesus lived out God's will, in his time, on this earth.

I believe that in reflecting on the life of Jesus I can find assurance that no harm will come to me if I accept God's call to act within my world.

I believe that studying and discussing the traditions that surround the life of Jesus, and that studying the thoughts of those, over the past two thousand years, who have also studied his life is central to coming to know God.

I do not think that such study is the only way to know God.

While the phrase, what would Jesus do?, has become somewhat hackneyed over the past few years, I think that it forms an important test of the calls to action that are a part of being a Christian striving to be faithful to ones belief.

I believe that Paul captured the essence of God in this world when he wrote, "And now I will show you the most excellent way. ... And now these three remain: faith, hope and charity. But the greatest of these is charity."

I seems to me that this is the heart of things: Micah was right in a general way when he posed and answered the question, "What does the Lord require of me?, Luke's story of the lawyers question followed by the story of the good Samaritan was a prophetic call to action by Jesus and leads me to this writing of Paul as the union of God's call with a pointer towards action.

I am possessed of faith, I live in hope that that faith with grow in the hearts of others and I am called to display God's presence through living the charity (love, grace) that is God in me.

Well, I'm not sure that this has helped me a lot. Until I started to write this I don't think I had ever asked myself, what do I believe. I'll take it as a given that this is a start not an ending. I remain convinced that absent a real sense of where I am I will not find my way forward. I think the way forward is responding to the call that comes from beyond me.