It’s spring, and you know what that means? Time to write faith statements for PCUSA ordination process! At least that’s what spring has meant for Sarah and I. Sarah will be doing her Candidacy stuff the week of our wedding, and I’ve run into some fun challenges in Idaho, so I really don’t know when I’m going to get to see my CPM or Presbytery. At any rate, I wanted to share with you my faith statement (which is always a work in progress). You can find Sarah’s here, and mine is below.
In the beginning, before the dawn of time, God began to create. Out of love, God created the cosmos. God created humanity, and called them very good; even though humanity would eventually reveal their own desire to be gods, as they would turn from God and seek their own ways, their own knowledge, their own experience. And so it began: the dramatic unfolding of the story of God and creation interacting with one another, of humanity both following and turning away from God, and of God being an ever-present lover, full of compassion, mercy and justice.
The creating God is also the Covenant-making God of Israel: justly loving a people who are chosen by God. Just like any community in history, and any one person’s experience of relationship with the Divine, there were times when the children of Israel actively followed God. When Israel turned away from God, God spoke to Israel through Moses and other leaders, through the prophetic voices of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos and all the prophets, and through the still small voice on the mountain.
As the story continued, it became clear that humanity was oppressed by and in bondage to sin; both the individual sins of humanity, and the social and systematic sin found in the structures and systems of this world. In order to bring about release from bondage and freedom to God’s creation, God’s love was shown through a radical act: God’s embodiment in human flesh through Jesus Christ, at once both condescending Godself to humanity and affirming the goodliness and holiness of human flesh, the body.
Jesus came to earth, told stories, touched outcasts, challenged assumptions, loved sinners, gave hope and modeled humility. Throughout all of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, he showed the way, the power of truth and the abundance of life. In the end, he would give his life on the cross, and through that sacrificial act, give humanity the gift of salvation, hope, redemption and liberation from bondage. However, this would not be the end, for death will not have the last word; the last word belongs to God and the last word is life, abundant life. We celebrate this abundant life every year during Easter as we encounter the empty tomb and the risen Christ.
From the genesis of creation, when the Spirit of God hovered over the waters, to our present day, when the Spirit of God is manifested in all of creation, the Holy Spirit has been present: guiding and sustaining. As we wrestle with God’s word to us in the Scriptures, the Spirit teaches, guides and opens up truth. The Spirit leads us into all truth, prays for the troubled when there are no words, renews lives, sustains the broken-hearted and gives God’s peace to those whose lives are chaotic. The Spirit is also a wild and unpredictable wind surpassing the ability of humanity to contain or control.
Out of God’s own experience of dynamic relationality in the Triune Godhead, God desires a deep relationality with God’s creation, and partners with humanity to become co-creators in the world and embody God’s kingdom. We also experience a profound relational connection in the body of Christ, the Church. The Church is the place where the messy, broken and struggling people of God come together to bear witness to the truth and power of the Gospel. The Church is called into the mission of God to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom to the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. The Church is also called to be a safe place for all those who are on the spiritual journey, no matter where they are on that journey.
Essentially, the Church is called to partner with God to embody and bring about the kingdom of God in the here-and-now – the kingdom of God on earth, as it is in Heaven. We are called to continually show hospitality and love to the outsiders, those on the fringe and the Others in our lives. We are baptized into the body of Christ and continually nourished in the LORD’s Supper by the body and blood of Christ through the Spirit, remembering the salvific demonstration of God’s love through the cross.
As we partner with God to become co-creators, and bring about a future that is filled with hope, grace, and love, we acknowledge and realize that we are a broken people, an estranged people. The realities of the perversion of God’s goodness in this world are all too real. Yet as we are actively involved in this world, in this creation, we continue to look forward to the fully-realized Kingdom of God that we believe, in faith, will come one day – the new earth and the new heaven. But until that day comes, we are called to love God the Creator, to seek to follow the way of Jesus the Redeemer and to be attentive to all the movements of the Spirit the Sustainer.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.