A Personal Faith
Good Morning Friends,
Our Pastor at church recently confessed that it is not always easy to understand exactly how or why it is that Jesus dying on the cross makes us right with God. I think it was his way of engaging us in discovering the nature of faith. It is a wise move for it engages our spiritual side with a discussion of the theology of justification. It is more a prayer than an effort to get the theology right by understanding the context of the text’s words. I think he recognizes that there is a problem the minute language becomes functionalized. There is sacrilege going on when theology is separated from the Spirit. Friends, the good news is that the Word became flesh so we might have and share A Personal Faith.
Scripture: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
Galatians 2:20-21 (NIV)
We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.
Romans 6:6 (NRSV)
For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.
Romans 3:28 (NRSV)
Message: There is a resurgence of spirituality going on now that I believe will have more lasting power than past awakenings. It is not so much about new theology working its way into the pulpit as a way of reforming our cultures from academia, but in engaging the creative power of the Spirit in us to express our personal theology. Rational thought just does not work on its own…especially from the pulpit alone. And activism does not work on its own either. It takes both faith and reason…mission and justice. For too long sermons have focused on the rational reason for our theology but in its functionality it loses its holiness. I am glad our pastor is starting to pay more attention to spiritual direction. I have always wondered why the stories of our lives do not always follow theologians thinking as interpreted by pastors. There has been a violence of separation that calls out for our personal faith to be shared in the moment of our time now. Friends, revivals start out with an incredible amount of energy but the momentum of that energy is not carrying the church today. It is not about creating a new theology, it is about reconnecting the severed body.
Pray we stop building theological castles in the air and then attempting to live in them. Pray we stop being so idealistic, self-absorbed, or otherwise out of touch with reality that we make the critical mistake of failing to live and love. Pray as our illusions are shattered that they are replaced with something even better giving us direction and power. Pray we affirm each other. Pray we truly become the body of Christ…even the one crucified on the cross. Pray we live our life as a prayer.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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