Well, I’ve never answered the question ‘What do you believe?’ before, and thinking about my reply has certainly given me food for thought.
I’d first like to state the obvious – that a person’s beliefs are…personal, and whatever I think, I do try to respect for others’ beliefs. And of course a person’s beliefs stem from many things – including background, education, culture and experiences – and I’m very conscious that my beliefs may come across as ‘scattered’ – I don’t tick all the boxes, I don’t completely conform. But that’s natural – even inevitable – if one’s ‘religion’ is …personal.
And that’s the thing – ‘religion’. I know many seriously keen Christians who think religion is bad – real bad. Religion is a man-made system, but being a Christian, they’d say, is all about relationship. Relationship with God the Father, with Jesus, and with the Holy Spirit.
I do believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God – and the Son of Man. I believe He was both human and divine. I believe he was the Son of God because He said so. If one believes that the accounts of Jesus’s life, works and words in the Gospels are true, then it seems logical to me that one believes Him when he said God was His father. As C.S. Lewis put it, if Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, then there are only three conclusions at which we can arrive:
1) He was lying. He was claiming to be something He wasn’t. He was deceiving the people. Now, if you look at the type of person Jesus seemed to be while He walked on earth – good, kind, loving, sincere, genuine – well, it doesn’t seem likely that He’d lie.
2) He thought He was the Son of God, but he was mistaken/deluded. Well – I’ll paraphrase Bono who said the idea that such a large proportion of the earth’s population would still be following a madman, more than 2000 years after He died, is nothing short of ludicrous.
3) He was telling the truth. That’s the one I choose to believe.
I believe that the Bible is a God-inspired book, that Scripture is ‘God-breathed’. I don’t necessarily believe that every sentence, every account, is factually ‘accurate’. But I believe it all contains a truth – and the Truth. I believe in evolution, but I also believe that the story of Adam and Eve is there to teach us things, to inform us, to shape us.
And you see, my beliefs regarding Scripture all come from the ‘relationship’ thing, and it’s time I elaborated on that. I believe that God created mankind because He wanted relationship with us. I believe God IS relationship – the mystery of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons in one God. In the first book of the bible we are told ‘Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness”.…
Okay, a short diversion here – I should say that yes, I know that we can’t possibly comprehend all the big questions about God and creation. How could God always have existed? How can He be with every single person on earth at the same time? How, how, how….we don’t have answers. I like to compare ourselves with ants. Ants are pretty sophisticated creatures. They can do marvelous things, and work with each other to achieve desired outcomes. But try getting an ant to send a text message? Not going to happen… Likewise, humans are amazingly sophisticated and knowledgeable creatures, but in reality, our understanding and knowledge are quite limited. We only operate in one realm – perhaps glimpsing into another realm occasionally, but we can only see a small part of the picture. I believe God operates both within and without of time and space. He holds the whole world in His hands.
Yet this powerful and brilliant Being wanted relationship with us – and when we strayed from the path outlined for us, when we, as a species…fell…He came up with a plan to intervene, to save us.
I’m not into sci-fi or fantasy – I have little interest in watching movies where the storyline isn’t ‘realistic’ – but I have to conclude that yes, there was ‘something going on’ in the heavenly realms before mankind was even created, and that there are angels and demons. God was bound to act justly – because He is all good, and He has to be fair and just. A price was needed to be paid, after mankind screwed up. There’s a story told to explain how God dealt with ‘the fall’ in both a just and loving way:-
Two boys were school friends. When they left school, one went on to University, studied law, and qualified as a barrister, and eventually went on to be a judge. The other boy followed a different path, and ended up in a life of crime. One day, the criminal came before the judge in a court of law. The judge recognized his old school buddy. The defendant was found guilty, and the judge had no alternative but to pass sentence on him – and he fined him £5000. He was saddened that his old friend had sunk so low, but was bound to administer justice. But when the criminal went to pay the fine, the clerk of the court told him that the fine has been paid – the judge had personally written a cheque for £5000. God had to be just, but He was supremely compassionate, and He came to earth to save us – not ‘just’ to pay the price by dying on the cross, but also to show us how we should live our lives. He came in the person of Jesus. And Jesus died on the cross. ‘No other god has wounds’ – indeed, our God humbled Himself, became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. He got messy. He became one of us. He became incarnate. God with us, Emmanuel.
I believe that He died on the cross, but also that He rose again. (Resisting the urge to yell ‘can we have an ‘Alleluia’?, here!). Jesus said He would rise from the dead, and I believe there’s sufficient evidence to indicate that He did in fact. ‘He has conquered death’. (I’m now resisting the urge to say ‘too bloody right’!, because that wouldn’t be at all appropriate…or would it?!).
One story which I love is the episode where the disciples are out fishing, after Jesus had died. The disciples haven’t caught any fish, but then Jesus is there on the seashore, and He instructs them to cast their nets again, and they get an enormous haul of fish. When they land, they see Jesus at a fire of burning coals, cooking the fish. After they’ve eaten, Jesus asks Peter three times ‘do you love me?’. Before the crucifixion, it was at a fire that Peter had denied Jesus three times. It’s like Jesus is now giving Peter the chance to right the wrongs.
I believe Pentecost happened. It happened in the Upper Room and beyond, and it still happens today. There are some periods of amazing ‘revival’ in the church (by the church I mean ‘the body of Christ’…the believers). Revival’s great, but it isn’t the norm. Mostly, we muddle by, hopefully doing the best we can. And trusting in Him.
Oh, how God seems to want us to trust Him! Jesus tells us not to worry, but to trust in the Father. Which reminds me of the ‘Our Father’; ‘the Lord’s Prayer’. I believe it’s the best prayer ever composed. It covers everything. It’s radical: ‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us’. It’s pragmatic ‘Your kingdom come, Your will be done’. That’s the thing, too – God’s kingdom can be advanced by us doing His will. He seeks our co-operation. He gives us the opportunity to be co-creators with Him. We can make a difference. We can be His hands and His feet, in caring for others. And we can engage with Him in prayer.
I’m not a great fan of long-winded prayers…whether they are prayers written by others, and recited by us, or extemporary prayers. Oh – I’ve nothing against individuals having long – even endless – conversations with God, ‘in their own private room’…i.e. in their own hearts and spirits. But when we join together in prayer, I don’t think it’s necessary for someone to go on and on about a situation. Not always, anyway. Sometimes God may use such occasions to reveal His will to us, through another person prophesying. I do believe in the gift of prophesy. God spoke to His people through the prophets throughout the Old Testament. I believe He still speaks through prophets today. Prophesy doesn’t have to mean foretelling the future. It’s surely more important to tell us the truth about the here and now. Therefore, some prophets are the brave souls who question the status quo and remind us of what’s really important, of what God wants.
Jesus said ‘where two or more are gathered in my name, I am there among you’, and I believe that. There is something very powerful, very moving, about people praying with each other. I remember when I did the Alpha course in 2005 – one thing that really struck me is that as time went on, our small group felt comfortable about praying aloud if someone had asked for prayer about a concern…or as we would have said in the Roman Catholic tradition, if someone had an ‘intention’. I believe God uses us in this way – when we pray together we grow closer, we become more like the body of Christ.
I was particularly blessed that when I did that Alpha course, there was a wide variety of people attending. Sometimes, ‘church things’ can be…well…samey…very ‘churchy’. On my Alpha course there were ordinary people, normal people – people who had plenty of other things to do, besides attending a church group. Hearing them speak about God – in the same way as we might talk about the weather, or a General Election – it felt right, in a way. A while ago, I heard someone ask the question: ‘Do you really believe that you believe is really real?’. If we people who call ourselves Christian, we people who are regular church-goers, if we really believe the words of Scripture, then it makes sense that we’d be pretty animated about our faith. Here in Ireland, there are many many Christian people who seem fairly luke-warm about ‘the God stuff’. They faithfully attend church – and I respect and admire them for that – but it’s like they don’t want to let ‘all that’ impinge on their lives too much. It’s not normal for us to talk about God in everyday life. Perhaps we think it’s too personal, or we don’t want to impose on people; we don’t want to come across as over-zealous. Yet Jesus told us to ‘go therefore, making disciples of all nations’. I think He likes it when we mention Him (and I don’t mean the notorious ‘swearing’ that we Irish tend to do so much).
I believe that Christians should strive for unity, as Jesus appeared to think unity amongst His followers was vital. I don’t think this means that we ought to all agree on everything, or believe exactly the same things, but I think we should strive to be united in so far as possible. Certainly, we should love one another. ‘And they’ll know we are Christians by our love’. How often we fall short on that score! Even within our own denominations, our own parishes, there’s ‘us’ and ‘them’. We’re human, and we find it hard to get along, to remember that we have as many – if not more – faults than our neighbours. But we must strive for unity.
I was born and raised a Roman Catholic, and I expect that when I die, I will have a Catholic Mass said at my funeral. And that’ll do nicely, thank you! I don’t think that’s there’s ‘one true faith’ – or let me correct that – I think that ‘the one truth faith’ isn’t necessarily a denomination. I come from a Catholic tradition, and it has served me well. My Methodist brothers and sisters have been an inspiration, showing me how to more closely follow Jesus. I have benefited from the teaching and preaching of Christians from many denominations – and none. I spent five years attending Mountain View Community Church in Bray each week (in addition to attending Mass the same day). Those people taught me something of the richness of Scripture. There are ‘obscure’ passages in the Old Testament that I’d ordinarily overlook – but Nigel Reid, pastor of Mountain View, taught us so much about the deeper meanings, the symbolism of such passages.
Ah, the Old Testament. Got to paraphrase Bono on this. Apparently he said that at one time, he found the fact that the Old Testament was peppered with some shady characters to be quite alarming, but the older he gets, the more comforting he finds such a concept.
The Old Testament is well worth reading, I believe, because if we see it in its entirety, we conclude that…? Well, I concluded that it is a love story, a story about a passionate God who is desperate for relationship with His people. A story about God’s people – who could sometimes be described as ‘a right shower of eejits’ – who take one step forward and two steps back, who slip up but who are given chance after chance after chance.
David – who wrote much of the Psalms – is described as ‘a man after God’s own heart’. David was passionate about God. David slipped up, big time, but asked God’s forgiveness. God – the Old Testament tells me – can cope with our human frailty and failings. What He can’t stand is to be ignored.
It irks me when Catholics say ‘oh, the Old Testament is difficult’, or ‘we never studied the Old Testament’. True, other denominations could beat us hands down at bible study, but in our Celebration of the Eucharist – our Mass – we have Old Testament readings. In fact, the Mass contains more scripture than many church services conducted by other Christian denominations.
I have followed a ‘Read the Bible in a Year’ plan for 3 of the last 4 years. I didn’t do it last year, because I reckoned I wasn’t doing it properly at all. Too often I’m reading on the morning train at 7.00 a.m., or late at night when I’m very sleepy, and it feels just a bit like a chore (even though it takes less than 20 minutes). But I’m back to reading it again this year – sadly, still not doing it properly – but I missed it last year.
And yes, there are parts of the Old Testament that aren’t exactly fascinating – but most of it is fairly readable. If you can follow a TV soap opera, you can follow the stories in Genesis, or Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Joseph and his brothers. The writings of the prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah can be so beautiful. Thirty years ago, I tended to return again and again to the same ‘nice’ passages. Or I’d pick a line or two at random – not always the wisest move, but even that was helpful and encouraging. (I just kept looking until I found something ‘nice’!). But I think we can make the mistake of quoting a passage and trying to ‘fit’ it very rigidly into the circumstances of our lives, as we see them. Yes, I totally believe what God says in Jeremiah 29: “For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” , but that may not necessarily mean that we get the exact answer to our prayer immediately. Like those ants who can’t send text messages, I don’t think we’re able to see the full picture. What may seem like a disaster may actually be a blessing for us. I don’t think God decides to ‘send’ illness to people – He is a God of love, the God who heals – but He may allow nature to take its course, or let us suffer the consequences of our – or others’ – actions, but in the end, if we allow Him, He will redeem us. I believe that all things work together for good for those who love God. I believe God can use anything – misfortune – mistakes – even our sin – to bring us closer to Him.
Yes, I believe in sin. When I say daily ‘deliver us from evil’, I think of the evil within me, the human predilection for the wrong choices – and the evil without. I believe there are forces of evil at work, but that we need not be unduly concerned about them, if we put ourselves in God’s hands. I believe that sin hurts us. What initially seems attractive can cause us great pain.
Some Christians are very keen on reminding us that by grace we have been saved. And indeed we have been saved by the blood of the cross. It’s just that I’m not so keen on that term ‘saved’. I certainly would never classify people as ‘saved’ or ‘unsaved’. (Though I do know many people who would use those terms). I don’t think we humans can presume to know what God will do with us, when we die. Jesus did say He was the way, the truth and the life, and that no one can come to the Father except through Him, and I think I should hold on to that thought. I know Jesus – I know of Him, and I know Him, because I believe He is with me when I call to Him. I think I need to abide in Him. I think I should witness to my belief in Him, and I should tell of God’s goodness. But I often think that if Jesus were telling the parable today, the Good Samaritan might be replaced by The Good Muslim. I think it’s dangerous to judge others. Jesus was radical – telling us to love our enemies, and to turn the other cheek.
Shane Claiborne is a modern day Christ-follower who I believe demonstrates how to live out the Gospel. Richard Rohr, author of ‘The Naked Now’ shows us how important it is to avoid being dualistic in our thinking. I’ve always felt it was dodgy to see things in black and white. We need to be open in our thinking, and to allow God to work within us, changing us. ‘Prayer changes things’, a poster once said. I believe prayer changes us. Faith is an opening up to God – not so much a leap, but one small step after another.
I believe that life is like a tapestry – right now, we can’t always understand why there are knots here and there in the pattern, because here we’re looking at the back of the canvas. One day we will see the full picture, and it will be miraculous and glorious, and utterly beautiful. I loved reading William P Young’s novel ‘The Shack’ – it illustrated that point so well.
I don’t agree with every statement uttered by the Roman Catholic hierarchy, but I believe there’s enough good in my ‘church’ to merit my staying there. There are certainly many many good people in my church, and Sunday Mass is a combination of worship and solidarity. I’ve been blessed to be part of a parish where the ethos is one of welcome and acceptance.
I’ve arrived at where I am now through a combination of many factors – practice and experience, ‘religion’ and relationship. It is only by God’s grace that I am where I am. I don’t know why He called me to follow Him more closely, but to say that I’m glad that He did is an understatement. I cannot imagine life without God. Daily I fail to live up to my promise to pray more, to read more Scripture, to do more to help others. But He is there at my going to sleep and my waking. He knows me and He loves me. He hasn’t given up on me, even though I’ve often turned my back on Him. Bizarrely, I could say that the God of the Universe has faith…in me.
