Dear Friends,
Today in the course of my duties for the day, I met a young man who I have never met before. Nothing unusual about that, and we made polite conversation for a while as he worked away. Then he made a mistake in what he was doing, and without thinking said ‘O my God!’ He then looked embarrassed and turned and apologised to me and said, ‘But I don’t believe in God anyway’.
I always find it interesting that so many people, when they see a minister, have to tell them that they don’t believe in God and therefore don’t go to church. But at the same time, when the going gets tough, it is the God they don’t believe in that they address in their frustration. Had we had more time, this might well have been an opportunity for a more in-depth discussion. But we did not, and it will be interesting to see what happens when next we meet, as we surely will.
But all this did make me think. For many people, absolute unquestioning Christian belief is a very hard thing. There are, after all, so many questions in need of answers. And our intellect does not always allow us to find satisfactory answers to all our questions about our faith. Indeed, I would venture to suggest that that is the crux of the mystery of faith.
Anselm of Canterbury was Archbishop from 1093-1109. He was an Italian monk, abbot, philosopher and theologian. He once said, ‘For I seek not to understand in order that I may believe, but I believe in order that I may understand, for I believe for this reason, that unless I believe I cannot understand’.
There are many things in this world of time that as mere humans we will never be able to understand. So, it only logical to accept that there is even more about God and eternity that we will never be able fully to comprehend. But that should not prevent us from being able to say with an anonymous Jewish holocaust victim, ‘I believe in the sun, even when it does not shine, I believe in love, even when I am not feeling it. I believe in God, even when he seems to be silent’. Therefore, let us not feel guilty about what we find difficult about our Christian belief, but let us pray with the father of the epileptic boy in the gospel of St Mark, ‘Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief’.
With love and blessings,
Marion
Categories: Minister's Blog