Categories: christianity, uncertainty
Tags: Faith, Rowan Williams, free will, Jobs, Future, theodicy, Christianity, Uncertainty
Date: 25 May 2010 18:19:46
There has been a lot of change in my life of late. In the last few months:
All this and a conversation today with a friend on a similar topic has got me thinking. Where is God in all of this change? I suppose because I'd been thinking about ordination for so long (and still feel a deep sense of call, though am glad to be out of the process) it's shaped how I see and understand my faith. Now that's not on the agenda, how do I tell my story, and what is God doing? I must admit as well to a deep sense of boredom with a lot of church stuff, which feels increasingly pointless, and a degree of apathy about prayer. When you've prayed for guidance, made a real effort to listen to God, prayed about and discussed it through with others who've encouraged you to follow a given path, you think you have some idea of what God wants. The failure of that has left me wondering just what my faith is about and the point of prayer.
It taps into a major theological issue I really struggle with anyway - in what sense can we speak of God's action in the world? To hear some people talk, God micro-manages their lives. I can see that it can be comforting to believe that God is in charge, and I'm not knocking anyone who has a really deep sense of that, but I can't help but ask about the problems God seems incapable of resolving. On the other hand, belief in a distant God who just stands back (like the Deism of Locke, for instance, or the only sort of 'God' Dawkins can deal with) is just not the Christian God. A solid doctrine of creation tells us that God is moment by moment creating, sustaining and redeeming the world, so that if his attention lapsed for a moment, there wouldn't be a creation. Moreover, God's desire for that creation is to have life in all its fullness, which is why he sent Jesus. Grace is a constant reaching out to what is not God in love to draw it into the life, the very heart, of the Trinity (think Rublev's ikon) which is made possible through salvation history culminating in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
I know the various answers such as the free-will defence and the need for the creation to be free and open to risk in order to have any integrity. I like Rowan Williams' idea of a sort of 'membrane' between us and God that can be thinned out by prayer, a holy life, a combination of events, so something new can break through. I'd use this sort of reasoning to reconcile the resurrection with science - a deeper level of reality, of truth (indeed truth his very self) has broken through. But, however satisfying such explanations might be intellectually, they don't cut it emotionally. I know some (one person in particular) would find it hard to accept that more than rationality is needed, but we are inherently emotional beings (indeed, there is evidence that without emotions, we find it nigh on impossible to put decisions into action - such is the case with some folks with brain damage) and if God takes all we are seriously, the emotions matter to him as well as our ideas.
Last night, at the Cathedral, I went to a service for the Venerable Bede's saint day, and found the sermon very moving. It's the most down-to-earth thing I've heard for ages, and I wanted to give the preacher a big hug. God felt present in that service in such a powerful way. I can't say I'm experiencing a sort of dark night of the soul, because God is there, but nor can I say that last night is the norm and keeping faith feels like a real effort, though I'd never abandon it because I really do believe Christ is risen. That's why I'd call it a 'grey night' of the soul; I need a re-think about what is at the heart of my faith. Applying for jobs has shown me that use of my gifts to serve others has to be at the heart of career choices, but the rest is all a bit vague...