Friday, 7 March, 2003

From the last section of Thomas Oden's book The Justification Reader.

Today's reading has quotes from Augustine, Chrysostom, Wesley, Calvin & scriptures!



In the classic Christian inquiry into faith one first prays for the grace to inquire rightly into faith. Only if one is willing to risk following Christ by doing what he says will one then learn his doctrine. Without choosing to follow in the Way, to hold to the Truth, and to live the Life, it is not likely that there will be sufficient readiness that saving grace will be rightly received and understood. The meaning of faith is learned only through the obedience of faith.

The religious professionals were astonished that Jesus had such extraordinary learning "without having studied." Jesus made this extraordinary response: "If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching come from God or whether I speak on my own" (John 7:17). The implication: Active, risk-taking trust is the required teaching arena in which one learns what faith in Christ is.



Trusting in Christ is not a mere mental exercise. Trusting, having faith, has a life to it. What we have found over the centuries of life in the Church is that we each take a risk to follow Jesus in our own day. To love enemies and trust that this is the way God's shalom/peace comes among us, is not a way of life that is well received. We risk when we love. We risk when we do not turn our backs to the suffering and injured in our world...for we are pulled out of our way of living and called into another way that may not be the most comfortable nor the most popular. To seek truth and to live truthfully means risking what can happen in a world where untruth and half-truths seem to have the advantage and the power. Faith...is life. Faith is love...active in life. Risky business.



Connection: We are told that we have a place of rest and security within all the travails of our day. That is a promise because when we have faith in Christ and move within this day as trusting what God has done and is doing in Christ, our faithful lives may be met with something less than kisses. At those times, we have been promised a place of rest and a rock, a fortress that will never abandon us.



Faithful Lord, be with us when we walk into this day trusting in your promises for we are often pushed and pulled into other ways of living even as we long to trust in you alone. Amen.