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| chicken or egg? belief or belong? |
Together they all departed for the tomb to see for themselves.
from John 20.
From its earliest beginnings, following Jesus has been about experience. The fishermen dropped their nets and immediately followed because Jesus showed up in person and spoke words of life to them. Crowds followed Jesus as they experienced healings beyond their imagination. Learners listened to the voice of Christ and a new way of living and being people of God took root in their minds and hearts.
In the gospels belief in Jesus always followed experience with Jesus. Jesus even hid his identity from the crowds--commanding people and demons to be quiet when it appeared as though he would be revealed. Jesus questions his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?", and "who do you say that I am?" not at the beginning of his journey with them, but after they have spent time together, and in John at the "end of the story."
The tomb is investigated, but the true believing comes when Jesus stands with his followers in the upper room, makes them breakfast on the beach, and encounters them as they walk to Emmaus and share a meal with one another.
Belief rises up from experience. Encountering God conceives belief. Many people become pregnant with belief, and then their belief is born is a labor of a lifetime. But one thing remains, they encountered God. This encounter changes them, opens their eyes, heals their heart, and redirects their life's work.
For a long, long time, the church has been people of belief: confess these truths with your mouth and you belong. Behave in certain ways and you belong to the people of God. Belief leads to belonging. You must believe this way: ___________, and then you belong.
What if instead, the church is about the experience of encountering Christ together? Belief is conceived in the encounter of Christ and like the disciples, belief in Christ is birthed through the hard labor of connecting thought and heart with experience. When experience and belief join, our actions, thoughts and lives are transformed. This becomes a work of a lifetime, instead of a litmus test of belonging.
As people of faith, we together depart for the tomb and see for ourselves what encountering the Living Christ is doing and has done in the world and in our lives. Then together, we labor over how we believe. But our common ground is not our system of beliefs, but instead: Christ is risen and alive in you and in me!
What if instead of belief leading to belonging, belonging leads to belief?
How does this change who "belongs" to the family of God?
What if the journey of belief is full of experience, change, betrayal, wonder, disappointment and recognition as it was for the disciples? I wonder that when Jesus said, "Follow me" to the fishermen, he did not lead with the question "Do you believe that I am the Son of God, the Messiah who will take away the sins of the world?". Instead, "do you want to follow me and belong to me?". Was Jesus more concerned about their relationship with him or about their belief in him?
Perhaps the church is about people who want to belong to one another and to Christ, and who work out their belief together for a lifetime--
Instead of a group of people who believe together, and then work out their belonging to one another.
This practice of writing of Lent has been significant to me. It has brought forth questions and thoughts in my soul that I didn't know were there.
I am living the "Christ is Risen!" life, yet I continue to investigate the tomb, growing in my belief, sure of my belonging.
1 comment:
Thomas Groome suggests that faith has dimensions of believing, trusting, and doing. The order is problematic. Maybe all three facets must happen together. Some people start their faith by trusting, others, by doing, and others by believing. Sounds like we need lots of definitional work to figure it out. How about a diagram? Smile.
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