Brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely human?
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building. ~ I Corinthians 3:1-9
I think sometimes we see faith as a static thing.
You either have it or you don't. And once you have it, what you believe doesn't change.
We've heard the term "a mature faith," but do we really think about what that means?
When I was five years old, God was something like a Santa Claus in the sky. And heaven was the ultimate goal. When you died, you got to sit on pretty clouds and see everyone you ever loved.
What was God like for you when you were five? What about 10? 20? 30? Now?
Do you see God the same way?
Or has God become more unknowable?
I think that the more we don't understand God, just maybe the more mature our faith. It's when I've been certain exactly who God was or what God was like that I tended to get lost.
Because I tended to see God in Allison's way. Like me. Or like someone I like.
God is mysterious. And not fully knowable except in terms of love: love most fully expressed in Christ.
And also fully expressed in love for each other.
So now do we see God? How do we know God?
In the growth of our faith and in the growth of love.
Amen ("Day by Day" from Godspell)
Comments