November 08 +James FAITH AND INTEGRITY
In a recent Bible Society prayer bulletin I read about a Bulgarian Children's home. It is hidden away up a winding road in the foothills of the Balkans. 59 children live there. Most have some degree of hearing impairment, and according to Pastor Theodor Angelou "This demonstrates Communist ideology. Society was supposed to be perfect, so anything that was not perfect was hidden away.
Disabled children would tarnish the image of perfection. It was not until the collapse of Communism that we realised these homes even existed."
There are times when Christians are tempted to behave in the same sort of way. When ‘life' and how it turns out doesn't fit their image of God they try to ignore life and pretend there is no problem. Sometimes they even deny the evidence that is there before their very eyes. For example, Christians who argue that God created the world at a particular moment a few thousand years ago suggest that fossils have been placed in rocks by God deliberately to fool geologists! Similarly, creationists refuse to acknowledge any kind of evolutionary process in the development of mankind. Most of the acrimonious disputes between Scientists and the Church have been a consequence of misguided pictures of God and erroneous interpretations of Scripture (on both sides).
The same applies to guidance. Many Christians have been taught to believe that if only they pray hard and often enough, God will always make the ‘right decision' clear to them. Often he does - but in my experience, not always: and sometimes people I know have gone down a track where they firmly believed he was leading only to find that it was a very painful cul-de-sac. For example, as a Director of Ordinands I frequently dealt with men and women who were convinced that God was calling them to be ordained - but who were not selected for training. I also periodically meet people who have felt strongly guided by God to marry a particular partner - only to find themselves trapped in an unhappy or even abusive relationship.
Then there is the vexed issue of suffering and evil. If the God in whom I believe is a God of love, how can he allow so much suffering in the world? A recent television drama, set in Auschwitz, ‘God on Trial', explored that ancient dilemma - and found God guilty of abandoning his side of the Jewish covenant. The message was clear. Either we deny the Holocaust (as some still do) and with it the appalling suffering that goes on around the world every day; or we deny God's existence at all (or, even worse, declare that he is heartless and capricious).
As a history student at University I was taught always to develop a theory or belief from the evidence - not to make the evidence fit a theory. Detectives learn the same lesson. The alternative is to be like JR in Dallas who once famously remarked "Once you get rid of integrity, the rest is a piece of cake". So what happens when our long held convictions about God don't match up with our experience?
The beginning of an answer comes in the stories of Job in the Old Testament and of the Crucifixion in the New. In both cases we discover that faith is a verb, not a noun: a process rather than a possession. God doesn't provide all the answers. As Frederick Buechner says, "He doesn't reveal his grand design. He reveals himself." That's why Job responds "I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see thee". And it's why Jesus, having cried out "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?" finally commends his spirit into his Father's safe keeping.
James Newcome, Bishop of Penrith
