Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even
calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (John 5:16-18)
Jesus was taking direct aim at his culture’s understanding of
the entire cosmos. Not only was he
defying their understanding of the Sabbath, he was saying that the universe is
quite different than what they understood, going back all the way to the
beginning. He was also saying that he
had a role in that creation because he was the Son of God.
Not only that, but he was telling them that this was only
the beginning. They would see even greater (scarier) things than this (5:20).
To be thrown into a state where we question everything is
frightening and most of us won’t do it unless some crisis comes along and
forces us to make adjustments.
It’s important to remember that faith has to have enough
elasticity to adjust to growing insight. But for some reason, we want to insist
that faith is a rock solid attribute, where nothing ever changes.
However, there’s always something more to learn. And every
time we learn, we have to adjust our foundation, or add to it.
Consider your house. If you decide to increase your
square footage, you also have to add to your foundation, thus changing it. It wasn’t wrong before, it just wasn’t
adequate for growth. And sometimes, when
we get into building improvement, we find flaws even in the foundation that
have to be fixed. It’s just part of the
job.
This is true in matters of faith and spiritual insight.
As we grow, we have to go back and adjust our original beliefs. And that’s
okay.
We could shut everything down and cut off any new
teaching and decay like an old empty house, and we all know of whole churches
where that happens.
But the will of God continues on today and tomorrow,
raising the dead and living new life. The question remains do we want to claim
that new life, rather than die the old one?
I appreciate this message, Pastor.
ReplyDeleteThings either change or perish, it seems, and what does that mean for our faith and our relationship with God?
I really think this approach to our spiritual growth speaks to the type of people that we are in the 21st century. We, as a society, rethink many of the things that were once considered staples in ones life. It is a comfort to know that Jesus spoke of a faith that could weather storms of the spirit, and emerge perhaps a looking a little different, but with all the same fundamental pieces.
I will be hanging on to that image of the foundation at work, knowing that working on it makes it ultimately stronger.
Debbie
Debbie, I think you're right that our 21st century society requires an examination of the established doctrines. This is a good thing as long we continue the pursuit of truth.
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