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08/29/2002 Entry: "Feelings..."

"How do I know that I'm saved?"

It was an anguished question. A woman with little self-worth who'd been struggling to find meaning, purpose and contentment. She needed to know that she meant something. She longed for faith but no matter how much she prayed, how many pages of the Bible she read, how many church services she attended she just couldn't find any certainty. And she didn't expect it to be that way. What she wanted - what she'd been led to expect - was to "feel better" (her words), and it hadn't happened. "How do I know that I'm saved?" she asked me. The only answer I could give was "Because the Bible says so", but it wasn't enough for her. Somewhere along the line we began to accept that Christian faith is a branch of therapy, the purpose of which is to make people feel better about themselves. Following Jesus, it is sometimes claimed, is a panacea for all ills, whether they be spiritual, emotional or even physical. Faith is "sold" on the basis of the benefits to the individual. Some of those benefits are long-term to be sure, but what's important is what faith will do "for you". Because of this, many Christians are given to periods of intense introspection, even self-absorption. I've been there myself.I wouldn't want to say that faith never brings benefit to the individual, still less that there's no place for emotion in the Christian faith. If the Incarnation - "God amongst us" - means anything, it is surely that there is no aspect of our life with which God is not engaged. But to expect faith to mean a permanent sense of well-being and certainty is to ignore the evidence of scripture and the experience of Christians through the generations. Being a Christian has never meant any such thing.The deeper issue here is whether an emphasis on individual benefit distorts the content of the Christian gospel. Next Sunday the gospel reading is Matthew 16: 21ff, in which Jesus warns his followers that to be his disciple means to take up a cross. This is hardly a therapeutic image! In fact, it's remarkable to me given the way the church operates today that Jesus doesn't appear to have done any "selling" at all. More often than not we find Jesus trying to put people off. "Take up a cross", "sell all you have", "count the cost" are not the most obvious advertising slogans. A hymnwriter put it this way:

Believe not those who sayThe upward path is smooth

Posted by Bene Diction @ 08/29/2002 10:45 PM CST