Trust For Life

Historian, thinker, teacher, and theologian Albert Outler wrote that a definition of God is "that in which we put our ultimate trust for life." In the course of living as humans in this great universe at different points we come both to acknowledge and/or deny that there is something beyond our ability to grasp. Denial is a so-very-human reaction as it is our refusal to accept that we are not the captains of our own destiny. Denial is a relatively modern concept when considering that ancients who were considered "atheist" were given that designation not because they believed in "no god" but rather because they rejected the god that was traditionally designated by the thinking of their society.

The early philosophers mentioned above are vitally important to the development of our now post-modern thinking for these basic premises: 1) knowledge of god can be achieved 2) but only in part, and 3) what we know or experience or see of god is achieved through the things that are evident in creation. Certainly there is much more but these three form the beginning of ancient philosophy. Reaching such a conclusion entails also the "how" of knowing god. The premise of early philosophy was that god could be experienced through the process of thinking, contemplation, and the deepest of inquiries into the nature of things.

By focusing on Western development of religious concepts I don't want to give you the impression that there is not a great deal to be learned from Eastern patterns of thought. But sense the West is where most of my experience is located you'll have to forgive me for not knowing as much about these other great traditions. In the West the coming together of Greek/Roman thinking and Judaism continued along their path and gave birth to a new path with the coming of Christianity. This new path is sparked by the life and teachings of Jesus who called his contemporaries to loyalty, trust, and commitment of what he saw in the most ancient lessons of the Law of Moses. Jesus called his disciples to the new possibilities and phrased this idea as a new "kingdom" or a new realm in which God's desires would be fulfilled. His basis for life together was keeping the Law but taking it to even greater extremes. Jesus exhibited and called for greater trust in that which the people of Judaism already knew about God and how they were to live together.

At the basis of this was trusting in what they knew to do as told in the Law but going beyond the misrepresentations of Law given them by the ruling religious elite. He called for a new day where the community took responsibility for the poor and disenfranchised. Loving God was equated with loving neighbor, doing to others as you would have them do to you, and even to the extreme of loving your enemies. The Church which formed after his death began immediately to care for the least of their community. Jesus' commitment as reflected in his teachings was to have "faith" in the God identified by these principles and thereby live a life that reflected God's intentions in creation. By so doing we could live as God's people in the realm where God's desires and designs for life were carried out.

Jesus believed in and was committed to these principles and the God made visible by them. So when the Apostle Paul, who is the earliest of interpreter of Jesus, says that we are to have the "faith of Jesus" he includes that the ability to live as Jesus lived could come only by a transformation, a changing of our minds, and a refocusing that comes from an internal rearranging of priorities. "Let your whole being be transformed by the renewing of your minds," is how he expressed this in light of his own experience.

Having the 'faith' like that of Jesus is reinforced in Paul's letter when he quotes a hymn that has already preceded him in the church, "let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who humbled himself...." We are to be like Jesus with a faith that allows us to trust that in keeping God's design for our life together we will find life as it is intended and be reassured of God's presence with us.

Faith like that of Jesus is to put our ultimate trust for life in that which Jesus trusted. Get another cup and when I get back I want to ramble a bit about that word 'faith'.

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