Got Faith?
(An excerpt from my unpublished memoir “Out of Your Mind — Into Your Heart”)
My religion has evolved from tribal dogma or beliefs to a faith of my own.
As a former Evangelical Christian with extensive theological training I was once very certain about a set of fixed theological ideas. I preached, taught, and lived them. My definition of god was more or less static and watertight. There was not a cloud of doubt in my sky.
My beliefs were captured in certain fixed propositions like the Bible (God’s revealed and inerrant word), Jesus (The man who was also god who rose physically from the dead), and the born again experience (the ticket to a place called heaven).
And I could quite easily quibble about how many angels could be fitted on the point of a pin.
Those were humanly devised dogmas. They were God in the image of man (Yes, in dogma world God was a man). It is here that
Belief is where religion starts getting us in trouble.
Here my way becomes the right way becomes the only way. With exclusive beliefs we forget that our mental and cultural filters are like clouds that obscure the sun and the blue sky. We have the illusion of certainty and the penchant to control. But we miss the bus.
Belief robs us of direct experience.
I identify with former Episcopal parish priest Barbara Brown Taylor who writes in “Leaving Church”
“I wanted out of the belief business and back into the beholding business. I wanted to recover from the kind of faith that has nothing to do with being sure of what I believe and everything to do with trusting God to catch me through I’m not sure of anything”.
Today I’m like a kid with his nose glued to the window. Here I wistfully dream of knowing Presence directly through a theology of the heart.
Let me hasten to add that my use of heart does not imply an emotion-based religion. My feelings can be just as biased and stormy as my thinking.
Seeing with the eye of the heart (the third eye in some religious traditions) speaks to a perception of the ‘other’ world through an inner operating system. This true self or consciousness (as distinguished from the little me ego) integrates all of me (body, soul, and mind). It alludes to the deeply embedded Imago Dei that survives life in the body.
Faith
Everyone is capable of faith. That is, if one defines it from the perspective of the Hindi term Sraddha. Translated it means to
“set one’s heart on”
We usually identify faith by knowing the affections of our heart. The focus can be something ineffable outside of our skin. It is also something at the core of our being. If that is not the God gene then it comes close as a helpful metaphor.
Today I set my heart on Presence. This is what Rabbi Rachel Timoner names as the,
One unifying presence that connects all life
It is found within all peoples and all religions. Christianity does not have the corner of the market on that divine spark. Everyone has this capacity.
It is Presence that graciously seeks me out, prompts me from within, reaches from way beyond, and draws me into oneness with all. It is the source of all love.
Faith is our capacity to perceive divine purpose and beauty. It directs us towards our true destiny, authentic living, and in the end, our connection with the Presence.
A life of faith is more fully realized on the margins of life. Here the poor and outcast find their home Here we are called to serve. These are the ones Jesus named as his people.
Today as I schlep my way home my ultimate affirmation at the Pearly Gates will be, “Well done good and faithful servant”.