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Writing Your Faith.

It's Thanksgiving week. We don't have class here at Wesley Theological Seminary. Grad school can be a bit generous about giving break time.

One of the things I am supposed to be working on is a 15 page credo paper. A credo paper is all about putting down your beliefs on paper, as you know them right now. Ideally, I take an old creed from the church - like the Apostles Creed - and piece by piece, reveal how I stand with or against the beliefs contained within.

As a Disciple, this is the most awkward task I've ever undertaken.

When I look back at old church heresies, my Disciple sense says - hey, why couldn't they just get along with these differences? I prefer faith communities where multiple viewpoints can be expressed. However, I had a campus minister once tell me that allowing people to print the bible was probably a costly blow (in the long term) for Christians. Uneducated people could read the Bible... and read into it what they wanted. Clergy had no authority any more because of it - sure, they've gone to seminary, but my KJV Bible says...

This reminds me of another story. We had a guest preacher/lecturer for an adult class during VBS. The focus was on the Old Testament, and the preacher, a self-professing Jew for Jesus, did have an interesting grasp on the culture of the Old Testament. He explained many references that we often gloss over, but then, as the week drew to a close, he came out with his grand lecture --- how he and his buddy figured out when the world was going to end. As soon as those words left his mouth, his credibility shrank to nothing. He joins the long list of other faithful Christians who thought they had this whole bible thing figured out.

Ultimately, that is what I like about faith - at the core of it all, there is always a sense of mystery. There is always more to learn. We believe in a God who, though being beyond comprehension, took initiative to reveal him/herself to the world.

Now, I just have to figure out how to keep that sense of mystery at work throughout my own credo paper.