A Fresh Perspective - 04/04/08

Maggie Dawn, writing in "The Christian Century" tells about reading "The BFG" (The Big Friendly Giant), a children's fantasy story with her son. Little Sophie is kidnapped by a giant in the middle of the night and carried far away. She is terrified: "He is getting ready to eat me, she tells herself. He will probably eat me raw, just as I am. Or perhaps boil me first."

But as the story unfolds Sophie discovers that she has misunderstood and misinterpreted the Giant. Her fears fade and her beliefs about Giants change. What she thought she knew was altered by what she came to know. Dawn comments that we do not usually turn to children's fiction for theological truth, but "it's often the case that fresh insight on matters of faith comes to us from oblique places, as if God is sometimes able to penetrate our hearts and minds more easily from an indirect angle." She contends that our journey of faith "involves repeated corrections of misconceptions that we bring with us."

She's right. We draw these misconceptions from a variety of sources: from childhood experiences, what we learned in Sunday School and was preached in our churches, things we read or misread in Scriptures, conversations with family and friends, etc. As a result "God becomes in our experience, a mixture of truth and misconception."

If we are afraid to question what we have come to believe, then most likely, our experience of God will be rooted more in misconception than truth. I believe that a healthy, transformative faith is born and nurtured from living the questions, that is, from not being afraid to reflect critically on one's beliefs and make course corrections on one's faith journey.

I know this is difficult for many people. Perhaps in a world that is constantly changing, some cannot bear to admit that their faith could need changing too. It's the one thing that gives them some security in a world of insecurity.

And yet if our faith does not change, it likely will not grow. As I have opened my faith to be corrected I have discovered that I don't believe as many things as I once did. I believe far fewer things; but I believe them more deeply than ever. Faith, I believe, is something that must constantly be reworked, or it becomes stagnant and dead, or even worse, judgmental and militant.

Some persons hold on tenaciously to the doctrines they have been taught in their church or in their families of origin. That's well and good if all such beliefs are life enhancing, liberating, and healthy. But usually they are not. I know that some people will read what I'm saying as heresy; but I think it's mainly about "growing up," deciding not to remain a spiritual infant for the rest of one's life.

Chuck Queen is Pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church, Frankfort (CBF affiliated). You can access his sermons and past articles at www.ibcfrankfort.com. He welcomes your comments at cqueen@fewpb.net