“Pray like this: ‘Our Father, who is in heaven,’”
Matthew 6:9 (Common
English Bible)
The decline of
mainline, Protestant Christianity in America is well documented and reported.
Fewer people claim identity as Christians today and fewer numbers occupy seats
in worship services on Sunday morning. What seems to be increasing is a notion
that no religion is supreme or unique and that each one possess much truth.
Tolerance has replaced the missional impulse of the church. While no authentic
reading of the Bible supports “intolerance” toward other forms of spirituality
or faith traditions, it does advance vigorously the distinctive claims of the
Christian faith. Perhaps a renewal of the missional vigor of the church requires
a recovery of those claims.
The first of
those claims is captured in the first words of The Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father,
who is heaven.” Those words capture the truth that God is both otherworldly and
is knowable, understandable, and lovable. There is a mystery around the
periphery of the Christian faith but at its center is a God who seeks to know
us and to be known. The first two chapters of Genesis capture beautifully both
attributes of God: Chapter one speaks to the mystery of God – a God who by the
sheer authority of the spoken word creates and, chapter two, a God who draws
near enough to us as to fill man and woman’s nostrils with God’s very own
breath.
The second claim
of the Christian faith is that in the person of Jesus we see God; that in Jesus
we see what God is like. We may know God – though limited – by turning to the
person of Jesus Christ. In the life and death and victory over death of Jesus,
God is revealed not only in words but in a real person. In the person of Jesus
we witness a God who forgives those that sin, values those pushed to the
margins of society and seek the restoration of broken relationships. The
Christian faith is not about a formula. It is about a person that desires a
relationship with us.
Finally, the
Christian faith not only points the way to live, the faith gives witness to a
promise that God gives power to those who believe that enables us to live as
God desires. Moral insight has little value without moral power. The image that
comes to mind is that of a two person paddle-boat. Alone, our best efforts
results only in moving in circles. But with a second person paddling with us,
the paddle-boat moves steadily forward. God joins us in that paddle-boat, God’s
strength working alongside our strength, to move toward that life that
satisfies. It is that vital union with God that gives new life. And it is that
union that results in a growing love for Christ. A vigorous church will be one
that recovers again and again these distinctive claims of the Christian faith.
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