In my part time job in chaplaincy, I’m often greeted by the same verbal reflex as I walk up to people on a ward or the emergency department with my newly acquired dog-collar on. ‘I’m not religious….’ they say. I often respond, ‘That’s good, neither am I!”
As I reflect over my journey with God over the years, I’m aware of how much my view of him has changed. When you take a long trip with someone, you learn a lot about them on the way and a lot of assumptions get challenged. I think the same thing should happen with our relationship with God.
In his book ‘Seriously Funny’, Adrian Plass writes about an encounter with a Christian speaker and evangelist who feared that they’d lost their faith in God! Afterwards he reflected on the encounter and came to the conclusion that this man had not lost his faith. He had lost everything wrong about his faith and his image of God.
“…He had lost his faith in the god who stands behind our shoulders like a divine Jeeves, waiting to attend to any little needs or deficiencies in our lives, and is often dismissed when something goes drastically, terribly wrong or he fails to come up with the goods. …the tired, tedious, diluted western god who saves parking spaces for Mrs. Blenkinsop from Abundant Living Church of Final Revelation when she does her shopping, but can’t save a starving child from dying on the streets of a Bangladesh slum.”‘Seriously Funny’, Adrian Plass
Many people who have decided not to follow Jesus have often done so because of equally bizarre assumptions about who God is.
Tragically, others have started that journey but have gotten out of the car because they weren’t willing to have those assumptions challenged or get to know their fellow passenger if it didn’t fit with their own opinions.
I’m so grateful for the example of people like Peter, who regularly assumed he knew what Jesus should do and why he should do it. Having got it so right in declaring Jesus was the Messiah (Mark 8:29) he immediately gets it spectacularly wrong in assuming what that means.
‘But Peter grabbed him in protest. Turning and seeing his disciples wavering, wondering what to believe, Jesus confronted Peter. “Peter, get out of my way! Satan, get lost! You have no idea how God works.”Mark 8:32 Message Translation
It wasn’t the first or last time that Peter’s assumptions were challenged (see Matt 26:35) (Acts 10:9-16). But Peter had an innate humility that enabled his understanding of Jesus to grow as he journeyed with him.
As we continue to journey with God through a global pandemic with the UK registering the second highest death toll in Europe, so many uncomfortable questions are raised about our faith. Many of our assumptions and easy answers are getting challenged. My prayer for all of us is that, like Peter, we stay in the car; keep learning about our fellow passenger and exit at the end with a deeper understanding and relationship than we did at the start of the journey.
– Phil.
