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Theology doesn’t have to be dry and obscure PDF  | Print |  E-mail

The Rev. Steven Metcalfe     Calvary Church, Williamsville

Two important feast days in the life of the church occur in May. Pentecost comes on May 11 and Trinity Sunday rolls in the Sunday after. While these don’t enjoy the popularity of Easter or Christmas, they both point to singular aspects of our life of faith as Christians.

At Pentecost we celebrate the driving, creative force of the Church, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into the community of the baptized. And Trinity Sunday turns our attention to the mysterious Being of God which surpasses everything we can know or say about God. And yet we have to say something about the source of all that is and we can know the power of the Spirit even if who or what Holy Spirit might be is beyond us. God reveals his own nature to us as completely as we are able to grasp and our worship of God depends upon our accepting the limits of understanding without denial or resentment.


Pentecost and Trinity demand us to be theological; theology has been described as “faith seeking understanding”. There’s noting wrong with reflecting on our experience with informed minds and coming up with our own personal faith statement. Mine could be this:

I accept on faith that God is personal, that the power that made everything intends to create life, that there is purpose behind the cosmos and that I am a personally known and loved being in this cosmos. There is some-one behind it all. Therefore, I love God by how I choose to live and interact with all Others and God loves me by continually opening life up ahead of me with opportunity, resources and power. I might go on to say that I love God also by how I live with myself, by how ready I am to seek the truth about myself, and by responding to what I learn.

I suppose in a way this is a very simple creed, one which comes from personal investigation and soul searching. What’s helpful about such creeds is that they express a unique foundation which a person can stand on and grow from. Plus, the words have personal meaning which is understood, not just in the mind, but in the heart. It’s sort of like title of the novel by Wally Lamb: I Know This Much is True.

Theology doesn’t have to be dry and obscure; it can be simple, straightforward and personally rewarding for the person on a faith journey. Give it a try this May. Treat yourself to the satisfaction of staking out a direct and concrete claim on your personal faith. I recommend it as a good way to participate in this upcoming theological season.
Last Updated ( Monday, May 05, 2008 )
 
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