So when I was in seminary, I think it was my second year, separate from the oral exams, I had to prepare my Credo. That was simple and straightforward right, it was a final assignment for one of my courses (maybe for final year actually), and I basically had to deconstruct my faith and explain it like a recipe.
(Okay, maybe not a real recipe. But it felt like I was putting a recipe together. My Pebbles-daughter would tell y’all that even when following a recipe, I somehow managed to get off the grid before reaching to the final product). Essentially I had to figure out what I knew and understood about the faith I confessed and professed and figure out why I believed what I believed.
Nowhere as easy as it sounds! I was being asked to sift through all the stuff and the fluff, and even some of what I held dear, to figure what was My Truth. Then I had to share it in public (actually with my professor, but it felt like the entire world at that time), for a grade. I was glad when all that was over. And since then, I’ve reconstructed my faith for different reasons twice since then.
I don’t know that that was Paul’s aim in today’s Holy Nougat, but it sure begs us to pause and consider what we actually believe, doesn’t it?
“For if you confess with your mouth that Yeshua is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 TLV
I like the fact that he uses the heart as the centre of the believing facility. In a literal sense, the heart is the transport center for our Circulatory System. It’s the St Pancreas international, Grand Central Station, Parade or Half Way Tree Terminus, Port of Spain Terminus or probably even the Hartfield Jackson international airport of our bodies. For, it takes in one type of blood one way and distributes it another way through all those valves, veins and capillaries.
But it is also considered as the ‘feeling’ storehouse. In ancient times, it was viewed as the epicenter of spiritual and emotional activity. What it certainly says to me therefore is that while faith requires understanding (and perhaps rolling back ALL the fluff and junk and even some traditions), it is also about that inexplicable willingness to take God at God’s word, even when we cannot make head or tail of God’s ways. And for us born after Christ’s ascension, we are asked to first accept that Jesus existed, Then we must believe that Jesus, Who walked on this earth as human HAS actually been raised from death by God, while being God himself!
It’s the Ultimate Houdini – Jesus didn’t just escape a sealed box; He overcame Death! We must believe that Jesus died, was sealed in a tomb, stayed dead for Three Days and Rose Himself from death! With NO help, because if Jesus Christ is Lord, then He is God and God rose Jesus from death! That’s what is so stupendous about the One we believe and follow!
So here’s the thing – if we can wrap our hearts around that, could we get our powerhouse, our Transportation Centre to wrap itself around the idea that being with us is a No-Brainer for Jesus?
And that He Who conquered death can certainly manage Covid-19?
And that He Who loves us More than life itself (He did die and conquer death Just so You and I could come to this conclusion today!!!), is concerned about us and our well-being right now?
Let’s allow that to soak for a minute.
Having confessed, it’s time to trust in He Who can only be seen with eyes of Faith.
