Friday, January 8, 2021
Dee Raeside
Statement of Faith 2020
To paraphrase First Corinthians,
As a child I believed as a child, but as a grown up I put away childish things, and think as a grown-up. Now we see through a mirror darkly, I know in part, but then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. This is part of Paul’s letter to the people of Corinth in the first century and it speaks to me and to my beliefs today.
The passage is central to my understanding of God and to my call as a beloved child of God, a unique work of God’s hands, molded in divine love. It tells me that as a created, thinking being, I am not yet fully formed. It helps me to understand that NOT knowing all of the answers to my big questions Why am I here? What is the meaning of life? That it is more than fine, it fact it’s may be my destiny to not fully understand the nature of God. To continue to play and wrestle with that understanding throughout my lifetime is a mission in itself.
Ages of humankind have followed the allegorical lessons and teachings in our current Bible, and that Biblical content was fully manipulated by mankind to meet its purposes and not necessarily Gods.
I have a deep belief in the Abrahamic connections of our Christian faith and makes possible my belief that God accesses distinct continents and cultures through varying beliefs, not only Christianity but also Judaism, Buddhism, Muslim, Hindu and in the wisdom of countless indigenous teachings, perhaps not so fully constructed, who have come before us.
Our human diversity on earth
mirrors the natural animal and plant world and serves to challenge us constantly through our unique environments and cultural influences. We do not worship a homogenous God. In my understanding, God through Jesus is actually here to make us as uncomfortable as possible. Nothing grows without adversity, failure and rebirth.
Every human is created in the image of God and Jesus came to earth as the Light of the world and it is through his teaching and divine wisdom that we know that our lives are interdependent on one another. In fact, the trinity is a direct representation of that interdependence.
In the words of Jesus and through his modeled actions, healing, eating, talking with, associating with people considered the underbelly of society, normalizes our humanity and exalts our day to day life. The teachings of Christ convince me that love of neighbor and self is as essential, in fact is equally as transcendent as loving God. The shared light of every person on the earth is a gift to the other and a reflection of the goodness of God in the word.
To love God with all of your heart, your mind and your soul is to love the person next to you and to help them. It is the embrace of the other person, not the exclusion or rejection of another distinct from us, whether that is a family member or stranger, that creates our well-being and is essential for each beings thriving.
To see another in their own light and to witness individual understanding of their own belovedness is a gift of life.
As Frederick Buechner says: “Perhaps it takes us a lifetime to bridge the gap between the creator and the created.” It is our most urgent call and my ultimate goal.
Another influential thinker and Tibetan Buddhist whose teachings I follow is Pema Chödrön. She says and I believe wisely in her book of the same name,
“Things Falling Apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing.”
I see life as a great mystery.
We must pay attention and ask for God’s revelation to us in our lives. Our freedom of choice and action is then set in motion by a committed and benevolent God and our life is an active witness to our collective testing and healing.
After many moons of living, these are the only certainties on which I rely. Today is all we know. Love the people and listen well to those proximate to you.
Living each moment as if it is a gift is my only goal.
Finally, in death I hope our spirits abide in some form to experience a new, as yet unknown, realm of understanding.