Is faith a construct of community?

Does it not get affirmed and encouraged by the leadership of the board or corrected and disciplined by the elders if in error?

What if all you’ve seen is abuse of power from a crying wife of a leader in the faith to Scriptural misinterpretations for personal gain? Entire seminaries that dance to the liberal tune of the government to gain financial favor, meanwhile training up students to lead churches that thankfully don’t exist or if they do they are far from home?

What room is there for someone who sees the holes? The only stories that ring with a flare of familiarity belong to the prophets of old. They stood in a place between God and man, such a terrifying place, but what if it’s the only place that feels like home, the only place that is trustable and reliable? Authority becomes an excuse for selfishness and is merely something to avoid.

I think of the story of the Protestant faith, the whole reason for its existence is because of abuse of power. If the Catholic church had been more humble in its use, I wonder… Instead, they pointed to themselves and declared immunity to all wrongs by their divine right. People won’t stand for it; it was always only a matter of time. Churches still split and wives are still oppressed over the same issues.

The victims turn on themselves because of fear with the knowledge that majority wins, majority has all the stuff after all. There is no solid ground here which verifies its falseness to the oppressors. The weak betray what they desperately needed, what they could have known, but the isolation terrifies them. All of their stuff becomes held in hostage till they capitulate.

What is there for those who feel at home with Him but far from the machine? Do we create a place for ourselves out on the rocks far from civilization? What of the hope for more for the children? So many have made it through ok, maybe they’ll be fine. We train them up to withstand that which we couldn’t. Maybe if I had grown up with ‘greener grass’, but you are lying to yourself. Turns out the grass is an illusion, a poison if God is who you seek.

There is an understanding of faith, of church, of God’s Will that constricts life by those who would use it. Does the statement, “People discover their own faith” carry any accuracy, any truth at all? Is faith not determined by the majority? Can one really wash their hands of their own creations? God have mercy on us all. What if the faith they discover leaves them without house and home, and is far from doctrinal integrity? Who determines the definition?

Some have found a place. Some can not shut their mouths because they search and seek for that which is the cause of their discontent. In the end, God will use people like Martin Luther who will break the machine because they caught a glimpse of Him and found it is far from where and what they were told.

If only people could see that God is here and God is now. The Bible gives definitions that help to reprove and correct, but when that source becomes polluted with politics, again God help us. Whether it be Latin or interpretation by tradition and doctrine or use of supposedly neutral tools like literary criticisms, we will find having a relationship with a living God is a bit more uncontainable than that.

He lives and moves beyond us and within us, terrifyingly close and mind-blowingly far. It is more fun to follow St. Ephrem the Syrian when it comes to describing Him. “The Great One who became small” is a fitting description. “The far One who became near” brings Jeremiah 23:23-24 and Psalm 8 within reach. The omniscience and omnipresence of God fulfilled in intimacy are beyond our abilities to comprehend no matter what words we create to describe it. He defies the ways that surround us, ways we have known since birth.

Looking to Him gives life, even thinking about Him provides breath, a breath that breathes deeper and more completely than the ways of man. Beyond the stars and beneath the blades of grass, He is.

How do we respond? How can we ever hope to measure up? We always strive to earn and achieve, but what hope is there for us to One who has time and space in His hands? It is easier for some to embrace the madness of fools and deny His existence, or to say because of the machine that no one can know anything for sure.

But Jesus came so that we would know one thing for sure: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16. Maybe it would help us to realize all our theology is an umbrella made of tissue paper and we are in the midst of the downpour of His love.