Learning to be a Community of Faith
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to
an end; they
are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Lamentations
3:22-23
I. Required readings
Psalm 100
Hebrews 11:1-40; Hebrews 12:1-2
James 2:14-26
Christian Biography for the Day: Gladys Aylward
Robert Traer, “Faith (not Belief) is Saving”
Marcus J. Borg, “Faith: A Journey of Trust”
Chittister,
Chapter 12 (Stability: Revelation of the Many Faces of God), 147-59
Be sure to read the glossary entry on "stability" before you read this chapter
so that you understand something about the monastic vow of stability.
II. Quotation for the
day
"What enables a person to keep going back to the difficult parts of life is, inevitably, certitude in the faithfulness of God."
--Joan Chittister
III. Journal prompts
1. The Traer and Borg pieces likely offer a challenge to our notions of “faith.” What do you make of this challenge? In what ways does their understanding of faith—which they argue is a more biblical understanding of the notion—make more sense of the Christian life and the Christian story?
2. Chittister suggests that part of our problem
in contemporary culture may be that we're more concerned with comfort than with
depth. The monastic vow of stability is intended to be a hedge against running
away from one's problems, but instead offering one a context to go deep to
confront them. Chittister writes:
"It is
easy to be even-tempered in private. It is easy to be virtuous
alone. It is easy to be strong when untried. It is easy to win when
there is nothing to endure. It is also easy to be superficial and
self-centered and characterless. It is also easy to run from what I may
most need to confront in life if I am ever to be whole. Monastic
stability is concerned more with depth than with comfort."
Do Christians like us outside the monastery
make any vows or commitments that are similar to the monastic vow of stability?
How do these commitments or promises function in ways that are similar? In
short, how do these vows or promises help us nurture depth rather than
merely comfort?
3. Read back over the long paragraph on p.
156 that begins with the sentence: "What enables a person to keep going
back to the difficult parts of life is, inevitably, certitude in the
faithfulness of God." This paragraph suggests that what enables us
to keep our promises and commitments is not our own strength, but our hope in
"the gracious faithfulness of God." How might such a view of
promises and commitments
change the way you think about making and keeping them?
IV. Links of possible
interest
Sacrifice of Isaac A links page to a large number of artistic representations of this pivotal biblical story in Genesis 22.
Walter J. Ciszek, "Fear Not" One of the greatest threats to trust is fear. How do we trust God while in the grip of the fear of death?