statement of faith

I am almost ready for ordination in the PC(USA). Here's what I believe, in a nut shell. It is constantly in flux, though. My basis for faith will never change, but how I view aspects of it may. I'm not perfect, nor is my faith and understanding. Only Jesus is. And as the perfecter of our faith, through him and the Holy Spirit, may we be more and more full of him. But, of course, not in a I'm-better-than-you-are kind of way...

I believe God is three-in-one: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is unified; God is one. God has specifically and sufficiently revealed God’s self in the Old and New Testaments. These Scriptures bear witness to God’s truth in the life and person of Jesus the Messiah, as do the confessions and beliefs of our ancestors in the faith. Jesus Christ, the self-revealing Word of God, is still breaking into our world through the Holy Spirit and his Church, with Scripture and tradition in accord.

I believe in God the Father. God is the creator, ruler, and sustainer of all, even me. God’s love is all around; I am created, as well as all of humanity, in God’s image. In God there is wholeness, completeness. However, there is a deep ugliness inside me, humanity and creation. This ugliness is sin. Sin does not rightly acknowledge God’s sovereignty; sin warps and misconstrues God’s good and wonderful creation. Yet, like the woman who searches after lost treasure and finds it, God comes after us. God is the heavenly parent who providentially leads us beside still waters, who renews and guides us in righteousness for God’s namesake. God is greater than everything in and beyond the earth; God is too great for words. And yet, God can be known!

I believe in God the Son. Jesus the Christ, sent by God the Father, is one of us and also holy other than us. Through God’s gracious initiative, baptism, in Jesus I have new life. His life becomes my life. The waters at baptism represent Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan in which God said, “This is my son, in whom I am well pleased.” In baptism that same voice proclaims that I am God’s child, that God is well pleased. Through Jesus’ death on the cross I also die. Yet through his resurrection I am raised to new life and await that new life. Jesus saves – from the sin that is mine and ours. Through his love – through himself – I am reconciled to God. I am brought back from all that keeps me from God and others. Through the Lord’s Supper, God’s covenantal meal, I am reminded of his death and resurrection for you, me and the world. When I eat and drink the bread and cup I experience his forgiveness and the grace he attained for me on the cross. At the table of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, we are nourished and have a foretaste of what is to come. Because he is alive I have hope – we have hope – that one day we will be resurrected from the dead. We will finally be completely freed from the sin that so easily entangles and reconciled to each other. All of creation will be as it is meant to be. I pray for his return to finally bring everything to complete fruition through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I believe in God the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is in all and through all. The Spirit is everywhere and meets us in the darkest places. The Spirit prays for us. In prayer the Spirit enables us to know God’s word. The Spirit empowers us to do the things that Jesus did; the Spirit helps us be Christ-like. The Spirit enables us to honor God, to do what is required: to be just, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God—to follow the law of Christ. This law reveals our shortcomings and shows us how to live gratefully. The Spirit gives God’s gifts to God’s people, the Church, to further God’s reign in this needy world. Jesus is the head of the Church, the body of Christ, and the Holy Spirit leads the Church in its mission: to do the will of God. The Holy Spirit leads us – and through humbleness and God’s enabling – keeps us in step with the Spirit, to experience God’s reign now. I desire for all to be led by God’s Spirit into God’s abundant life and freedom.