Having faith in God doesn’t magically make the world a better place. Having God’s faith in humanity does.
The greater mystery is God’s faith in humanity, not humanity’s faith in God.
I would like to offer to guide you into a prayerful encounter with God’s faithfulness to your humanity after making a few introductory remarks about this compelling thought.
As I was driving off the other day, one of our neighbors ran up to my car to tell me something. I rolled the window down to hear her say that because of a small thing Sheila and I had done for her that we had restored her “faith in humanity.”
I said, “You’re welcome,” drove off, and have been pondering that ever since.
Having faith in God doesn’t magically make the world a better place. Having God’s faith in humanity does.
God is a devout humanist as evidenced by His creation of mankind in His image, the Incarnation, the Resurrection of Christ, and the Church.
In His Image
What remains the greater astounding truth is not the sad fact that in Adam we idolatrously create God in our image, but the glorious fact that God has created you and me in His image.
C.S. Lewis called this fact, “The Weight of Glory.” On June 8, 1942, in a sermon by that title, Lewis said, “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.”
The Incarnation
Adam and Eve chose to become “like God” on their own terms, resulting in the corruption of God’s image in them and all their descendants. But immediately (see Genesis 3:15), God determined to restore His image in mankind through the Incarnation.
As Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria said nearly 1,700 years ago, God in Christ became “incarnate” that we might be “ingodded.”
The Resurrection
While Jesus is the Savior of all in His Incarnation, He is especially the Savior of those who believe in His death and resurrection.
The Resurrection supremely demonstrates God’s faith in humanity. This faithfulness of God extends to the depths of Hades. The Paschal Matins of the Orthodox Church proclaims, “To earth hast thou come down, O Master, to save Adam: and not finding him on earth, Thou hast descended into Hades, seeking him there.”
The Church
The Lord’s faith in humanity builds the Church, not humanity’s faith in God.
Scripture paints a picture of “secret counsel” as a divine-human conversation where God asks the questions of us instead of us of Him. He then listens. God listening to us answer His questions is a most mysterious expression of His faith in humanity. It causes you to wonder.
In a “secret counsel” gathering with His disciples, as told in Matthew 16, Jesus asked them a question and then listened for their answer. He asked, “But who do you say that I am?” (v. 15). On behalf of himself, the disciples, and all humanity, Peter gave more than just a technically correct answer. Jesus discerned that Peter did not speak what “flesh and blood” had revealed, but according to our “Father who is in heaven” (v. 17). For this reason, Jesus called human, fallible, finite Peter the “rock” upon which He would build His Church (v. 18).
Peter is every person. It was Peter, after all, in his first epistle, who calls us all living stones (1 Pet. 2:5).
Secret Counsel
Though evil has warped God’s image in us, God's commitment to restore your humanity and mine remains. God’s commitment takes the form of the Incarnation, the Resurrection, and the Church, each a spiritually physical and bodily reality, like ourselves.
Spirituality that is bodily physical is authentic, genuine and transformational. So, I invite you to pray with me in a form of prayer without words. Praying without words, at least in my experience, has been transformational in teaching me to cultivate a deep awareness of the initiative of God who comes to us as Word made flesh. He comes like light into the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome this light.
First, get into a quiet place and plan to be there for at least 20 minutes. We’re going on a journey through a valley, the Valley of the Shadow of Death. The path of return to the house of the Lord passes through this valley. Therefore, we must go through it, not around it. The Lord will be with us, and we will fear no evil.
Imagine a dark time, even the darkest time in your life. It could be a season, a moment, or a situation in which you experienced the full weight of evil and death crushing you, immobilizing you, cutting you off from hope and light. Step into that place, this prison of darkness and death, and wait for a moment.
Now see the Lord shining like the sun approaching you. He’s looking at you. Look at Him. He comes and stands next to you, puts his arm around you and invites you to lift your eyes and see into the distance. You see the family lines of your mother and your father branching out from you, going back in time. You see generation after generation of the human family from which you’ve come. The Lord says, “Now watch this!” Pulsing waves of light wash backward through the generations, healing brokenness, casting out demons, forgiving sins, and slamming shut portals of darkness.
The backward movement of the pulsing light slows, then reverses and starts rushing toward you. The light forms a mighty river that passes through you. The Lord takes your hand and turns you around from the past to the future. As this stream of light passes through you, it washes over the people in your life today, including friends and family, even your enemies. As you look to the horizon, you see waves of light washing over generations yet unborn––generations directly connected with you by blood and the covenant.
This past, present and future restoration of the humanity that forms you and that you are in continuity with is the reality of the Incarnation, the Resurrection, and the Church made manifest. The Lord transforms the darkness of generational curses into a light-river of generational blessings. Deposited into your family lineages is the treasure of the ages. This treasure is the inheritance that evil sought to steal, kill and destroy, but which the Lord restores to you. This legacy is alive and flowing to you and through you like a river.
To adapt a saying attributed to St. Francis, "Pray at all times and if necessary use words." I commend this way of prayer to you and encourage you to make it a lifestyle practice.
Concluding thoughts
I write this during the Second Week of Pascha (Easter) in which the Gospel reading for Sunday is from John 20 and includes the account of Thomas. Thumbs up to Thomas. I love Thomas. He insisted he wouldn’t believe unless he touched Jesus' bodily resurrected physical humanity. Our day sorely needs more of this sort of spirituality. I need more of it.
It’s not your faith or my faith in God, but His in us that is at the heart of all authentic secret counsel encounters with the Living God. We are His idea, not our own.
“His faithfulness, not ours, has saved us…” (Gal. 2:16, The Passion Translation).
Grace to you.
Boyd+
Second Week of Pascha (Easter), 2015
Boyd writes a new Secret Counsel blog every couple weeks. Click here to see the whole collection.