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Photo: © Springs Dance Company
The
Encounter
of
Faith
- in the experience
of
relationship
Faith/trust, as part of our own self confidence was the topic of our first article of this series on faith. Then, last time, exploring out beyond our own boundaries into poetry, painting and music, we could see that it was not entirely without substance to say that we can trust that there is some ultimate meaning in life.
This time we come to experience of Jesus, the risen Lord which can only be received through our human trust and faith. But you may wonder why the picture is of two dancers! Dance is often most spectacular when there is a partnership on stage. You have to have an experiential trust of your partner to be able to go ahead and dance, not only securely but also with vision, living for the precise moments of a performance, fearlessly. Human trust and a vision of the ultimate meaning of life coalesce in the person of Jesus, the risen and transcendent Lord. Relationship with him, the living, present Lord, is not automatic. It is somewhat like a dance partnership requiring a growth into trust and understanding which, for the Christian, despite all the odds of a relationship which is entirely based on faith, becomes a relationship of love and often held to in very courageous and fearless living.
It is obvious, but we cannot go out to find some experience of Jesus - or of God! We may have some 'picture' of Jesus - expressing, as has been said, 'the human face of God'. But however we may have fleshed this 'picture' out in our minds from the New Testament writings, it will always be different from the reality of any experience we may have of him. The friendship that we have with other people or the experience a married couple have of each other in relationship, can only give us a partial glimpse of what to expect in relationship with Jesus, son of Man and son of God.
What will probably sound most shocking to friends who might enquire how we know Jesus, the Lord, is the fact that he comes to us! Of course the reason for this is that first of all we accept that Jesus was transformed out of death in the new creation of the Father's kingdom initiated by Jesus in his life. So he has always been one step ahead of everyone! It is at this point that our non believing friends can go no further with us - an experience which Jesus had many times, according to the New Testament accounts. But the risen Lord will come to anyone, not just to the 'faithful'. So how is he encountered?
He comes incognito. From the very beginning, the transcendent Jesus appeared very often to his friends, incognito, they didn't recognize him at first. The nascent church was born from these experiential relationships of the disciples with Jesus. There were various responses - Rabboni! - my Lord and my God! Paul, struck down on the Damascus road cried out, 'Who are you lord?' From the outset, the early Christian communities had the extraordinary benefit of knowing the presence of Jesus with them. As the years passed and the early witnesses to Jesus died the personal relationships born of experience were subsumed under the secondary relationships which we know as sacraments. It was inevitable. But it remains that personal, experiential relationship with the Lord underlies all Christian discipleship and worship and prayer.
Our inner ability to trust and to have faith in all sorts of circumstances remains the possibility of a positive response to Jesus when we become aware of his presence. But like all relationships it requires time to understand, to think it all out and to be aware of what it means to us. It is a process which can be life-long. After the first astonishment the initial encounter recedes and we are perhaps even unable to reconstruct the 'event' - which simply means that this friendship has become a normal part of life without which we could lose our bearings. It is not an emotional experience, but the wonder of it remains. Having said that, on remembering how we came by this road of faith in responding to Jesus, it has never been unlikely that tears of joy sometimes overwhelm them!
This thinking out process of what the relationship between ourselves and the risen Jesus means, has resulted inevitably in the church providing ways in which Jesus appears to have 'stand ins'. These are the inevitable processes of institutional Christianity becoming part of societies far away from its original Middle Eastern origins. But while accepting the need for this rooting of Christian faith in ways that can be at least partially understood, there is always the call to each individual to whom Jesus makes himself known to go more radically down into the roots of his own being to respond with one's whole self. Going back to my opening remarks - life is a dance. I must learn to trust and to grow into sync with him who offers at his coming the promise of a love that never fails. A relationship not only with him but in him with all whom I will ever meet here and now.
Next time we will attempt to see how this experience of meeting the Lord and becoming friends and disciples of him, is naturally expressed in the worship of Eucharist - that thanksgiving to the Father which links us with the earliest commitments of the disciples of Jesus.
Copyright © Aelred Arnesen
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