True and Rational Words ...

Tuesday, Feb 9, 2016. How do we understand this world? In what way is our rationality able to help us to see and to draw the right conclusions? This is a topic again and again, when you discuss faith between believers and non-believers, between Christians and atheists. I have grown up with these questions from an early age - reading books about faith and physics with about 13 or 14 years already, and then continuing to explore what faith is about and what its truth is!

Suffering Servant …

It can be an important step to see that faith is very rational. It does not mean that we come to faith automatically. Our reason is not the only thing which guides our thoughts and our life! But Christian apologetics have claimed ever since the first apostles, that the believe we have in Christ Jesus is the most reasonable approach to life you can have!

When I look back into my own faith life, I have to admit that reasoning has always been very important to me, but that the main steps forward came from experience, not pure reason. I had to get to know my own limitations. I had to search for life, for God, for insight. And I had to fail. There, where I fully realized my failure, I was open and ready to see and understand what is called “the mercy of God”.

I had to realize that the search for a solid and sustainable faith can be quite some struggle. With this insight, I read passages such as the following discussion from Acts, where the apostle Paul is in the middle of it:

Christ must suffer …

22 To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass: 23 that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.” 24 And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind.” 25 But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words. 26 For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner. 27 King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.” 28 And Agrippa said to Paul, “In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?” 29 And Paul said, “Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am—except for these chains.” (Acts 26, 22-29)

Paul is claiming to stand in the line of the prophets starting with Moses and his books. He claims that the suffering of Jesus was necessary and important, that he rose from the dead, and that the message about him is light and salvation. The suffering servant is in the center of the Christian message, it is the image of God coming to us, of God helping us. True reason needs to look deep into the human soul, into the reality beyond our scientific laws and rules.

Our role today is not much different from the role of the apostle Paul. As Christians, we stand in this line of prophets. We proclaim the gospel of Christ, our love and our master, our savior and helper. We do not come with a new message, but with the old message of the mercy of God in Christ, with the invitation to become and be human, fully human - with all our reason, our mind and our soul; in full faith and fully filled by the holy spirit. (RWEP) ... more texts