Inspired by 1 John 1:1-2:2
“We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life.” 1 John 1:1
Christians are often accused by nonbelievers as having ‘blind faith in silly superstitions.’ Those who make such statements are asserting that we’ve simply heard a story someone made up a long time ago and unquestioningly accept it as truth and fact.
But mature faith is not blind. Mature faith looks for evidence of the truth of God’s story in one’s own life and environment. A question that is asked so often in seminary and clergy circles that it’s become almost a cliché is, “Where is God in this situation?”
The Christian story was first told by those who had witnessed it firsthand. The disciples saw the risen Christ with their own eyes. They heard him speak, observed him respond to them and answer their questions. They touched him with their own hands. And they told others not only what they’d heard, but what they’d experienced. As time wore on and the story continued to spread, the way people experienced God in Christ changed, but they still experienced him not only through stories they’d heard, but in things that they’d seen and touched, and in the way that they’d been touched themselves.
Even today, believing Christians can still describe some personal event in their lives that demonstrated the truth of the story they’d heard that’s been making the rounds for a couple of millennia. Our experience allows us to continue to tell that story, enabling those around us and those who will come after us to measure their own experiences against that timeless story, and know that it is indeed the word of life.
Let us pray. Living God, you are the One who was, who is, and who will be. Open our hearts, our minds, and our senses to your presence, that we may experience your truth in our lives. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.
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