“Belonging, behaving, believing” again
Guest Writer: Steve Petkoff
“Instead of believing, behaving, and belonging, we need to reverse the order to belonging, behaving, and believing. Jesus did not begin with questions of belief. Jesus’ public ministry started when he formed a community.”—Diana Butler Bass in Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening (HarperOne 2011), pp. 11-64.
Copy of the original “Christ Pantocrator” icon from the 6th century at Saint Catherine Monastery in Mount Sinai, Egypt, resides in the Chapel of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. Artist Milen Bonev.
“No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and the Father. And this is what he promised us - eternal life.”—1 John 2:23-25 (NRSV
THE APOSTLES' CREED
“I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ,
God's only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day, he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.” Book of Common Prayer, p. 96.
This is not a prayer that you can just let flow off your lips and believe every word you just said. How many people do you know were born only by the power of the Holy Spirit to a virgin? And who do you know that was brutally murdered and then rose from the dead and ascended into heaven? For me, this prayer says everything about everything, but it does not depict common sense everyday occurrences, or for that matter, any common occurrences.
I learned this prayer at a very early age and have said it many times over the years. For most of my life, I was just reading or repeating words. Growing older, I started paying attention to my professing and became skeptical. The words are powerful, and I found myself in doubt, questioning the natural world and sometimes my religion.
The more I have said this prayer and concentrated on the words, the more I have realized it is a journey. I have learned that I have had to go outside of just the words and beliefs they professed for me to believe and understand honestly. This journey has required reading, studying, accepting, loving others, more prayer, and most of all, surrender.
Once I surrendered to the presence of God, the words lit up like a neon sign. How could I have not seen all God's glory before? I'm no longer a doubting Thomas, but now a happy Jesus follower waving the white flag of spiritual surrender.
Steve Petkoff