parish council - Hockwold-cum-Wilton

THOUGHTS FROM ST JAMES’
‘And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the
greatest of these is charity.’ (I Corinthians 13, v 13)
Thus writes St Paul, but in Matthew 17 vv 14-20, we read of the man
who brought his son to be healed. The disciples tried but failed and he insisted on seeing
Jesus, who drove the ‘devil’ out. When his disciples asked Jesus why their attempts had
been unsuccessful, Jesus replied that their faith had been too little, smaller even than a
grain of mustard seed, which amount, ‘attainable by prayer and fasting’, would have
enabled them to move mountains. So, is faith more important than St Paul suggests and
what is it anyway?
Too often we think of it as a rock solid belief in which there is no room for doubt. For
some it is like the Bass Rock, an immovable edifice against which the sea of doubt
crashes in vain: few of us, perhaps have that strength of belief. For many faith is like a
sandstone cliff frequently eroded by the power of the sea, until, sometimes the whole edifice
is washed away, rather like the descent of Dunwich into the North Sea. Or it may
be likened to a kite, which, sometimes flies high in the sky and at other times crashes to
earth in a crumpled and tangled heap. Faith is not, usually, constant and doubt seems to
be an almost necessary concomitant, constantly challenging us to re-examine and
reassert our faith.
Hope is rather less certain: we hope it may not rain tomorrow but we are by no means
certain that it will not and often our hope is gnawed at by a persistent doubt. We may
have hope in the resurrection but often we cannot always feel sure of its inevitability.
Those who believe the Bible is the Word of God maybe have stronger belief but the
Bible has been filtered through men and because the writings are those of men they are
subject to the vagaries of human interpretation. We often read of messengers being sent
from God to holy persons, giving them an insight into God’s will, or advising them on a
course of action. Such revelations do not seem to happen nowadays and, when claims
are made for them, we are often sceptical, certainty and enthusiasm not being in fashion.
So, what can we rely on - the Bible? Well, a personal interpretation of the Bible leads to
different attitudes and beliefs, the essence of Protestantism and certainly the reason for
so many Protestant sects. The Catholic Church has insisted on centrism, with the
interpretation of scripture being handed to its flock so that people are instructed what to
believe. This is still a human interpretation and, often, we feel like the man in St
Matthew’s Gospel; if only we could get beyond the disciples and approach Jesus
himself, we could attain what would be most good for us.
Perhaps, in this quagmire, St Paul offers us some real hope as to the way forward. When
our faith seems to crumble and darkness replaces light; when all seems hopeless in a fog
of conflicting doubt, then we can at least hang on to charity, showing love and kindness
towards our fellows and applying ourselves to performing good deeds and practising the
’New Commandment’ to love one another. In the end, perhaps, we shall be forgiven a
lack of faith, or even hope, and be saved by the grace of the Holy Spirit blessing the
good works we have done.
LFJ Hardwick