Ken Sehested
Clarity over the most cherished affirmations of our faith
affirmations which cannot be empirically tested or otherwise
verified by prowess of intelligence, intensity of moral resolve,
charm of character, or ritual adherence—is clouded, even
frivolous, while refusing the risks to comfort and security,
when the morrow’s sustenance and safety is never in doubt.
Rather, faith’s assurance and vitality emerges when things fall
apart, when threat knocks at the door, when the wolves gather.
Faith, as the author of Hebrews insisted, does not come by
sight: not by inherit merit or managerial competence or
herculean effort. That is to say, no creature is self-authored,
contrary to the spirits of our age who contend that we get what
we earn and are free from all covenant bounds. Rather, the
pledges we make, the covenant ties we affirm with those who
are excluded from Creation’s table of bounty—the left out, left
behind, left dangling and vulnerable: humans and humus and
all creatures great and small—are the revelatory means by
which we discover who we are, in relation to what neighbors’
needs, as indicators of to Whom we are vowed in grace-filled
allegiance. Stilled waters come to the storm-tossed. The
Spirit cannot be trafficked by spiritual racketeers seeking to
leverage sanctity to achieve and hold private prosperity. Which
is why faithfulness means casting our lot with all who are
pressed to ask, again and again against a lived history of
calloused affliction, crucifixion’s persistent supplication, “Is the
Lord with us or not?”* The implication of Good Friday: there is
no safe way to answer this question, no managing the risk. But
there is this Promise for those willing to trust and obey: An
Assurance beyond what the eye can see, to steady the mind’s
confidence, the heart’s resolve, the hand’s strength, and the
feet’s direction. “For there’s no other way / to be happy in
Jesus, / but to trust and obey.”**
*see Exodus 17:1-7
**Refrain from the 19th century hymn, “Trust and Obey,
by John Henry Sammis and Daniel Brink Towner.
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