For the past few weeks it seemed like the wet and cold weather would never relent but happily it has for a few days at least. The light and heat of sunshine has an uplifting effect and seems to put a spring in the step of most people. Life without sunshine can indeed be rather dull. A bit like life without faith. A life without faith can lack imagination and is drained of mystery. Mystery can be good for us and give us an appetite to question and explore many of the issues of life but even more than that it gives a sense of sacredness to our existence. When we drain life of a sense of God's existence we are simply left to our own devices which indeed can be good but on the other hand in humanity there often lurks something sinister and we often call it selfishness. Self-interest can lead to greed and thus the harming and curtailing of the existence of others. Jesus taught that the two most sacred things in life are God and Humanity. We can often make idols of doctrines and hide behind them as an excuse not to deal with those with whom we disagree. There often comes times when certain doctrines have to be looked at and examined in the light of new evidence. So you see sometimes belief in the mysterious challenges us to take a risk, and faith is risky. The great thing about the Reformed faith is that it should never stay stagnant but rather be willing to change and move to different places, always reforming when needed to. So in this changing world we can keep the faith but a faith that moves with the Spirit of God, and sometimes the Spirit of God requires us to change. The Church of Scotland has recently been exploring issues around gay and lesbian Christians and whether or not to allow gay and lesbian people who are in a civil partnership to enter or remain in the ministry. So doctrine which is sacred to many is being challenged by this. For some it would seem that doctrine represents God to them. Sometimes our doctrine can prevent us from seeing and understanding God's will. Sometimes by using doctrine we are simply making God into the image with which we are most comfortable. Well a great Christian belief is that we are all made in God's image, so then our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters are made in God's image so we should embrace them as our very own and fellow Christians without qualification or hindrance.
