Unfinished Faith: Relearning God.

Week 29:

The bit where I introduce:

I would guess that some of us are carrying a quiet grief. It may not be the kind of grief we readily admit or even know how to name. It is the grief of being wounded by people who claim to follow Jesus. And, if we’re honest, there may also be times when we have been the ones who caused those wounds.

Perhaps it was a careless word, broken trust, spiritual abuse, conflict, rejection, or hypocrisy. Whatever the circumstance, those experiences can leave us asking difficult questions,not only about the Church, but sometimes about our faith itself.

The tension is real: How do we keep following Jesus when the people who bear His name have deeply disappointed us?

A common response is to separate Jesus from His people. There is wisdom in that. Our faith rests in Christ, not in the imperfect people who follow Him. Jesus remains faithful even when His Church is not.

Yet another question lingers.

If we are called to bear Christ’s image,to be His hands and feet in the world,why do we sometimes become the source of another person’s deepest wounds? Why does the community that is meant to reflect God’s love sometimes reflect something very different?

These aren’t questions to avoid or dismiss. The bible doesn’t. Instead, it invites us to wrestle honestly with the painful gap between who we are called to be and how we often fail one another.

The bit where I refer to the Bible and ask a few questions:

Psalm 55:12-14: (Read the whole of Psalm 55)

12 It is not an enemy who taunts me
I could bear that.
It is not my foes who so arrogantly insult me
I could have hidden from them.

13 Instead, it is you, my equal,
my companion and close friend.

14 What good fellowship we once enjoyed
as we walked together to the house of God.

The historical setting of Psalm 55 isn’t certain. Many scholars believe David is reflecting on the betrayal of his trusted adviser Ahithophel during Absalom’s rebellion (2 Samuel 15–17). Whether or not that is the specific occasion, the psalm unmistakably arises from the anguish of betrayal.

What makes David’s grief so piercing is that it wasn’t an enemy who wounded him.

“It is not an enemy who taunts me… Instead, it is you, my equal, my companion and close friend… as we walked together to the house of God.”

This is familiar territory for many who have experienced hurt within the Church. David isn’t grieving someone outside the church community. He is grieving someone with whom he worshipped.

The Bible doesn’t minimise that pain, nor does it pretend it shouldn’t hurt.

Perhaps the question many of us want answered is simply: What do we do with this?

Psalm 55 doesn’t offer easy solutions or quick resolutions. Instead, it gives us permission to tell the truth.

The predicament is deeply painful. The people called to embody the love, compassion and humility of Christ can sometimes become the very reason others struggle to trust Him. The Church,which I mean as the people of God, not a particular congregation or denomination is called to be a refuge, yet at times it has become a place of grief. That contradiction should never sit comfortably with us.

At the same time, acknowledging our shared sinfulness is never an excuse for the wounds we inflict. Rather, it is a reminder that apart from the transforming work of Christ, none of us naturally reflects His character. Every one of us remains dependent on His grace,not only to forgive us, but to change us.

I think that’s where Psalm 55 begins to offer hope.

Not because David’s circumstances suddenly improve, but because he shows us what faithful grief looks like. Psalm 55 invites us to:

 Lament the pain of betrayal by someone close.

 Express the disappointment within the community of faith.

 Examine the temptation to run away from hurt.

 Bring honest emotions to God instead of hiding them.

 Choose to trust God’s faithfulness when people fail.

Rather than seeking revenge or allowing bitterness to define him, David entrusts his pain to God. He reminds himself:

“Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” (Psalm 55:22)

Perhaps that is where hope begins.

Not by pretending the hurt didn’t happen.

Not by excusing the failures of God’s people.

Not by abandoning our faith altogether.

But by placing our wounded hearts into the hands of the One who never betrays His own.

God alone is the faultless Judge. Justice ultimately belongs to Him. Sometimes the most faithful thing we can do is to leave the final word in His hands and trust that His faithfulness is greater than our disappointment.

The Church has never been the object of our faith; it is meant to be the witness to our faith. When the witness fails, Jesus does not.

The bit where you get to think about stuff: Questions for the week.

Has someone else’s failure caused me to distance myself from Jesus when perhaps the invitation is to bring my hurt to Him instead?

Where have my eyes shifted from Jesus to people?

Have I allowed disappointment with Christians to become disappointment with Jesus?