{"id":1057,"date":"2025-07-07T23:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T23:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/awordforallseasons.co.nz\/?p=1057"},"modified":"2025-07-07T23:33:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T23:33:54","slug":"gs15-sarah-sentilles-god-faith-and-the-creed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awordforallseasons.co.nz\/?p=1057","title":{"rendered":"GS15 Sarah Sentilles, God, Faith and the Creed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Sarah Sentilles, God and the Creeds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>&nbsp;Bishop Richard Randerson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Sentilles\u2019 (USA) (<em>Breaking up with God \u2013 a Love Affair), <\/em>visited Wellington at a Writers\u2019 Festival. The book tells her story of life and faith:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A cradle Christian<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Key church member<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Had a strong sense of God\u2019s love and protection<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Set out for ordination (Episcopal\/Anglican)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>But at university doubts set in<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>How could God of love allow <strong>evil? \u2013 <\/strong>poverty, war, violence<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What use was prayer to such a God?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>creeds<\/strong> were problematic<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>She decided to quit the path to ordination and the Church, and today is a teacher and writer, using art as a tool to peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Who of us would not identify with Sarah on some of those issues?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some say the <strong>creeds<\/strong> with mental reservations over parts of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>problem of evil<\/strong> is only a problem if you think of God as a divine train controller without whom nothing moves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>We don\u2019t put our faith in creeds<\/strong>. The creeds are merely signposts, words and pictures constructed by humans wrestling with some of the big issues about God and humankind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The creeds <strong>point to God<\/strong> and can help us on the journey. Like an AA roadsign saying Wellington: we don\u2019t confuse the sign with the city, but if the sign helps us on our way, it\u2019s done its job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Faith begins with an experience<\/strong>, not with a creed. Here are some examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Exodus 3: Moses at Mt Sinai (Horeb)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>minding his father-in-law\u2019s sheep<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hears God\u2019s call and encounters God in the bush \u2013burning but not consumed<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cPut off your sandals: this is holy ground\u201d, God tells him.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>His vocation follows to liberate Israel from Egypt<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Faith begins with an <\/strong>encounter. Seldom an encounter like Moses had at Sinai, or Paul on the Damascus road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Fast forward to the same mountain c 850 BC<\/strong>: Elijah fleeing for his life from King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, to Mt Horeb\/Sinai, site of God\u2019s covenant with Moses. God asks <em>\u2018What are you doing here?<\/em> And Elijah pours out his tale of woe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>There follows the wind<\/strong> that splits the rocks; then earthquake; fire \u2013 God was in none of them. God was in the silence that followed, the \u2018soft whisper of a voice\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>So our encounter with the living God <\/strong>is very often a small voice, an idea that comes in the night, or in a conversation, or seeing something that moves us on the media. As Joan Puls &nbsp;says: <em>\u201cEvery Bush is burning\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <strong>John 3 we read how Nicodemus<\/strong>, a leader of the Jews, comes to Jesus by night, searching, sensing that in Jesus something deeper of God is to be found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus tells him he must be born again, of Spirit, to which Nicodemus responds. Later he appears again helping to take Jesus\u2019 body down from the Cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we find Moses, Elijah, Paul, Nicodemus and countless others each encountering God in their own way, as does each one of us. <strong>What have been our own encounters with God?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But then, as the Church has always done, <strong>we try to put experience<\/strong> into words \u2013 doctrines and liturgies \u2013 which may or may not help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Moses asked \u2018who are you?\u2019. God replied: <strong>\u201cI am who I am\u201d. <\/strong>Tell my people \u2018I am has sent you \u2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>That very cryptic \u2018I am\u2019:<\/strong>&nbsp; the word for being, essence, simply what is. No fancy words, no creeds. What lies at the heart of life: otherness, transcendence, energy, being part of something bigger than ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sarah Sentilles adds<\/strong> similar words: mystery, love, justice, accountability, agency, creativity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And as <strong>Jesus says to Nicodemus<\/strong> \u2013 the spirit is like the wind; you don\u2019t know where it comes from or where it goes. The spirit of God is on the move. Believing in God is a willingness to ride the divine wind and to let God take us where God wishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>So faith is not primarily<\/strong> an intellectual exercise but a direct and personal encounter with the divine mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notice also the <strong>shift in emphasis<\/strong> in the creeds in our worship:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>p. 410 (NZPB): intellectual propositions<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>p481:\u00a0 \u2018You\u2019 \u2013 personal encounter\u2026>>><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>And <strong>it has an essential communal<\/strong> dimension which reaches out to embrace all people and all creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This captured in the doctrine of the Trinity. There\u2019s only one word I find helpful to describe the Trinity \u2013 <em>perichoresis <\/em>(<em>peri \u2013<\/em>around; <em>choresis <\/em>\u2013 dancing) &#8211; dancing in partnership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Think of a divine dance<\/strong>, as in <em>The Lord of the Dance.<\/em> So the three persons of the Trinity are not three static entities. They are dancing together, bonding, alive, moving, responding, inter-acting, loving, relating, changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that <strong>deeply symbolic picture<\/strong> of the nature of a dancing God reaches out to encompass all else that is.&nbsp; It is the image for our relationships with one another \u2013 the most intimate of our relationships, as well as those of friends and whanau, society, nations and tribes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>It is the model of the Body of Christ<\/strong> \u2013 the Church -part of the divine dance of interaction, love and support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>It drives our commitment to justice and peace <\/strong>\u2013 as Moses was called to liberate God\u2019s people:&nbsp; dancing with the poor and oppressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And also, of course<strong>, dancing with all creation <\/strong>in caring for the environment, seeing all living creatures, sun, moon and earth as brothers and sisters with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>So I\u2019m sorry Sarah quit the Church<\/strong>, because everything she stands for, the Church stands for also. Our calling is to encounter the living God, to enter into the divine dance so that the fire that is not consumed lives in us, and through us sets all life and creation ablaze with love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-20de3565-0fc2-4f1c-ae4a-2ae641e07aeb\" href=\"https:\/\/awordforallseasons.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Sarah-Sentilles-God-and-creeds.docx\">Sarah Sentilles- God and creeds<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/awordforallseasons.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Sarah-Sentilles-God-and-creeds.docx\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-20de3565-0fc2-4f1c-ae4a-2ae641e07aeb\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sarah Sentilles, God and the Creeds &nbsp;Bishop Richard Randerson Sarah Sentilles\u2019 (USA) (Breaking up with God \u2013 a Love Affair), visited Wellington at a Writers\u2019 Festival. The book tells her story of life and faith: But at university doubts set in She decided to quit the path to ordination and the Church, and today is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-general-sermons","8":"no-featured-image"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awordforallseasons.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awordforallseasons.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awordforallseasons.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awordforallseasons.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awordforallseasons.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1057"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/awordforallseasons.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1061,"href":"https:\/\/awordforallseasons.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions\/1061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awordforallseasons.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awordforallseasons.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awordforallseasons.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}