Living in Love and Faith or Living Life Backwards?

It’s easy to get frustrated in Christian life and church ministry when our passion for the gospel and the local church is seemingly thwarted by opposition, disruption, relationship breakdown or just human error. Is that frustration wrong? Are we expecting too much?

As a member of the Church of England, it’s hard to make sense of the current state of play with the Living in Love and Faith process. It is an existential threat because it undermines Biblical teaching on marriage, but the process has been stalled by the misfiring appointment process for vacancy in Canterbury and the recent resignation of Martin Snow as chair of the steering group. It was supposed to be a period of discernment, but it is currently a period of suspended confusion.

Evangelical responses can’t offer much comfort, because it is impossible to anticipate a clear outcome. The Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) continues to offer an alternative giving scheme – the Ephesian Fund – and alternative spiritual oversight, but these are holding patterns.

Preaching through the book of Ecclesiastes in recent weeks has been strangely comforting. The Hebrew word “hebel”, which is translated “meaninglessness, futility or vanity” seems to capture the mood. David Gibson’s beautiful commentary, Living Life Backwards, turns the apparent pessimism of the book on its head, however. The realisation that there is nothing to gain from anything we do under the sun, because everything is “hebel”, is liberating. It means whatever we get in life we can simply receive as a gift of God.

Surely gospel ministry is different, though, because it is about life above the sun. Surely there is something to be gained from spiritual enterprise and kingdom work. Surely we are right to be frustrated if we are being held back from doing the Lord’s work.

In his epistle, James writes to those who are suffering all kinds of trials in their Christian lives, but he urges them to count it all joy when they face these trials (James 1v2-3). At the end of chapter 4, he warns about being too confident about making plans and in chapter 5v1-6, he condemns those who put their trust in material wealth. In contrast, he concludes that those who await the Lord’s return should be patient and pray in all circumstances.

We are limited and we need to accept our limitations with patience. In fact, it is the best thing for us to do, because it gives us a joyful perspective. God is not limited, and we have access to his immediate presence, first of all in prayer and ultimately in the new creation.

While the denominational heirarchy has been haemorrhaging, local parishes have been welcoming a steady stream of young people who are searching for God. In my own parish, I have listened to story after story of miraculous awakenings of faith in Jesus. Teenagers without any church background picking up Bibles and praying for God to change their lives – and that is before they find their way to church. Honestly – what more could we want?

It is easy to get frustrated when we think it is all down to us to get things done, but it isn’t down to us, it is the Lord who does the Lord’s work, and nothing can stop Him. That’s not to say that we should down tools and do nothing. We love the Lord, and we must seek to obey Him. We can expect no greater return on the investment of our efforts than to show our love and devotion to Him, but we can expect that He will do more than we can possibly imagine.