At the beginning of this series I described the path of
discipleship as one that seeks to develop a number of virtues and ideals. For the past few weeks I have been writing
about compassion and the works of justice and mercy that flow from
compassion. This week I want to start by
talking about the virtue of loyalty and faithfulness.
Earlier
in this series, I wrote several posts about the virtue of love; how the love of
God, especially for Christians the love of God as seen in Jesus, can inspire
love within us, a love that extends from us back to God and to the world around
us. The important realization is that
this love begins with God. A common
image is the Christian life as akin to the moon, shining with a light that is
not of our origin, but a reflection of the love of God. “We love God because
God first loved us.” (1 John 4:19).
For
many decades we have used the language of love as the primary description of
our relationship with God and God’s relationship with us. However, for much of the Hebrew Scriptures,
the primary description of our relationship with God is not about love but
about loyalty and faithfulness.
There
is a phrase that is used several times in the Hebrew Scriptures as a formulaic
description of God. For instance, in my
congregation, during Lent, we prepare to hear the gospel text with a quotation
from the prophet Joel:
“Return
to the Lord your God, for God is gracious
and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” (Joel 2:13)
When I
was in seminary I had a Hebrew professor who strongly disagreed with the
translation, “steadfast love.” He told
us that the Hebrew word (chesed) is related
to loyalty and faithfulness. He
translated it with the fancy phrase, “covenant fidelity”. Chesed
is more about the nature of God keeping God’s promises than it is the warm,
fuzzy feeling that sometimes gets associated with love. Joel presents a God who will be faithful to
Israel, not because Israel is great or perfect or loving, but because God is a
God who makes and keeps promises. This is
a significant idea because the covenants that God makes with Israel are often
one-sided and unconditional. God does
not say to Abram, “If you are good, I
will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you.” God simply says, “I will make of you a great
nation.”(Genesis 12:2) God is and
remains loyal and faithful.
In his
letter to the Galatians, Paul lists faithfulness as one of the fruits of the
spirit. It is more than simply holding a
set of beliefs. Faithfulness is an
attitude of being invested in those beliefs.
This is not an argument for blind faith, accepting things without
question. My understanding of
faithfulness is the ability to stand in faith despite questions and struggles. For me, the image of faithfulness is the
image of Jacob wrestling with the divine and refusing to let go. (Genesis
32:22-32)
Faithfulness
in practice is also well-described by many of the Christian mystics. The 16th century Spanish nun, Teresa
of Avila speaks of periods of dryness in prayer. At the beginning of the new practice, the
disciple is thrilled and comforted by the action of contemplative prayer, but
one day she sits in prayer and discovers nothing: no feeling of warmth, no
sense of nearness to God. Faithfulness
is what continues the practice through such dry spells. For John of the Cross, a dear friend of
Teresa, faithfulness is what allows Christians to endure the “dark night of the
soul,” a period when all the trappings of faith lose their meaning. It is the virtue of faithfulness that turns
the dark night into a transition period to a deeper relationship with God.
Unfortunately,
the church moved from a message of faithfulness to a message of guilt. Rather than saying that we take part in the
practices of discipleship out of a sense of loyalty to God, the church taught
that we observe these practices out of a sense of guilt or fear, avoiding an
angry God. In some ways I think we
overcorrected when we then put all of our focus on love, often arriving at a
place of saying, “Take part or don’t; God loves you anyway.”
I hope
that we can find a way to hold loyalty and love in balance. Growing in loyalty and faithfulness can be a
powerful way to deepen our relationship, helping us grow in disciplines which
in turn help us spend more time paying attention to God. I believe that an emphasis on faithfulness
can also help create a realistic faith practice, one that does not assume that
we should always feel great or we should never have doubts or things will just
get better and better. Faithfulness and
loyalty are what can carry us through the troubling times.
But
love is also constantly present when we do slip up or slip away. God’s love is always there to sustain us,
comfort us and welcome us. Like love,
our faithfulness is not our own, but a reflection of the faithfulness of God,
who stands waiting to receive us when we turn away and to welcome us when we
rediscover the beautiful relationship that is faith.
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