Greetings Westwood UMC Family,

During a recent conversation, something I read a long while ago came to my mind: in Kathleen Norris’s “Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith,” she offers what has been for me a fresh and helpful definition of “belief”:

“I find it sad to consider that belief has become a scary word, because at its Greek root, ‘to believe’ simply means ‘to give one’s heart to.’ Thus, if we can determine what it is we give our heart to, then we will know what it is we believe” (from the chapter “Belief, Doubt, and Sacred Ambiguity”).

I received Norris’s book as a gift from a dear friend during my first semester in seminary; these words have stuck with me since then, as has the idea that “belief” is something very different from certainty, and that it certainly does not require I give up my questions and struggles as I try to move through the complex contradictions and tensions that just keep inevitably coming. As voices professing to be Christian proclaim values that are directly opposed to those I find in the Gospel–and do so loudly in our national politics, I can’t help but question and reflect on how this is possible. How do I treasure this faith as a source of expansive love that breaks down divisions and demands that I love even my enemies, when others are perpetuating fear, division, and hatred in the name of the same God?

I re-read this chapter in Norris’s book today, and found incredible balm in the final paragraphs, as Norris quotes Father Martin Smith, an Anglican monk: “‘How can my rage and sickening disappointment in so many manifestations of ‘Christianity,’ he asks, ‘cease to be a poison which depresses and paralyses me, and be traced back to its source in my longing to be fully alive in God?’ It no longer surprises me that a devout monk can ask such questions, or that his anguish might lead him straight to prayer, which is not the result of belief so much as its source and guardian. ‘Only prayer,’ Smith concludes, ‘is a crucible strong enough for this kind of transmutation.'”

What if we understood worship not to be about confidently affirming certainty, but about tending the powerful, vulnerable hope that worship and prayer make possible?

I treasure that this has been true for me: one of the gifts of church life is that our community, our music, and our prayers continually give me the courage to give my heart to God, for the sake of love, compassion, and justice. And in doing so, I continue to be transformed in love.

I hope it does the same for you.

grace and peace,
Pastor Molly