Well, folks, this is the first in what I hope to be an irregularly spaced in time series of blogs about faith formation. That's a big topic that is near and dear to my heart, and it is one that most Christians, and probably those of other religions, too, do not understand. But, it probably all starts with grace and dependence.
Grace is, in simple terms, God's unmerited favor. Much of what is preached on Sundays across the country in various Christian denominations deals with grace. Now, the technical details will spark many a theological debate, but the easiest way to look at grace, categorically, is that grace is your ticket to Paradise -- you have to be in a state of grace to get into Heaven {here is where the actual terms and definitions spread like a 10-gauge magnum loaded with #24 microshot or something - all over the place with great force, fury and conviction}.
Since I'm a Lutheran, my fundamental belief is that the means of grace is the Word and the Sacraments. In other Christian religions it's probably the same, but there are more or less sacraments in number and the importance and impact of the Word varies. All the theologically inclined may feel free to comment on this to the heart's content, just don't slam me for being a fool. Accept that I am a well-intended fool.
But when we have God's unmerited favor, we are then in a position that we "believe". Fundamental Christians may refer to this as being saved, which it really is even if we don't, in our particular denomination, call it that. Back when I was baptized in a Baptist church, we referred to the public confession/expression of faith and then the symbolic burial and resurrection of baptism. In Lutheran and Catholic confessions, infants are baptized with Godparents answering and standing for that infant, as proxies, to proclaim acceptance of the Christian faith. In some other Christian churches, baptism is somewhat optional, from what I have heard and have come to understand.
And all of this optional and varying understand is probably quite legitimate because of my fundamental position number one: whether you proclaim, somebody proclaims for you, you are baptized or sprinkled or whatever, it may make a big difference to the elders or deacons of your church and to your pastor and to your parents and grandparents, but I don't think it makes much difference to God. God's grace is freely given to all of us. Once someone accepts grace, a sticky wicket of its own, they're open for
FAITH FORMATION
and what I shall be talking about in succeeding blog posts is that God sends the Holy Spirit to form faith; it is ALL the work of the Holy Spirit and it happens not because of what we do but despite anything we do because formation parallels grace as an unmerited and, in that sense, freely given gift. But, nothing we do can make formation happen - the Spirit goes where and as It will and does pretty much whatever It wants to do. And one of those things It wants to do is to form our faith.
