Statement of Faith

Michael Prewitt

In life and in death I belong to God.

I am a creature of God, and anything I think about God and any language I use to talk about the Holy One is limited and can lead to idolatry. But we can know God because of God’s self-revelation in Jesus of Nazareth, fully human yet the Son of God and fully divine. Because God chose to enter our world, in the flesh, we can begin to know something about God. We know that God comes to us. We don’t pretend to seek God out. God calls to us, and through a grace that is mysterious at its core, we can hear God and we can answer.

The God that reveals Godself to us is a triune God: a mystery of three persons and yet one substance. Our God is not the God of the deists who set the world in motion and withdrew. Our God is not the God of a sunset, the prettiness of nature. Our God is not the impassible Father sitting in judgment of the world. Our God is the self-communicating trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our God has come to us in the flesh in Jesus. Our God has acted for our redemption and salvation, both in sending the Son and in dying for us on the cross. Our God is active and mysteriously present with us even now in the power of the Holy Spirit who comes to us through both the Father and the Son. It is through the gracious work of the Holy Spirit that I personally have experienced the renewal of my life. Praise God.

If we wish to know God better we can go directly to Scripture. God, the triune God, reveals Godself through the revelation of Holy Scripture. In scripture lies the power of the Gospel to reach out to us and touch us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, so that we know the particular God whom we call Father, Son and Spirit.

As much as God has touched me and keeps calling out to me, I continue to ignore God’s call and distract myself with the fascinations of this world. I need to surround myself with others who also have been called out. I need to be part of the Church. I cannot will my own grace. But I can put myself among people who know what I know and who are trying to be obedient as I am trying. Together we are the church. We are earthen vessels, but making every human attempt to be the Body of Christ in this place, doing Christ’s work for our time. As a people of God we are not totally set out on our own. We have Scripture and we have the confessions and creeds. These are the voices of our forebears, which can give us guidance and support, and remind us that we are not the first or only ones who have been so called out.

We have the sacraments. These are infusions of God’s grace into our ordinary lives. We are baptized as a sign that we have taken on a new life, in community, as those called out by God. As the baptized, we are welcomed. As the community in witness, we pledge to raise one another up in the promises of the Gospel. In Holy Communion we experience an offer of Christ to us. We need to remember that this sacrament is not on our terms. We do not come to Christ on our terms through the Bread and the Wine. Christ comes to us. And the mystery is that it is not our symbolic imaginations that bring power to this sacrament. The power lies in our being obedient to our Lord, who said, Do this in remembrance of me.

Empowered with the Scriptures, and set on a right course through the Sacraments, I set out, in the company of those also called by God, to live a faithful and useful life in this world, and to share with others what a life-changing difference the Gospel has made in my life. This is the mission of the Church. The creation is groaning. Jesus tells us to “feed my sheep.” The nations rule unjustly. Jesus tells us “my Kingdom is not of this world.” Life can be so comfortable. Jesus calls us to be light, to be salt, to “love one another, even as I have loved you.” This is not comfortable. This is not easy. Yet with hope in the faithful promise of a covenant-keeping God, I pray: Come, Lord Jesus.