This was a session in Cafechurch Melbourne (www.cafechurch.org) where we talked about the sort of faith we want - a faith which underpins our lives, even when we don't get the things we prayed for so hard, things which God seems to approve of. The three heroes were Job, Jonah, and St Thomas - all people who had to walk a hard path, but who were fundamentally, existentially open to God

1. Caféchurch 3/9/13
passageExistential Faith

2. Existential Faith
The difference between
trusting God for a
particular outcome, and
just trusting God as such.
Existential faith is a basic
orientation of your entire
life towards having faith in
God as such, not for
particular outcomes.

3. Ironic Heroes of Faith
When I think about faith,
these three people occur
to me as ironic heroes of
faith.

4. Ironic?
(Ironic because contrary
to expectation, contrary
to what a
straightforward hero of
faith might look like.
People who walked with
all the unpleasant stuff -
doubt, grief, incredulity,
rebellion - but walked
with God nonetheless)

5. Jonah
God tells him to go to
Nineveh (in Iraq). He
flees to Tarshish (in
Spain), but, courtesy of
a giant fish, ends up in
Nineveh anyway

6. Job
Satan “tempts” God to
overthrow Job’s
happiness – to put Job
to the test. He endures
hardship, and ultimately
sees God.

7. St Thomas the Apostle
Has to see the risen
Christ for himself. Goes
on to found the church
in India.

8. A Question
Do any of these figures
speak to you? If not, can
you suggest one that
does?

9. What Faith is Not
•Faith is not the belief
that God is going to
solve all our problems
and give us a perfect,
glossy life.
•Nor is it the belief that
our problems are
illusory.

10. Faith Heroes Question
What characterises the
life of your favourite faith
hero?

11. Some Common Features
•Beards
•An openness to God – not
fixed in their position
(Thomas went with the
evidence, Jonah did
eventually preach in
Niniveh, Job hung in there)
•A baseline sense of
themselves as being
connected to God – that
their lives were meaningful

12. Suffering and Faith
•Faith means patience in
suffering
•Faith means putting my
current situation in the
broadest context. This is not
the whole of the story.
•Faith means that my
current situation is
meaningful
•Faith means that God is
with me in my suffering

13. Faith is Not an Idea
I can’t prove faith to you, I can’t
give it to you. Faith is allowing
God to work redemptively in
the chaos in our lives. Faith is
something you do. And faith is
also, paradoxically something
you receive. And finally, faith is
something you develop,
especially through patience
and reflection.

14. Transformative
Finally, faith should be
transformative. It should
lift you out of your old
ways of seeing and
experiencing life into
entirely new ways, in
which you are capable
of living fruitfully.

15. Suffering Can Lead to Transforming Faith
Some of us, in experiencing suffering, trauma, and
loss, may find a safe and compassionate space in
which to begin to accept what happened. In time we
may come to terms with the te suffering, the
trauma, and the loss, not minimizing what
happened but allowing it to become part of a
renegotiated, and, perhaps, more inclusive sense
of self…. Suffering, trauma, and loss, are a two
edged sword for us. At times they make adulthood
much harder to realize, and at times they help
usher it in.
Finding God Again, John J Shea

16. Final Question
What would a fruitful life
look like? Suggest a few
things that are, or would
be, fruitful

17. To Read
Finding God Again,
John J Shea