The following piece was first written for the March 1, 2026 pew sheet at St Augustine’s Anglican Church. I share it here again in the hope that it may continue to encourage and bless.
When we speak about 'faith', many people today assume we mean believing something without evidence, or even in spite of evidence. Sometimes faith is portrayed as anti-intellectual, anti-science, or as a kind of wishful thinking. But that is not what Christian faith is, and it has never been. Christian faith does not begin with switching off our minds. On the contrary, it takes seriously the world around us and asks honest questions about it. When it comes to God's existence, for example, Christians have always taken the created universe seriously as evidence of a Creator. The fact that there is something rather than nothing, that the universe has order, beauty, and intelligibility, invites explanation. To say that everything appeared through an accidental explosion, without any purpose or cause, is not obviously more convincing than believing in a loving, creating God. The same is true of Jesus. The existence of Jesus of Nazareth is one of the best-attested facts of ancient history. Serious historians, whether believers or not, agree that he lived, taught and was crucified. And when we consider his continuing influence and power, there are many thoughtful arguments that can be made. One of the strongest is the Church itself: a worldwide community, stretching across centuries and cultures, still shaped by his life and teaching. But faith is more than agreeing with these facts. It is more than saying, "Yes, this seems reasonable." In the Bible, faith is closer to trust. It is like trusting a bridge enough to walk across it, or trusting a friend enough to rely on them. It is placing our lives, our hopes, and our fears into God's hands. To have faith is not to pretend we have all the answers. It is to trust the One who does. It is to believe that the God who made us, who came to us in Jesus, and who gathers us as his Church, is worthy of our confidence. Christian faith is not blind belief. It is thoughtful, grounded and lived-out trust in a faithful God.
