Life, Death, And Resurrection Of Jesus Christ

“I believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that he suffered, died, and was buried, and that on the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the scriptures. I believe he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. I believe he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his Kingdom shall have no end.”

Those are a few of the lines from the Nicene Creed, which I learned as a small Catholic before ever realizing what they meant. Today, those words are very dear to me. No longer a Catholic, but a joyfully born-again Christian, I find myself in a constant state of looking for roots. What are our roots as a Church? What beliefs root a “true Christian”? And which, if any of my Catholic roots, are consistent with my Christian faith? Perhaps those lines from the Creed, first written over 1700 years ago, are so dear to me now because they are the root that withstands all of the fluctuations of history and my own spiritual wandering through denominations. Fluctuation, debate, and cultural differences have been the lot of the Church from the very beginning. But Jesus remains the same. For this paper we were asked to discuss how the modern Church differs from the early Church. In response to that, I will be narrowing my scope of discussion to our changed expectations of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in relation to one particular experience common to all Church members – physical suffering.

I often struggle to reconcile my belief that God does heal and He does answer prayers with the reality of suffering and early death among believers. As a hospital chaplain serving between forty to sixty-four hours a week, I am with the dead and the dying o...

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...t is strange that God’s promise to heal, so clear in the Gospels, is qualified in so many ways today.” (Droege, 28-29)

Droege is correct – it is strange. But that does not mean I have not done that myself. I too have asked for healing if “it by your will God.” I too have asked that a doctor’s hands be guided by God rather than asking that a tumor would simply disappear. I have minimized my expectations and asked for miracles through persons, tests, and treatments that would appear as far less than “mighty signs and wonders.”

Ultimately, our low expectations of God substantiate the great difference between the Apostolic Church and the Church of today. Many of us speak of God or invite the Holy Spirit into our lives simply because it “couldn’t hurt.” In truth, we are hurting. Our bodies ache and our souls suffer while Jehovah Rapha waits to hear from us.