My roommate and I were talking the other day about Christianity, as we often do, and I told him I don’t actually have Christian ‘faith’, because I don’t really believe in the Christian story as fact. I don’t really believe in a human-like God that passes judgement, and that humankinds’ ideas about God speak more to their own leanings than it does about God.

That being said, I feel that it’s useful for many people to subscribe to some sort of system in which there is some Godhead to appeal to, when doing good simply for the sake of doing good, just isn’t cutting it.

If we think about animals – cats for example, they have no problem giving a bite or a scratch when they feel so inclined. I don’t think I’ve seen guilt or shame on my cat’s face when he decided that sticking his claws into my hand was a good thing to do. A dog eating the garbage when no one is around to catch them, cats stealing steak from the frying pan etc. I don’t think they spend a lot of time thinking it all through and wrestling with decisions. However, many pets want to please their owner. My sweet blonde retriever sneaks over to the table, sees something sticking off the edge that can easily be snatched, and only decides against it because she sees me watching her.

Some humans wrestle with making ethical decisions, but far more humans flail at making basic, healthy decisions for themselves.

For example; It’s 6am, and I’m waking up for work feeling VERY tired. I think to myself “Wow, I’m going to get to bed on time tonight, staying up late doing ‘x/y/z’ is SUCH a bad idea. Tonight I’ll be responsible!” Then, tonight comes around and I’m still awake, tapping about on my keyboard or otherwise engaging in something other than the sleeping I had meant to do.

Or perhaps I’m trying to steer clear of unhealthy foods that are highly addictive because as a middle aged human, I’ve begun to worry about cholesterol, or diabetes, or heart health. Yet it’s cobbler time after the church service to celebrate the Season of Creation and I fill my plate with multiple cobbler samplings, with some ice cream on top.

Just small examples, but I’m sure you get the point. Without an immediate, negative effect upon us from our poor choices, we tend to just keep doing things that the sane, rational part of us does NOT want to do.

So, it was a meaningful synchronicity, or serendipity when I decided to read The Shepherd of Hermas today. If you are not familiar with it, I highly suggest the very accessible version written by Rowan Williams . In it, along with some very amazing imagery in Hermas’ visions, are instructions given to Hermas by an Angel of Repentance, and they are given quite clearly really. There is a description of what is basically a good spirit, a holy spirit that is within us, and a warning against entertaining ‘bad’ behaviours, because we essentially invite the devil in, which can essentially chase out this gentle spirit, leaving us in chaos. The angel gives all sorts of ideas in all sorts of circumstances as to how we can hold on to this pure and essential nature – how to choose the Right over the Wrong. There are continuous warnings against seeking out drunkenness, rich foods, rich tastes within the world, and all the worldly gossip and trappings which are useless and damaging.

All these instructions are honestly not that hard to follow – and I like that it comes from the point of view that even when we make mistakes, we can fix it. We can do better, we can become better people, we are not beyond hope.

All of this, however, centres on doing these things so that we can live right with God. God is whom we aim to please. We are the cats, about to sink our claws into something, or the dog about to pull scraps, and God is our owner, watching. It doesn’t necessarily matter what we believe as much as whether or not what we believe encourages us to live good lives and be good humans.

Sidenote – it was fascinating to me that The Shepherd of Hermas does not mention Jesus. Here is some more info here with some links, I love this website because it has great links to so much information. I’ve used it for years. https://www.earlychristianwritings.com/shepherd.html