From the Bishop

The Priority of Uncle Wiggley

To live in faith means much more than to have all the right answers.

When I was very young my mother would read to me every night.  I think it was my favorite part of the day. Many nights my mother would read to me from the encyclopedia.  She started with the A volume and began to read straight through.  I do not remember if we ever got to the end.  Her goal, I know, was that she wanted me to be excited about learning.  I’m not sure if I remember anything from the encyclopedia that she read to me, but her strategy must have worked.  Ginger will be embarrassed for me to admit this, but the truth is I still like to pick up a good encyclopedia and just start reading.

All our reading time was not so serious.  My mother also read to me from a series of books by Howard R. Garis about Uncle Wiggley, a kind, funny gentleman with a crutch that looked like a barber pole.  Most of the Uncle Wiggley books had no pictures.  But one did, and I particularly loved that one.  I may remember more about Uncle Wiggley than I do from the encyclopedia, but not much.

One would be tempted to think that the important thing about those nights with my mother sitting on my bed, tucking me in, and reading either the article about the “Azores” from the A volume of the encyclopedia or about “Uncle Wiggley and Lulu Wibblewabble” from Uncle Wiggley’s Picture Book might have something to do with the content of what was read.  And it isn’t that the content isn’t important.  It is just that to see only that is to miss the even more important thing that was going on.

I don’t know much about the Azores today, and I can’t remember the details of the story about Lulu Wibblewabble (although I do remember that her name used to make me laugh).  I do remember, though, and quite distinctly, my mother reading to me. My life was shaped in those bedtime story times.  In truth, though, it wasn’t shaped by the content of what was read or what I might have learned.  It was shaped by the relationship between my mother and me.

Faith is like that.  One way to understand faith is about content.  And content is important.  The encyclopedia contains facts that are important to know. That is part of what the Christian faith means — the content of what we believe.

Much ink has been spilled on the content of our faith.  Theologians have written countless volumes about it. They are about the doctrine of the Trinity, the dual nature of Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit, the mission of the church.  The content of our faith is more than interesting.  It is truth and living in the truth has much to do with living a good life.

But there is another meaning to the word faith.  Faith means more than the content of what we believe. It is also a relational word.  To live in faith means much more than to have all the right answers.  It means to live in a certain kind of relationship with someone, a relationship of love and of trust and of accountability.  In truth, when the Bible, especially St. Paul, uses the word faith, it means something relational.  To have faith in Christ, biblically speaking, is not to have memorized the contents of the encyclopedia or to know all the right answers about Christ or God or to have written a theological treatise or even to have read every word of the Bible or to believe that every word of the Bible is literally true.

Faith in Christ is about relationship with Christ.  It is about love and service and accountability.  It is more about a mother reading to her child at bedtime than it is the content of the encyclopedia.  The priority of faith is the relationship itself.  The priority of faith may even be in Uncle Wiggley.  Seeing it as being the encyclopedia makes it far too easy to miss the really important thing that was going on, a mother reading to her child.

Agape,

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