The Sin of Certainty
Reflections on the Wesleyan Quadrilateral - Experience
September 8, 2024
1 John 1:1-3, Romans 8:16
see also:
John 5:39-40, Matthew 7:15-23
We announce to you what existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have seen and our hands handled, about the word of life. The life was revealed, and we have seen, and we testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us. What we have seen and heard, we also announce it to you so that you can have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
1 John 1:1-3
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“We announce to you what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have seen and our hands handled, about the word of life.” In other words, what we proclaim to you about God is what we ourselves have seen, heard and touched. Or to put it another way, we are sharing with you our “experience” of God.
Some have said that we cannot trust our experience because we are fallen human beings tainted by sin. While there is certainly truth to the ways sin skews our perspective, it is equally true that we cannot know anything except through the lens of our lived experience. There is no idealized form of any object that can be described apart from the way one perceives it. If ten people were to describe a particular tree, for example, there would certainly be similar elements such as color, parts like bark, leaves or branches, perhaps certain textures, etc. And yet each description would be so unique in other ways that one might wonder if they are all describing the same tree. One person might notice tiny holes from bugs that were eating at it, and another might notice the moss along the base. Still another might zero in on a birds nest or a particular knot where a branch seemed to grow in an unlikely direction. All of these details say as much about our experience of the tree as they do about the tree itself.
If each person would notice different aspects of a tree, how much more will each person have their own unique experience of God. Even scripture is not “immune” from the impact of experience. The Biblical writers to not have an objective source of information about God that is universally accepted as scientifically tested and verified fact. Rather, they each write through the lens of their own experiences of God in their lives. Abraham encounters God in the visitation of three strangers. Moses experiences God in a burning bush. Elijah sees God in the all consuming fire, hears God in the silence, and is nourished by God through bread and rest under the broom tree.
People experience Jesus differently too. The lepers and the tax collectors, for example, have a very different perception of who he is than the Jewish leaders who put him on trial. Everything we know about God is mediated through someone’s experience and more likely, through the culmination of many people’s experiences throughout the centuries including our own. In his letter to the Romans, Paul says that we “...received a Spirit that shows you are adopted as his children. With this Spirit, we cry, “Abba, Father.” The same Spirit agrees with our spirit, that we are God’s children. (Romans 8:15-16).
God sent the Spirit so that we could fully experience his loving presence and share that experience with others along the way.
We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are
~ Rabbi Shemuel ben Nachmani, as quoted in the Talmudic tractate Berakhot (55b.)