Ministerial Meanderings May 10, 2026
Ministerial Meandering
Faith, Hope, Trust, and Certainty
“I’m right and you’re wrong,” he said, peeling another banana with his feet.
There is a supreme arrogance in those who know they are always right; you only have to look around the world today to see examples of them. Frequently we pity them - because they are so stupid to think that way - and at the same time we secretly envy them their confidence, because we don’t have it.
I have a cautious distrust of absolute certainty, as I have found that things I have been sure of have, from time to time, let me down - and sometimes that has been myself. I recall speaking to a young doctor during my time in the Royal Navy; he said he was an atheist, and relied on no ‘higher power’, but only on himself as a point of reference for all issues. I felt sorry for him, and also flabbergasted that he could - at such a young age (he was still under 30) - have such an inflated opinion of his own intellectual ability. He was also the apex of his own moral compass. What a house of cards! I have no idea what happened to him, but I hope he has grown up since then.
In the Bible, the book of Hebrews tells us that ‘faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.’ This appears to me to be an oxymoronic statement of some complexity, because ‘faith’, being a belief operating without empirical evidence or absolute proof, cannot therefore really be at the same time an ‘assurance’, which implies confidence. Confidence means leaving no room for doubt - and then ‘hope’ comes along. ‘Hope’ is a desire, a wish, or expectation - none of which can be guaranteed, so it would seem to me to be oxymoronic again to hold a ‘conviction’ on such an issue.
If unpacking that verse has left you uncomfortable with me because you feel I might be aiming to destroy biblical truth, then let me make it worse for you.
Some of you may have had the opportunity to watch the film, ‘Conclave.’ It is about the choosing of a new pope. In it, the convenor of the conclave - the Dean of the College of Cardinals - says a few words to the all the cardinals about to pray for a new pope, and in his address he says, “There is one sin I have come to fear above all others - certainty. Certainty is the great enemy of unity, certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance. Even Jesus was not certain at the end; why else did he cry out, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt. If there were only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery - and therefore no need for faith.”
In our monthly Men’s Bible Study at the Reformed Church this week, one person said, ‘We cannot be certain all the time; sometimes our faith crumbles, but it is not right to knock the entire wall down and try to start again. It is better to repair what we have and move on. Going back to the beginning does not allow God to help us grow; we have to continue on from where we are now.’
I offered my memory of the prayer at the end of the Dean’s address to the cardinals; ‘Let us pray for a pope who doubts, a pope who sins, who asks for forgiveness - and carries on.’
That, I think, is where ‘trust’ lies.
Philip+