This is a hard teaching - the list

Last Sunday in church I asked my congregation to write down the "hard teachings," the bits of their faith that they struggle with. I promised to try and answer some of them in church, and to blog about them as well.

Here's the list that people came up with.

How important is the spiritual side of the Christian faith? I love the practical application of “love thy neighbour” and the parables, but struggle with the Holy Spirit.

Give up all that you have.

Transformation – what happens at communion?

What was going on when Jesus appeared after death? Could heaven be on earth?

Christian doctrine tells us that we are saved by faith – what about those who never hear about Jesus, or indeed the many who do not accept him?

I absolutely believe in Jesus and my Father God; my husband and children don’t. How do I accept the fact that I will one day be with the Lord and they won’t?

Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Is God in control of bad things on earth, and if so, why does he let them happen?

Why, in some parables, does the character who represents God not show mercy and instead punishes the wrongdoer?

Where is heaven?

Where do non Christians go when they die?

Why did Jesus tell his followers to leave their families behind to follow him?

Loving those who hurt you!
In the great pantheon on time, why is our life on earth so short?

Original sin.

An all-powerful, all-loving God and the existence of evil.

Why does God seem to pick and choose between those whose prayers he answers?

John 3:16 implies that those who don’t believe in Jesus will “perish.” Is this right?

Trusting God to work in others.

Did God really send plagues in Egypt?

What did Jesus mean when he said of bread and wine, “This is my body,” This is my blood?”

What do you think of that? There's some superb questions there, aren't there? Some are theoretical and perhaps unanswerable; some represent real pain and difficulty and need to be treated with utmost respect. Few, if any, can be adequately answered in a blog post, or indeed by me - I'm just not up to the job. I am as my strapline says, just another follower stumbling after Jesus.

So please join in with your comments. Hold me to account if I give flippant or unsatisfactory answers. But please remember - both for my sake and for everyone who comments - be gentle. I'm going to get things wrong, we all are, and we all depend on the loving forgiveness of our Lord Jesus.