Reform magazine, the journal of the United Reformed Church, asked four people to respond to the question of miracles.
Maggi Dawn, associate professor of theology and literature, and dean of Marquand Chapel at the University of Yale, says:
To insist that God is the performer of miracles is also to make him the worker of monstrosities. God’s goodness and presence is best understood if we release ourselves from the need to attribute every event, good and bad, to divine intervention, and instead allow that the chaos and wonder of the natural order has its own power under the authorship of God.
Michael Jagessar, secretary of the United Reformed Church racial justice and intercultural ministry department:
I am at home with the Reformed insight that the Divine is known and present in the world we inhabit. Hence, the whole of life is a large theatre of daily manifestation of miracles….
…Over the years, I have picked up at least four responses to the question “Do miracles happen?”: “Yes”, “no”, “I don’t know” and silence. Personally, the evidence around and before me will not allow me to say categorically “no”….
…In the cultural context of my Caribbean world, the miraculous has to do with the whole of life…. For instance, ask any Haitian about the existence of miracles and s/he would most likely respond in the affirmative or remain silent.
Attorney (and Anglican) Simon Edwards says that the resurrection is the miracle that most matters.
In my view, a healthy amount of scepticism concerning miracle claims is a positive human trait. However, it is a problem when that scepticism becomes universal, and even well documented miracles (such as the Resurrection of Jesus Christ) no longer get their hearing.
Novelist Catherine Fox still prays for miracles, but knows that miracles often show up in ways so ordinary that they escape our expectations.
Some days I find myself caught between two impossibilities: That God should exist, or that there should be something rather than nothing. Both thoughts are too big for me. I’ve come to see that the miraculous is our bedrock. What we call miracles are the outcrops that catch our attention.
What do you think? Do miracles happen?