Mark 9:14-24
Acts 16: 25-34
I have a problem. I am concerned about
the tendency of some people to believe that knowledge of God is
essential to having faith in God. I also lament the tendency some
Christian believers that certain beliefs are essential and that unless
you and I possess those beliefs we are non- believers or wrong
believers. My personal faith
journey is totally opposite from this all too pervasive attitude. I
find that the older I get, the more I study, read the Bible and
Biblical literature, the stronger my faith becomes. But the less
sure I am about what are “essentials.” I have come to the point where I
think the only essential question that should be asked of new members,
as those we have received today, is do you believe in Jesus? I
also believe that is the only valid question to be asked of Christians
of other persuasions.
To believe in Jesus is to have his way
of living and believing as a goal for our living and believing. It also
acknowledges the fact that others may view Jesus differently than you
or I do, yet believe in him just as passionately. Dr. Lesley
Weatherhead, former great minister in London England and a prolific
writer put it this way “At my
beloved City Temple for nearly a quarter of a century I would press all
those who believe ‘in’ Christ to join. The word ‘in’ is important. I
believe in many of my friends and they in me. This does not mean that
we are in close intellectual agreement. One of my dearest friends
disagrees with me about both politics and theology, but this does not
harm our friendship. All lovers of Christ can believe ‘in’ him without
believing the same things about him.”
Weatherhead also states
“The early Church, without creeds or
elaborate organization, without any buildings or financial, social,
educational or political backing, went out to change and conquer the
world. Its members were his ‘friends’ They cherished fellowship with
him. His way of life was not based on intellectual agreement.”
(Weatherhead, L.D. “The Christian
Agnostic” New York ,Nashville, Abingdon Press. 1965. Page 160)
With that as the introduction, I want
to share with you my conviction that Christianity is a way of life. It
is not a system of beliefs, and certainly not something about which
humans can be certain. I think
that Paul Tillich, the important theologian, got it correctly when he
stated in his book “Dynamics of Faith:”
“Faith is uncertain in so far
as it is an experience of the holy. Faith is uncertain in so far as the
infinite to which it is related is perceived by a finite being and this
element of uncertainty that exists in faith cannot be removed, it must
be accepted and the element in faith that accepts this is courage.”
(Tillich, P. “Dynamics of Faith”, New
York, Harper Bros. 1957. Page 16)
Do you see the impact of that
statement? It says that God is greater than any human
understanding. As mortals, we are incapable of grasping the depth of
that which is immortal; thus, we believe by faith. Faith gives us the
courage to seek to live by that which we don’t fully understand. That
is what faith is; and faith has as a part of it, doubt. Doubt is
present because, try as we may, as finite creatures we cannot grasp the
totality of the infinite. That is why living the life of faith requires
courage. When a person says
"you must believe this or that in order to be a Christian," he or she
is not talking about faith at all. That person is talking about an
understanding that has been elevated to the level of a necessity. As I
see it, that is the ultimate sin, because it reveals that such a person
believes that he or she understands God, which is impossible, because
we are mortals. The
tragedy of religious history is that religious leaders have constructed
elaborate statements of faith and made people agree with them in order
to be part of a controlled faith community. This is the exact thing
that Jesus spoke against. It was his objection to the demands of the
religious authorities that got him killed.
Many years ago now, when I was a young
pastor, I was assisting an area evangelistic campaign that was
occurring in our part of Southern California. The evangelist gave the
altar call, and many people came up to the stage of the assembly hall
where we were meeting. In a special post-service gathering with these
seekers, the evangelist asked “is there anyone here who does not
believe in the virgin birth?” A young college student bravely held up
his hand and said he could not intellectually hold that belief. The
evangelist said “you may go! You can’t be saved”. I left with that
young man, and I have never participated in another evangelistic
campaign to this day.
That is a good example of my concern.
The virgin birth, which so many believers say is an essential tenet, in
my view isn’t important at all. Here we have an example of a teaching
that is not factual, but is true. Jesus, in the history of religions,
is the ninth virgin born saviour to arrive on earth. Saying he was born
of a virgin was a commonly accepted manner, in that middle eastern
culture, of saying pay attention, here is one who is so great, so
godly, so important, that he is born of a virgin, that is conceived by
Mary and the Holy Spirit.
Many religious persuasions at that
time of history had saviours who were either virgin born or the product
of human-deity encounters. There is nothing unique about the claim that
Jesus was virgin born.
Shortly after the followers of Jesus
were called Christ-ians in Antioch, some believers organized themselves
into faith emphases. When that occurred, leaders met together to
develop statements of faith that became binding for their particular
group. Councils were held, creeds were formed, and discipline was
spelled out. Thus persuasions, by definition, became
divisive, because they excluded people who were followers of Jesus, but
who believed some different ideas. The simple words of Jesus, “follow
me” were lost in the desire to develop sectarian loyalties with
required faith statements. The real issue here is control, and loyalty
to Church leaders.
Did you catch the implication in the
story from the Acts of the Apostles. Paul and Silas were in prison
because of their belief in Jesus. It was about midnight. The
other prisoners were listening to them singing hymns and saying prayers
when a huge earthquake occurred. The prison was destroyed and the doors
were opened so that the prisoners could escape easily. The jailer, who
had fallen asleep, awoke and immediately saw the doors were open, so he
was prepared to kill himself (because he would be blamed if any
prisoners escaped during his watch). Paul cried out in a loud voice, don’t harm
yourself, we are all here. Fetching a light, the jailer ran and saw
that it was so. He knelt down and said "What I must do to have what you
have?" Paul said "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you to will be
saved." The story ends with the jailer binding their wounds and taking
the prisoners to his home for a party, where the jailer and his family
were all baptized. There is faith in action. No theological
requirements, no doctrinal obligations; just believe in Jesus Christ
and you will be saved from all types of selfish behaviour.
Leaving Paul, we turn to the other
scripture of the morning, as written by Mark. It is found in chapter 9.
A great crowd has gathered, and the disciples witness that the scribes
are arguing among themselves. Jesus appears and the people run to greet
him. A man approaches Jesus and says “I brought my child because he
suffers from seizures. He foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth and
becomes rigid. As Jesus is looking at the young boy, a seizure grips
the lad. The Father says to Jesus "Can you help him?" Jesus says "Help
him! All things are possible if you believe in God." Then the father
cries out "I believe, help my unbelief" and the child is healed. Isn’t that the story of most of us? We
believe, but are not sure about many things. The key is to believe in
Jesus, not find conformity of thought; not an ability to articulate
theological viewpoints; not an agreement with the teachings of a Church
or a personality-just belief in Jesus and a willingness to follow. It’s
so simple. We have made it so complicated.
Last Sunday, after the service, Chris
and I went to a local establishment for some lunch. While there, the
owner, who has become our friend, came out and sat at the table with
us. “He said, “my wife and I don’t go to Church. We’re troubled why
religion is one of the major causes of war." I was able to say to him, it is because
followers have wandered from the simple message of their founders, and
institutionalized the faith. Whenever that happens, barriers are
erected, because the most zealous believers state that you must believe
as they believe, or you are wrong and not a Christian. Taken to its
extreme, killing and warfare is the result.
Another reason for bloodshed is that
some believers hold to the idea that if they are loyal, they will be
rewarded. We see almost daily in Iraq, zealous believers who are so
sure of their rightness and everyone else’s error that they are willing
to blow up themselves to reveal their loyalty to their God. They are
willing to die in the killing of those with whom they differ, because
they believe they will be specially rewarded in the life hereafter. It’
so wrong, so selfish, so self serving.
But, before you go away casting
aspersions against the loyalists of another faith, look no further than
the zealots of our own Christianity who insist that certain basic
fundamentals are essential; all others are lost. How arrogant can we
be? How can any human truly believe that he or she knows the mind of
the Eternal? How far can we wander from Jesus words, “love one another
as I have loved you?” It is just such a dogmatic approach that turns
off many potential followers to the point where they throw the baby out
with the bath water, and the Church is left out of their lives. Let me try and illustrate. In
the back of our United Church hymnals, on pages 918 and 920, are the
words of The Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed. I am able to recite
the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed only by interpreting them
metaphorically. Though they are the faith statements of many Christian
believers, I don’t understand them. Listen to page 920, the paragraph
on Jesus.------what does that mean? Is that a requirement? On the other hand I love the New Creed,
which is also on page 918. It was created by a committee of our United
Church, chaired by my friend Gordon Nodwell, and it was adopted in
1968. It is open and embracing. It states broad principles, and leaves
plenty of room for individual differences, while proclaiming a faith in
God and honouring Jesus as God’s revelation and reconciler.
Let me sum it up again using the words
of Leslie Weatherhead. He states my view in one paragraph:
“I believe passionately that
Christianity is a way of life, not a theological system with which one
must be in intellectual agreement. I feel that Jesus would admit into
discipleship anyone who sincerely desired to follow him, and allow that
disciple to write his or her own creed out of his or her own
experience; to listen, to consider, to pray, to follow, and ultimately
to believe only those conviction about which the experience of
fellowship made him or her sure.”
(Ibid, page 16)
My dear friends of this congregation,
and especially you new members, that is my belief. I ask you not to
believe it wholly, unless you can. I ask more that you struggle with
the words of Jesus, until you come to an understanding that will
motivate your life. And I ask one thing more: seek to follow Jesus by
living your love and your joy in what you believe, knowing that all can
believe in him without believing the same things about him.
As believers, we are trying to live a
way if life……His way. May it be so.