BELIEVING

Job 42: 1-6; John 20: 24-26

Today we have heard an example of unwavering faith in the Old Testament and an example of classic doubt in the New. Job and Thomas; bookends for a row of volumes with entirely different content: one with trust, one with proof; one with faith, one with science. Somewhere in the middle, I suspect, is where many people live. There are, of course, some with unwavering faith, “like a rock.” There are also some with shaky or little belief that quiver like a feather in the wind. We are leaving out the supposed total non-believers from this debate for now. The CHRISTIAN BELIEVER text states it this way: “To be human is to be a believer. We differ in what we believe, and in the intensity of beliefs, but we insist on believing in something. Life simply cannot exist without some such basis. These beliefs become the set of sails that determine the direction of our lives and our destination [along with] the nature and quality of our journey.” (p.9) Today we are briefly addressing the idea of believing in God, or if one is a Christian, believing in Jesus Christ as Savior. The Apostles’ Creed, which you are invited to profess in a few minutes, is what theologian Helmut Thielicke once described as “The Super-steep wall of faith.” About it he writes in his book titled I BELIEVE: “I admit that reciting the Apostles’ Creed in the service is somewhat of an annoyance to me. I am somewhat troubled by the fact that [it] seems to almost diffuse an atmosphere of misunderstanding…. [Some wonder if we’re allowed to join the man in the gospel who said to the Lord Jesus; ‘I believe; help my unbelief!’] I am not very happy [that] the people for whom the promises of faith were intended suddenly grow faint and lapse into silence [in certain parts of the creed.]” [1968, Fortress Press, p. xii.] So can we, like Thomas, and dare I say even Job, choose what we believe, and affirm parts of the faith, and not fully understand or, dare I say, doubt other parts? When a candidate for ministry at our last Presbytery meeting was asked if she affirmed the doctrine of the Virgin Birth, she paused and answered “I affirm it, though confess I do not completely understand it.” And so we stand in a great line of saints in the faith from Cyril to Augustine, from Anselm to Aquinas, from Calvin to Zwingli, who, by their own confessions, admitted that God Almighty, was part of a MYSTERIUM TREMENDUM, and that the teachings of Scripture were sometimes hard to understand, hard to believe, and even harder to live. Believing in a God that science cannot prove; believing in a Savior whose death on a cross 2000 years ago wonderfully and powerfully changes lives today; believing that a chosen young woman named Mary complied with an extraordinary heavenly request to start the holy presence on earth; and believing in a God who is not an absentee landlord but one present even now through one called the Holy Spirit, can make a believer a laughingstock among skeptics and can send skeptics smugly back into their corners of disbelief. But reluctant people like Moses and Zechariah and Mary were visited by Heavenly voices of visitors; they were not looking for greatness. Intelligent people like Joseph of Arimathea gave away his entire family’s burial plot to Jesus because something about the Savior changed his heart. A woman at a well evangelized her entire village after Jesus spoke to and counseled her. And a man possessed by a demon who was healed by Jesus soon became enthusiastic enough for Christ that his whole community was converted even before the Savior returned. Story after story is told about lives that are changed by those who came to believe. But as Job found out, believers can and will be tested by scoffers. As Thomas found out, God sometimes will bless those who see and believe, but God grows faith in the hearts of those who believe without the benefit of seeing or proving. Once proof is evident, faith dissipates. What use is faith in the light of proof? So our elusive belief system pours out its blessings on those who live by faith and not by sight. What a challenge that is; but what untold joys are being held for faithful souls.

Today Reformers like John Calvin, in pouring over all the accounts of the gospels, found evidence, for example in Luke 24, of Jesus being really present with, but not evident to, believers in the breaking of bread and sharing of the cup. For us, if we actually saw our Lord, we might box him into humanness: “That’s what he looks like? I thought he’d look different from that!” some might say. In Godly wisdom, Jesus is kept from appearing, but his presence, like wind that is felt but not seen, surrounds his disciples wherever they are. We are here in his name; he is among us. Let us prepare our hearts for the humble news that the risen Lord, who rules on high because he was made worthy, invites one as human as you, and as me, to share this meal which he has prepared. He is overjoyed to have this time with us; may you find the joy that is perhaps even dormant in your heart, and tell him in prayer about your joy in meeting and eating with him again today.

Jeffrey A. Sumner October 7, 2007