Monday September 27, 2010
Someone asked me a while back, what is faith? That may seem like a such a basic question, but it is a good one. Is it the same as belief? Is it the opposite of doubt? Is it trust? If I have faith in God, what do I do when doubt creeps in? And where does it come from, how do you get it? Surely you’ve heard of people losing it. What then? All of the scriptures for Sunday touch on it. Let’s take a look.
Background on this weeks readings:
Psalm 137- “By the waters of Babylon...”
You have surely heard the song, “By the waters of Babylon...” Well here’s where it comes from. This is a lament set in the time after the devastating experience of 587BCE. In that year the Babylonian army swept into Jerusalem, destroyed the city, the temple and everything that the Hebrew people held dear, and took all the leaders, skilled labourers and others into exile in Babylon. They were a people in exile, serving their conquerors. They were devastated. Had they been abandoned by God? The centre had not held. “How could we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” And in the last few lines of the psalm, their lament turns to revenge. Anyone ever felt that rise within? Anyone ever seen it in the world? Have they lost their faith?
2 Timothy 1:1-14 “Faith lies within us. How does it get there?”
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2 Timothy+1&version=MSG
You might try reading this from “The Message” (above second url) paraphrased by Eugene Peterson. Here the writer writing in the name of Paul writes to Timothy urging him to hold fast to the faith he has been given, and has shown in his life and vocation. This is a tender appeal rooted in both a love of Timothy and a deep respect for the way faith has been planted and grown in him. This reading offers a respect for the way faith comes to us, settles in us, emerges in our lives. Our mothers and fathers in faith are part of that, and there is some greater mystery at work.
Luke 17:5-10
So, here’s the thing. This gospel reading contains two parts. In the first part Jesus responds to the disciple’s plea to “increase our faith,” as if faith were some kind of commodity and more is better. Jesus responds with the assurance that they have a tiny but powerful grain of faith (a mustard seed), and as grandma used to say, “a little dabb’ll do ya.” Then he moves to the image of slaves and a master. Here he seems to be addressing the disciples expectation that faith has external rewards, that acting in faith will get them something. But as any parent will tell you, at a certain point maturity requires that the choices we make have internal rewards, that the rightness of them be enough, that living in faith is the very thing that makes living in faith rewarding.
Some thoughts
What is faith? In a chapter in his book “The Heart of Christianity,” Marcus Borg talks about several ways of conceiving of faith. These include faith as assent to beliefs and doctrines, faith as engaging in religious practises, and faith as trusting in a relationship. The mustard seed faith that Jesus identifies in the disciples seems to be the trust kind. Trust is such a critical element in any relationship, and faith conceived as trust means everything to a Christian life. We know this in our families, in our marriages, in our vocational work, when trust is shaken, everything gets shaken, and when trust is gone, it is hard to get it back. Faith in a God who is somehow with us- faith in a world that God inhabits, that trust is at the core of the Christian Way.
But as the psalm writer shows, and Paul alludes to, “holding fast”, is not always easy. Despair creeps in during hard times. Trusting in the essential goodness of life does not protect us from suffering, even devastation.
So why trust when there are no guarantees? And the evangelical atheists of today would say, why trust a God for whom science has no empirical evidence, and why follow a religious system which, when pushed, so often turns violent (Psalm 137)? Our response to these questions goes to the very heart of our faith. How would you respond?
Starter questions:
1. Who are the people who have demonstrated faith to you? What difference did it make in their lives? Who are your “mothers and grandmothers” (2Timothy) in the faith?
2. In Psalm 137 the lament is deep and soul wrenching. How has your faith fared in soul wrenching times?
3. How do you live well without guarantees in life? Does trusting in God, in a “more” as Borg would say, make a difference to the quality of character you bring to life? How?
4. Some would discredit a pursuit of faith with science or by pointing at violent parts of the bible or violent practitioners of faith? How do you respond?
Further Exploring:
I am going to try to post the introduction to Bill Bryson’s recent book, A Short History of Nearly Everything. Great book. Buy it. Read it. Wonder at how deeper scientific knowledge can instil wonder and faith.
Thanks, Will. The blog looks great, and is so well organized; i love how I can quickly grab the scriptures to which you are referring. I hope that this project succeeds and grows.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to find an un-interrupted time to contemplate the questions, so that I can provide a semi-coherent-logical input into the "conversation"....not so easy some days.... Are the responses supposed to be internal reflections, or actually typed out? Since I've never "blogged" before, I suspect it is some of both....
1. Who are the people who have demonstrated faith to you? What difference did it make in their lives? Who are your “mothers and grandmothers” (2Timothy) in the faith? My mother, who did not attend church much, due to illnesses, but ran a neighbourhood bible study group, and my cousin are my mentors of faith. They helped me to seak, even when I didn't know what I was looking for , or why....
2. In Psalm 137 the lament is deep and soul wrenching. How has your faith fared in soul wrenching times? I've been fortunate not to have too many of these times, yet. But in those times, faith given me strength, and the ability to breathe, when each breath was a conscious effort.
4. Some would discredit a pursuit of faith with science or by pointing at violent parts of the bible or violent practitioners of faith? How do you respond? Anybody can take parts of the Bible and create 1/2 truths, twists and turns in the true meaning, especially in order to serve their own purposes. Violence has been "justified" by those who committed it, with such 1/2 truths. I think it is our faith which takes us beyond these crooked events and keeps us 'true' to God, in such terrible times....
1. Who are the people who have demonstrated faith to you? What difference did it make in their lives? Who are your “mothers and grandmothers” (2Timothy) in the faith?
ReplyDeleteMy immediate and extended family, particularly on my mother’s side have demonstrated faith to me. They have a deep held faith that I think was nurtured in family devotional time every day when they grew up. This faith has been a ‘centre’ for them, and it is the place to which they return for strength in difficult times.
2. In Psalm 137 the lament is deep and soul wrenching. How has your faith fared in soul wrenching times?
Thankfully I haven’t had many soul wrenching times in my life. I have had a few ‘shakes’ but nothing that has made me move away from having faith that God ‘will provide’. I find comfort in knowing that that core of faith is strong and it centres me and allows me to move forward.
3. How do you live well without guarantees in life? Does trusting in God, in a “more” as Borg would say, make a difference to the quality of character you bring to life? How?
Hmmmm….I have to think about this one a bit longer. My first instinct is to say that it does make a difference to the quality of character that I bring to life. I can’t however truly explain ‘how’….that takes a bit of soul searching…….
Hm. Mothers are important eh? My mother too was there with calmness and a willingness to explore faith and spirit, and her willingness led to a willingness in me, or at least opened the door for me. I wonder about where the fathers are though, both in our lives as we look back and in the church.
ReplyDeleteA very interesting observation.
ReplyDeleteMy father was very 'present' in our faith lives. According to family stories – he started going to church regularly again when he met my mom....much to his mother’s amazement. She figured that it must be a women who got him to go to evening service three weeks in a row! She was right! The important point of that ‘re-engagement’ in the church and his faith, was that my parents made a joint commitment to bring their children up together in the church faith – they decided that it was important for both to be in the same demonination and for both to demonstrate their faith by going to church together and taking the children together. Having chosen to become active in the church again, my dad did so wholeheartedly, and ended up demonstrating that faith in tangible ways – through active service to the church community at the congregation level, and national level, where ever we lived.
For all of my life growing up in the church we have always heard, and the church continues to hear, the lament of ‘where are the men in the church?' They are visibly absent from church pews on most Sundays, and in many families the model of faith for children is their mother. Dads mostly stay at home on Sunday mornings, and it is quite acceptable, so the children want to stay home with dad. I commend mothers who continue to provide that model of faith for children, particularly in a world full of other activities on a Sunday morning. Helping children to develop their faith in a world full of distrations is a difficult role for mothers to play on their own. The fact that they persevere is a demonstration of their own strong faith. I wonder what our churches would be like with more fathers as models of faith for our children in the church? Would the church be stronger? Would there be less speculation about the future of the church?