Thursday, 24 January 2008

• FAITHWords: Faith--Yours. Mine. Ours.

  Here's the new topic.  Things are crazy right now, with a death in the family and everything else we've got going.  Aaach.  This one is pretty wordy, but this week we're engaging in a lot of instructive activities.  So we're trying to balance.

   

  FAITH: Yours. Mine. Ours.

   

  There are basically two ways for us to look at the issue of faith.  Through the eyes of our cultural context, that is Americans in the early 21^st century, or through the eyes of the Biblical context, which is to view it through the narrative of the people of God over the ages. 

   

  There are necessary things we must know about both.  First, the culture in which we are raised will always, always have an effect on what we think about everything.  That cannot be undone.  However, the danger is when it is the deciding factor of how we view things.  Second, the Biblical context has a two-fold nature; 1) the historical context for the information itself, ie, when the Bible talks about places and people, it means those places and those people 2) the broader, spiritual application, ie, when the Bible talks about places and people, it means to make reference to the situation, so that we may learn from that situation, and know how to react when we are in that particular situation ourselves. 

   

  So, what I would like to look at is a set of dichotomies, opposite comparisons, that look at our cultural view of faith, and the Biblical view of faith.  These dichotomies are:

   

  Acceptable v. Required, Individual v. Communal, and Private v. Persuasive.

   

  Acceptable v. Required

   

  This is really the argument of Unnecessary v. Necessary.  The cultural view of ‘faith is acceptable’, that is, ‘It’s OK to have one, if you want to, but I’m not going to make you have one if you don’t want to.’, is built primarily on arrogance and ignorance. 

   

  Saying that faith is acceptable is saying that no faith is also acceptable, and ultimately is judging the fact that one has a faith at all.  What are the connotations, the feelings behind a word like acceptable?  They are derogatory.  You can do that, but I don’t see why you would.  So really, what is being said in more culturally ‘sensitive’ terms is, you don’t really need one, but if you want one, we can’t make fun of you to your face for it. 

   

  Secondly, the idea that a person doesn’t hold a faith is just ridiculous.  I’m sure you’ve heard it all before, but let us look at if its even possible not to hold a faith. 

   

  Everyone has a faith in something.  Christians believe in Christ, sure, but humanists have faith that humanity can achieve its own ends. 

   

  Agnostics believe that something is out there somewhere, and have faith that we can make it without that something until we have to interact with that something…at some point.  Even atheists believe that what they believe is true.  They have faith in their faith. 

   

  So calling faith ‘acceptable’ is really a way of saying it’s unnecessary.

   

   

   

  However, we know this not to be the case.  Not only is a faith a default position—everybody has one of some kind or another—it is required to be a healthy human being.  You have to have one to be able to function correctly, and I’m not even talking about the normal examples of having faith in chairs and stop lights and mailmen and my internet provider.  I’m talking about a belief about the outer realms, about the spiritual world. 

  There have been studies, which I can’t find on the internet but I’ve read about and so am going to quote even without all the proof, that have shown that people with a firm belief, one way or another, about the spiritual realm live happier, healthier lives.  Everyone needs a way of viewing the un-viewable.

   

  But, we know that beyond it being a basic psychological need, there is a true imperative behind which decision we make in faith.  How do we know this? Hebrews 11:6: And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him., and add that to John 14:6: Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.   These two combined equal a need for a faith, and where that faith is meant to be placed. 

  These are just two very immediate examples out of the great narrative of faith that is the Bible, with the nature of a chosen people, a chosen God and the faith passed between the two.

   

  Individual v. Communal

   

  The story of the Bible is one that starts with a community, is about a community throughout, and then ends with a community.  First there is the triune God, then there is the addition of His creation and a chosen group of them to be His people, and then the final pinnacle of those who follow Christ and what happens with them at the end of all time.  Community, community, community. 

   

  But how do we know that faith is meant to be communal?  Well, there is the fact that for all of the generations up to Jesus, there was a central Temple where ALL, catch that ALL, of the Hebrews went to worship YHWH.  This was the ultimate pinnacle of community.  All of a single people group was expected to worship their special God in one place, at least once a year—Passover. 

   

  For a New Testament example of the nature of faith being communal, you have the example of…the New Testament.  Of what is the majority of New Testament composed?  Letters to…that’s right…put it together…THE COMMUNITY!  All of the faith issues addressed by Paul, Peter, John and the other Epistle writers were meant to be addressed in public, communal settings.  Yes, they related to personal issues of piety or purity, individual responses to the gospel or to false teaching, but they were addressed to the community as a whole.  How is the community handling the people within it?  It was, and is, the responsibility of the community to maintain a standard to which each individual must hold. 

  That is why the letters were addressed to communities, about individual necessity.

   

   

   

  This is not the way our culture tells us we should handle our faith.  To whom does faith apply in our culture?  The individual.  You do things your way, I’ll do things mine.  Don’t tell me how you do your faith, because I don’t want you telling me how I should do my faith.  Even if I don’t have a faith—I know, I know—but even if I say I don’t have a faith, you can’t tell me about the faith that you have, because that might mean you are trying to make me believe in your faith. 

   

  Faith is something that we are to pursue in the quiet of our own home, in our own private life, and we are not to share that experience. 

   

  Don’t think that has influenced your faith?  Think about this:  when was the last time you looked someone in the eye while singing a worship song at church?  When was the last time you gave someone a hug while praying?  When was the last time you felt really, really embarrassed for touching or bumping or whatevering someone in church?  This culture of individuality has pervaded even how we act when we gather together, supposedly in the name of community worship. 

   

  It’s true the nature of our individual relationship with God is without a doubt of primary importance.  We cannot have a community of believers if we don’t have individual believers.  But neither can we call ourselves a community if when we gather together we spend all of that time in our individual pursuits.  There is a time, a place, and a necessity for each.  We cannot isolate our belief to the individual. 

   

  Private v. Persuasive

   

  So, out of that individualism in faith grows the idea of a ‘private’ faith.  A private faith is one that is non-vocal.  It doesn’t talk about itself or communicate the things about itself that are different or necessary or essential, or anything at all.  A private faith is one which grows quiet due to the individual nature of its practice. 

   

  This is the way that we are expected to behave with our faith in the American culture.  ‘I believe in God, sure, I just don’t go around tootin’ my horn about it.’  Pretty typical Joe-on-the-street response. 

   

  And this translates into any type of communication about your faith, including demonstrative, or obvious actions but non-vocal, communication. 

  If we are out serving people, and it is well known that we are Christians, whether we are doing it for the sake of evangelization or not, that will be the assumption.  And that will be looked down on.  Because faith should be private.

   

   

  And obviously, there is a private aspect to our faith.  We have a quiet element: we don’t want to go out confessing on the street corners every sin we’ve committed, or jump up in inappropriate situations and start preaching the gospel—like at the library or in the middle of a funeral.  There is a time for silence.

   

  However, there is also this, Matthew 28: 19: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Seems pretty clear. 

  It is not only part of our faith to be vocal, but is a Jesus-commanded part of our faith to be vocal, in a way that produces disciples.

   

  So, there are two sides to this persuasive vocality.  We can’t just go be vocal, and not produce anything.  That’s just annoying, and is probably a big reason why people in the West hate Christians.  And the other side of that is we can’t swallow everything we know, and not demonstrate or speak about it when the time comes.  Both of those are necessary: restraint and participation.  Because we are meant to have a persuasive faith, a faith that shows others what love is, and why they should have it.  People should see what our lives look like, and know that we have a love for one another that is unnatural, and that it is because we have a love for God.  That kind of stuff persuades people. 

   

   

  So, what’s my point.

  My point is this.  The culture in which we live seems to want to remove a lot of what it means to have a faith that is life changing.  The culture sends messages about it being ok, but unnecessary to have a faith.  The culture sends messages about how what’s ok for you, isn’t necessarily what I need—there is no group dynamic to faith, we don’t have to participate in anything together.  The culture sends messages about how your faith should stay quiet—keep that to yourself, the culture seems to say.

   

  But a life-changing faith knows what it is based on.  A life-changing faith knows who it’s for.  A life-changing faith knows it has to share, be shared in, and communicate itself around the world.  Because it changes lives.  That’s what makes it life changing. 

   

   

  Read the Bible.  That’s what our faith looks like.  Not some mamby-pamby thing that doesn’t mean anything to anybody—or even worse can mean anything to anybody.  Rather, it is a faith with a central core of necessity and community and communication and need and love and change. 

   

  Hebrews 11:1: Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. That is life changing faith.

   

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