The Question of Faith

 What do you have faith in?

Now I know the parables are good today,

And I'm not going to talk about them

Because one of the most basic things about religion is faith.

You can blame St. Paul for today's sermon.

All religions require faith.

Faith is the belief in things not seen.

In some ways, all the ideals we aspire to

love, justice, charity, hope

they are the bedrock on which any religion is created,

including some things we don't think of as religion, but could be construed that way,

are things we cannot see.

We can't see justice, certainly these days we don't see a lot of evidence for it.

We can't see equality or freedom or peace

because they are ways of talking about systems in which everyone belongs and feels comfortable being themselves

and we know we have not achieved that kind of world.

Anyway, without faith, there is no religion

no Christianity, no Judaism, no Islam, no Jainism, no pantheism.

In the passage from Paul to the Romans, he writes,

"Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."

Well, we try to wait for it with patience...

Faith is another one of those things we cannot see

at least not in itself

Its not faith if we have certainty,

its faith because there is some element of uncertainty about it.

We have faith in God, who we cannot see, in God's existence and actions.

We might say we have faith in another person, but that isn't about their existence,

its about their actions which haven't come to pass yet, something unseen.

The St. Peter's summer book, written by Mitch Albom, called the Stranger in the Lifeboat

brings up this question of having faith.

And the corollary question, faith in what?

The basic set up of the book is that there is a conference,

a gathering of innovators and big shots on a personal yacht of a billionaire, as a kind of think tank trip with lots of lavish entertainment.

During the trip, something happens on the yacht and it explodes.

The story follows a small group of people who end up in a lifeboat.

The reader is told this story from the perspectives of two narrators,

one of the people who was working on the yacht who ends up in the lifeboat

and the police officer in charge when the lifeboat comes ashore a year later.

The big question of faith comes up after the lifeboat has been floating by itself at sea for a couple of days.

The group of people in the lifeboat pulls another person out of the ocean

who claims to be God.

And says that he can save everyone on the lifeboat,

but everyone has to believe in him in order for it to work.

And subsequently the rest of the book is about the reactions, responses, and consequences of everyone's faith or lack of faith.

The question of faith in this story is one that has immediate and drastic consequences.

That's what makes it suspenseful.

The question of faith in our lives may not seem like it has drastic consequences,

we don't usually face life or death situations daily where our faith makes a difference,

but also in some ways, our faith does make a huge difference to how we are living and what kinds of choices we are willing to make.

In the book, the outcome of the people in the lifeboat all depend on their relationship to this question.

The questions are asked,

Is the man God? Are there logical explanations for the things that happen?

If you haven't read the book, now is a good time to do so.

Sometimes things can be seen to have very logical explanations,

sometimes things are more convoluted and questionable.

sometimes our lack of understanding about the truly interconnected nature of our world leadS us to make the wrong conclusions.

what we believe is determined by us,

faith is always a choice, a soul choice, not always a mind choice or a logical choice.

Not that mathematicians and philosophers and religious leaders haven't tried

to clear up the murky questions of existence and God and evil and meaning...

In the last few millennia, plenty of people have tried to make logical and conclusive proofs about the existence or non-existence of God

Maybe you've heard of Pascal's Wager or Aquinas' Five Ways,

Plato's cosmological arguments or Moses ben Maimon, widely known as Maimonides,

Wrote a proof to believe that God is, but not an idea of what God is. He believed that God cannot be understood or be compared.

On the other hand Nietzsche and Russell have proofs against the existence of God.

There is a whole spectrum of ideas about faith

and some of the people on the furthest edges of the spectrum say there is no use even talking about the question

because it has been become a certainty for them, one way or the other.

Of course, that is when it stops being faith.

Most people find themselves somewhere in the middle

For many people this is what keeps them learning, keeps them exploring faith, religion, and their understanding of reality

because uncertainty opens up questions

Sometimes I think questions are more important than answers.

Martin B. Copenhaver, an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, literally wrote a book called

Jesus Is the Question: The 307 Questions Jesus Asked and the 3 He Answered. He says, 

"In the Gospels Jesus asks many more questions than he answers. To be precise, Jesus asks 307 questions. He is asked 183 of which he only answers 3.

Asking questions was central to Jesus' life and teachings."

One of the most basic questions we can ask ourselves is 

what do I believe? What do I have faith in?

In the Confirmation class this past spring we asked our young people to write their own creed

A statement of belief

which can be a good helpful, engaging, and harder than you might think, spiritual practice.

I occasionally do this myself.

I write a creed of beliefs.

What I have faith in

because the world pulls us in so many directions sometimes we don't realize what we truly believe in.

Asking ourselves the question is one of the only ways to find out.

Its summer, in case you haven't noticed

I suggest this exercise,

Take your cocktail outside, on a good air day

take a pencil and paper and eraser

write at the top of the page

What do I have faith in? Or what do I believe?

And see what comes

see where God is at work in you.

And then go out into the world and live it.

We can talk about faith until we are blue in the face,

and my husband would tell you that I can definitely do that,

but questions and answers, true faith,

needs to be lived out.

We can follow the example of Jesus who lived his questions

day in and day out.

This is why I highly recommend

at least once in your life, or on an occasional basis,

write out what you believe,

write out what you have faith in.

Then think about what that means for your daily life and put it into action.

I know, I know...

easier said than done.

Believe me... I know.

I believe in a non-violent approach to conflict and life in general

but there are days I want to punch something.

But I believe in a non-violent approach to life,

as Jesus did, and so I took the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center training on how to deal with conflict

and I am working on implementing what I learned there into my life practices.

Truly, faith cannot be seen,

but it does have to be lived.

In order to be lived we have to have an idea about what we have faith in.

So, the question for the day is

What do you have faith in?