This morning we begin a series of messages titled Life Lessons On Faith.
The messages will cover some of the things I have learned over the years
about both life and faith, from my own experience and from the experience of
others. The genesis of this series
came when I attended Wayne Bell’s memorial service several weeks ago. I was sitting in the middle of the
front row of the balcony at Central Christian Church in Lexington, listening to
the speakers, the music, and the readings. It was a beautiful service, and a fitting tribute to Wayne’s
life and ministry. It is amazing
to me that even after his retirement in 1984, Wayne remained active in ministry
– 33 years after his retirement!
Listening to all the elements of the service brought to mind that there
are many lessons we can learn from our own experience and the experience of
others, and we should share those lessons with one another, and the phrase Life Lessons On Faith popped into my
head.
Choosing Faith is the title of our first
lesson in the series, and the Scripture text comes from the famous chapter 11
of the book of Hebrews, which begins with the immortal line now faith is confidence in what we hope for
and assurance about what we do not see, or, as in the more familiar King
James Version, now
faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
I will speak about faith in
relation to three categories this morning –
educational, experiential, and
emotional. We experience faith
in many ways, but these three are foundational elements, I believe, of our
faith. Under the topic of
educational I will speak more to the intellect, specifically to the
often-derided idea of holding to something that is old and ancient. Under the topic of experiential, I will speak to what shaped and molded my faith by
way of experience. Under the topic
of emotion, I will speak to what I
believe is very important to all of us, and that is feeling our faith. As
much as we are thoughtful, logical people, we also want to feel something. We’ve
all sat through dry, boring worship services and walked out the door wishing we
had felt something in the service.
I encourage you to read the entirety of Hebrews 11 today or sometime
this week. For this morning, we
will read a portion of the chapter, Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-10, 13-16 –
1 Now
faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
2 This
is what the ancients were commended for.
3 By
faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what
is seen was not made out of what was visible.
8 By
faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his
inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
9 By
faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign
country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of
the same promise.
10 For
he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and
builder is God.
13 All
these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive
the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance,
admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.
14 People
who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.
15 If
they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had
opportunity to return.
16 Instead,
they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one.
1.
Educational.
Verse 2
says this is what the ancients were
commended for.
Think
about that word ancient for a
moment. The writer of the book of
Hebrews, whom we would now classify as an ancient, wrote of characters such as
Abraham as an ancient. It is a
reminder that our faith reaches back more than generations, more than
centuries; our faith is one that goes back millennia. It is a faith that has roots in the ancients. Today, skeptics often use the words ancient and old in a derogatory manner when they are applied to faith, as though
anything that is ancient or old is unworthy of either honor or emulating.
The
truth that faith is not so much old as it is eternal, and there is a very big
difference in what is eternal and what is simply old. The world old, as
it is often used, implies outdated, outmoded, and a bygone of an earlier era
that no longer has any practical application. But that is not an accurate description of faith. We often refer to faith as the wisdom of the ages, and it is
exactly that – the wisdom of the ages.
Some “old” things are ever new because they reflect the accumulated
wisdom of the ages. Moses, for
example, leaving the security of Pharaoh’s home and affiliating with the Hebrew
slaves is no different from anyone today who struggles with their sense of
identity and purpose in life. When
the psalmist wrote in the 23rd psalm, yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death it
spoke for everyone who has ever felt the sting of loss and sensed the shadow of
death that is then cast over life.
When Abraham left his homeland to follow God’s leading to the Promised
Land, he did so without a clear idea of where his journey would lead or what
might happen along the way.
Abraham’s experience is familiar to us all, as we have sought to
faithfully follow God’s leading, even when we don’t really know where we are
being led. There is also the
wisdom of the ancient Greeks – their gifts of philosophy, science, math, and
their literature that remains so influential to us millennia later. Clearly, old is not irrelevant.
Having
said that, history does have a way of separating the wheat from the chaff,
certainly in terms of what remains applicable. Some of the ancient attitudes and beliefs no longer apply,
and this is true even of some Scripture.
We don’t, for instance, follow every command in the book of
Leviticus. In chapter 19 of
Leviticus, for example, there are commands that were important at the time but
are no longer binding to us. We
don’t follow the command to not plant
your field with two kinds of seed or that which tells us to not wear clothing woven of two kinds of
material (Leviticus 19:19).
Likewise we don’t follow verses 27 and 28 of the same chapter, which
says to not cut the hair at the sides of
your head or clip off the edges of your beard…or put tattoo marks on
yourselves. There were good
and practical theological and social reason why those commands were followed,
but we live in a much different context, where those reasons no longer apply. Some things obviously, are bound to a
particular time, but there is so much that remains eternal, and anyone who
wants to write off the whole of Scripture and faith as being old and outdated
simply has no clue what they are talking about.
This is
why it is important that we have a rational side to faith. We need to think about and study the
Scriptures. The Bible is a book
that takes some work, and without that work, there can be much in the way of
misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and application that can be made. There are very good reasons, contextually,
why Paul would write something such as I Timothy 2:11-12, which says, a woman should learn in quietness and full
submission. I do not permit a
woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. Paul was not misogynistic or sexist; there
were particular reasons why we wrote those words, reasons which are no longer
applicable, but those who do not take the time to learn about the context
misuse Paul’s words and in doing so, mistreat women by limiting their role in
church leadership.
I was
blessed to receive a good education.
My parents made it possible for me to go to college, and I was able to
work myself through two seminary degrees, which was a struggle, as I had a very
difficult schedule of class, study, and working to support myself. But I was able to accomplish it, and
even though it was very difficult in many ways, I am so thankful I was able to
go to seminary and to make it through.
The rigorous study was often difficult and challenging, but I am very
grateful for what I learned.
When I
graduated from high school, I spent much of the summer working at our local
church camp. One of the leaders
there, whom I very much respected, did not approve of my choice of colleges. He was afraid that I would lose my
faith at my college of choice, but I did not lose my faith at all. It was rearranged, reconstituted, and
reformulated, but not at all lost.
Faith involves a discipline of the mind, not just the heart, and I have
spent a lot of years trying to continue with my spiritual education because
there are so many questions and so many things I am still trying to understand,
and I love the study and the thinking side of faith.
2.
Experiential.
I have
often benefitted from the faith of others. I have often repeated the phrase that faith is more often caught than taught, and I have caught the faith
of others, most notably my parents.
I don’t know if I would have found my way to faith and to church without
the faith of my parents, and I am profoundly grateful for the gift of their faith
in my life. I have often wondered
where I would be in life without the influence of their faith, and I can only
say I am very, very grateful for that gift in my life. Parents, wherever your child might be
in relation to faith at this point, never forget how important your impact is
on them. I know that some of you
worry about your children – and your grandchildren – in terms of faith, but
just keep on loving them and showing the importance of faith in your own life.
There
did, however, come a time when I had to make a much more conscious decision
that faith was going to continue to be not only a part of my life, but a very
important part. In my first few
days of college I had a conversation with my minister. He was a trustee of the school and was
on campus for a meeting, and as I was walking back to my dorm one evening he
stopped me to offer some words of wisdom.
He told me that I had depended upon the faith of others more than I had
realized. My parents made sure I
attended church and they, and others, reminded me of remaining faithful in
developing my spiritual life. To
be honest, I was a bit offended when he first gave me that advice, but I
listened to him, because I loved Reverend Norris, and he was such an important
role model to me. And I quickly
found that he was right. I did
have to develop my own faith. As
much as others, such as my parents, helped me to come to faith, it was
necessary for me to make the very definite decision to continue in faith. At that point in my life, no one was going
to make sure I got up on Sunday morning and went to church, no one was going to
remind me to pray, or to read the Bible; those were disciplines that were up to
me from that point on.
There
have also been times when my faith has been challenged, and sometimes, very
strongly challenged. I have
experienced a lot of my own questions and struggles and doubts. As a minister, some people see me as a
representative of God and when they are angry at God or hurt by the church it
becomes convenient and easy for them to direct that anger and hurt at me, which
is okay, although it is not an easy experience. There are many pressures that come with being a minister, as
well as a great deal of wear and tear, and the grinding schedule of ministry
has caused me at times to wonder whether I should remain in my calling. There have been times when those who do
not believe and those who are opposed to faith have thrown down a gauntlet of
challenge. And when I was younger
I was often ridiculed because of my faith and because I went to church. I have never spoken publicly over the
years of my experience of being bullied when I was young, but I was bullied a
good deal. That was a very
difficult experience, and for a long time I was too ashamed to tell anyone
about it or to escape thinking that it was somehow my fault. Some of that bullying was exactly because
of my being religious, and there were several occasions when that bullying was
more than words and threats; it became physical assault. It’s hard to imagine that bullying is
still so common, and if you are – or ever – bullied, know this: it is not your fault, you do not have
to be ashamed, and you need to tell someone.
But as
difficult as those experiences have been, they only reinforced and strengthened
my faith. I inherited the
hard-headedness of my father’s side of my family, and I determined that nothing
was ever going to push me away from my faith. Whatever challenges I faced only made me more determined to
continue and to grow in my faith.
3. Emotional.
Disciples churches have
historically been more on the side of the intellect and rationality than
emotion. And I am not one who
tends to show his emotions very easily.
I guess it’s the British side of my family that has influenced me in
this way. But I need, and love, to
feel emotion, and I try to speak as
much to the heart as I do to the head in my messages. I want people to come to worship and to feel something, to experience something. Don’t you?
I have sometimes read sermons from
generations ago, and sometimes centuries ago, many of which were written under
the influence of the Enlightenment and speaking almost exclusively to the mind
rather than the heart. Man, I have
to tell you, they are for the most part as dry as dust! I couldn’t imagine sitting through that
type of sermon week after week (hopefully, you are thinking, what we have to sit through isn’t all that
great either!) Those sermons
spoke to me about as powerfully as an Algebraic equation, which is to say, Not. At. All.
I don’t have the really deep,
mystical experiences of faith very often.
In fact, those kinds of really deep, mystical experiences, where it
seems that God is so close you can reach out and touch him have not happened
very often for me. I know we all
realize God is with us all the time, and I know that is true in my head, but I
mean those times when you can feel it so powerfully and you know God is right there; you can feel it
in your heart. Have you had those
kinds of experiences? They are
overwhelming and beautiful, and I really am thankful for and cherish those
experiences on the few occasions when they have come to me. Those moments help to keep me going in
faith, they encourage me, and they are extremely moving.
Those mystical experiences are one
of the reasons why I love to visit churches, when worship is taking place or
when the buildings are empty. When
I was on sabbatical two years ago I visited a lot of churches, sometimes for worship and sometimes I just
wandered into them. My family, at
times, thinks I’m kind of weird about this, as I have interrupted sight-seeing
trips by saying, hey, let’s go check out
that church. Tanya and I were
traveling this past week and we wandered into some churches – some beautiful
churches – and I just loved being there.
I like to wander through the building, and I love to go in the
sanctuary, sometimes just to sit there in quiet. I know we don’t have to come into a church building to find
the presence of God, but I love the feeling of being in a church and feeling
God’s presence.
I don’t want to just think about
God; I want to feel the presence of
God. We need something
transcendent in our lives. Music,
art, and other things can bring us a measure of that transcendence, but they
are not always enough; we need something more, something deeper, something
eternal, and for that reason, I will always choose faith!
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