Some thoughts on faith

Why do we expect so little from our faith? By “we”, I mean the vast majority of humanity. We treat faith like little more than a non-binding, guiding set of principles.

Take for instance, our beloved left coast and the Hollywood scene. People seemingly dance on the winds of the latest religious fad. Faith is worn like an Armani suit or a Gucci handbag. It’s used like a well-placed affair to drum up some publicity.

It’s not that they don’t “believe” in what they are saying. I’m certain some do, but their faith is only essential as long as it is convenient and meets their needs. Now, lest you think I have an extreme disdain for actors, let me point something out. I think this pattern of faith is only apparent in the famous precisely because they are famous. Their lives are lived under the constant scrutiny of their adoring public. The reality often is that their lives are but a microcosm of our own. We all tend to treat faith this way.

We shop at the Walmart of Religion and choose our belief systems like we’re putting together the components of an entertainment system. If we’re conservative we gravitate towards the fundamental. If we’re liberal we lean towards the indulgent. Most are somewhere in between and we choose a mix of components to build the belief system perfectly suited to our needs. We are all guilty of this. I say “guilty”, because as you have certainly figured out by now I find any such notion of faith a sad rendering of the real thing.

Faith should never be a search for what we find palatable, but for the truth of who God is and what God desires. My experience is that this rarely leads to a comfortable faith. The goal is not to find a god who thinks just like me, but for me to think just like God. For me, that means that I fully expect to be pushed, challenged, and admonished as well as encouraged, uplifted, and supported. This is all, of course, easier said than done. We all tend to seek out the places of comfort. So, how do we defend against this very human response?

Ironically, even as I rant about our consumeristic culture and its obsession with choice, I believe one of the keys to finding an authentic, uncompromising faith in God is a greater openness to the many expressions of faith. Let me try to be clear as to why I say this. Given the proclivity of humanity to meet one’s own desires and needs we need to constantly test our faith. I do not mean to suggest that we need to test God. The very nature of who God is, by most every definition, puts God beyond the scope of our testing. However, our understanding, our interpretation of who God is and what it means to believe in him needs to be constantly scrutinized. Otherwise, how are we to discern between what true faith is and what is human projection?

“Well, just read the Book”, you might say. Hmm, yes, yes, but don’t we have a tendency to read it, meaning the Bible, of course, through the very prejudiced lens of our own ideology. We tend to read into it what we want to get out of it. So, how do we overcome that flaw? Well, read the Bible, but read it all and understand that reading the Bible is never a “just read” proposition. Why? Because the true goal is not to read the Book, but to let God read us. We don’t interpret the Bible. Instead, our lives are interpreted in the light of God’s Word. Every conservative should feel the utter conflict of their desire for the clarity of the law with the ambiguity of God’s grace. Every liberal should feel the clash of their emphasis on tolerance with the uncompromising standards of God’s holiness. When we commit ourselves to this struggle and allow God to interpret us rather than satisfying our desire to interpret God, faith is born.

Friendship

"A man of many companions may come to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."
Proverbs 18:24

You can't make old friends. The truth of those words came to me as I spent time this weekend with one of my best and oldest friends. He and his family came out to Toledo to spend some time with me and mine. It was like a long drink from a familiar and refreshing stream. I felt so blessed by his friendship and the gift of time with him and his family.

In our transient times, it is very difficult to make friendships and old friendships are even more precious and rare. Why? There are a lot of reasons, but consider this. In the 1800's, the average person never traveled more than a 100 miles from their home in their entire lives. Even through the 1950's, 60's, and 70's most people remained in their hometowns to raise their families. Friendships were often maintained over decades and old friends might be those you have had for your entire life. How things have changed. Schools, jobs, and more cause us to move from place to place. Couple that with the relative ease of travel and we create a society in which one is almost reluctant to invest the time and effort to build lasting friendships. Consequently, many people find themselves lonely and hungering for the depth of honesty, commitment, and familiarity that only comes with an old friend. That's why I cherished this weekend so much.

Friendship is one of the great, priceless privileges of life. That's why I am so floored by something Jesus once said. Check it out:

"You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other." John 15

Jesus says he wants friendship with us. The Savior of the world, the very Son of God, desires to be your friend; and get this. More than anyone else, he will be a friend that sticks closer than a brother. He is a friend unfettered by time or distance or circumstance. With him you can experience unparalleled honesty and commitment. Moreover, there is no one who knows you better. So what must we do to have this friendship? What uncompromising command must we obey? Be a friend to others. That's it. That's what Jesus says. That's what Jesus asks of us in order for him to be our friend. Be a friend to others. Love each other. All he asks us to do is the very thing we so hunger in our lives. Create relationships of love that will last. What an amazing and precious thing friendship is? Yet, how even more friendship with God?

The Kingdom: A place to live or a way of living?

When we think about the Kingdom of God (or Heaven, take your pick) most of us tend to think of a place. We think of the Kingdom as the destination of our souls after death. The Kingdom is the place where we will spend life in eternity with God. The sensible summary of this is that the Kingdom is the future home of those who live rightly in the present.

Yet, this really was not the way that Jesus spoke of the Kingdom or eternal life. Let’s look quickly at a few passages from the Gospels. Jesus clearly found the Kingdom to be an important issue, since it emerged as the heart of his message right from the very beginning of his ministry. Take a look at Mark 1:14, 15:

4After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

For Jesus, the Kingdom was near. Not near as in the near future. If so, he would have said, “The time is coming.” No. He means near as in close by. It has come. In other words, Jesus is telling us that where he is the Kingdom is. Why? Because the Kingdom is not a place. It is not a destination. It is God’s rule, God’s reign, and where Jesus is, God rules. Moreover, we can experience this Kingdom in our lives right now. How? Jesus tells us. Repent and believe. So, it is by faith and obedience that we can experience the rule of God in our lives. In other words, we can experience heaven on earth. Jesus told us to pray for this very thing: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

So what of eternal life? Again we tend to think of eternal life as something we will enter into after death. In reality, the Kingdom and eternal life are but two sides of the same coin. In Jesus teaching, eternal life is closely related to Shalom (i.e. the peace of God).

Shalom, in the biblical sense, means much more than what we typically think of as peace. Shalom means to be complete, perfect, and full. It is what Jesus proclaims for us, when he says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” [John 10:10] This life to the fullest is Shalom. This “peace” is life in the Kingdom. It is the experience of the full and complete rule of God in one’s life. This “peace” is the present experience of eternal life.

This can be true, because it is against the very nature of something “eternal” to simply reside in the future. The “eternal” is descriptive of something that always was and always will be. It is without beginning or end. It exists outside of the boundaries of time. When we understand this, we understand that eternal life does not simply describe the state of living forever after death. Eternal life is the experience of the complete and perfect life found by living within the incorruptible and ceaseless peace of God’s rule. This experience is not confined to the future.

Let’s take a look at one last story from Jesus life to illustrate this. In Luke 10:25 Jesus is asked a question: "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" I think that we tend to think of “inherit” as “earn”. We certainly think of “inherit” as obtaining something after someone’s death. But the Greek word translated as “do” means more than simply “earn” or “obtain”. It means “to bring forth” or “to continually produce”. The word “inherit” is even more interesting. It means to “obtain one’s portion of an inheritance”, but within jewish religious thought the word took on a greater meaning. In the Old Testament, the word was frequently used to describe the taking of possession of the promised land. This was the inheritance of God’s covenant promises with his people. Consequently, over time, the word evoked images of the possession of the holy land crowned with all divine blessings, an experience which Jews were to expect under the Messiah. Hence the word became associated with partaking in or experiencing eternal life in the Messiah’s Kingdom. So, what the man is asking Jesus is, “How do I bring forth and continually experience the blessings of my promised inheritance of eternal life?”

This is important to understand, because the man is not asking “how do I get to heaven?” In fact, such a question would be fairly nonsensical for a Jew. Heaven is understood in ancient Judaism as the domain of God, not humans. What this man wants to know is “How do I experience the Kingdom life?” When you understand that, you understand that Jesus’ reply does not imply that good works earn your way into heaven. What Jesus’ is saying is this: Acts of love are the truest expression of the eternal life. When we love God and love others we bring forth the Kingdom of God and God’s peace- the full and perfect life- breaks into our broken and imperfect world.

So don’t be satisfied with this life. Don’t wait to experience the fullness of eternal life. Live life to the fullest now. Live the Kingdom life. Love God, love people and experience the breakthrough Shalom, the Kingdom, of Eternal life today!