FAITH IS A VERB

(Preached on Sunday, August 12, 2007)

By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believe the One who made a promise would do what he said.

-Hebrews 11:11

 

I came across an interesting little story recently that first appeared in American Health magazine in 1987.  Though it is a little old, it offers some interesting insight into the AFaith Factor.@  The story asks the question, ADoes your Doc pray for you?@  It states in reply: ABehind their stethoscopes and white coats, a surprising number of doctors believe in what a little faith can do.  In a recent poll by MD Magazine, two-thirds of the 136 docs answer the question said they had prayed for a patient.  >Every time I have someone in labor I say prayers for her and her child,= said one Ohio G.P. and obstetrician.  But do docs think that prayer really does any good?  One physician from Nebraska said: >I=ve seen recoveries that could only have happened as a result of prayer.=  Like that of his own brother-in-law.  The MD poll was inspired by a San Francisco study suggesting that prayer groups improved the health of heart patients C even though the patients were unaware people were praying for them.  MD staffer June Zimmerman, who conducted the poll, points out that the survey was hardly a formal or rigorous study.  Yet, Zimmerman says, she herself was surprised by the results. >I assumed docs would be too tuned in to modern science to pray.  But I was wrong.  It seems there really are a fair number who are spiritual.=@

 

This little story expresses the confusion and schizophrenia which exist in our society today when it comes to the concept of Afaith.@  On the one hand it speaks of Awhat a little faith can do,@ as if faith were a possession.  At the same time it speaks about faith as a state of being, or a relationship, as it describes the physicians as being Aspiritual.@  It also present the notion that faith and science are antithetical, that the two are opposed, at opposite ends of the spectrum.  It expresses surprise that Ascientific@ doctors could also be spoken of as being Aspiritual@ or in terms of Afaith.@

 

The biblical view of faith is not that faith is something we have C it is not a possession.  Faith is something we do, it is a way of being, it is a relationship.  Frederick Buechner suggests that AFaith is better understood as a verb than as a noun, as a process than as a possession.@

St. John of the Cross said AFaith is a marriage of God and the soul.@    It is this understanding the author of Hebrews is trying to express in this great chapter on faith.  The author begins with a very clear definition of faith: AThe fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living.  It=s our handle on what we can=t see.  The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.@  Notice the verbs: Atrust,@ Afaith,@ Aact of faith.@  The author is very clearly describing faith as a relationship C a way of knowing and being C which grows out of being loved by God and loving God in return.

 

One of the common misconceptions of our age is the idea that faith has to do with believing something to be true where the evidence is not sufficient to establish knowledge as fact.  This places faith and knowledge in opposition to one another.  That is, if you have the knowledge of something, the factual evidence, the scientific knowledge, then you don=t need faith.  Faith is only there to get you through the fuzzy times until you can assemble the necessary knowledge to prove something factual.

 

But actually, faith is a form of knowing. The knowledge of faith, though, is not the sort which you can prove.  There is no way Abraham could prove to anyone that God was calling him to go forth into a strange land and live like an alien and stranger.  I can hear them now, his friends and family: AVoices from God?  God told you this?!  God promised to make you a great nation?!  A son to a dried up, withered old man over 100 years old and an equally barren woman over 90?!  Yeah, sure!@  But Abraham knew God.  He had a relationship with God.  And so did Sarah.  And it was not belief based on lack of knowledge.  Rather, it was the knowledge of relationship C a powerful, intimate sort of knowing.  It was belief in God, in God=s faithfulness, in God=s trustworthiness.  They knew God kept promises, and so they believe, they trusted.  And they acted on that belief, that trust, that faith.

They packed up and moved out into the unknown future in response to that relationship.  Someone has said, AFaith is not an understanding that prepares us to take the leap.  It is the leap itself, the plunge into the soulful rhythms and energies that promise to awaken our spirit and bring new life into our everyday.@ 

 

That leap of faith is often extremely frightening.  Because it is into the unknown.  We are too often like the African impala.  These magnificent creatures can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance of greater than 30 feet.  Yet they can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3-foot wall.   The animals will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will fall.  Faith is the ability to trust what we cannot see, and with faith we are freed from the flimsy enclosures of life that only fear allows to entrap us.

 

Had Abraham and Sarah allowed their fear to rule their decision-making and their actions, they would never have left their family homeland; they would never have embraced the promise that God would make of them a great nation; they would never have embraced the promise of their own son.  They would have lived out their days trapped in their fear.  Instead, they embraced the promise, even though they did not have a clue how it would be fulfilled, and they moved forward in faith, taking positive actions in response.

 

That is a wonderful model for the church today, and especially for us, here, at Christ Congregational Church. If we can move beyond what we Aknow@ is possible, and instead, trust the promises of God, just imagine what God will do with us.  We are not alone today in facing an uncertain future.  Many, many, many churches struggle with finances, with declining membership and attendance, with changing patterns of commitment and participation.  All sorts of evidence points to the decline and death of the church as we know it.  The question becomes, do we place our trust in what we see and Aknow@?  Or do we walk by faith?

 

Faith is a commitment to the God of hope.  Faith is actively trusting God=s future and doing something about it.  It is saying AYes!@ by our actions, seeking to fulfil the vision God gives us.  It is a willingness to live each day to its potential, utilizing those bits and pieces which (by the greater wisdom of God) fit the contours of the future.  It is like reaching one=s hand into the future, plucking a bit of it, and planting it here and now.

 

Such faith is always activity, not passivity.  Faith is (in spite of critics) not a drug to calm people down and make them docile.  It is a trust in God which thrusts people into the thick of life.  Faith places us in a position of holy tension; puts us at odds with the folly and sin around us.  Faith is not an escape but a new, profound, re-creative involvement.