WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
March 5th 2006
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“What is Faith?”
Romans 4
On her forty-ninth birthday, writer, and Presbyterian elder, Anne Lamont awoke in a rather foul mood. She was dismayed about the world around her. Just as Anne was contemplating ending her life by eating too much chocolate, she received a phone call from a spiritual advisor. After being wished a happy birthday, she responded by say: “How am I supposed to go on?” He could have said something like: “You just need a little faith?” Instead he invited her to receive grace when he suggested: “Left foot, right foot, left foot, breathe.”
Martin Luther was tormented by his need to ‘get right’ with God. He spent hours recounting all his thoughts and actions so he would not forget to confess each sin. His torment continued until he came to know God’s grace in Paul’s letter to the Romans. It is from Luther’s encounter with this letter which gave birth to one of the essential tenets of the Reformed faith. “We are saved by grace through faith.”
Contained in that very short sentence is actually three ‘doctrines of the church.’ The three are: salvation, grace and faith. Since we only have a few minutes together and because I do not want to risk putting all of you to sleep, we will only talk about one. What is faith?
Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome was part of the foundation for the protestant reformation. It was also instrumental in Karl Barth’s break with the liberal theology that dominated much of Europe following the First World War. Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome has had tremendous impact on the development of the Reformed tradition. It would only make sense then, for us to look more closely at this letter as we seek to answer the question: “What is faith?”
PaulÂ’s letter to the Romans is unusual because unlike other letters, he had never visited this community. This was not a community which Paul had started. The letter to the Romans was penned in anticipation of an upcoming visit by Paul.
The followers of Jesus in Rome were a pretty diverse bunch. In the community there were folks from across the economic spectrum. Unlike other communities, it consisted of both Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus. This was also a community where pluralism, as we call it today, was well known and accepted.
Unlike many other communities, the church in Rome was not at odds over the issue of circumcision. In other communities, known to Paul, there was always a struggle regarding traditional religious practices. Their basic question was: “Was it necessary to follow Jewish traditions in order to be a follower of Jesus.” The most prevalent issue was circumcision for men. While this may seem ridiculous to our modern ears, it threatened to tear the church apart. One way to understand the depth of the conflict would be to simply think about the struggle in our church regarding the full inclusion of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. The conflict was bitter.
Part of Paul’s objective in his letter is to explain and clarify a position he took in a previous letter. Earlier, in his letter to the church in Galatia, Paul says: ‘anyone who is circumcised has cut themselves off from Christ.’ This position would have been welcome news to the all gentile community in Galatia. However, this position is not one which would sit well with the Jewish Christians in Rome. Paul, in his letter to the Christians in Rome, takes a more moderate position. If it is part of your custom then circumcision is fine but it has no bearing on salvation. No longer does Paul say circumcision is at odds with the Christian faith. Paul takes the circumcision of Abraham as a sign in much the same way we talk about baptism. Paul says that it is faith, not circumcision or ritual purity, which makes us right with God.
This doctrine of the reformed church is often shortened to the familiar: “We are saved by faith and not by works.” Unfortunately this ‘rallying cry’ has been used to often to feed anti-catholic bias. However, any use of this doctrine to challenge the salvation of our catholic brothers and sisters shows our ignorance of modern catholic theology. What began as a way of expressing our understanding of God’s grace became a tool for bigotry and ignorance. In spite of this reality it is a doctrine worth understanding and reclaiming in this community of faith.
There is another modern distortion of this doctrine which needs to be challenged. It is a misunderstanding which the early Reformers would challenge. The mistake is to turn faith into something we have to believe. Instead of trying to be good enough to earn GodÂ’s acceptance, we have to believe the right doctrines to earn GodÂ’s acceptance. This way of interpreting this doctrine is antithetical to the reformation and to the apostle Paul.
Theologian, and Presbyterian Minister, Robert MacAfee Brown said this: “The gospel does not say, ‘trust God and he will love you.’ it says ‘God already loves you, so trust him.” He gets to the heart of our belief that faith is not something we can will it is a gift from God.dependent a free gift that is in no way dependant upon us. So, if we really subscribe to this way of thinking, it would make sense to stop saying: “I just need more faith,” and instead say: “God grant me faith.”
This may seem like simple semantics but I believe it is so much more. I believe the assertion that faith is a gift from God can work as a necessary counteractive voice in our culture. After all, our value, in our society, is measured by how much we produce, how much we own, and how much we consume. The highest virtue in our time seems to be that of personal responsibility. It says: you are ultimately responsible for everything which happens to you. While this is the prevailing wind of our culture it is simply not that way things work with God. The old saying that God helps those who help themselves never appears in the bible. The God who gives faith as a gift is a God who helps the very people who cannot help themselves.
Faith is not about trying to earn God’s acceptance. It is, in the words of Paul Tillich, the realization that: “You are accepted… by a power that is greater than you.” Faith is a gift which is meant to free us from anxiety. It frees us from the belief that we are responsible to make ourselves ‘right’ with God. However, most importantly it frees us from being so selfish. It frees us from being so self-centered and narcissistic. And, with this freedom from anxiety we are to live our lives in the service dependent world.
If being made right with God was dependant upon using the right words, or believing the correct doctrine or making a decision then we would have control over God. As our tradition teaches, God is the author and sustainer of our faith. In other words, it is a gift, not dependent upon fickle and unpredictable human beings. Faith, simply put, is our way of acknowledging, receiving, enjoying and returning the love of God.
In our world there is much to be anxious about. We worry about making ends meet. We worry about changing financial markets and how the money will last until the end of the month. We worry about being loved. We worry about war and now we can worry about the ever spreading bird flu. We are a worrying people. However, the good news is that we have no need to worry about the love of God. We do not have to earn it; we do not have to prove ourselves worthy. We are simply called to give thanks for the gift of faith. Faith has the power to set us free from our anxious, self-centered existence and move us to give our lives to the service of GodÂ’s world. May God grant us the faith which can move the mountains of anxiety, and will compel us to serve GodÂ’s world. Amen.
