This is the Pastor’s Blog for the Service on Sunday August 16th. This week the message is the 2nd in a 4 Part Series titled “The Three B’s” and this message is titled “What is Christianity For? Believing”. Included here is the primary Scripture of this message and the Pastor’s notes.
Scripture: Mark 9:14-27
14 When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. 15 When the whole crowd saw him, they were immediately overcome with awe, and they ran forward to greet him. 16 He asked them, ‘What are you arguing about with them?’ 17 Someone from the crowd answered him, ‘Teacher, I brought you my son; he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; 18 and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they could not do so.’ 19 He answered them, ‘You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me.’ 20 And they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, immediately it threw the boy into convulsions, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21 Jesus asked the father, ‘How long has this been happening to him?’ And he said, ‘From childhood. 22 It has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.’ 23 Jesus said to him, ‘If you are able!—All things can be done for the one who believes.’ 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out, ‘I believe; help my unbelief!’ 25 When Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, ‘You spirit that keep this boy from speaking and hearing, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again!’ 26 After crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, ‘He is dead.’ 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he was able to stand.
Pastor’s Message;
What is Christianity for? We asked that question last week as we begin to consider three important components of our faith: believing, behaving, and belonging. Over the next few weeks we’ll take those words one at a time and unpack them. At the end of this series we hope to move more intentionally toward transformation – becoming more and more like Christ who has called us into this life.
But first we need to take stock of our current context, because things in the Church have changed over time and are still changing. Some of this is hard, but let’s hang on, because the Spirit is always making a new way for God’s people.
Diana Butler Bass, an author and researcher about the religious landscape in the United States, wrote a book a few years back called “Christianity After Religion.” The impetus for writing that book grew from observing changes in how many people approach religion and engage with religion – or not. Related to this is the rise of the “nones” – those who identify as spiritual but not religious and claim no religious affiliation. The Pew Trust has been tracking this trend for a number of years. The “nones” are the fastest and youngest growing demographic in the United States – but they’re not all young. Many empty nesters are part of that demographic too.
As church people, we’ve been experiencing this for a long time – there aren’t as many people coming to church as there used to be. Sundays are not only church days, they’re sports days, school program days, stay-at-home days because that’s the only day of the week some families can rest and be together. Some people have had negative or harmful experiences with the Church or with clergy and have “dechurched” themselves.
Spirituality, however, seems to be on the rise, and many people long for spiritual community. We’re not only a nomadic society, with people moving to other places far from family, we’re also spiritually nomadic. Many people are shifting their focus away from institutions to a more experiential, personal faith or spiritual practice.
There is also something that Butler Bass calls the “belief gap.” Some people slip into the belief gap when they experience a life event that makes them question everything. Others develop questions about the belief they were raised with as kids. Questions arise: “if I am slipping [in my belief] do I hold on tighter or let go? If I no longer believe what I used to am I still a Christian? Am I spiritual, but not religious? Am I one of the nones now? Am I agnostic? Am I an atheist now?”
Right around this same time I attended an event at Perkins – the seminary at SMU—for prospective students. You can see the painful irony here. I was a bundle of angry doubts and questions and felt like an imposter among the other prospective students who seemed so much holier than me. One of the faculty members did a brief workshop about engaging in theological study. As I listened to him, my questions reached a boiling point. When the workshop was over. I waited for the other participants to ask their questions of the professor and then leave. I went up to the professor, introduced myself, and then everything just tumbled out: why would God allow the Holocaust to happen? Does God even exist? And what about the awful mess humans are? How could God create such creatures?
His response was so compassionate. “Valarie,” he said, “this is where you need to be. You can grapple with those questions and doubts and no one will judge you. We will support you through it.”
I still marvel at his wisdom and compassion and am so grateful for it. I also thank all of you here for letting me share this story. Pastors aren’t immune from challenges in our faith journey, and I think it’s a good and honest thing to share about those challenges. I also have a hunch that there are people here who also have questions and doubts. And this leads me to a question:
What if the Church was more intentional about offering space and grace for people who have fallen into the belief gap? Faith communities made up of people who have struggled with their own doubts and questions can journey alongside folks as they grapple with their questions. My experience with the community here at New World has shown me that we have wise and spiritually mature folks who have experienced their own faith struggles for a variety of reasons, and who have allowed that experience to transform them.
Such a community can foster growth beyond statements of belief about God, to making space for people to have experience of God.
Think about the people in the early church. The Jesus movement was a new thing. Those who were Jewish converts knew about scriptures, prayers and religious rituals. But Gentile converts likely didn’t have any experience with these things. Early Christians – both Jew and Gentile – were learning how to be disciples. The gospel according to Jesus Christ was all new – the way of life, the Lord’s Supper, the hymns, the liturgy. During Paul’s time the gospels we know as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John hadn’t even been written yet. And yet those early Christians had experienced God in the presence and gospel of Christ – there was no institution asking them to sign off on a list of beliefs.
The things we say in worship – the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed, the liturgy of communion – invite us to ask questions and get to the experience of God that lies underneath and in those statements: what experience tells us that we can trust God to provide “our daily bread?” We declare that God is almighty, Lord, and Triune, but how does this show up in daily life and in how we relate to God? We say that Jesus Christ is our savior, so what our lived experience of salvation?
These kinds of questions may sound a bit woo-woo, but if we don’t undergird our belief with experience of the Divine, then what we have left is a list of doctrinal statements that don’t have much life in them. As people who are of the Wesleyan flavor of Christianity, the head and the heart join together in the faith journey.
There’s another little bit I want to put before us this morning. That heavy word, “doctrine,” has the same root word as “doctor.” We go to doctors for our health and well-being, and to get help when we are sick. In this sense, “doctrine” can be understood as “healing teachings.” Instead of being a dividing line between believers and non-believers, saying the creed or the Lord’s Prayer can be life-giving, even if we have questions about those words. The Spirit of God always meets us there, just as we are.
As I reflect on my own season of doubt and questioning, what I came to see and feel was that Jesus had been my trusted friend since childhood, and I wanted that friendship to continue because I felt nurtured, understood, and saved again and again. My lived experience of Christ helped me climb our of the belief gap.
The desperate father in the gospel story we heard earlier confesses to Jesus that he believes and “unbelieves” all at the same time even as he asks for Jesus to help his son. Jesus doesn’t scold him, shame him, or berate him. Jesus understands the desperate father’s heart and responds with grace and healing.
When the heart and head connect and come online together, we find ourselves with a faith that is alive with the presence and experience of God-in-Christ. When belief becomes our experience, rather than a set of statements, we can trust the presence of God’s Spirit all the time and everywhere, during difficult seasons and times of joy.
Closing prayer
