Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost

August 12, 2007

In his letter to the Hebrews, Paul begins with this statement; ”Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Let’s talk about this thing called faith this morning.

Each of us here today most likely have faith in modern technology to help us get through our days, get us where we're going, keep us warm, comfortable, fed and entertained? And, despite the problems that naturally accompany anything with moving parts, we have grown to have great faith in these devices.

But let me ask you this: Would you fly in a plane that was run by a computer that was programmed beyond the intellectual control and comprehension of any human being?

Your immediate response is most likely is "No," but, guess what? We fly in such planes all the time. The old saying that a computer is only as smart as the person who programmed it is no longer true. It hasn't been true since 1987 when computer scientist John Holland discovered that he could let computer programs evolve.

Such programs turned out to be better than those of human programmers, but they were also beyond our mental grasp. We are already flying on airlines that run on software that no human mind or human pilot can understand, much less control. We are creating things that behave as if they're alive, things like organically grown networks (like the Internet), things like computers writing their own software (like on airplanes). What faith we have in technology!

That is how faith works. When I turn on a light switch, I have faith that the light will come on. I don’t have to understand electricity to have such faith. All I need to know is that yesterday when I threw the switch, it happened. But, if I want to understand electricity, I would need to have faith that it wasn’t just a weird theory. I would need faith that it worked.

Many philosophers and theologians have suggested the idea that faith is the basis of all knowledge. One example is St. Augustine of Hippo. One of his key contributions to philosophy is the idea of "faith seeking understanding" What Augustine is claiming is that , faith must be present in order to know anything. In other words, one must assume, or have faith in the credibility of a person, place, thing, or idea in order to have a basis for knowledge.

We see this most clearly in the way children learn. For their early years, they place their faith in their parents. They are not intellectually developed enough to understand how things work, or what they should do. So, they put their faith, their trust, in mom and dad. From that foundation of trust, they can then begin to understand the world around them.

Faith seeking understanding.

Now, when we bring the idea of faith into contemporary Christianity, we run into a problem. Unfortunately, the word “faith” has become understood by many Christians as a synonym for “belief.” Consequently, the test of being the right kind of Christian has become that you hold the right set of beliefs.

I think we need to sort out this confusion. Seekers of God begin with two basic questions. The first is “Is there a God?” That question requires a yes or no answer. To ‘have faith” is to answer yes to this question. The second question is “What is God?” That is a question of belief, and the answer is going to be complex, and always inadequate. Beliefs are intellectual expressions of our faith.

Another way we can define religious belief is to say that belief is what we predicate of God. Most of you probably remember learning about predicate nominatives and predicate adjectives. They are the noun or the adjective that follow the verb in a sentence. For instance, if we say “Jesus is the Son of God”, Son of God is the predicate nominative, or the belief we are stating. I we say “God is good,” then “good” is the predicate adjective, or the belief we have about the character of God. These are both belief statements.

A faith statement would be “God is.” Nothing more. God exists. That is all we have to say yes to if we desire to begin seeking understanding, of growing our relationship, with God.

Faith has an absolute quality that belief does not. Either you have faith, or you don’t. Either you answer yes or no. There’s no such thing as partial faith.
Beliefs, on the other hand, tend to shift depending on the time in history we are in and the cultural setting of the belief system. It also varies according to the abilities of the person. A child’s beliefs will not be the same as an adult.

Beliefs are important, don’t get me wrong. It is our beliefs, our understanding built upon our faith, that guides our actions. But we can allow a diversity of understandings within our community. It is our faith in God that unites us.

Christianity is not built on intellectual ideas. It is about having a relationship with the living God. Much like children have faith in their parents, we begin by placing our faith in God. And the first step in establishing such a relationship is to say yes to God. Over time, if we nurture our relationship with God, the understanding will grow as well.

It is our faith in God that is our greatest treasure. And where our treasure is, there our heart must be also.