I remember back when we lived in the DC area and the initial confusion I had with directions. Yes, I knew I needed to get on the beltway, but did I need to be on the inner loop or the outer loop? Or I knew I needed to get off at the Federal Triangle Metro stop, but did I need to go in the direction of Franconia-Springfield or Largo Town Center? I picked it up pretty quickly, but were a few times I went the wrong way because I got the direction reversed.
When
it comes to our faith, we can also end up in the wrong place if we get the
direction of things wrong. Put simply, is faith something that we choose or
something that we are called and brought into? You might guess that, based on
Scripture, our experience, and the witness of the Church that faith is not something
we choose for ourselves from the smorgasbord of options, rather following
Christ is something we are called into. And this matters because our direction will
determine our destination. If you don’t know any better, you can get on the
interstate and drive for quite a long time – and everything about it will seem
right. There will be traffic, you’ll be moving along at a decent speed, you’ll
feel like you’re getting somewhere. But if you find out that you were heading
west when you should have been going east, well, you’re that much further from
getting to the beach.
The
same thing can happen in our faith. If we think that faith is something that we
have chosen, even though we attend church, even if we read Scripture, even if
we serve those in need, even if we are generous with our money, we can end up
in the wrong place. We can end up with a perversion of faith that is about
building our ego and making it seem like we have things put together. We can
end up with a faith that seems to be quite strong until we encounter struggles
and then, because believe we have chosen faith, we think that we can choose to
leave faith behind when it no longer serves our needs or expectations. When we
think that faith is a choice, we get frustrated with others when they seem to
just not “get it” when it comes to belief. If faith is a choice, we approach the
church as a consumer, expecting to reap certain benefits and rewards from faith.
When faith is a choice, it becomes possible for someone to critique worship by
saying “That didn’t do anything for me” or “I didn’t get anything out of that”
instead of realizing that we gather not to feel better about ourselves but
rather to orient ourselves towards God Almighty. If we put ourselves in the driver’s
seat and make faith about our actions and our choices then we will likely end
up going in the wrong direction. As our Collect this morning says, we all have
gone astray from God’s ways and rely on God’s mercy to bring us back.
Instead
of faith being a choice we make, faith is something that we are brought into by
the gracious and loving call of God. The example of this we have before us this
morning is that of Abram who later in Genesis will be renamed “Abraham.” The
story of Abram makes it clear that faith is God’s idea long before it is ours.
Abram’s family was a fairly prominent and powerful one; he was not looking for his
life to be upended, he was not in the market for a new homeland, he was not
searching for a new religion to add meaning or purpose to his life. No, Abram
was minding his own business when God called to him – “Go from your country to
the land that I will show you.”
Can
you imagine? Leaving behind the known world to go to an undefined home based on
the word of God? You might remember last week that I talked about plausible deniability,
well, it would have been really easy for Abram to dismiss this and say “You
know, I really need to get this ringing in my ear looked at.” But Abram sensed
something in these words. These were more than words like you and I use words.
These were words spoken by the same voice that said “Light” and then creation
responded by shining. These words were a summons from the One who created all
things. Abram’s response was not a choice, rather it was trust.
St.
Paul makes this clear in a passage from Romans 4 that can be a bit hard to
follow. What he is saying is that Abram is not found righteous before God
because he chose to listen to God’s command – that would be Abram deserving the
blessings that God bestowed on him. Rather, what makes Abram an example of
faith is his openness to and trust in God.
And
at this point, we do have to understand a bit about the language that Scripture
uses. Words are something like an interstate – they take us in certain directions,
but sometimes that is the wrong direction. In our world, the word “belief” essentially
means an idea or opinion that we hold. Even that idiom of belief being something
that we hold has the connotation of us being in charge. For us, beliefs are
choices that we make in a marketplace of thoughts.
But
this is not at the heart of what belief is really about or how the Bible
understands belief. Consider John 3:16, which we heard read this morning. It
might be the most well-known verse of Scripture there is: “For God so loved the
world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not
perish but may have eternal life.” Now, if we understand belief to be an
intellectual choice, well, we’ve gotten on the southbound ramp when we should
be going north. “Belief” here does not mean “If you think that Jesus was a
historical human being then you get an eternal reward.” Sadly though, that is
how many understand it.
The
word “believe” is best understood by the cognate “belove.” Belief is about a
relationship, not a thought. Belief is about trust, fidelity, going in the
direction of God’s love. Eternal and abundant life is not a reward for making
the right choice, it is the result of being in a relationship with the God who
is love. This is the direction that Abram is opened to by the call of God
because along with the command “go from your country” is the implied “come with
me.” Abram is brought into a relationship with God through this call.
A
relationship with God though is not like a human relationship. The divine-human
relationship is not one between equals. God does not need anything from us. Sometimes
we talk about nurturing our relationship with God through prayer, charity, and
reading Scripture. And those are good things to do. But if we think of our relationship
with God as something like a garden, that is up to us to care for and tend to,
well, then we’re going in the wrong direction. God is more like a fire –
something that gives us light and warmth. And, in this metaphor, it’s a self-sustaining
fire. We don’t have to feed it wood or anything like that, all we have to do is
draw near and receive the grace, mercy, and peace of God.
This
is what Abram does – he hears God's call that God intends to bless the whole
world through him and he trusts this promise. Abram didn’t know where he was
going. God did not give him the coordinates of the land to which he would go
because what matters is not the destination but the going in the right
direction. And this is a call that comes to each of us as well. Moses,
likewise, was told to “go.” As was Ruth, Esther, Augustine, and Harriet Tubman.
The disciples also followed that call to “go” as they followed Jesus. We heard
Jesus say, “The wind blows where it chooses,” now notice we don’t choose where
the wind blows, “and you hear the sound of it but you do not know where it comes
from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Beloved,
the Spirit is blowing in our community and God is calling you. The call to “go”
isn’t always, or even often, about geography. We can be called to go into
places of repentance, into places of generosity, into places of reexamining our
priorities. Sometimes the call to go isn’t about changing our home address, but
rather it’s a call to go to Rowan Helping Ministries to serve, or volunteering
with Communities in Schools, or coming to church on a regular and consistent
basis to better be pointed in the direction of God’s grace and love. I can’t
answer the question for you with specifics, but I assure you that the Spirit is
moving in your life and that God is drawing you closer to that fire of love. Our
God is very talkative and is calling each of us. We might need to work on finding
ways to be quiet so we can better listen. And then, having heard, we open
ourselves to belief – to trusting that, indeed, God has spoken to us.
Trust
though is a hard thing. Even in the midst of struggles, humans are good at
finding equilibrium and making things comfortable. And so the call to “go” pulls
us out of our assumptions, our comforts, our routines. And, in order to help us
with this and not put the burden of the relationship on us, God has made the
first move. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. That is, God
so loves us that God goes. God has come to us in Jesus Christ. Through Jesus, we
come and see the direction that God intends for us to go – the direction of humility,
of forgiveness, of love. In Jesus, God gives us the relationship that allows us
to enter into abundant and eternal life. We have the example of Jesus to
follow. We have his Body and Blood given to us to nourish us. We have his
Spirit to animate and strengthen us.
And
to make it clear that there is no limit to God’s love for us, Jesus not only
tells us, but he shows us this abundant grace. Jesus says “Just as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” What
Jesus refers to is a story about poisonous snakes biting the people – and God
chooses to heal them not by eliminating the snakes or creating an anti-venom
medicine. But God told Moses to get one of these snakes and put it on a stick
and by looking at it, the people would be healed. This is what the Cross of
Jesus is all about. We look upon the horrendousness of Sin and the finality of
Death and receive healing. It is by looking upon Jesus, in being in a relationship
with him that we are set in the direction of the love that makes all things
well.
