Belief

Scripture: The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 17), A.D. 2015 B

Sermon:

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

What does it mean to believe in God? That’s the million dollar question.

In our Gospel this morning, people see the wonders that Jesus works, the teachings and the healings and the miracles, and they understand that Jesus is doing the work of God. So they ask Him, “Rabbi, what must we do to perform the works of God?” And Jesus says, “This is the work of God: that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”

That’s a pretty remarkable statement, isn’t it? I mean, we all want to do the right thing, don’t we? All of us—all people of goodwill—we want to do the works of God, the works of goodness and truth and beauty. The problem is that we don’t know how. Or sometimes we know and just don’t do it because the right thing is hard. But Jesus says here, mirabile dictu, that all we have to do is believe. We can do that, can’t we? Sure, anyone can believe. I believe that the earth is round. I believe that bacon tastes better than lobster. I believe in my wife. I’ve got all sorts of beliefs, don’t I? What’s one more added to the mix? Done and done. What’s for lunch?

It seems a little ridiculous when we parse it out like that, but I’m afraid that this is nonetheless exactly how Christianity is often presented to people. Televangelists show up and say, “Here’s the deal. When you die, you’ll go to hell and be tortured forever. But don’t worry, because if you accept, here and now, before a live studio audience, that Jesus is the Messiah, then you’ll win an all-expenses-paid trip to heaven and frolic in paradise forever with Lincoln and Moses. Just check the right box, sign here on the dotted line, and that afterlife thing will be all wrapped up and you can go about your business like before.”

Does anyone really believe that’s how it works? Is life one big multiple choice test, and the cheap grace answer is to check the box marked Jesus? Is the job of Christian evangelism ultimately to save the world from God? I mean, come on. Real belief is so much more than being right or wrong. Real belief is an entire way of life.

We do not believe in Jesus the way that we believe there’s a roof over our heads or a sun in the sky. When people speak of belief nowadays, we tend to be talking about intellectual assent to propositional truth: Do you believe that vaccines prevent disease? Do you believe that fires need oxygen to burn? These are our beliefs. People seem to think that this is also how faith works—as though, when we die, there will be an elevator sporting a sign that says, “Do you believe in Jesus?” with the up button labeled “Yes” and the down button labeled “No.” This is the crassest form of self-salvation.

This sort of “belief” is also, incidentally, an excellent excuse for hypocritical living. Yeah, sure, I slept with my brother’s wife and stole my neighbor’s car and I like to bow hunt protected lions in African national parks on the weekend but it’s okay because I believe in Jesus—the cosmic “Get Out of Jail Free” card. Suddenly the Son of God becomes your getaway driver. He asks nothing of you, changes nothing about you, makes nothing of us. That isn’t a savior; that’s an enabler.

Clearly this is not what Jesus means when He says, “This is the work of God: that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” James warns us about precisely this sort of propositional belief when he writes that “even the demons believe—and tremble.” Satan believes in Jesus the way that an airline pilot believes in the Rocky Mountains. There’s no point in denying something when you’re about to smash right into it.

Jesus wants us to believe in Him not as though He were a fact to be affirmed but as though He were a Person to be loved. He wants us to believe in Him the way that we believe in our families, our friends, our children. “Belief” in the Bible is not a stance but a relationship, and relationships by definition involve time, effort, mutuality, and reciprocity. It’s not a once-and-done thing, a box to checkmark. Neither is it some spiritual ladder that we climb, working our own way up to heaven with good deeds every day. No. Believing in Jesus means that every day we wake up fearing, loving, and trusting Him whom God has sent—not as some distant idea but as living reality.

Like any relationship, our relationship with Jesus changes us over time. You cannot be loved by God every day and remain the same. God’s love admonishes us when we do wrong, forgives us when we seek healing, and raises us up when the world seems to be crashing down upon us. It doesn’t mean that God plants His seal of approval upon all our sin; baptism is not a license to live selfishly as a libertine or a hypocrite. What it means, rather, is that God desires to love us and to be loved in return. He desires to walk together with us as we once did in Eden. He wants us to reflect His own goodness and truth and beauty for the entire world to enjoy. He wants heaven come down to earth.

Christ is with us here and now, even to the end of the age. He is with us in everything that we do. He sees us, knows us, suffers with us, guides and comforts and strengthens us. And He is pleased with the smallest act of kindness done in faith—a man changing diapers, a woman helping a stranger, a child telling the truth. To believe in Him whom God has sent means that you believe in Him and trust Him and love Him in the humble things of daily life. God suffuses the life of the believer, making holy every moment of the day, bringing hope even to our darkest hour. Eternal life begins now and extends into the life of the world to come.

That’s why we do things like blessing bread on Lammas day. In the Old Testament, the people of Israel were instructed to bring an offering of first fruits at harvest time, to give thanks to the Lord for the goodness and abundance of the earth. The Church has continued this tradition as a way of affirming that the grace of God can be found in the simplest of things: in fields of wheat, in the farmer’s labor, in a common loaf of bread. It’s not that our belief causes Christ to be present in these things; it’s that our belief allows us to see that He has been with us all along.

Believe in God. Trust in God. Feel Him dwelling within and around and beyond us. Do this, and you will do the works of God, for it is Christ who works through you.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.