Beliefs... cont.

This is the sermon (for the most part) from June 8^th, 2008 here at Abiding Savior

In this “Season After Pentecost” we’re looking at beliefs; what we believe and how we come to our beliefs.

I’m not looking so much at theological beliefs as much as what we believe about life.

I remember a visit with a dear friend of mine who suffers from, what in the old days they used to call Terminal Cancer… meaning it’s inoperable.

In one of our visits we talked about a lot of things. We laughed, and joked, and prayed and cried. And we talked. We talked about many things. There was some small talk, and some serious talk as well. We talked about life and death. We talked about seeming randomness of life, why some people get into car wrecks and live and others don’t make it, why some die from this or that, and why some survive and may even prosper.

And we talked about beliefs. Not the heady theological beliefs that may be the luxury of those not nearing their deaths… not the intellectual theological ideas reserved for those who have aren’t worried about how much time they have left, but theology connected with life stuff. For example the experience of God, and things like forgiveness, etc.

He asked, “Why do we wait until it’s too late to say the things we want to say… why do we wait until it’s close to the end to say the things we need to say?”

Why does it take a crisis? Why does it take a crisis to compel us to search for meaning?

Maybe “beliefs” are humanities search for meaning. Maybe beliefs are an attempt to make sense of the world… an attempt to make sense of the divine.

I knew an anthropologist who told me that all cultures throughout history have at least three things in common

– All cultures have had music.

– All cultures have had taboos against certain behavior; rules, laws, things to order society.

– And all cultures have had religion.

And with religion comes beliefs.

Is it that there is no meaning, and we need to find some? Is it that we need so desperately to make sense of things that we fabricate meaning through religion?

But why has every culture needed to find meaning? Maybe the search for meaning is part of the human journey. Maybe it comes with our relationship with God.

Maybe God exists, not as a figment of our imagination, to help us make meaning of the randomness of life… but as an integral part of our experience. Maybe God is part of the process of our search for meaning.

And with meaning comes belief.

I’ve referenced this book before because I like it so much, “One Door away from heaven”, by Dean Koontz. In the book, one character says to another, “If you want to change your life, you have to change how you think. If you want to change how you think, you have to change what you believe (emphasis added).” Maybe it has to do with where we look for meaning.

I asked my friend, “Have you’re religious convictions changed?” – No! But the meanings have. He believes in God, and he believes in God’s promises, and he believes in God’s love. It’s just that it’s now less in head-knowledge, and more heart knowing. It’s now more real.

Like the story of Jacob wrestling with the Angel, where Jacob ended up wrestling with the angel… alone… in the middle of the night. Why do the angels and demons find us in the middle of the night? Isn’t that the time when we’re alone with ourselves, out thoughts. Isn’t that the time where there is nothing there to distract us, where our thoughts and actions come back to be reckoned with?

Jacob has some things to really deal with, to grapple with. He certainly wasn’t the most up-right guy. Now he has to face his older brother- he’s being forced to deal with what he did to his brother so many years ago.

Meaning came from the struggle… he was blessed by it. What he believed, meaning, was clarified from it. Sometimes crisis does that!

I saw this story a few years back, and I saw it again a few nights ago on TV. There was this up-and-coming young preacher, rising fast up the evangelical ranks. Eventually preaching to thousands, he became a Bishop. How he got to be Bishop I’m not sure, but Bishop he became. And in his story he mentioned he had some strong beliefs. He believed if you did not accept Jesus as your savior, you went to hell. And he believed hell was a real place.

Then Carleton Pearson mentioned one night found himself on his couch, relaxing, watching his TV, seeing poor, displaced, starving Africans. I’m not sure he mentioned they were in Muslim Africa or not, but in his story he says he remembers saying to himself mostly, “Too bad their going to hell.” The idea here being that from his perspective Muslims are not Christians and therefore going to hell. He says he heard a voice say, “Is that where you think they are going?” He responded by saying something to the effect of, “Well that’s what I’ve always been taught!” The voice then said, “They are already in hell!” Read more of his story.

This conversation started a crisis in his heart, his spirit and his mind. And it changed his beliefs. Out of this experience, this existential crisis of, crisis of meaning, he lost his beliefs. He lost his belief that hell was a place you went to if you didn’t believe in Jesus.

And he lost a lot more. He lost his ministry, he lost his church, he lost the support of those in the evangelical community, some whom he considered very close. And he lost his congregation of thousands.

But he was embraced by those that his previous ministries had marginalized, particularly the gay and lesbian communities (this being today the moral “sin” we love to hate- I remember about a generation ago our favorite “sin” was divorce, now divorced people can be bishops with no public outcry). He started a new ministry in another location. He ministers not to thousands, but to hundreds. He ministers to people who are broken, like he was. He ministers to people who do not want to hear the word of Judgment, but the word of love.

Sometimes crisis does that to us… it causes us to re-asses our beliefs. Do you really believe that?

My friend at one point talked about this clarifying things through this. I asked him, “What’s changed?” “– I’m more grateful!”, he said. Since he doesn’t know how much time he has left, he doesn’t waste his time on stupid things! Like fighting over doctrine, or over who’s right theologically.

His focus now is more about sharing God’s love, and letting God change the world through us.

That’s what belief can do. In the grand scheme, belief can change us… and the healthier the belief, the healthier the change.

Is belief a search for meaning? – Maybe? But it can also be a search for our souls, a search for God… which is also what it means to be truly human.

This is a statement of belief from the diary of Anne Frank, who was hunted down and put to death by the Nazis during World War II.

“It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death.” – Anne Frank