I Believe
I Believe by Rev. L. John Gable
November 25, 2018
This week I was reviewing all of the ground we have covered in our various sermon series since the fall and came to an interesting conclusion: given the opportunity to do it all over again, I think I would put some of these teachings in a different order. Not that I would expect you to remember, but starting last September we talked together about what it means to have a “lived out faith” and identified four markers or practices, commitments we are called to make as we seek to live the Christian life: worship regularly, live worthily, give generously and serve eagerly. We then launched in to our all-church read of Living the Gospel in the Grey and discussed various aspects of what it means to give our faith away as we share the “Good News” with others. What I realized in my review of these teachings is perhaps we should have offered them in the reverse order. Perhaps we should have talked about what it means to “have faith” before we asked you to live it or share it.
What exactly do we mean when we say we “have faith”? Of course this is a word we commonly use, but what do we mean by it? We had a lively discussion at the Pastors’ Bible study on Wednesday morning when I asked that very question. While our conversation ranged widely it would be safe to say that we agreed on the central tenant that “to have faith” is to believe in something, to have confidence in something, to trust in something or someone. We read in Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” This is more a statement than it is a definition, but it reminds us that to have faith is to have assurance and confidence in something or someone, even without sight or understanding. It also entails an element of hope; not so much in the sense of “I hope so” as in the little girl who prayed “I hope Louisville is the capital of Kentucky because that is what I put on my test”, as much as in the hope and confidence that a promise given will be honored and kept.
Typically when we speak of “having faith” we think in terms of holding particular religious beliefs, but really it applies to nearly every aspect of our lives. We make assumptions based on certain hopes and confidences, such as that the money we put in the bank really will be there when we go back to get it; that the car entering the intersection really will stop as the signal instructs them; that the chair we are sitting on really will hold us; that promises made to us by parents and children and spouses and friends really will be honored and kept.
So having faith, in this regard, is part of everyday life; yet there is a difference between knowing about something and actually trusting it, “having faith” in it. Two weekends ago when we were at TabFest at Turkey Run State Park a group of us went hiking on Saturday afternoon. We got to a point where the trail led to a series of two wooden ladders which took us from the upper level down into a gorge on the lower level. If we were going to continue on the hike, then we had to climb down those two ladders.
Now, I think you will agree with me when I say, it is one thing to see the ladders and even to see others climbing down the ladders, safely and successfully, and yet another to actually step on to the ladder yourself. Seeing the ladders and watching others climb down them requires some measure of knowledge and agreement, stepping on to the ladder yourself requires an act of trust and confidence which is something more than mere intellectual assent.
Liken this to the life of Christian faith. It is one thing to have knowledge about Jesus of Nazareth, to accept that He once lived and taught, perhaps even suffered and died, and yet another to confess Him as Savior and Lord. One can have a PHD in Jesus and still not know Him in an personal or saving way. To have faith in Jesus then is more than mere knowledge about or acknowledgement of, it is actually the act of putting our trust in Him to do for us what only He can do, namely save us. And that is what it means to “have faith” in Christ.
It is this confidence and assurance that enabled disciples to drop their nets and follow, the lame to pick up their mats and walk, the apostles to suffer and die for the sake of the Gospel, for men and women still today to go to the ends of the earth sharing the love and saving grace of Jesus Christ. To have faith requires more of us than a nod of our heads in agreement with an argument well made; it is to step out in confidence and trust that the One who makes the promise is trustworthy and true. I wonder with you, is there anything in your life and mine that looks like that? Is there anything on which you would be willing to stake your very life on its truth and veracity?
We often think of “having faith” as something we do or have, and it is, but it is always based on something or someone that is beyond us IN which or ON which we have confidence and trust. So, while many people claim to believe in God (large G), not all gods (small g) are the same, not all things we put our trust in are trustworthy, so when asked, “Which God do you believe in?”, we can in confidence say, we believe in the One Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the One we believe IN and ON.
This morning we begin a series of sermons on the Apostles’ Creed, which believe it or not, will take us, with some stops and starts, some deviations and meanderings, through the Advent and Christmas seasons, all the way through Lent and the Easter season, even beyond Pentecost to the end of June. I’ll expect you to be present for each of those.
While it is commonly accepted that the proclamation “Jesus is Lord!” was the very first Christian confession, the Apostles’ Creed is the first and perhaps the best known of all the creeds and confessions written and adopted by the Church through the ages. With believers from the second century on many of us have committed this statement of faith to memory, and it is something I hope we can all commit to doing in the coming months. Writing to believers in North Africa in the 5th century St. Augustine told them to recite it daily. “When you rise, when you go to bed, say your creed, say it before the Lord, call it to mind, and do not tire of repeating it.” The value of knowing this kind of basic creed and committing it to memory is that while it doesn’t explain our faith, it does state, very simply and plainly, the essential truths of our faith which have been recognized and embraced by believers in every time and place. When we stand and say, “I believe”, we are standing with the saints in all ages who have boldly confessed, “Jesus is Lord!”
The creed begins, “I believe in God” which in Latin is “Credo in Deum”, I put my trust in, I have confidence in, I give my heart to, God. This lays the foundation of our faith. “I believe in God.”
When the writers of the Apostles’ Creed, which by the way was not written by the apostles, but was based on the apostles’ core preaching and teaching, when the writers of the creed first formulated this confession they were not thinking of God as being some abstract philosophical concept. I recall the definition of God my philosophy professors used in college, “That being above which no greater can be imagined.” That may work in the classroom but it doesn’t exactly engender feelings of intimacy or caring, much less confidence and hope, does it? The God referred to in the creed is “God, the Father Almighty”, not a god of the textbooks, small g, but the God of history, capital G!
This God we confess and put our trust in is magnificent beyond our understanding or explanation, try as we may. One of our Church’s confessions
describes God as “a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.” In essence, God is all the things we are not. When we speak of God we use all the “omni” words – omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent – in an attempt to describe this One who is by definition indescribable, this One who is “wholly other”, utterly different than we are. Or, as one theologian put it, “We do not say ‘God’ merely by shouting ‘man’ in a loud voice.”
Yet this God, so unknowable, has made Himself known to us in very personal and particular ways. He has revealed Himself to us in His Word, the Holy Scriptures; then most perfectly through His Son, the One we can know and touch and love and understand; and by the indwelling and empowering of His Holy Spirit. The central affirmation of our faith is that this God is “one” in being, but is made known to us and is experienced by us as three persons, so called the Trinity: Three in One, One in Three. This is the great proclamation and mystery of the Christian faith as it gives definition to which God we believe in. We believe in the One God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the first and perhaps most important confession of our faith, and as we will see, this confession in the Triune God provides the structure which gives strength and consistency to the entirety of the creed.
Friends, what we are talking about this morning, and will be for the next seven months, is really basic Christianity. Each of the Gospel writers sets out to explain in their own words what it is they believe about Jesus and why they believe Him to be the promised Messiah with the sole purpose that their readers will come to believe in Him as well. In the opening of his Gospel Luke writes, “I write an orderly account for you…so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.” We can say the same of the Apostles’ Creed. It is an orderly account that we have been given which states what it is we believe when we say, “Jesus is Lord!”
Let us stand and say together that which we believe, that which we put our trust in, the One to Whom we give our hearts. Christian, what do you believe?
“I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from whence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the Holy Catholic Church; the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” Amen.