University Presbyterian Church - Chapel Hill, NC

“We Believe in Belief”

A Sermon preached by

Anna Pinckney Straight for

University Presbyterian Church

June 8, 2008

John 14: 8-17

Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

Matthew 15:21-28

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon." But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." He answered, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly.

Many of you may know that it is not unusual for me to be working on a sermon up to the last minute.  This sermon is no exception.  What is different about today’s sermon is that it began a long time ago.  Two and a half years ago to be precise.

Two and a half years ago, a blogger named Reverendmother, a Presbyterian minister who lives in northen Virginia, posted this story:

“Yesterday, as I was cleaning up after baking some cookies, the doorbell rang. I figured it was our mail carrier dropping off a package--what with Christmas, the birth of our second child, and my birthday, lately, we've been getting lots of stuff in the mail. I opened the door to find two middle-aged women.   With pamphlets.   Christians.  Evangelists.

I told them I didn't have time to talk--the baby was sleeping, which happened to be true. I told them I wouldn't mind a conversation in the future, although I'm not much of a prospect, to say the least. They were sweet as could be--asked whether they could share a scripture with me as they left. Sure…. They read, from Romans 16:

I urge you, brothers and sisters, to keep an eye on those who cause dissensions and offences, in opposition to the teaching that you have learned; avoid them. For such people do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded….

I thought that was a pretty strange choice. It wasn't what I would have picked.  But it got me thinking--if I were ever to go door to door to share about my faith, what verse would I choose?[1] 

I'm not a door to door kind of person; at least, I don't think I am. But if I were ever to go door to door,  what would I choose?” 

What could I say in a few words that would adequately describe what it is that I believe?

Two and half years ago, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.  Because, while I have no doubt that we believe, and believe deeply, I have found that many of us struggle with finding words and actions for this deep, abiding, foundational part of our lives called faith.  (Not the nuts and bolts, I suspect most of us could muster at least part of the Apostles’ Creed.)  What it really means to believe.  What difference it makes, and how it affects our lives.

Why is that?  I suspect that it is, at least in part, due to our closeness to faith.  To the community of faith.  To all of those who believe as we do .  These things make it particularly difficult for us to define our beliefs, for ourselves, and particularly for those who live in a different belief zip code.

It reminds me of a Fed Ex commercial I saw recently:

A young man is setting up his office on what is clearly his first day when he is approached by a busy co-worker who explains that first day or not, they need his help. He gives her a knowing look and follows her to a large room filled with packages that need to be shipped.

She says, “All of these boxes need to go out, but don’t worry we have FedEx online, it’s really easy.”

The new guy remarks that he doesn’t do shipping. Once again she responds not to worry, it is so easy.

He responds, “You don’t understand, I have an MBA.”

“Oooooh. You have an MBA…. In that case I will have to show you how to do it.”

If they were making that commercial for the church, here’s how it might go.  The young man is now standing at the entrance to heaven:

“Yes, welcome to heaven, first we need you to read this pamphlet.”

“You don’t understand.  I was a Presbyterian minister.”

“Oooooh. A Presbyterian minister…. In that case you’ll need to go to the class.”

Sometimes, those who are closest to something need the most help expressing what that something is.

What do you believe?  What verse would you share with someone if they asked you about the Bible?  What would you say if you were asked about Faith.  God.  Life.  Death. Hope. Understanding.  Creation.  How would you show someone?  How do you, how have you answered those questions for yourself when faced with a difficult time whether that difficulty is one of life’s natural hurdles or an unexpected tragedy?

How do you we express what we believe in a way that honors God , mixing opportunity and invitation with integrity?

This We Believe.  It is the focus for the sermons I’ll be preaching in July and August:  Water, the Feast, Breath, and Life.  Today I thought this series could begin with the most basic, we believe in belief.

We believe in belief.  We believe that sometimes we need to do more than think something.  We need more than suspecting , concluding, or being reasonable.  More even than feeling, finding,  hoping. sensing.  Something that is bigger and stronger than any and all of these other ways of knowing-  Believing.

Christianity, the story that tells of God, creator of the earth, Jesus, the son of man, and the Holy Spirit, the advocate, is more than one story among many.  It is our story. 

Gordon Atkinson describes belief in this way, beginning by describing his father, also a preacher:

Jung would say that my father participates fully in the myth of his people. My father and other Christians would wince at that statement, but Jung understood myth in a broad sense. I would say it this way: The Christian story is my father's only story, and he lives completely in that story….

I was born on their ship at a time when the waters began to change and the sky to show dark color. My father bent his back and will to the task of holding the wheel straight and true. There was no doubt in his mind that this ship would carry us all to that place over the horizon. And on this ship there was only one story to tell, the story of Jesus and the cross.

But I lingered near the rails and saw other ships on the sea. Some of them were beautiful and drew my eye and, at times, my heart. Commitment was bred strongly into me, but I simply couldn't hold onto our ship. There were too many hard questions with no good answers, too many things I felt I ought to believe but could not. In particular, I could not abide the idea that ours was the only story…

I disconnected from the Christian story somewhat and floated gently above our ship, though my father's tether would not let me float too far away. Rather than living within our story, I watched it from above, a floating wraith, only half present to the faith, at once liberated and broken-hearted. I was… in love with the story but outside of it….. My heart was filled with joy but also somehow broken. I loved the view, but something drew me back to our ship. I needed a story of my own. And I wanted it to be the Jesus story…. And so I pulled myself, hand over hand, back down to my father's ship.

[To] find a way to believe. I will live myself into believing. I will love others until I believe. I will read the scriptures until I learn what it means to be poor enough in spirit to believe.

Do I believe the story of Jesus? Yes, in that you cannot drive me away from it; I simply won't leave. I'm having none of the darkness, even if I only live at the edge of the light…. Belief is a hard and complex thing, also a unique and personal thing, then yes: I believe.”[2]

For some of us belief is a spiritual gift.  Something that is there, no less present than the air that we breathe.  For others of us it is a constant battle, a destination to which we reach by pulling ourselves, hand over hand, day by day, to get closer to the ship, the story that is our story. 

Either way, it is our story.  The story we inhabit.  Not as observers or outsiders, but storytellers, story-livers, invited into the story by the God who created us, named us, claimed us.  Created you.  Named you.  Claimed you.

We believe in belief. We believe that it is important to believe.  Not belief that fights with logic, reason, intellect, or science, but belief that is enhanced by all of these things, and is no way replaceable by any or all of them. 

The woman in the text from Matthew has no reason to believe.  She has been told by her culture that her voice should be kept to herself.  Jesus himself, whether through rhetorical argument or actual conviction, tries to dissuade her from her faith.  But she will not be deterred by any of it.  She believes that she and her daughter are valued children of God.  And in the end, Jesus affirms that they are.

I started this sermon by suggesting that it is important to figure out how to articulate, how to live, how to fully express what it is that we believe so that we can share our beliefs when we find ourselves in places where belief is needed.

I add now that not only should we be able to live and speak our beliefs when the opportunity arises, we should also learn to go to those places. To willingly let go of the choir who already knows what we are going to preach.   To travel to places unknown, unfamiliar, uncomfortable, carrying with us only this:

We believe.

And to know, this is all we need.

Amen.