Great is Thy Faithfulness

A sermon preached on Wednesday June 20, 2011 at the hospital chapel: Great is Thy Faithfulness

Belief

What does it mean to believe in something and how does belief differ from faith? Well, I don't know exactly. People seem to make this dichotomy over and over but I'm increasingly coming to the opinion that belief is lived out in our actions. If we say that we "believe" something but we live our life in a way that is inconsistent with our purported belief, then we don't really believe it.

I often think of "those daring young (wo)men on the flying trapeze" when I think of belief. If you believe in your ability to make safe contact with your partner, you don't need guide-wires. If you want to believe in your ability to make safe contact with your partner but don't dare go without the guide-wires, then you don't believe. Although you may want to believe. As a side comment, this photo on the left of one trapeze artist catching another in mid-flight without guide-wires was in the minority on my first search page. If you do an image search for "trapeze artist", you get a lot more options like the one on the right: people using guide wires.

I think we all use guide wires at some point in our faith lives. As a culture, for instance, we say "In God we Trust" but what what we really trust in is the stuff on which that slogan is written: The almighty dollar. We say that we believe that Jesus is our Savior but we live our lives as if our accomplishments are our Savior or our children are our Saviors or our lifestyle is our Savior. Most of us are practical atheists although many of us want to believe.

Of course, owning up to our unbelief is difficult. Particularly if you're a Christian. And even moreso if you're a Christian minister.

I write all this by way of asking questions and in the hope that there is something valuable in being transparent and truthful and open. I hope that God is gracious enough to deal with my own unbelief and I have an intuition that this is where the heart of God's grace lies.

But I think we Christians need to own up to the fact that our deeds don't match what we say we believe and that is why we are wide open to the accusation of hypocrisy from those outside the Church. And we are even more hypocritical when we declare that we believe in Jesus but we just can't live as if we believe. That's the dissembling that most folk but us see through in a heartbeat.

Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief.

The Believer

Blogging on blogging / blogging on chaplaincy

I notice that a number of bloggers who I read are currently writing apologetics about not having written much lately. Some are contemplating stopping blogging all together. Some are vowing to blog more next year. And one of my favourite bloggers seems to periodically vow off blogging for a specified period of time but then seems to find that he has so much to say that he can't help himself and a flurry of posts appear.

So here is my blog on my blogging.

I haven't been blogging a lot. But I'm not contemplating giving up. And I'm not going to vow to blog more in the near future either.

A good part of the reason is my new "job". Or rather the Clinical Pastoral Education Chaplaincy training that I'm doing at a very large hospital near where I live. The job, you see, has a way of putting things in perspective. By "things", I mean mainly life, faith and theology.

Theology is actually very important in Chaplaincy, because if you don't know what you believe, it's hard to help other people sort out what they believe. And it's hard to set people in the right direction if you don't know what you believe about God. "Does God forgive me?" "Am I not getting better because I don't have enough faith?" "Why did God let my newborn baby die when she didn't do anything wrong?" These are big questions. And they are difficult questions without easy answers.

Maybe that's why historically the church has liked to keep its eyes on the kind of theology that tries to count how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Will 5-point Calvinists get into heaven? Does God really love Arminians? Can God save those who hold a Christus Victor theology of atonement instead of a penal substitution model?

Don't get me wrong. I still love theology. But some of the more esoteric stuff strikes me as not having anything to do with real life and real faith and the kind of relationship with God that sustains a person through a long illness. Oh, and by the way, the "Accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour" model also doesn't really cut it either.

The wonderful thing about being a chaplain is that I get to see real, genuine miracles every day. I also see real, genuine people of deep, deep faith being told by God "Your loved one will not receive a healing or a cure; it's her time to come to me." And it's inexplicable why some people get the miracle and others don't. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.

Oh, there is one other dirty secret of Chaplaincy. Non-Christians get miracles too. People of other faiths and people of no faith. God actually does appear to be as merciful as the best mercy that human beings can conceive.

So that's the background to why I'm not blogging much. I'm still taking this all in. My faith in God is rock solid. My faith in the church and in platitudinous theology not so much. I feel like I'm going through a "dark night of the words". I can't describe the kind of faith that I think really gets us through the crises. But I think I know it when I see it.

Persecution of Christians in India

I'm not 'really' blogging, but I was stunned to realise that people seem not to have heard of the violence against Christians that has been going on since August of this year. My churches have been praying for Christians in Orissa since August

Olive blogs about the situation here  

Below is my sermon from Sunday 12th of October which was all about Orissa.  The text was Luke 12:1-12

Introduction

This week's edition of The Church Times carries an article about the persecution of Christians in Orissa State in India.  The Church Times is one of the weekly papers published for the benefit of members of The Church of England: it's their Methodist Recorder, if you will.

The persecution began this past August when Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati was murdered along with four of his associates. Swami Laxmanananda was a leader in the VHP, a Hindu organisation that believes that the Christian and Muslim world are both dedicated to the persecution of Hindus.

The thing is that the Swami wasn't murdered by Christians. A Maoist group has twice taken credit for the Swami's murder and defended it's actions They stated that the reason for the murder was that 'Laxmanananda was not fighting for Hindus. He was heading the VHP and implementing an agenda targeted against the minorities. No one speaks for minorities. They are exploited.'[1]

The article in The Church Times tells of horrific violence against Christians in Orissa, describing the situation as 'The sort of horror that dulls the senses or excites overstimulation'.  Witness in refugee camps had horrible stories to tell.  At least 50,000 Christians have been forced out of their homes and a number have suffered torturous deaths.

What has happened in this area, according to those familiar with the situation, has been a long propaganda campaign against Christians and Muslims that seemed to me to be quite similar to Hitler's propaganda against the Jews.  The VHP's message that Christians (and Muslims) are dedicated to the eradication of the Hindu people has been taken on board by many individuals in the area.

The Importance of Truth

This morning's Gospel reading is actually all about the persecution of the early Christian Church although it might not sound like it at first hearing.

Remember that Luke was writing after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple by the Romans and the knowledge of these events must have inevitably have had an effect on the way he told the story of Jesus' life. In this section of Luke's Gospel, Jesus is warning his disciples about the coming persecution of his followers - something about which Luke had firsthand knowledge.

The reading is an exhortation to Christian disciples to be bold in proclaiming the truth of Christ when persecution comes and to draw on the strength and the witness of the Holy Spirit for their boldness.

Truth is something that is important for good functioning of human society and it's absolutely vital in the life of the Church.

Luke 12:3 says 'Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops'  

Or in simple language, 'The Truth will Out'. If you plot evil in secret, eventually there will be an evil outcome. If you do good in secret, blessings will result even if no one knows who was the source of the initial good deeds.

As Christians, of course, it's easy for us to sympathise with our Christian brothers and sisters in Orissa.

It's easy for us to see in the VHP an example of how an organisation with good intentions turned to evil.  Because the VHP arose out of a Hindu movement in the 1950s and 1960s to ban cow slaughter in India and speak up for the Hindu people and for Hindu culture. For a number of decades, it engaged in it's work through peaceful demonstration, petitions and challenging laws it felt to be unjust.
And it opened schools and hospitals for poor Hindus. 

But over the years, it became more and more radical and it developed the conviction that international Islam and international Christianity were out to destroy Indian Hindus.  And it spread this message of conspiracy until it was unsurprising that violence would erupt in the countryside.

The truth is important and so with the story of Christians in Orissa.  Because the mainstream Hindu organisations have been joining with the Christian Church in India to condemn the violence against Christians.  But many ordinary Hindus have gone further than mere condemnation: risking their own lives in order to protect Christian neighbours.

We can see that the truth is a complicated business but that's why it's important to tell the truth.

It's even more important in situations where we are tempted to turn some group or another into a scapegoat.  When the truth of a situation is not told, then it becomes easier to scap-goat individuals according to some category: all Hindus are evil, all Muslims are evil, all teenagers are thugs, all men are bastards.  Whenever we hear these kinds of simplistic statements, the alarm bells should ring and we should suspect that the whole truth of the situation is not being told.

Be True To Your Faith

This morning's Gospel reading tells us that, in the face of persecution, disciples of Christ are not to be hypocrites. In this case, 'hypocrites' doesn't mean people pretending to be better than they are: it means people who don't stand up for what they say they believe. 

In the context of the Gospel reading, it means not admitting to being Christians because of fear of persecution.  In our own context, it might mean being afraid to admit that we are Christians, but it can also include failing to seek a more complicated truth than one of 'baddies' and 'goodies'.

For us hypocrisy might mean not speaking up to challenge the current mood of anti-Muslim sentiment.  Speaking up against anti-Islamic sentiment doesn't mean that we affirm and profess the tenets of the Muslim religion.  It simply means speaking the truth that the situation is much more complicated that than a simple story of 'we are good and they are bad'.  It is not Muslims who are terrorists, but terrorists who who are hiding behind the name of God to further their own ends.

Of course, acting in truth or speaking up for the truth can be dangerous. Jesus knew that. That's why he promised the Holy Spirit to us as his disciples: to help us to do what is right, even in the face of danger or persecution.

That includes, of course, speaking up for the truth of the Gospel and of the Christian faith.  But I believe it certainly also includes speaking the truth in all situations and unmasking any lies told in secret.

Conclusion

It's possible that this sermon was not as 'spiritual' as you would have liked.
I wonder if some of you might even have thought it was too 'political'.

However, today's Gospel reading does talk about standing up for truth in the face of persecution.  It reminds us that when we do have the courage to defend the truth, that the Holy Spirit will be with us.

When we hear Jesus say that he is the way, the truth and the life, I believe this statement means that Jesus is the Truth.  But I also believe it means that God cares deeply that the truth is told.

Sometimes our faith is not just about what we call 'spiritual' things, but it must also be about what we do:  About having the courage to speak the truth on the one hand but also about putting in the work to seek the truth in complicated situations. We should not settle for answers that are easy but rather seek for answers that reflect the truth of the situation.

My prayer this morning is that we will all witness to the truth of Christ as our Saviour and also speak the truth in all situations, even when it is dangerous and unpopular.

And may we each be given the guidance and the power of the Holy Spirit as we seek to be beacons of the light of truth. Amen

[1]http://in.ibtimes.com/articles/20081007/orissa-persecutiono-attack-maoist-vhp-leader-laxmananda-saraswati-india-christian-manmohan-singh.htm, Accessed 11 October 2008.

Faith

I wanted to share the following thought on 'faith', written by Ally Barrett in Reflections for Daily Prayer:

Faith asks a great deal of us. It asks us to stand alongside the weak, even though we could make allies among the powerful. It lets us make fools of ourselves in obedience to God, trusting that one day our actions will bear fruit. It persuades us to take risks and to betray previously deeply held alliances. And it asks us to do all this for the sake of something intangible, but much more real. So, how hard it is for us to trust God enough to let him do unexpected things in our lives. How hard it is to let our obedient faith overcome our fear, our instinct for self-preservation, our independence and even our desire for a quiet life.

Reflections for Daily Prayer follows the scripture readings assigned for morning prayer in The Common Worship Lectionary. This is only the second in the series, but I think it's well worth checking out if you're looking for some short, thoughtful daily meditations that avoid being twee ('twee' = 'cutsy and sentimental' for North American readers).

Sermons

Catching up on sermon blogging again. One sermon for The Baptism of Jesus and one non-lectionary sermon on the subject of persistent prayer.

The Baptism of Jesus

Persistent Prayer

Heart Knowledge is Better than Head Knowledge?

Although it's an amalgam of several different sources, the post on Anti-Intellectualism in Christianity over at Beyond Rivalry really spoke to me on a number of levels.

Not that I consider myself an 'intellectual', but I sometimes feel that we in the Methodist Church particularly value the question: 'How can I use this idea within the next twenty four hours to achieve some kind of concrete result?' There is certainly nothing wrong with this kind of pragmatic focus, but I do sometimes wonder whether we have also devalued the exercise of stepping back and actually thinking or praying about whether our actions are oriented toward God, our Christian values or our identity.

I also do worry that we (I'm speaking of the British Methodist Church here) by and large think that faithful academic theology is useless. We seem to think that unless immediate theological reflection can be done which results in a thought I can use in the next twenty-four hours, that studying theology is a waste of time. I don't think most of us are in the camp of thinking that theology ruins one's faith, but I'm not sure that collectively as a church we value theological study.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not an academic but I've found that the theology I've read just for pleasure has served me well over the long term. I don't always have immediate 'use' for it, but I do feel that it's given me a good foundation both for preaching and for my own faith. John Stott seems to think so too and he can hardly be accused of being a liberal.

Sermons - Law, Faith & Grace / Storm at Sea

I preached two sermons yesterday which I've published over on my sermon blog:

Law, Faith and Grace

and

Storm at Sea

Doubting Thomas

I had this Sunday off preaching, which was actually quite wonderful. I had the opportunity of going to another church in town and just sitting in the pews and being part of the service.

The sermon was excellent and was on this week's lectionary reading about 'Doubting Thomas'. A fellow Methodist minister only pointed out to me the other day something I'd not twigged: that this reading of 'Doubting Thomas' is used every year on the first Sunday after Easter. I think I can imagine why.

I really liked today's sermon as the preacher took seriously the fact that all Christians have doubts about their faith at one time or another. He also made the very important point that each of us has times in our lives when God really speaks to us - times of great light and revelation. The experiences we have when we are certain that God is speaking to us are the experiences that are to be trusted. (Those who are familiar with Ignatius Loyola will know that this comes right out of The Spiritual Exercises.)

But back to doubt. Doubting is a part of faith and the two are inseparable. Saying this is simply a matter of being realistic. I do not mean to exault doubt or to say that those who doubt frequently are 'better believers' or 'more sophisticated'. What I mean to do is to name a phenemenon that - I would guess - happens to most people at some time in their lives. Sometimes it's not even a matter of actively doubting but of feeling that God has abandonded me.

This happens to most people at some point in their faith-life and it's not at all a comfortable thing. Each person will probably have their own ways of coping with these periods of desolation, these 'dark nights' and, to some extent, the coping mechanisms are individual things.

But I think that it's important to recognise that 'doubt happens' and that doubt is part of almost everyone's faith-journey at some point. As Christians, I think that we need to learn to not be afraid of those among us who doubt. As a church universal, we have a bad track record of being afraid of those who are doubting and afraid of those who are going through 'dark nights' in their faith. I wonder how the church could be more supportive?

Another Profile

Another Church in our Circuit asked me to write a personal profile for their newsletter. I thought I'd reproduce it below as I always like knowing a little bit more about people. And heck, why let a piece of writing go to waste? If this is of no interest to you, feel free to ignore it!

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During the autumn of 2003, I applied for Foundation Training, thus beginning a period of discernment in partnership with The Methodist Church. At the time, T***** and I were living in Barnet, North London and I was attending Trinity Church Enfield, a large church that is a combined Methodist / URC LEP (Local Ecumenical Partnership).

My journey to ministry did not begin with a flash of lightening or an email from God (God’s will should be so clear!), rather it was simply an inkling that I should start walking in the direction of ministry and see where the journey took me. It was a case of pushing a door to see if it opened and then moving on to test the next door. I think that God requested this gradual process because I’m a person who likes to know exactly where I am going and how I’m going to get there. God did not allow this particular journey to be so clear and I was asked to walk by faith a bit more than I would have liked!

Perhaps I was not the most obvious candidate for Methodist ministry; I have only been a Methodist member since 2000, having previously been a member of an Anglican church, an ecumenical church with a URC affiliation, and the Lutheran church in the United States. Let’s not even talk about the fact that I got my first degree in theology in 1979 from a Roman Catholic university! However, the Formation in Ministry Office made sure I was thoroughly “Methodised” before shipping me out into Circuit and my ecumenical credentials are obviously second to none. Prior to arriving in Kidderminster, I studied full time for a year at Wesley House, Cambridge, completing the course-work for an MA in Pastoral Theology and I am currently working on my dissertation.

I “retired” from my secular work in 2005, having spent 22 years working in pensions, 18 years of which were in the UK. I came to the UK in 1989 from Brussels to work for B****** ******’s Pension Fund and in 1995, I joined a company called M*****, a consulting firm that helps employers structure their employees’ pension schemes. I very much enjoyed this work and I feel very lucky and blessed to have been able to work for two excellent firms in this country. I also feel very blessed to have been called to ministry in mid-life and I hope that I can bring some of my past experience and skills into this new calling (although please note for future reference that I have no desire to be Treasurer of anything!).

Although I was raised in a Christian home and even went to a Christian primary school, my own faith journey has not been particularly smooth. There was a time in my life when I did not consider myself a Christian because I felt that being a Christian involved believing 613 impossible propositions before breakfast. I sometimes envy people who say that they had a happy, loving, Christian upbringing but I also recognise that some of the “wrestling” that I have done with both God and – more especially with the Church – has helped me to talk to other people about faith. I have learned that God is faithful and that there are no questions, doubts or struggles that are off-limits to God; after all, God invented these minds of ours that enquire and struggle after Truth and Goodness.

T***** and feel privileged to have come to Kidderminster. We find the community and the Circuit to be friendly and welcoming and we thank you all for your warm welcome and your friendship. It is my prayer that, as a Circuit and a section, we can continue to strive to discern God’s will for us and I thank you all for your patience and your assistance as I learn the ropes of being a new minister.

Peace on Earth

I have been asked to write a 200-word 'Pause for Thought' for the local weekly newspaper that serves our town. Or rather, 'The Minister' of the church has been asked to write the article; it just happens that 'The Minister' is me!

Any comments would be greatly appreciated - although I'm near deadline now. I'll take the criticism that I'm not trying to be evangelistic - I'm not. I'm trying to appeal to people of all faiths and people of no faith.

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As Christmas approaches, the Christian Church awaits the birth of Jesus Christ, whom Scripture also calls ‘The Prince of Peace’.

Our world today is in desperate need of peace. Fortunately, the values of peace and tolerance are shared by people of all major faiths as well as by people of no faith.

In recent years, our society has grown fearful of the unfamiliar. Jesus had a solution to this fear. He visited the people who his society feared, he ate with them and got to know them personally. Jesus followed the central precept of Judaism: ‘Love God and love your neighbour’. His love was not sentimental; rather it was expressed in his fundamental respect for the personhood of each individual.

As Christians, we believe that Jesus is the Son of God and Saviour of the world. But whoever you are and whatever you believe, each of us can participate in the work of the Prince of Peace by respecting people of all backgrounds and faiths, by promoting tolerance in public life and by seeking justice for all people.

May our town, our nation and our world be blessed with true peace this Christmas season.