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Passing Along Faith

24 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by Faith, Believe, Trust, Serve in Uncategorized

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Emmaus, faith, faith-sharing

How do we pass along our faith? It is an important question among many which we wrestle with as a community of Christian faith. It is important to who we are and the responsibility we have been given by Jesus. It is important to our children and the generations that follow them. It is also a question of faith, for what faith can we claim if we are not faithful to what we have been specifically instructed to do in Matthew 28. Make disciples and baptize the nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

It is also a question for which we seem to not have an easy answer. It is a question that frustrates us. It is a question that frightens us. Yet it is a question of utmost importance, so we can not brush it under a rug somewhere.

One thought is to look toward Jesus. I invite you to consider how frequently in the New Testament did Jesus pass along his faith in the synagogue? Only once, at least as the Gospels report to us. That was in Luke where Jesus read Isaiah in the synagogue of his hometown Nazareth. Otherwise, the Gospel witness tells us that Jesus taught and prayed on the road, where he met the faithful and the unfaithful.Image

Again in the Gospel of Luke, the risen Jesus meets two disciples on the road to Emmaus. He does not tell them who he is, but walks with them, asking about their lives. Of course, they want to talk about what has just happened in Jerusalem and how their life has come crashing down with the death of Jesus on the Roman cross. Jesus asks them detailed questions, although we know that he was already very aware of what had taken place. The disciples lay out before Jesus their lives, their pain, their heartbreak. And Jesus listens. It was only then that Jesus begins to teach them beginning with Moses and all the prophets, and offers interpretation of the scripture concerning himself, explaining the way of the cross and how it glorified the Father. Then at the table, as Jesus broke the bread did they recognize who he was.

I think what is important is that in this story and in the telling of parables faith is passed on to others through meeting them in the middle of their lives where ever they are at. It takes place when we listen; when we pray, when we carry with them their burden. And only then the traditions of faith can be shared.

So how do we do this? We start by going outside the walls of the church to meet people where they are. We listen to their stories. We tell them our stories. In the midst of the story telling we pray for them. And then we tell them there is good news, the good news of love and forgiveness that is the story of one Jesus of Nazareth.

And what about sharing the faith with our children? What may be most frustrating to us is that what once worked, dragging children along with you to church for Sunday School and worship, no longer works. In fact, it may be even working against the sharing of faith with our children. The biggest complaint I am hearing from parents is that they are tired of fighting their children week in and out to get them to church. It exhausts them. It also fractures the family. So for those of us who care about such things, what can we do.

We also need to be meeting our children where they live, in the middle of their lives. In part the answer is up to the parents. Parents, you live day in and day out with your children, through their joy, through their pain, through their mis-steps. You are in the front line of faith sharing. You can do it by including in their lives some traditional techniques that fail only because they are not used. Return to daily prayers at meal time, blessings as you leave your house, bed-time prayers, and story reading from the Bible. The other part is that we as a church should be equipping you to do this. We should be encouraging you in your own faith walk. If you are stuck about it as a parent, then let us talk about it. This is of vital importance, for if you can testify to your children of God’s love and forgiveness in Jesus the Messiah, who will?

Barriers to Faith

13 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by Faith, Believe, Trust, Serve in Book Reviews, Faith Matters

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faith, faith and belief

We again continue our journey through the book Faith-Sharing beginning with the question posed at the end of last week’s letter: “If Christian faith is so dynamic and infectious, why are we seeing so little contagion within our movement?” H. Eddie Fox and George E. Morris propose in chapter three that three barriers are stumbling blocks to growth in personal faith and in sharing that faith.

Let us begin by remembering how they defined faith: “Christian faith is a centered, personal, relational response involving trust and obedience.” The authors argue the first barrier is “Faith is Believing Beliefs.” The problem they say is that since the noun faith has no verbal form in English we use the word “believe” to express “having faith.” Thus, they say, we fall into the trap thinking that faith and belief are synonymous, when they actually mean two very different things. A belief is a proposition or as Wesley called it an “opinion” about an article of faith, but it is not faith itself. Wesley called it a “dead faith” that has no life in it because it has no element of a personal relationship with the Creator through Christ Jesus.

I will tell you that many years ago I had many beliefs but no faith. Of course, I believed that God existed, that Jesus was the son of God, that Jesus died on the cross and so on. But I did not have any faith according to Fox and Morris. I did not have a personal experience of the truth of these propositions so they were just so many words, and I certainly did not have a trust that led to obedience. Then about 15 years ago I began to have faith. I say began, because faith is a journey not a destination. It is like a boy who has to grow into the suit of his father.

I started that journey by hearing the stories of the Bible. And this brings up a very important point that the author’s make concerning bringing our children and youth into faith. First, they say that our children should know the story line of the Bible. I know from my own faith experience that knowing the story line of the Bible has made all the difference, so much it brought me to faith when before I had only beliefs. Secondly, they say we need to place emphasis on a personal experience of God in and through the living Messiah, Jesus. We enter into this personal experience when we can come to understand our story in light of the larger story of what God has done, in what God is doing, and in what God will do.

The second barrier that is offered is “Faith Is The Opposite of Understanding.” Can you imagine someone just shutting their eyes then believing something despite of all the evidence to the contrary? We often call this burying one’s head in the sand. This is how some imagine faith operates. But Paul believed differently. He writes to the Corinthians that when we start out in faith we are fed only milk like a baby for our faith is not strong enough. As we mature we receive more adult food as we grow into our faith. Faith saves us, not understanding, but our faith grows into understanding and truth throughout our journey as we follow Jesus. (1 Corinthians 3:2)

The third barrier that is “Faith Is A Good Feeling.” This stumbling block to faith is very popular and is a modern day heresy, says our authors. And I agree. I believe that any faith that depends on good feelings is sure to die quickly. It reminds me of when a person apologizes for being rude to another because they were not feeling well. It is as if saying, how I treat you just depends on how I feel that day irregardless of who you are. These kinds of relationships whether in friendship or in marriage die lingering painful deaths. Instead our faith should be based on the living God revealed in the Messiah, Jesus, and our personal relationship based on trust and obedience. Anything else is to have a weakened or dead faith often leading to self-idolatry and self-worship.

Ask yourself this week about your own faith. Is your faith centered on the living God revealed in Jesus Christ? Is your faith in a personal relationship with this living God? Is your faith one of trust and obedience to the kingship of the Messiah, Jesus? Or is one of the three barriers above a stumbling block to vital, living faith?

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