Faith is Not Knowing

Easter 2

John 20:24-31

There are a lot of things I don’t know.  (No surprise to those who know me…)   The more I learn, the less I seem to know.  The older I get, the more I discover the limits of my knowledge.  I have spent most of my adult life around universities and with people dedicated to expanding and deepening the field of knowledge in their particular academic discipline.  I have always appreciated academic pursuits and the life of the mind.  Knowledge and learning are vitally important and I regularly bemoan the fact that their value seems to be declining in our society.

But faith is not knowing.  Faith taps into something deeper than knowledge.  Faith is rooted, not in the mind, but in our relationship with the Transcendent.  In our relationship with God.  With God, who is always closer than our next breath.  In its simplest terms, faith is about trust.  As the writer of Hebrews puts it, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  (11:1) Faith is not something we do, or conjure up on our own.  It is not about knowing the right doctrines or behaving the right way or practicing rituals rightly.  No.  Faith is pure gift.  It is about being able to trust because God is trustworthy.  It is about being able to love God because God first loved us.  Faith “saves” us, not because we “do” it but because it “does” us.   What does Jesus say?  “You did not chose me but I chose you.”  (John 15:16)

Jesus tells Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” (John 20:29) In speaking those words, Jesus blesses all of us who don’t know a lot and who struggle with doubts, questions and uncertainty.  Jesus blesses those of us who live by faith, not by knowledge.  Jesus blesses the women at the tomb, the disciples locked in fear in the upper room, Thomas and all those who have a hard time getting their heads around the truth of the Resurrection, and the promise that Death has lost its grip on humanity… and somehow manage to believe it anyway.

A wise woman once told me that she is part of a community of faith so that, when she is filled with doubt, others can believe for her, and that when she is filled with certainty, she can believe for those who are struggling with doubt.  She prays for them when they cannot pray, and is confident that they pray for her when she cannot find the words or the will. 

There are a lot of days I am very grateful for the Church.  In spite of all our shortcomings, failings and proclivity for missing the point, God continues to love us and walk with us and do some pretty amazing things through us.  God continues to foster faith in us, even when we cannot see through the fog in our minds.  The scriptures are filled with stories that confirm this powerful truth, including the story of the one who is the Truth, and who rose from the dead to prove it.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thanks for reading!

Among the Tombs

Resurrection of our Lord

Luke 24:1-12

I find graveyards and cemeteries fascinating.  Tombstones tell a story.  I visited an old cemetery in eastern Oklahoma many years ago.  In one corner of the cemetery, there were a number of small graves marked by simple stones.  All of them belonged to children; a grim reminder of an epidemic that swept through the tiny town.  During a call interview I was taken to the community graveyard.   As we walked among the tombs, they told me the story of their town, the story of their people, they told me who they were.  I took a “cemetery tour” in New Orleans and looked at the ornate and elaborate tombs of the wealthy.  Many were truly works of art.  A little later in that trip, we visited a graveyard in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city.  There, in unkempt crypts, old bones were often pushed aside or even removed to make room for a new body.  The contrast of the two cemeteries painted a striking picture of the long history of injustice and racial and economic divisions that are part of that city’s story.

In Luke’s story of the Resurrection, we find ourselves walking with three women among the tombs.  Those tombs told a story too.   A story of kings and exile, of wars and occupation and tyranny, of prophets and faith, of God’s steadfast love and promises.  But, on that day, the story that was uppermost on the women’s minds pertained to one particular tomb:  the tomb of their beloved teacher, Jesus.   Crushed by the terror of his death and the shattering of their hope, they came to do what needed to be done.

But he was not there.

Two men in dazzling clothes questioned them,  “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”  And then offered them startling Good News,  “He is not here, but has risen!”

Too often, I think, we humans prefer to walk among the tombs.  We prefer to live in the past, and dwell on the tragedies and deaths, large and small, that define so many of our lives.  Worse, we scrub out the tragedies and the death and just remember how good things used to be.  We conveniently forget that yesterday was just as full of sorrow, struggle, suffering, injustice and death as today. 

But, as Easter people, as people who supposedly ground our lives in the Good News of the Resurrection, why do we go on looking for the living among the dead?  Why do we go on living as if death is more powerful than life?  That death is more powerful than God? 

A walk among the tombs can be both instructive and insightful but, only if we remember that “He is not here, but has risen!”  The Good News of Easter helps refocus us on the enduring power of God’s life and love.  People of Easter faith need to be constantly vigilant in looking for empty tombs and signs of resurrection life.  People of Easter faith need to be committed to bringing that resurrection life into the dark and death-filled places that so many still inhabit – even if our efforts are dismissed as idle tales. 

Peace,

Bishop Mike

I pray that you have a blessed celebration of the Resurrection this weekend, and that the Spirit of Christ fills you with Resurrection life!

The Boiling Pot

Passion Sunday

Luke 22:14-23:56

The word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, “What do you see?”  And I said, “I see a boiling pot, tilted away from the north.”  -- Jeremiah 1:13.

The pot is boiling.  Again.

The whole world seems to be bubbling over.

Hatred.  Anger.  Fear.  Violence. 

The world churns with them.  The world feeds on them.

The vitriol of presidential politics.  Shootings in schools and theaters and churches and on city streets.  The crushing reality of racism.  The out-of-control fear of those who speak differently, or believe differently or think differently or look differently.  The never ending specter of terrorism.  Wars and rumors of war. 

People wonder, “Where is God in all this?”  People declare, “There can be no God in all of this!”

Three times, as Jesus walked with his disciples from Galilee to Jerusalem, he told his disciples he was going to Jerusalem to die.  Three times.  Jesus did not turn away from the boiling pot, he walked right into it.  Jesus did not turn away from the hatred, anger, fear and violence of his own day, he opened his arms to it.  Jesus did not turn away from the death and destruction wrought by the brokenness of humanity, he overcame it.

And that’s where God still is today. Right in the middle of the churning world.  Right in the middle of the boiling pot.  Right there standing with the victims of the hatred, anger, fear and violence.  Right there standing with the suffering and the dying and the dispossessed.  Just as God always has been.  Just as God always will be. 

On Sunday, Christians enter into the most important week of our whole year.  During this holy week, we will retell the story of Jesus’ final days on his journey to the cross and celebrate his victory over hatred, anger, fear, violence and death.  In this story, we are reminded of God’s passion for God’s world.  We are reminded that the power of love, God’s love, is stronger than all those things that can and do tear our world apart.  We are reminded that, even as the pot boils, Jesus walks with us, and invites us to walk with him.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

I invite you to join us next week as, once again, we tell the story of God’s passionate love for us and for the whole world (no exceptions) in Jesus Christ.