Do You Believe?

If this is how you have heard Christians talk about belief, please read this.

This sermon was preached at St. John's Church, Decatur, AL on the 12th Sunday after Pentecost. The readings that inspired this message were the following: 
2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33
Psalm 130
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
John 6:35, 41-51

A few times when my family walked through Southside Birmingham, near the church of my childhood and youth, something disconcerting happened. Like so many other Southern towns there were sign-wavers there. The type of Christians that would yell things aggressively at passers-by. “If you died tonight, where would you go? Heaven or Hell?!!!” Occasionally the prostylizer would act more cordially wondering, “Has your soul been saved?” or my favorite, “Do you believe?”

At the time I was not quick-witted enough to answer with any bit of snark or sarcasm. Now though as I have seen the damage that this fear-based version of Christianity is causing the world I might respond in another way. If asked “Do you believe?” I might just answer by quoting a sign from my grandfather’s kitchen. “A man’s got to believe in something. I believe I’ll have another drink.”

With all joking aside, I think the yelling of Christians on bullhorns has caused a great epidemic in our society. Or, maybe their yelling is merely a symptom of larger disease. Belief has become such an empty word that many wonder, “Does it mean anything at all?” For many of our friends in other parts of the Church belief simply means to give ascent to something—to check off a certain list of criteria about God and ourselves. For many believing means to think the way others do, the way the pastor says to think, or to think the right way as to avoid Hell. Sure, this is what believing means to some, but how did Jesus use that word? What did Jesus mean when he said that believing leads to eternal life?

This morning we heard the continuation of a larger story from John’s Gospel account. The “Bread of Life Discourse” as some refer to it. And, in it Jesus described himself as the Bread of Life and the Bread of Heaven—using the Hebrew story of the manna from heaven to elaborate on what he came to do in the world. When Jesus said, “I am the bread of life” this was the first “I Am” statement in this Gospel account. He would later say I am the Light of the World; the Gate; the Good Shepherd; the Resurrection and the Life; the Way, the Truth, and the Life; and the Vine. But if we are to walk into eternity with Jesus, do we have to believe that Jesus was literally saying what he meant? Was Jesus really bread or a vine?

You may be shocked to hear this, but when we go to the altar rail we are not participating in cannibalism. Jesus spoke in expansive language with many layers. When we meet him in Communion there is more happening than we will ever know or we can even imagine. And so, often we miss parts of what’s going on there.

When we come together as a community we sometimes say that we are re-membering, as in putting back together, the Body of Christ. We are constituting the Body of Christ right now. And, at the same time the words that we hear as we stretch out our hands at the altar rail are “The Body of Christ.” The Body of Christ is meeting the Body of Christ during Communion. Talk about “You are what you eat!” There’s even more though to this whole believing thing.

Foster sometimes asks me what my favorite hymn is. There’s too many for me to narrow it down, so I change constantly. Usually whatever I say he scoffs at it. Today though it might just be “The Church’s One Foundation.” The last stanza refers to the sort of strange Body of Christ meeting Body of Christ nature that is happening during Communion. “Yet she [the Church] on earth hath union with God the Three in One, and mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won; O happy ones and holy! Lord give us grace that we, like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with thee.” I can’t help but get misty eyed when I sing those words, for I know and we know that there are those who have joined the great cloud of witnesses who still commune with us. But, is that what Jesus meant by believing and entering into eternal life? Do we just think that we will float around invisible during Communion? Sounds scary.

And, if we are not careful we will let all the fear from other parts of society and the Church soak into us too. We somehow miss Jesus saying, “I will raise them up on the last day,” and focus instead on who the Father is calling to dwell with him. Is it me? Do I get to be part of the exclusive club? What if I believe in the wrong way? We worry about what Jesus said when he talked about belief, but what he meant was not doing a certain set of things or thinking a certain way. Jesus pointed to the non-permanent nature of the manna in the wilderness to drive home the truth of believing.

To believe—to really eat the bread of life so to speak, to be transformed by what happens in mystic sweet communion—to believe is to trust in God. To give over our lives to the Creator of the Universe. See manna was not the problem. The trouble was that those who were in the desert with Moses did not trust God. They grumbled. They pleaded for more than just the bread that was keeping them alive. And, sadly we can do the same thing in our own lives.

When problems arise, we doubt. And that is okay because God still believes in us, even when we don’t believe in God. But, when we do not really know that God has us, that God is with us, that God is holding us up we tend to turn our religion into a weapon. When we start to disconnect from God we wield Christianity as a sword to beat disbelief or the unbelievers away. This is not what Jesus was calling us into when he spoke of believing. This is not what leads to eternal life.

Jesus showed us a way that was different. He was not talking about thinking a certain way so we can eat bread that would never get moldy. No, he was showing us the way through which we might trust God completely. Jesus showed us the way to forever, to eternity. It is not through accenting to what a fear-filled preacher says so that you can think that your group is better than others. Instead, we are called into a radical practice of trusting that God’s love for us and for all is infinite. It never dies. It never fades. It is eternal. In truth, Jesus showed us that God’s love has the power to even defeat death.

We are called to trust God. That is believing. When we trust in God as Jesus showed us we realize that we are part of the house of God dwelling there now and forever. Do you believe?