A Question of Faith

Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15
John 6:24-35

One of the most difficult classes I ever had was a theology class entitled, “Pastor as Interpreter of the Bible” and to be perfectly honest, to this day I’m not sure that this was an appropriate title for the class. Instead, it should have been something like, “Theological stuff that is out there that you will have to deal with sooner or later”. There were only two books we were assigned to read, and one particular author was the sole writer of one book and was co-author of the other. The reason this particular author is significant is because in some Christians circles, he is known as “heretic”.

The author’s name is not nearly as important as some of the ideas he espouses such as challenging the validity of the Immaculate Conception or the Virgin Birth or even the miracle of the loaves and the fishes as recorded in the Bible. He challenges the notion that any of these stories could actually be literally true and yet he defends the “profound truth” that is contained in these stories as well as many others, and in one of his books he challenges his readers to consider the perspective they bring to a Bible story as reading the story through a particular “lens”, some of these lenses being shaped and defined by the nature and even the depth of our faith as well as by our environment, upbringing, and experiences in life.

This is significant to the perspective that I want to share with you because when I entered into this particular class, I came with my own beliefs. I do not recall ever challenging the “truth” of the Bible or any of its stories, but I do recall having some general questions about who, what, when, where, how, why. These are the sorts of questions – some call them ‘doubts’ – that I would hope everyone reads anything with because these questions indicate an engaged reader. That is to say, we are not just reading the words but are actively involved with the writer’s story and working to comprehend what is being read.

In the end the class, the instructor, and the books we were required to read forced me to ask myself not just whether the biblical stories were true as written but, more importantly, why I believed them to be true. What made the class so difficult was that I found that in many cases, I believed the stories of the Bible because I had been taught since childhood that I was supposed to believe them – AND IN A PARTICULAR WAY - and not necessarily because I had actively engaged the Bible and the Holy Spirit; I simply accepted it, and that was pretty much the end of it. The sweet and blessed faith of a child.

What would you think if I suggested to you that the true miracle of the loaves and the fishes was not what Jesus did with the bread and the fish but, rather, what Jesus was able to do with the hearts and minds of so many “seekers” (there is no real indication that these thousands were actually “disciples”, but they were curious enough to follow Jesus around in an effort to learn more)? In other words, Jesus didn’t wiggle His nose to make more bread and fish magically appear. Instead, because of the words spoken and lessons taught by Jesus, the hearts of many were so opened that they were perhaps willing to share what little they had by taking only what they needed and passing the remainder on to the next person who maybe had none. Would this make the story any less true? Of course the story tells us that leftovers were collected, but the story does not tell us where these leftovers came from. It has always simply been presumed that the bread and the fishes were multiplied; it does not tell us where the food came from.

Now I’m not asking anyone to believe what I believe or to agree with everything I say; this is not my point. It is also not a matter of whether I really believe what I just offered, but I will offer this as well: my perspective on this story does not in any way diminish the power of Christ to transform and to “feed” those who would choose to follow Him. The only thing it does do is to upset those who have always accepted the story as written and have come to believe it a certain way because it has been expected of us.

The single most dangerous and precarious level of faith to posses is that certain faith which has been handed down from generation to generation by the words and ideals of man. That is to say, we learn to believe it not because we have been engaged in conversation (aka, ‘prayer’) with the Lord but have been more concerned about believing what we have been told to believe by preachers who have threatened us in the past with hell fire and brimstone.

The challenge, however, is to see the difference between man’s words (“believe, OR ELSE!”) and Jesus’ words (“He who comes to Me will never go hungry…”). Which conversation would be more easily engaged? One offers the reader (or listener) an ultimatum; the other offers the reader (or prayor) a choice without threats. But which one would also require faith to answer? I’ll give you a hint: the other requires only fear.

But how much faith do we need? In Matthew 17 is the story of a man whose son was possessed by demons. He brought his son to Jesus after Jesus’ disciples failed to heal the boy. Jesus drove out the demon and His disciples asked how it was that they were not able to do so. Jesus replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘move from here to there’, and it will move. Nothing is impossible for you.”

Now remember that in Matthew 13 is where Jesus refers to the mustard seed as the very smallest of seeds. In Jesus’ admonishment to the disciples in chapter 17, they have “so little” faith. So how much faith is too little? Or how little faith is not enough? And how can it be measured?

We all struggle with our faith from time to time. In some ways I think it is healthy because the struggles force us to ask questions. And if we are curious enough, we will begin our quest to know more. And when that happens, when we are genuinely “seeking”, then there is the promise from Jesus that we “will find”. But what happens when we have our struggles, maybe even our doubts about certain things theological and we stumble across such passages as Hebrews 11:6 in which it is written; “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that he exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”

But the epistle of James says that “even demons believe”, so simply acknowledging His existence is not enough. What’s going on here? How are we supposed to know what it all means and what is expected from us? Life is going to throw us a curve from time to time, and we are going to respond the best way we know how. More often than not, our response to whatever curve is thrown is not going to be “faith-based”. We will respond according to our experiences.

It is not enough to have the faith to “move mountains” because moving mountains will have little to do with what the Lord calls us to do and to be. Testing His power and willingness to prove a point to us is also not enough because putting the LORD to the test is a clear indication of a LACK of faith. It would be as if He must somehow prove Himself to us.

For many, the greatest test of faith is in coming to believe it all to be possible. Not just that it is possible that there is one supreme God in Heaven and that He gave His Son for our benefit but that it is possible to be loved in such measure. Many of us cannot fathom the depth of such love. Many among us cannot comprehend the reality that the Lord is capable of such love and that we are somehow WORTHY in His eyes of such a love.

We are not strangers to sin, and we are aware of the power that sin has in our lives. We are painfully aware of the destructive nature of sin, and we know that in some form or fashion we have been violated by sin. It then becomes a matter of recognizing a HOLY God who cannot allow sin in His presence but is still somehow willing to take it upon Himself for no reason other than that we are loved.

“My grace is sufficient.” That, my dear friends, is enough.