Honest Faith

Honest Faith: Moving from Certainty to Trust

September 22, 2024
Hebrews 11:1, James 2:14-26

Faith is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we don’t see.  The elders in the past were approved because they showed faith.   By faith we understand that the universe has been created by a word from God so that the visible came into existence from the invisible.

Hebrews 11:1-3

My brothers and sisters, what good is it if people say they have faith but do nothing to show it? Claiming to have faith can’t save anyone, can it?  Imagine a brother or sister who is naked and never has enough food to eat.  What if one of you said, “Go in peace! Stay warm! Have a nice meal!”? What good is it if you don’t actually give them what their body needs?  In the same way, faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity.  

James 2:14-17

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“When the brilliant ethicist John Kavanaugh went to work for three months at ‘the house of the dying’ in Calcutta, he was seeking a clear answer as to how best to spend the rest of his life. On the first morning there he met Mother Teresa. She asked, ‘And what can I do for you?’ Kavanaugh asked her to pray for him.

‘What do you want me to pray for?’ she asked. He voiced the request that he had borne thousands of miles from the United States: ‘Pray that I have clarity.’

She said firmly, ‘No, I will not do that.’ When he asked her why, she said, ‘Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.’ When Kavanaugh commented that she always seemed to have the clarity he longed for, she laughed and said, ‘I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.’”

~ excerpt from Ruthless Trust, Brennan Manning

For far too many Christians, faith is simply a matter of believing that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died to forgive our sins so that we can go to heaven when we die.  Salvation is a simple transaction, his life in exchange for ours. 

Scripture knows nothing of this transactional faith.  There is nothing about believing  a particular theological truth to get some eternal reward in return.  Rather, faith in scripture always results in faithful action, in some sort of movement, or as Kierkegaard scholar Aaron  Simmons puts it, “Faith is Risk with Direction.”

In some ways, Kierkegaard’s Denmark was similar to today’s American South in that so many people simply assume they are Christian by virtue of being born into a Christian home or a Christian culture.  He was convinced, however, that such certainty on the sole  basis of where we were born had no resemblance to the kind of faith Jesus asked of the discipled when he said, “Drop your nets.  Come, follow me.” 

Honest faith moves us to action.  It does not give us certainty, but rather hope in possibilities we cannot yet see or know.  Faith always requires risk.  Are we willing to trust when the path is uncertain; to risk everything to truly follow Christ for the sake of love?

The Myth of Sola Scriptura

The Myth of Sola Scriptura

Reflections on the Wesleyan Quadrilateral - Scripture
August 18, 2024

Hebrews 4:12, Psalm 119:105, John 20:30-31

… God’s word is living, active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. It penetrates to the point that it separates the soul from the spirit and the joints from the marrow. It’s able to judge the heart’s thoughts and intentions. 

Hebrews 4:12

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In the 16th century, church leaders challenged various forms of corruption and abuse in the church, ultimately leading to the doctrine of Sola Scriptura, or “Scripture Alone.”  Martin Luther, John Calvin and other Protestant Reformers said that Scripture alone is the ultimate authority in matters of faith, over and against the rules and traditions established within the church.  People, they believed, could err in their judgment or even intentionally spread false teachings and heresies, but Scripture was always unchanging and reliable.

In theory, this sounds reasonable.  After all, we as Christians believe the Scriptures are the inspired Word of God and as Paul writes to Timothy, are useful for teaching, for showing mistakes, for correcting, and for training character (1 Timothy 3:16).  The problem is that no one can read the Bible in a vacuum.  The fact that we are not reading in Hebrew or Greek means that there is always at least one layer of interpretation in the  translation itself.  Not to mention all of our preconceived ideas about God, theology, and what we have been taught.  In some religious education, theology classes are required before taking Biblical Studies, which ensures that when students actually get to studying the scripture, they are already steeped in a particular  denominational viewpoint on how to interpret it. 

The Wesleyan tradition still holds scripture as our primary source of authority when it comes to knowing God, but we also recognize that scripture always comes to us through various lenses of interpretation and that it is quite possible for us to get some things wrong.

Rather than Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone), we might say a more accurate way is Prima Scriptura (Scripture First, or primary).  Reflecting on John Wesley’s practical methodology for interpreting scripture and doing  theology, Albert Outler coined what is known as the “Wesleyan Quadrilateral,” consisting of Scripture,  Tradition, Reason, and Experience.  Of course scripture has more weight than the other three, but this process of theological reflection reminds us that whether we like it or not, scripture is always interpreted through the lens of the other three.  When we read the Bible, we cannot separate ourselves from the church tradition in which we were taught.  We cannot and should not shut off the intellect God gave us.  To ignore reason leads not to a perfect understanding of scripture, but to a blind acceptance of what someone else told us it means.  And finally, we can never separate ourselves from our own experience, particularly our experience of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  God’s word is alive and breathes in us through the Spirit, teaching us how to apply what we read in our own unique context and circumstances. 

When we recognize these lenses, we open ourselves to the work of scripture that seeks to penetrate our hearts and transform our souls.  We come humbly, acknowledging that we have much to learn about the text from those who have gone before us, from deep study, and even from the fresh voice of the Spirit today.