Faith is a Verb

(Mark 9.14-32)
A sermon preached by Dave Shull
Spirit of Peace United Church of Christ
Sammamish, Washington
The 2nd Sunday after Pentecost: June 14, 2009

The first is a summer preaching series on topics people in the church have asked to hear a sermon about.
Today's question: What does it mean that we are a church with a covenant instead of a creed?

When Jesus, Peter, James, and John came down the mountain to the other disciples, they saw a huge crowd around them, and the religion scholars cross-examining them. As soon as the people in the crowd saw Jesus, admiring excitement stirred them. They ran and greeted him.
He asked, "What's going on? What's all the commotion?"
A man out of the crowd answered, "Teacher, I brought my mute son, made speechless by a demon, to you. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and goes stiff as a board. I told your disciples, hoping they could deliver him, but they couldn't."
Jesus said, "What a generation! No sense of God! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring the boy here."
They brought him. When the demon saw Jesus, it threw the boy into a seizure, causing him to writhe on the ground and foam at the mouth. Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has this been going on?"
"Ever since he was a little boy. Many times it pitches him into the fire or the river to do away with him. If you can do anything, do it. Have a heart and help us!"
Jesus said, "If? There are no 'ifs' among believers. Anything can happen."
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the father cried, "Then I believe. . . Help me with my doubts!"
Seeing that the crowd was forming fast, Jesus gave the vile spirit its marching orders: "Dumb and deaf spirit, I command you – Out of him, and stay out!" Screaming, and with much thrashing about, it left. The boy was pale as a corpse, so people started saying, "He's dead." But Jesus, taking his hand, raised him. The boy stood up.
After arriving back home, his disciples cornered Jesus and asked, "Why couldn't we throw the demon out?"
He answered, "There is no way to get rid of this kind of demon except by prayer."
Leaving there, they went through Galilee. He didn't want anyone to know their whereabouts, for he wanted to teach his disciples. He told them, "The Son of Man is about to be betrayed to some people who want nothing to do with God. They will murder him. Three days after his murder, he will rise, alive." They didn't know what he was talking about, but were afraid to ask him about it (Scripture taken from The Message © 1993-1996, 2000-2002. Used by permission from NavPress Publishing Group).

"I believe . . . . Help me with my doubts!"

This story is about faith and doubt (Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man, Orbis Press, 1988, p. 255).

When I was in eighth grade, I took confirmation. Confirmation was the five-month every Sunday night class for kids my age that was supposed to prepare us to join the church. I took the class under protest. I knew I wasn't going to join the church because I didn't believe in God. I didn't believe a lot of the other things we had to say we believed if we wanted to join the church. People joining the Presbyterian church I grew up in had to answer all these faith questions that are based on the Apostles' Creed. The Apostles' Creed developed between the third and seventh centuries. The Roman Catholic church uses this creed and the Nicene Creed. Both creeds reflect what early Christian leaders thought Christians should believe.

The churches which use creeds as the basis for church membership are called creedal churches. Creedal churches include the Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Christian Reformed, and Methodist churches. When you join one of these churches, you're usually asked to say yes to questions that come out of that creed. That's why these churches are called creedal churches. Creed comes from the Latin verb credo, which means I believe. If you grew up in a creedal church, you probably know the creed by heart: I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, and so forth. To join my Presbyterian church, you had to say "yes" to questions like, "Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth?" and, "Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord, who was conceived . . . ?" I knew I didn't believe these things that Christian faith said were true. And I knew I didn't want to stand up in front of all these people who'd known me since I was born and lie. So I knew I wasn't going to join the church.

The first night of class, I don't know what came over me. I had planned just to sit there and not talk the whole five months. My wonderfully self-righteous way to protest having to be there in the first place. But that first Sunday night, I violated this well thought-out plan. The pastor must have said something about God being all-powerful and all-loving, and how marvelous that was. Like a reflex response, my hand shot into the air. The pastor looked at me through his thick glasses that made his eyes really, really huge. "Yes, Dave?" he asked. I plunged in. "How can you talk about God being so loving and so powerful when I saw kids my age starving to death in India?" Silence in the room. Then he looked at me and said, "That's a matter of faith. You can't question that." End of the discussion. Over the next five months, neither he nor I brought up the topic again. I didn't join the church.

At that time in my life, I needed this pastor to ask me the question I first heard the Jesus scholar Marcus Borg ask. Borg teaches at Oregon State University. He says after the first religion class of the semester, at least one student comes up to him and says, "I don't believe in God." And instead of telling him to go home and read the Apostles' Creed, or telling him he can't question God's existence, Borg says to the student, "Tell me about the God you don't believe in." Then the student would talk about a God who uses typhoons and tornadoes and cancer to punish people, and sends non-Christians and gays and all sorts of other questionable folks to hell. And Borg responds, "I don't believe in that God either." Which leaves the student kind of speechless. Because the student assumed all Christians believe in that kind of God.

At that time in my life, and even today, I need a congregation who is willing to ask questions. I needed and need a congregation who talks openly about their doubts, and about the God they don't believe in. I think that's what we try to do in the United Church of Christ. I'm not saying creedal churches don't do this. Marcus Borg is an Episcopalian, and he freely shares his doubts and questions. The United Church of Christ is not a creedal church. We belong to the group of churches that are called covenantal churches. Besides the UCC, covenantal denominations include the Disciples of Christ, the Society of Friends or Quakers, the Mennonite Church, the Church of the Brethren, and the various Baptist churches.

To join covenantal churches, you don't have to say yes to a lot of questions about what you believe. Instead, you say yes to questions that talk about how you want to live. Instead of saying yes to a whole lot of nouns, people who join covenantal churches say yes to a lot of verbs.

If you open your hymnal to p. 45 (The New Century Hymnal, The Pilgrim Press, 1995), you'll see the questions the nine people who joined this church last summer said yes to. People were asked if they could say Jesus Christ was their Lord and Savior. We talked a lot in the inquirers' class about what Lord and Savior can mean. Then they were asked to say yes to a whole lot of verbs: "Do you promise, by the grace of God, to be Christ's disciple, to follow in the way of our Savior, to resist oppression and evil, to show love and justice, and to witness to the work and word of Jesus Christ as best you are able?" And then, "Do you promise, according to the grace given you, to grow in the Christian faith and to be a faithful member of the church of Jesus Christ, celebrating Christ's presence and furthering Christ's mission in all the world." Only after saying yes to these ways they were promising how they were going to live, did we go back to a few basic nouns for joining a Christian church: Do you believe in God? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you believe in the Holy Spirit? Nothing specific about those members of the Trinity.

Here, in this covenantal church, we see faith as a verb. Faith changes because we change and our world changes. Experiences we have change us, and our faith changes along with us. So we don't ask people to state specifics about what they believe as if what they believe is constant. We not only encourage people to be honest about their questions and their doubts, we expect it. We feel free to express our honest faith and doubts because we have made a covenant with each other to show up. I can't do what I promised to try to do without you. And you can't live up to your covenant promises without me. We need to show each other how to resist evil and be Jesus' disciple and show love and justice. We promise each other to show up. So we can count on each other to be there. So I won't scare you off with my questions and doubts. I can admit that ten months into this job search, God doesn't feel very powerful or very loving these days. You can ask, if Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, I wish he would save me and my family from this painful time when it feels like we're drifting away from each other?

At those times when we are filled with doubts, we don't just withdraw. We don't just disappear. Being in covenant with each other means we believe God has called us together to be church. God has called each one of us here. We make a covenant with each other that says as long as this is our church home, we will show up. When there's someone here who drives us crazy, or someone who's hurt us, we keep showing up. When we're depressed and can't stop crying, we keep showing up. When we keep getting better offer on Sunday mornings, we keep showing up.

We keep showing up because the covenant God has called us to make with each other and with God matters. So you help me resist the oppressive demons in me that have convinced me I'm no good for anybody. Someone helps another person re-imagine how to love the partner who has betrayed their trust. Another person becomes the loving presence of God for someone who hasn't felt God's love for a very long time, and is starting to believe God has abandoned them. In covenant, we walk beside each other.

Just like Jesus' disciples walked beside him. Those disciples who keep getting it all wrong. The disciples who couldn't heal this deeply disturbed boy. Jesus had given them the power to heal. But it seems like they tried to do it all by themselves. They forgot they had to call upon God's presence and power in order to heal. They thought it was all about them. So Jesus explodes with anger and frustration: "How much longer, Lord, must I be with these people?!"

And after the healing, he takes them aside to teach them. He has told them twice that people who want nothing to do with God will murder him, and three days later he will rise, alive. But they don't understand. Following a murdered Messiah wasn't one of the faith questions they said yes to when they joined their local synagogue. A murdered Messiah who will later rise from the dead, alive, doesn't fit with any creed they have.

But when Jesus called them to follow, he didn't ask them to say yes to a lot of questions about God. He doesn't ask them what they believed about evolution or abortion or sex. He just looked into their eyes, and said, "Follow me".

And he sings the same song to us.

Jesus, you have looked into my eyes, kindly smiling, you've called out my name.
On the sand, I have abandoned my small boat. Now, with you, I will seek other seas.
(Cesárea Gabarain, translation Madeleine Forrell Marshall, The New Century Hymnal, The Pilgrim Press, 1995, Hymn #173)

Side-by-side with our sisters and brothers in covenant, we step out. Guided by a clear purpose, led by a bold vision, we step out together with Jesus. And we follow. Amen.