by Jason Gillespie
A few years back, I found myself fortunate to be lying under a palapas on a third world beach. Some form of consciousness expansion was taking place as I peered out at the ineffable beauty of God’s creation. The Recreation Director was making his afternoon rounds with the guests and he happened by my little patch of paradise. He was wearing a small unassuming wooden cross around his neck, similar to Pastor Gavin’s. I asked him if he was a “Believer?” He paused, knelt down under the shade and said: “No, I am not a Believer. You can believe anything. I live my faith every day in everything that I do.” He went on to provide various examples of how he “lives” his faith in Christ. There was an obvious contrast that he was highlighting for me that I chose not to dismiss. I have taken stock of that interaction ever since.
We use the word “faith” in numerous contexts: “I have faith in you” or “I have faith in God” or “I have faith that everything is going to work out” or more simply “Keep the faith” and so on. But the word “faith” could be easily substituted with the word “believe” or “belief” and nobody would really take notice or be offended and rightly so.
Faith is most typically defined and associated with religion involving a belief and trust in something for which there is no proof. In fact, we are all familiar with Hebrews 11:1 which teaches us just that: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” In fact, reading the complete narrative in Hebrews 11 is a living historical testimony to just how much God teaches us and reveals Himself through acts of faith as opposed to a belief or believing in something. But did you catch that … “acts” becomes almost synonymous with faith, and scripture is replete with examples in this regard.
These acts of faith envisage a kind of ‘knowing’ that almost always implies certitude even when there is no evidence. Whereas, faith based solely on belief may leave you equivocating on your course of action. I am now confident that this is what my third world friend was alluding too.
I have concluded that it is in a ‘knowing’ (certain) faith response that we dare to act without evidence of a positive outcome. This is a uniquely human phenomenon and it may be built into our individual and collective consciousness as a species.
Further, while faith is the mechanism that presupposes all religious rites, rituals and worship, it is unequivocally a universal pursuit in all human endeavors. Could it be that faith is endowed by the Creator to all of humanity? Not as a mental construct that we access solely in service to the “religious” enterprise but a gift intrinsic to our very nature as human beings.
Emile Durkheim was one of the great Social Scientists, among many, that emerged in the modern era of the 20th century. He is one of the few who explored the humble origins and vital role of ancient primitive cults, with their feasts, rites and rituals, and how this gave rise to early societies and a collective thought life.
These early human gatherings coalesced in service to the particular rite or ritual that was found worthy of their devotion. Acts of worship became a unifying social force that could and would meet the growing demands of a human mind that was observing the vast mysteries of the Creation that lay before them. These collectively prescribed manners of acting aroused thoughts and sensations and the desire for communion and culminating in the apotheosis of objects, abstract forces, and conscious personalities.
Concomitantly, these same early gatherings became an incubator for ideas and sentiments that ranged from the sacred and the profane; love and abnegation (surrender); the good, the beautiful and the ideal; legal and moral codes; to speculative notions of the divine that gave rise to religious thought and later to philosophy and science.
In undergraduate study and long before I became a Christian, I remember being sort of God struck by Durkheim’s exhaustive study on The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1912) that is referenced above. In his lengthy summary, Durkheim is eventually compelled to confront the divide between Religion and Science, and he concludes with this remarkable insight:
“….But howsoever important these facts taken from the constituted sciences may be, they are not enough; for faith is before all else an impetus to action, while science, no matter how far it may be pushed, always remains at a distance from this. Science is fragmentary and incomplete; it advances but slowly and it is never finished; but life cannot wait.” (page 431).
And for this reason, religion will always precede science. It always has and it always will.
While Durkheim was certainly referencing “religious faith”, his treatise lays the groundwork for a more broad and thorough examination of the faith response. His insight makes no reference to a belief or a belief system. Neither does he make any reference to “hope” which is the anticipation of a positive outcome. An appeal to “love” could have been made by Durkheim. But he reminds us that ideas and sentiments are separate from ritualized practices that command a collective body to first act in devotion.
The impetus to action that religious faith engenders can be applied then to mobilize us to act not only in service to the Divine but also in service to others. And to that end, God in Christ Jesus is the focus of our worship and glorified by our acts of service in faith to the Kingdom.
The sheer power of faith is mentioned time and again by our Lord Jesus: “… 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 will be impossible for you.” (Mt 17:20). And again Mk 11:22-23; Mt 21:21; Lk 17:6; 1Co 13:2. Faith fills the void when fear and trembling and all manner of understanding fails us. By faith we bow our head and invite the Unseen into our heart and mind; and in so doing receive a peace “… which transcends all understanding …” (Php 4:7).
So, if this faith, of which so much is written, is in fact, a gift from the Creator, does it terminate at Heaven’s door and only for those who knock? Can there be even broader application in service to the advance of Kingdom come? There must be some semblance of a faith response that also resides in Science.
I made a previous reference to religious faith demonstrating a “kind of knowing” that motivates us to action. Similarly, scientific inquiry always begins with the unknown in pursuit of knowing. In fact, the word “science” is derived from the Latin scire and scio … ‘to know’. So is there room for Science in this faith enterprise, of which I have been speaking? Or shall religion covet that which is a gift from God to all His creation?
My embrace of Science is a unique treasure that informs my faith less I succumb to ignorant bliss. Humanity owes much to science in its multifarious forms and modes. Every day we can recognize the “miracles” of science that we take so obliviously for granted. The list of accomplishments that have been born of human innovation through the application of science is immeasurable. The Bible and its dissemination to all the world is the product of science. The synagogues and cathedrals and temples from small to great are all the product of science and its craft. Societies and culture in every corner of our world are the product of humans seeking ways to survive and to advance toward some indeterminate outcome by grasping and then applying the laws of nature with a leap of faith. Mysteries abound and life cannot wait, and faith moves us to act. Whether in worship and devotion or with innovation for the common good.
And so, it is the call of faith that moves the human mind to action. We can make predictions, but we do not know the exact outcome of any action we take. We cannot know the future. It is revealed to us moment to moment as an enduring and irresistible process of perseverance through faith.
However, if this is a useful insight into the utility of faith then how can it be maximized in service to discipleship so as to advance the world forward in pursuit of God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven?
I am learning, ever so slowly, that my (spiritual) faith in action requires constant course corrections, diligence, and guidance from the Holy Spirit. Centering and collective prayer, worship, scriptural study, fellowship and a host of other practices handed down from our Lord are required. To do otherwise is to risk a pursuit in faith that can be to your own peril and others. The colloquial reference is “Blind faith.”
Some of these changes in course are moment to moment and others require less scrutiny based on the degree of “knowing” in your faith response. I am finding that devotion to discipleship in Christ through the Holy Spirit increases knowing; easy for me to say but I must confess my failures every day in this pursuit.
My faith walk has always suffered from an inordinate focus on observing and understanding the world and the humans that make it home. Indeed, I am tempted daily to view Jesus’s ministry as an innovative and novel way to view the world and all of Creation as a transformative exercise, but we are warned against this. Jesus says: “The Kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is’ or ‘There it is’ because the Kingdom of God is within you. (Lk 17:20-21).
Indeed, it is tempting to relax on my third world beach in hope of expanding my consciousness and to try to observe how the Kingdom of God is manifest before me. My daily confessions to Jesus generally include, time spent trying to grasp the complexities of my subjective experience of my world and particularly, the human creatures that call it home; all the while deluding myself with the importance of observing and understanding their behavior as a justifiable pursuit of knowledge.
But God is clear that His Kingdom does not come from observation or knowledge. It does not come from rites or rituals or theologies built from well-organized and thoughtful tenets; and it is not elusive or mystical. His Kingdom is in each of us, in the here and now, and awaits our efforts to mobilize a knowing faith response that acts because the outcome is already known. And that effort begins as an act of faith when I reach out, to meet another exactly where they are and attend to their needs. Then and only then is my faith response revealed as a tangible act of empathy and compassionate care; and dare I say, an act of love that can change the course of a human life. This is the call of faith that Jesus always responded too from the Father and was demonstrated in each moment of his earthy life.
For in the gospel a righteousness from God
is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith
from first to last, just as it is written:
The righteous will live by faith (Ro 1:17)