An Actionable Faith

Trinity Presbyterian Church of Bethesda
06.17.07; Rev. David Williams

Scripture Readings: Luke 7:36-8:3; Galatians 2:15-21

It’s been said that it doesn’t matter what you believe, just so long as you believe. Faith is what counts, and the nature of that faith is more or less irrelevant.

That’s a wonderful thing, I suppose, because it requires that we tolerate one another. We’re a part of a society that makes acceptance of other peoples faiths a core element of our lives together as a nation. If you want to be a Wiccan and go out into the woods and caper about under the light of a full moon, you can. If you want to believe that aliens are going to come to the earth in 2012 and set up an embassy in Jerusalem, you’re entitled to that. If you keep a sacred donut on a small altar in corner of your bedroom, that’s your prerogative. Mmm. Donut.

The challenge for all of us, though, is that just believing in something isn’t enough. That belief needs to be somehow rooted in what is real. Yes, belief involves mystery and a willingness to open yourself to things that you don’t understand. But that doesn’t mean that just believing something makes it real. Just because you’re certain of yourself doesn’t mean that you’re right. I might believe in my heart of hearts that I could still fit into the pants I wore in my senior year in high school. And who knows? With an industrial crane and large amounts of WD-40, it might even be possible. But faith alone just won’t do it.

In another nexus between pants and faith, there’s recent expression of belief expressed in a courtroom in this very city. Judge Roy Pearson, an administrative law judge, is absolutely certain that he’s standing up for the rights of every single person living in the Washington Metro area. He believes in his heart that businesses take advantage of consumers, and that it’s about time that someone...namely him...needs to stand up for them.
So after his drycleaners temporarily lost his pants, he took them to court for $54 million. For. A. Pair. Of. Pants. This case has gotten worldwide media attention, because it just seems so utterly insane. How could anyone come close to thinking that a pair of pants...even a very nice pair of pants...are worth as much as a nice little castle in the south of France? This is plainly just a cynical grab for cash, right?

As the case went to trial this week, what’s been most striking is that Pearson seems completely oblivious to how wrong he is. He genuinely and authentically believes that he’s right. He’s the champion of the little guy, even if he’s trying to milk a PowerBall Lottery winnings worth of wealth out of a small Mom and Pop business. He’s completely convinced in his heart of hearts that he’s defending the law, even though his approach to the law has united two mortal enemies: the American Bar Association and organizations that oppose out of control lawsuits. Hearing his testimony, and watching him cry what appear to be real tears over the perceived destruction of his life, there’s no doubt that he believes in himself and what he’s doing.

But believing in yourself and your own rightness is not really faith. It can transform us, but that form of transformation is inevitably a change for the worse. It bears no resemblance to the faith that is described by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Galatia.

That letter, a portion of which we’ve heard today, was most likely written sometime in the mid-50’s CE. It was written at a point in time when the boundaries between the new Jesus movement and the synagogue were still very blurry. What did it mean to be a follower of the way that Jesus of Nazareth had proclaimed? What did you have to do? Paul, who’d established the church in Galatia, was not alone among the early Jesus followers. As the message of his life and his teachings began to spread, many of the people who embraced him as the promised messiah of Israel argued that he was exactly that: the one who had been promised as the new anointed one of Israel.

To follow Jesus, these folks argued, you had to first embrace all of the laws and customs and practices of the people of Israel. You had to keep kosher, staying away from the bacon double cheeseburgers and at least some of the sushi. Rule of thumb: if you don’t know what it is, don’t eat it. You had to keep the laws of ritual purity. For the guys, it meant that becoming Christian required one further step after baptism. Not a big deal, really...just sit still while I sharpen these scissors. Don’t flinch...unless you really want to join the Ladies Guild.

But the Apostle Paul argued furiously that this was entirely beside the point. Jesus was something far more than just the anointed king for one people or for one nation. The laws and purity rituals that defined that people weren’t what was important. It was faith that was important. We are justified not by our own actions, but instead by faith.

What Paul meant by that has been the subject of debate for centuries. First off, though most translations tell us that we are justified by faith in Christ, the Greek words that Paul actually uses are dia pisteus Christou Jesou, which can also mean “the faith of Jesus Christ.” Paul’s emphasis may not be our own faith, but the faith of Jesus himself. That puts a slightly different spin on it. Suddenly, it’s not our own believing that matters, but what it was that Christ believed. The King James and some of the more literal translations take that approach, but theirs is definitely the minority report.

Secondly, if we read it with the majority of translations, this passage has given serious headaches to anyone trying to determine what it means to live life in accordance with Christ’s teachings. Are we justified by faith alone? Paul seems to say so. Then...well...how does that effect how we act in the world? Are the actions we undertake essentially meaningless. If it is belief or faith that makes the difference, then how does what we actually do matter? That’s why there’s a great argument that’s been rumbling around Christianity for centuries. Do we, with the letter of James, say that faith without works is dead? Or do we stand with Paul, and condemn those who focus too much on actions and not enough on faith?

But that imagined divide between faith and action isn’t a real thing. In today’s reading from Luke’s Gospel, we hear Jesus talking about faith and it’s saving power. When a Pharisee condemns Jesus for permitting a fallen woman to wash his feet, Jesus responds with a parable and a stinging rebuke. The woman’s actions show her faith and her trust in who Jesus was, while the Pharisee just sits there smugly and stands in judgment over her. Jesus doesn’t go into a long theological discourse about faith and works. The two things aren’t separated out.

That’s Paul’s intent, too, because faith isn’t just something we believe. When we have faith, it’s a thing that we live out. Faith transforms and directs all of who we are..our feelings, our thoughts, our actions...our whole lives. What we believe profoundly effects how we live. It guides and changes and directs the reality of who we are, and the whole world knows what we believe by seeing it. If we believe in ourselves and in our own righteousness...or that a pair of pants is worth years of anguish and millions of dollars...then the world can see by our actions who we serve.

If we have faith in the faith that moved Christ to give his whole life for us, then we’ll live our lives in a totally different way. Our trust in him makes us part of His reality, and guides us to work to both spread the good news and to bring comfort to the afflicted.