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Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Fr. J. D. Ousley
January 11, 2004"Beliefs and Practices"
In the Name of God: Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Amen.
Every year around Christmas time, journalists remember that "the holidays" have a religious origin. And having reminded themselves of this fact, journalists look for something interesting to say something about religion.
Of course, it won't be enough to talk about what the faithful have traditionally believed about such events as the birth of Christ. There's no news in the fact that millions of Christians believe what Christians have always believed: that, as the Gospel for today says, God called Jesus his "Son," his "beloved."
Reporters are much more likely to look for a story that suggests change in religion. We may presume this is the background to the numerous stories this past Christmas about alternative views of Christianity.
Time magazine talked about "lost Gospels" -- those Gospels which haven't really been lost because they've been known for 1800 years. Rather, Time magazine was pointing to the enthusiasm that some intellectuals on the fringes of the church have expressed for these later formulations of Christianity.
That were written in the centuries after the Gospels that are in the Bible.
The New York Times, for its part, weighed in with an allegedly "new idea" the Times called "Post-Belief Christianity." The point seems to be that religious doctrines are too hard to believe! They can't be fitted into the secular world-view.
Many religious practices, though, seem worthwhile. Christmas worship services, for example, have a universal appeal. Prayer and meditation are good for one's sense of well-being. Helping the poor is a good thing to do.
So why not dispense with the beliefs that trouble us -- and keep the pleasant practices we like? The New York Times quotes one scholar who says exactly this. The historian, Elaine Pagels (who is also known as an expert on the so-called "lost" Gospels) says, "I find I can participate in Christian tradition with more open-heartedness because I don't feel constricted by the question, 'Do I believe this? Do I believe that?'" In Christianity, she said, "beliefs are overrated."
Now just as the Lost Gospels weren't really "lost," so this is not a new idea. Our Episcopal Church has long included people who enjoy our ritual and music and who don't think very much about the specific phrases of the Nicene Creed or the exact requirements for salvation. (Elaine Pagels is herself an Episcopalian who has been a member of a Manhattan parish for years.)
And Christians at other times and places have also favored practice over belief. The Founding Fathers of the American Revolution were much influenced by the Enlightenment philosophy known as "deism."
Deism taught that while there is a God, this God can't be relied upon to do much. God created the world and then, as it were, "sat back and watched."
Yet even though George Washington may have shared this notion of God, he still felt free to attend church and enjoy the trappings of religion. Washington was a vestryman in his Episcopal Church in Virginia.
So in one sense, Elaine Pagels may have a point. Belief can be overrated. Who would deny George Washington the right to worship in the Episcopal Church because he didn't hold the orthodox doctrine of the Incarnation? Though this isn't true of some Christian churches, in our parish, anyway, we don't ask people to sign a loyalty oath at the door in order to get in.
By the same token, certainty about what beliefs are true is harder to find than some Christians realize. These believers think they know for sure what God wants us to believe. These Christians are convinced that their religion presents the absolute truth about God.
But such certainty isn't bequeathed to everyone. Many of us can't discern God's will on every occasion. Nor would we find that dogmatism is good for us -- that it helps us to find a healthy and fulfilling religious practice.
Even so, belief isn't entirely over-rated. We can't just believe whatever we feel like. While we need to be tolerant, we can't dispense with beliefs.
For without beliefs, we don't know what to practice. Without confidence that the Bible is divinely inspired we might be tempted to relegate helping the poor to those few occasions when we feel like being charitable.
Without a belief that Jesus brings us close to the divine, the Eucharist becomes a merely human ritual of occasional interest.
The religious practices of prayer and worship and good works are founded on belief. In traditional language, "faith" is prior to "works." What we do needs to be directed by what we believe.
If we don't have faith that we serve God when we help others, our service to the poor is little more than perfunctory "charity." If we don't believe that the church is guided by the Holy Spirit of God, then we will see it just as one fallible community which exists to serve our needs.
There's an unusual reference to the importance of belief in today's Gospel text. On this Sunday after the Feast of the Epiphany, the church remembers the Baptism of Jesus -- which was the beginning of Christ's public ministry.
And in the lesson from St. Luke's Gospel, John the Baptist admits that the ritual he is about to administer to Jesus will be inferior to the rite Jesus will himself make possible. "I baptize with water," John said, "but one who is more powerful than I is coming ... He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
The new baptism in Jesus brings won't be a merely human action. Baptism in Christ will be inspired by God himself: with the Spirit of God; it will put people on fire!
And that's the reason beliefs are essential. Doctrines take us out our heads and connect us with something larger.
Now someone who struggles with the belief that Jesus was God's "beloved Son" can't manufacture such a belief on their own. But anyone can explore the doctrines of the faith -- remember that doctrines are normally called "the mysteries of faith."
And anyone who is troubled by doctrinal issues can -- instead of giving up on belief -- use the words a father once addressed to Jesus in a moment of desperation. As his child lay deathly ill, the father said to Jesus, "Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief."
Christ healed the child. And he heals our unbelief.
Lord, we believe. Help us in our unbelief. Baptize us with the Holy Spirit, and with fire!
And now unto that same God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be ascribed as is most justly due all might, majesty, power, dominion and praise, now and forever, Amen.