Tag: Faith and Doubt

Are you ever surprised by who has faith and who has doubts?

It is really quite amazing that anybody believes that Jesus was the anointed King of Israel, was crucified, resurrected from the dead, ascended to his throne, and that he will return someday to make everything all right.

Considering how difficult it was for the first Eleven disciples to follow and believe Jesus, how much more difficult for us today?

Jesus shows up to the disciples with holes in his wrists and feet, he talks like Jesus, looks like Jesus, moves like Jesus – and they still think he is a ghost.

Even though he told them – and at this point, there are eyewitness accounts by others – he would return to them – they still doubt.

While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.

He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet.

And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.

He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. [Luke 24v36-45, TNIV]

Maybe we Christians should go easy on people who don’t believe Jesus.

Maybe we shouldn’t take for granted our own faith. Maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves when we lack a stronger faith.

Maybe it’s no wonder Jesus was hoping for at least mustard-seed-sized faith from his followers.

Maybe to believe in Jesus we need Jesus.

Jesus’ strategy is interesting;  upon his ascension, he promises that the Father will send the Spirit to become at home in each disciple. Follow the reasoning here:

  • the Spirit that was in Jesus is now in the disciples
  • this Spirit helped Jesus serve and endure and rescue and heal and feed and clothe and celebrate and share
  • that Spirit is in us
  • through the Spirit of Jesus, we have a powerful helper so that we can believe amidst our doubt, live boldly in the shadows of death, and speak the truth in love and grace amidst the lies, greed, and anger of our world.

It’s a miracle that anybody believes Jesus.

Maybe it’s not helpful to focus on all the people who don’t have faith in Jesus. Maybe it’s more helpful to notice everyone who tries to walk by faith.

Maybe in our work to see Jesus in the world, to see and partner with those who do believe, we’ll let Jesus plant more small seeds of faith in the least expected places.

Nobody expected the Jewish Messiah to come from Nazareth. Nobody expected the Galilean fisherman Peter to lead a movement. Nobody expected Jesus to be popular with corrupt tax agents and starving prostitutes.

Maybe we should let ourselves be surprised by who has faith and who has doubts.

He goes about doing his rescue work through the most unlikely of people in the most unlikely of places.

People like you.

The Disbelievable & Misunderstandable God…

One of the fastest growing religious demographics in the United States is that of the “dones” and “nones” – those who aren’t affiliated with any kind of religious organization (anymore). This reality reminds me that God is often disbelievable and misunderstandable (as revealed in poll stats, the Bible and world history).

It’s ironic to me that Jesus was disbelievable and misunderstandable to the twelve men who spent every day with him. Not only did Jesus heal the sick and exorcize demons in their presence, he gave them the power to do so as well. And still, they did not get what God was doing, prompting Jesus to exasperatedly sigh, “Do you still not understand?”

For those of us who are Christians, maybe we say we believe in God a little too easily. Maybe we proclaim our faith in Christ a little too confidently.

Maybe we look down on the nones and dones, mystified as to how they don’t “get it” in regard to God when in it’s highly possible that if Jesus were in our midst, he might grill us like he did The Twelve: “Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear?”

In this particular gospel story that Mark retells to us, word had spread that Jesus had fed four-thousand people with bread and fish. The Pharisees came to question Jesus about it. They had missed the event, so they asked for another sign from heaven.

This elicited a deep sigh from Jesus towards them and their generation of Israelites. God was making himself visible and present to his people through Jesus of Nazareth in practical and healing ways, and it was still disbelievable and misunderstandable.

Why? Because that generation (like most) were looking for signs of God as evidenced in power – the kind of political power that manifests itself in violence (safety), coercion (security), empire-economics (prosperity), and class privilege (stability).

They believed that when necessary God condones violence as a means to his will being done and his kingdom coming to earth. Jesus warned his disciples to “watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.” Beware their appetite for power and their willingness to use violence – it’s like a cancerous yeast.

God made it clear through Jesus that he did not want his people to use violence to coerce, to punish, or to terrorize. This was a key way that the kingdom of God was both good news to people around the world as well as a source of fear to the few who had a greedy grasp on consolidated power.

Jesus had fed bread to five thousand people, and then later to four thousand people. In Rome, it was an obvious political strategy to use “bread and circus” to win the support of the populace. To the cynic, Jesus was using bread and exorcism to build a political base.

Yes, Christ (King of Israel) Jesus had a political agenda. It included using bread and power to actually renew the hopes and lives of people, to empower them to care for their neighbors, and reject abuse as a form of governing.

This was completely disbelieveable and misunderstood by those with an appetite for power. For this Jesus was crucified for sedition and blasphemy – he was a threat to Rome and Jerusalem. He was a political threat because he was a king who wouldn’t use bread to manipulate people.

Jesus went out of his way to avoid using violence to bring about the kingdom of God on earth. His gospel-command to his disciples are: love one another – and your enemies, be a non-violent (non-nuclear) peacemaker, be merciful, forgive those who hate you, don’t lie.

This is ridiculously difficult. It could get you killed too. Ironically, it is partly what makes God disbelievable and misunderstandable – but it is also the gospel.

Don’t misunderestimate the subversive political power of getting to know your neighbors who don’t look like you, of naming and confessing your bigotry, and of refusing to hate your enemies, in Jesus name.

This is the sign from heaven many are still looking for. May it be you.

When You Can’t Believe, Let Your Friends Faith Carry You

Let’s face it, believing in God isn’t always easy. Especially when you or those you love are in pain, and there are a mounting pile of unanswered prayers. It doesn’t help that we can’t see, hear, or hold onto God either.

It’s unique really, in our age, to be in a position to doubt the divine like we do. In the 7,000+ years of recorded history, humanity has been deeply religious, our lives oriented around the will and whims of the heavenly beings. Only in the past few hundred years have we been able to construct a reality where it’s plausible to doubt the existence or the effect of gods/God. It’s harder to believe in God then it used to be.

When my brother Matt was killed in by a drunk driver, you can probably imagine how angry at God I became for letting this happen. This was back in 2001, right after Christmas, in my late 20’s. I’d been a pastor for a few years, grown up in the church my dad pastored, and had gone to Christian school’s most of my life. For all my knowledge and love of God, I was decimated by this death. What kind of God lets this stuff happen? It’s hard to believe in God when life takes excruciating turns.

Looking back fifteen years later, I can see that at times it was my friends faith in God that carried me through those dark days, weeks, months, years. Sometimes you need your family and friends to believe for you. Sometimes the only way towards healing and hope is for your friends to hold on to faith on your behalf for awhile.

We see this in a New Testament story, retold by Mark in his gospel about Jesus Christ. paralytic-lowered-to-jesusIn this story a paralyzed man is lowered into Jesus’ presence through a hole cut in the roof; it is the attempt of friends to get their friend healed amidst the crowds amassed around the house where Christ is preaching. An astonished Jesus, wiping dust off his face and standing up as the paralyzed man comes down, looks up at the friends and sees their faith. He remarks, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” And then, to make a short story shorter, Jesus heals him.

Isn’t that fascinating? It’s the faith of the friends who carried the paralyzed man that made this moment possible. Maybe the paralyzed man protested the whole way there, pointing out the futility of their efforts, doubting God and depressed about his situation. But his friends didn’t give up on him. Or Jesus.

Are you feeling paralyzed? Are you doubting God’s existence, his goodness, his relevance? Are you wondering if your sins are forgivable? Are you wounded from the sins done to you? It may be that you need to let loving friends come around and carry you for awhile to get to a place of forgiveness and healing.

walking-with-friends

Maybe you’re in a dark place, kind of like where I was after my brother was killed, and you’re not sure what to do next, not sure what to believe anymore. If you have any strength left to pray, pray for God to send you a friend who can believe for you, and help you find healing and hope again. And if you don’t know if you can pray that prayer, let me know if it’s okay if I pray it for you.

I don’t know what’s next for you, but following the forgiveness and healing of the paralyzed man, the people were amazed and praised God, saying “We have never seen anything like this!” It reminds me of the old hymn Amazing Grace –“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me; I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.” May amazing grace find you and the faith of your friends carry you – not because you believe in it or deserve it, but because you are loved.

And if you’re the friend with faith, stay faithful.