Hebrews 11; Matthew 17:14-21

Given the assumption of the previous chapter, i.e. that the power of traditional religion is in faith, not in the objects of devotion, two things become clear. First, the importance of nurturing a faith that is relevant to contemporary understanding of how and why things are as they are is evident. Second, a concept of God, which incorporates some understanding of how power is expressed by God would be very helpful.

Let's first address the latter concern briefly, and return to it later.

Human preference would be a personification of God in a manner that would enable us to understand God, at least as much as we understand one another. That still leaves a large segment of unknown! The ancient expressions of gods utilizing sculptures and images and the contemporary need for symbols as aids in understanding and worship supports this observation.

Given the collective evidence of the magnitude of God's creative power, which is now available to us, the Source of such power is clearly beyond current human understanding. There is no reason to believe that the human mind will ever be capable of fully comprehending the magnitude of everything that needs to be included under the umbrella of what is meant by the word "God."

With this in mind, it is easy to appreciate the early Hebrew position that their God was a God of such wonders and magnitude that the best name was "no name." With this approach it is possible to use the term in the best sense, with an understanding of its inadequacy and our inability to do better in explaining what we mean when we use the term.

If this "no name," "impossible to fully understand," and "description transcending" God, is intellectually acceptable, then it is possible to suggest with some authority that a connection can be made between faith and the object of our devotion. The object of our devotion therefore becomes that for which we have great admiration, and before whom/which we stand in utter humility and awe, about which we are able to understand little, and whom we hesitate to name because of the inadequacy, which any symbolic name might create.

Faith in relation to us and this "Source and Sustainer" that we call God becomes a vehicle through which Ultimate power is expressed and our powers are enhanced, but not in any absolute, complete, and always dependable way. The power of religion is therefore not perceived to be expressed through the intervention of an object of devotion. Instead we perceive the power of God through ways we understand to be quite natural. We appreciate this perception with a clear understanding that there is much about the "laws of nature" that we do not yet understand. These as yet unknown "laws of nature" account for those "happenings" which those in need of an intervening God typically attribute to "divine intervention" and commonly call miracles.

The fact that human beings tend to want a personal concept of God which permits divine intervention is the reason that there is the temptation to build Golden Calves, adopt the worship of Baal, deify Jesus, or impart eternal, inerrant, and supernatural power to a book, i.e. the Bible.

Inasmuch as all human efforts to attain a full understanding of the Source and Sustainer of all that is, fall short, and inasmuch we have come to recognize the great power and value of faith, it behooves us to lay the major portion of the "God question" to one side and pursue a growing understanding of how to nurture a growing faith. It is not necessary for us to understand all the "how's" of power that becomes available to us, at least not all at once. The learning of the "how's" is a long process which human beings have been doing since their beginnings. It is a process which is at work in the life of each individual human being, as well as in each generation. It is necessary that we learn how to acquire and use the power available to us in the best possible way. This is a simple but basic explanation of why education is such a value of high priority and should be viewed as being among the most wonderful blessings and opportunities that God provides us. The ability to learn and to build additional learning on that which has been learned by others, and in previous generations and contemporarily, is a significant contribution to that which makes human beings more than other animals. This "gift" should be appreciated as being of wonderful religious significance.

The scripture associated with this sermon (chapter) includes the Hebrew testimonial concerning the wonderful place in history of great persons of power. They were perceived as great persons of power because of what they did, but they were able to do what they did because of their faith. The Gospel reference indicates the importance, which the writer placed on imparting miraculous power to Jesus in an effort to establish him as "God in human flesh." The most important part of that discourse is that which Jesus taught about the importance and power of faith to Jesus and the lofty analogies he used in his attempt to impress others with the importance of nurturing faith. A matter of secondary importance, but both interesting and important, is that the only way they knew that epilepsy might be controlled was through God's intervention. They wanted the same thing in relation to this illness, and others, that we want. We have learned that God does not intervene because of religious rhetoric, i.e. prayer. We have also learned that God works through the human mind, human initiative, and subsequent medical knowledge and treatment, and epilepsy is thus controlled in our day much more dependably than in the time of Jesus.

This comparison is a wonderful example of the difference in how they "hoped" God would work for them, and how we have learned that God actually works. Faith then occasionally seemed to help the disease, but more often it enabled those who were stricken and those who cared for the stricken, to find strength to "live with the problem" and not be defeated by it. It should not be overlooked that their hope, and the general failure of prayer to activate God's intervention, led to the contemporary solution and evident conclusion that God works differently than was once thought.

Let's look at another example. The society of which Jesus was a part would like to have moved mountains but they had no means to do it. Through exaggeration as a teaching method, and in an effort to make an important point, Jesus told them that faith could enable them to move mountains. We know how to move mountains and they didn't. We have faith that we can move mountains. Why does our faith work in this regard and theirs didn't? We know that mountains are not moved by faith alone, but by a combination of faith and action. Mountain moving action is now possible because of what we have learned and the power of technology that is available to us because of what we have learned. This has been a long and laborious process.

We have faith that we can move a mountain, not by divine intervention but because of what we have learned or can learn. After we have learned enough to translate that faith into powerful action, then we set about to do it.

We know the great truth in what Jesus taught about a little bit of faith (like a mustard seed) being very powerful and much better than a lot of doubt. The effective message of this scripture for us is not to turn all challenges over to Jesus, believing that he can accomplish the desired goals. The effective message is that what we can accomplish as human beings is multiplied many times when we exercise faith. Common sense therefore teaches us that faith should be an integral part of religion and life.

How do we nurture faith in an age when much of what the ancients dreamed about happening through miraculous intervention by their God, we now accomplish. The fulfillment of these dreams does not come by praying to God to perform our tasks for us. Instead we have learned that much fulfillment comes from human beings working diligently with the amazing resources of creativity, power, and change, which have their roots in the handiwork of a God who is so great that wisdom dictates the absence of an all inclusive name?

We need to become increasingly aware of the wonderful powers available to us as unfolding gifts from God. We need to understand that human involvement in the utilization of these powers does not make "God unnecessary" and religion therefore outdated. Instead it emphasizes the cooperative involvement, which God desires between "us and him." The knowledge explosion and great power that comes from "state of the art" technology should in no way diminish our appreciation for God. In fact, such knowledge and power should enhance our experience of life as a religious experience in appreciation for the wonderful gifts God places at our disposal. Through the knowledge we gain, and the resulting power for which we become responsible, it should be easy for us to understanding that God has not only given us the gift of life with all its wonderful spin-offs, but that God has made us with the capacity to express our lives as partners in creativity with God. This is wonderful! This is awesome! This is a truth that is so evident in our day that every day should be a day of thanksgiving! It is a grave error to suppose that "man" does any wonderful thing apart from the gifts of God. The more we learn and the greater our capacity for doing, the more in awe of God we ought to be and the greater our humility should be.

The nurturing of relevant faith in our day requires much more than the reading of the Bible and prayer. That was effective in the time when human mentality was such that belief in an intervening personal God was relevant to human knowledge and power. God is now nudging us on to a higher level of perception and a greater sense of partnership with God. Nurturing faith in our day requires some adjustments in our thinking that are just as radical to us as the teachings of Jesus, about moving on from religious law to relationships of love, were to the people whom he taught.

First, we need to move from the belief in an all-powerful intervening God, to an understanding that when it seems that God intervenes and performs a miracle, God is in fact expressing his laws of creation in a very normal way for God, but in a way that we do not yet understand. At some point in the future when we have learned enough to understand, we will feel about that specific episode just as we now feel about many "happenings" which once were miraculous to us.

Keep in mind that for Jesus, the observing of a mountain one day, and the absence of the mountain at some later date, would have been a miracle. With modern technology and resultant methods and technology, "mountains" are being moved continuously in our day. Not only are the mountains being moved, but we are covering the areas where the mountains once were with concrete.

The mountain moving analogy is applicable to a host of examples. Included in these examples are such things as: "Miraculous" means of communication to most any place on earth; "miraculous" means of transportation to any place on earth; the "miraculous" exploration of space which has only just begun; the miraculous observance of MICRO and MACRO universes at work; organ transplants, genetic engineering, and all related capabilities in the field of health care; the ongoing development of computers and the increasing dependence we place on them to think for us and control that which we want controlled; growing knowledge of weather, the natural environment, and how human beings need to learn how to better harmonize with both; and a long list of other examples, many of which have not yet become part of our conscious realization.

Second, it is important that we move from a concept of a God who demands obedience to a concept of a God who invites partnership. All partnerships occasionally present the need for apology, change, and forgiveness. It is no different in our partnership with God. Primitive faith had its basis in the idea of a God who could do things for us, and that this God could be persuaded to do things for us if we were obedient to his wishes and adored and praised him as we sought to be obedient to his every wish. Now we should understand that a harmonious relationship with God is the highest goal. We should further understand that falling short is part of the learning process. It was Jesus who taught us that God is more willing and eager to forgive us than we are to be remorseful and change our ways.

Contemporary faith should have its roots in the idea that everything has its basis in God, including life. We should understanding that humans beings can be or do nothing in and of themselves. We should further understand that it is God's nature to give great gifts, and so we are what we are, and we have unfolding abilities and opportunities as gifts from God. Every wonderful achievement that appears to have come from human wisdom and behavior should be recognized as a joint effort made possible by God, the accomplishment of which brings pleasure to both God and God's partners in human life, i.e. human beings.

Third, we need to make a course correction in our understanding of judgment and punishment. Prevailing religious wisdom suggests that behavior in this life is judged in the future by a "Great God in Heaven," in addition to whatever judgment and punishment we give each other here on earth. While a belief in future judgment may exercise some level of control in human behavior now, it is clear that it is not a deterrent to wrong-doing.

It is important that we understand ourselves to also be partners with God in this matter of responding to the imperfections of each other. There are reasons for us to become concerned about the possibility that much errant human behavior comes about as a result of what was learned or not learned by human beings in the formative stages of their life. To put it in an exaggerated manner, there is a real possibility that as a human society, we "make" criminals. This thought is not to depreciate the great need for individual responsibility in the making of all decisions. It is to suggest that, given the strange combination of strengths and weaknesses in human beings, less errant behavior can be expected in maturing human beings who grow up in certain kinds of learning and relational environments. While the final responsibility for behavior rests in the individual, family and society contributes much to the kind of response made by persons influenced by that family and society.

Negative human behavior, i.e. "sin," is therefore a consequence of sorts, which in and of itself brings about other consequences which result in a kind of judgment, i.e. punishment, to human beings individually and collectively. This happens now and may continue through generations. It is not reserved as a judgment after the end of the world. Isn't it true that we feel some kind of negative consequence every time there is a bank robbery, rape, or death in the electric chair? We feel those things more specifically if we, or those we love, are the ones being robbed, raped, or put to death.

There has been recent concern about the deaths of white rhinos in Africa. Observation has revealed that they were being killed by out-of-control teenage male elephants who had grown up without the influence of older bull elephants who typically "keep them in line." The young elephants were without this older influence as a result of deliberate human management decisions designed to solve a lesser problem. Those making the decision were without the knowledge at the time that they were creating a new and larger one than the original.

Consequences are very much a part of "how things are." They do not represent a personal response by a controlling God. They do represent a dependable response and indication of "how things are." They are natural--not supernatural phenomena! We need to understand that and work harder in matters of prevention than we do in matters related to judgment/punishment and remedy. The latter is important. The former is even more important.

Faith is nurtured by observing its power in the experience of others, past and present. Regardless of the level of knowledge and the primitive nature of belief in God, the power of faith is evident in the accomplishments of the ancients. We learn about this through the record of scripture and history. We also observe it in the contemporary lives of those who experience great misfortune but rise above it, and live a meaningful and contributory life in spite of it--sometimes because of it. The idea that some good can always be made to come from any tragedy, regardless of how awful it may be, is good and defensible. This, in fact, is at the heart of the genius of Christianity. The death of Jesus was tragic and unnecessary. He and his disciples made some wonderful good come from it.

Faith is nurtured by giving a religious value to all the wonderful things that we count on without recognizing their fundamental importance. We fear premature death but often fail to recognize what a valiant fight the human organism puts up in an effort to permit life to continue. God has placed remarkable healing powers in our body in addition to an immune system designed to give us life over all the enemies that seek to destroy us. We do not expect to bleed to death from the loss of blood resulting from a cut finger. The blood clots, the wound heals, and we go on as though it had never happened. Observation of such normal happenings, which we tend to take for granted indicate how tenacious life is. Growing in that knowledge should be a source of nurturing faith.

Faith is nurtured through a growing knowledge of how much others know and are able to accomplish in their specific specialties of interest. Again, apply this principle to health care. Observe it in the unbelievable physical feats accomplished by athletes and those trained in saving others from danger. Faith is nurtured through observation of what wonderful things we human can accomplish through discipline, training, experience, and commitment.

Faith is nurtured by noticing, i.e. seeing, hearing, and experiencing, how much more positive evidence there is in the world of God's great power and loving gifts, than there are negatives. Once we come to understand and accept the predominant positive evidence and influence of God in the world, it is easier to nurture faith than it is to diminish it.

Faith is nurtured through doing. Abraham had no assurance he could improve his situation, but because he believed that he could and acted on that belief, he did. Moses had no assurance he could get the Jews out of Egypt and back to their promised land, but he believed he could and acted on that belief, and did. Jesus had no assurance he could convince anyone that the heyday of religion by law was past and the law of love needed to be given a chance, but he acted as though he knew it could happen, and the world has never been the same.

In the same way that muscles must be exercised if they are to improve, or even be healthy, faith must be exercised if it is to be nurtured and healthy. There needs to be much less religious rhetoric and much more reverent, respectful, and loving behavior.

It is essential that the "doing" be done in a spirit of reverence, respect, and genuine loving concern for other members of the human family. The more we do in a spirit of reverent thanksgiving to God, in respect for God's handiwork and the good work of others, and concern and love for the personhood of one another, the stronger our faith will become. With these ingredients, the "mountains" of humanity undoing itself can effectively be chipped away, and more people will experience what Jesus talked about when he spoke of the Kingdom of God on earth.

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