I have a challenge before me today – to put together a little outline of  what we mean by FAITH in the short time left to me in the service by all the other bits and pieces on this first Sunday in Lent.  When we did our values exercise last month we grouped dozens of values together under just five headings – so the word FAITH collects a lot of other words as well: Bible, Jesus, Holy Spirit, spirituality, prayer, meditation, and so on.

When people tell me they are people of faith, I always want to know, faith in What or Who?  Way back when I was taking Anthropology courses at age 17, we were given a broad definition that faith equals first “ a set of beliefs” and second, actions on that belief.  In the words of my Anthro teacher Brad: Croyance et Action. I’ve never forgotten that!  Whether you see yourself as a religious person or as one of the many “nones” that make up the current population, you have things you believe in, you hold to be true – and you act on the basis of those beliefs.  The anarchist who goes to every protest and the tribesman in the Brazilian rainforest who honours his ancestors are both people of faith, in that sense.

Of course, there are other ways of understanding faith.  For the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, faith is being able to trust in a reality that you can’t necessarily see right in front of you.  In other parts of the letter he talks about putting faith in Jesus as both our high priest and as a sacrifice for our sins. All of the language is highly metaphorical, trying to describe something that can’t quite be grasped.

The Apostle Paul, the man whose letters are the first books of the Christian Scriptures, didn’t so much believe that Christ died because of us, or FOR us in the sense of taking on a punishment we deserved, but that we participate in that death and resurrection, dying to our old selves and rising as someone new when we are united with Christ.  That’s a glorious mystery.  The Christian hymn or poem he quotes in the letter to the Philippians describes this complex and wondrous event in which the divine took not just human form, but a particularly vulnerable humanity. This is no demi-god hero like Hercules or Jason or even Percy Jackson.  This is a man who will live simply and die tragically, yet be enthroned in the heavens from which Paul says he came.  Faith for Paul is union with the Christ in this movement from life to death to new life again.

Many other people believe that faith is believing a set of propositions or teachings, and following the rules associated with those teachings.  For Christians we would probably say that the 10 Commandments and the great commandment to love God and neighbour are our “rules”.  Others would say that every teaching in both the Hebrew Scriptures and Christian Scriptures ought to be believed and followed.  So that’s another way of understanding faith.

One more way of talking about faith is faith as trust.  In much of Scripture, that is what is meant by “having faith” in God. Just as you may have faith in a person to do what is right, or to sustain your relationship, or even just to act in predictable ways, so we grow into faith in God, confidence that God will keep God’s promises and that God is the ground on which we stand.  As the old spiritual says, “We shall not be moved”. It’s based on one of my favourite passages of Scripture:

Blessed is the one that trusts in the LORD (Adonai), and whose hope is in God. For they shall be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, nor shall cease from yielding fruit.  — Jeremiah 17:7–8

So then, when we name Faith as a value in Gordon United, what does it mean?  That’s what I invite you to reflect on as we go through this sermon series on the values we have named. What do we mean?

Does faith mean a general sort of belief in the goodness of church people and that we need to work together to make a difference? That’s a kind of faith.

Does it mean following Jesus and trying to live as he taught?

Does it mean reading and learning from Scripture and being inspired by its messages?

Does it mean following every rule and tradition taught in Scripture and by the church over centuries?

Does it mean we’re here to deepen our spirituality and to learn spiritual practices?

Does it mean trusting in God to sustain us as Jesus did in the wilderness?

Does it mean trying to live a life that brings the Kingdom of God that  much closer?

There are many things we can mean when we put faith as a central value in our lives.

I invite you to ponder what your faith means to you.

Amen.