Faith is Established

• INC Picnic on July 27th at 1pm (today)
• Next Bible Study with Seth is on August 7th at 7pm (in person and via Zoom)
• Discussion Group Sunday is July 27th after Church (today)
• Village Fair and 5K on August 16th (please register for race day or hybrid by July 16th to guarantee a race t-shirt)
• August 17th, we will be joining INC at SAUMC for a Tropical Worship with a Steel Drum Band (there will be no services at CCNOT that day)
• Next Death Cafe is September 27th at 4pm (join us for an informal conversation around death and dying that may include curiosities, living well, and managing grief–we provide the sweetness with snacks and coffee)
• Council Resumes in September

Watch the recording HERE. Recording posts after services are complete each Sunday (usually by noon).

There are so many times in life that we just have to surrender and have faith.  It’s sometimes in the simple things, like you’ve studied and studied for the “test” and you just have to have faith that it is enough.  You’re caring for a sick one or children, and you’re trying to hold down a job, and you just have to have faith that it is enough.  You’ve got a long list of things to do and you just have to have faith that you’ll get it all done.  Things seem to be “falling apart” and you’re not sure how it’s possible to keep it “all together”.  Sometimes, it’s the big things of life. You just have to have faith.  

Faith.  

Faith in yourself.  Faith in others.  

Faith in God (Universe/Spirit).  

Has anyone ever tried to prove to you that God does not exist?  I imagine they have.  The big argument is that if you can’t prove it, it must not be true.  Usually this case is stated as: “if it’s real, then prove it” (often with a tinge of “smugness”).

Sometimes, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to prove God exists?  Then, we could say “I told you so” to all the nay-sayers (maybe with our own tinge of “smugness”).  We could rest in the assurance that it’s all True.  We’d know we were “right” all along.  We’d feel so much better.

Maybe.  Maybe not. 

Has anyone ever tried to prove to you that God does exist?  Have you tried to prove that God exists?  

In proving God exists, maybe you’ve been told that the Earth cannot be more than 10,000 years old because of cosmic dust depth on the Moon. Maybe someone showed you pictures of human and dinosaur footprints on the same geological strata. Or perhaps someone simply argued that natural selection is insufficient to explain the vast variety of life on Earth.  Therefore God must exist.  Because, this world is pretty awe-some.  

But truly, is the existence of God predicated on whether humans and dinosaurs existed together on Earth, or were separated by 93 million years? 

Do we really want to be able to prove that God exists?  

To the faithful, the answer to both these questions is an absolute no. 

Why? Because if you can prove the existence of God, there is no need for Faith in your life and Faith is one of the most important tenets of Christianity. 

If one could prove that God exists, then of course, everyone would profess their belief and Love for God because they would know, without a doubt, that it was the only way to get to Heaven – or avoid Hell if that is a tenet of your belief.  Belief would be reduced to a simple weighing of the scales of what is in it for me.  We would no longer be doing what is right simply because it is right.  We would do it because we would know we’d be in trouble if we didn’t.  

There would be nothing at stake.  No uncertainty. No big questioning or life’s Quest. No Mystery.

We wouldn’t need to contemplate or study to connect to God.  We’d know God existed and we’d probably have some “rule book” for what (exactly and unarguably) to do when (exactly and unarguably).  We wouldn’t seek wisdom and truths for ourselves.  The answers would be clear and unarguable.

We wouldn’t seek faith.  We wouldn’t go through bouts when our faith is challenged and then strengthened through life’s sufferings and seekings.  We would already have been given “the answers” to life’s quest-ioning.  

Religion would be reduced to something small and shallow if the fundamental truths were demonstrably provable to anyone with the slightest knowledge of science or logic.  There would be no personal or internal work to be done.  We wouldn’t strive to be good people, we’d just follow the rule book.  

It would be a sad world if people behaved in a good and charitable manner simply because they had proof that this was the only way to eternal life, or the blessings of God.  We might even lose true human connection if we only behave for the selfish benefit there was to be obtained by obeying the rules set down by the entity that you were absolutely certain could back up their edicts with omnipotent power.  Perhaps, that is also a bit of a scary world.  Maybe a world lacking in free will.  A world without awe. A world lacking awesome inspiration.

It is only through Faith that kindness, charity and goodness are granted the magic of selflessness.  Selflessness is the opposite of evil.  It is Good and ultimate Good is completely forgetting the self in service to this world and our fellow creatures.  We take care of our fellow man not because we know that we will be punished if we do not, or rewarded if we do, but because we have Faith that it is the right thing to do.  It is the selfless (and Good) thing to do.  It is the right (and Good) way to be.  We have faith that the being that commands us to do it is good and righteous in its own right. Absent faith, we are no longer seekers and helpers, we are merely following the will of the rule book, knowing that will gain us the rewards we desire. Maybe in the provable knowing of God, we lose everything that God and faith is.

Take a moment to think about your Faith.  Notice how it is nourished and has grown in the “not-knowing”, in the times of uncertainty and questioning.  In the seeking…

…In the seeking, what have we learned?  

What do we have faith in?  

Perhaps our Faith looks something like this: The beauty is that our life experience and experience of Grace will make our faith and truth uniquely inspired by our own relationship of Love that perhaps only we have to gift back into this world:

• We have faith that there is a God (higher power/order), and that God is both Good and wants what is best for his creations.
• We have Faith that, even if we do not understand how what we see occurring today works toward the benefit of all, the ultimate result will be that which is better for everyone.
• We have Faith that the arc of history has improved the lives of all humankind, and that it will continue to be this way, because to believe otherwise would be a rejection of Faith.
• We have Faith that if we strive to make life better for the small circle of friends, family, acquaintances and strangers that we interact with, no matter how small the effect, that we have made the entire world a better place, and have pleased God.
• We have Faith that if we fail in our efforts to make the world a better place that we will be forgiven for that, and that all we have to do to please God is to try our best to be a better person every day (this is a nice one to reflect on for this Forgiving Sunday).
• We have Faith that small acts performed with a good heart trump even the largest acts performed with selfish motives.
• We have Faith in the people who surround us.  That they support us, love us, and forgive us even when we can not see it.  

What else might we add to our list of Faith?  And is that Faith stronger and more incredible because it is based on Faith and un un-provable Truth?

Feel welcome to reflect and ponder…perhaps while you watch the skies sparkle with meteor showers or you find your gaze alighting on a newly opening flower. Perhaps you feel inspired to draw a picture, create some music, or write a poem to God.