The challenge to believe

There are days that it is a challenge to believe. We all have them. You, me, the people with us here, the people who aren’t here, our family, our friends, the saints of old, and our loved ones who have gone before us. If someone says their faith has never been shaken, that they’ve never questioned what they believe, then I doubt their faith has developed all that much. It is the challenges to our beliefs that allow our beliefs to deepen, take on new meanings, and support us more clearly when life changes and we come across new struggles in life.

What are we challenged to believe today?

Relevance

I think we’re challenged to believe that the church is still relevant today. I’d even go so far to say that the church isn’t relevant today — but then again we’re not in the church business. We’re in the sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ business — the sharing of blessings business — the transformation of life business but definitely not the church business.

Don’t get me wrong, we run the church as a business — and by doing so we’ve been able to provide a rich variety of ministry — but if the end goal is for the church to be relevant, we’ve completely missed the point. The church is always relevant — for connecting ourselves to a greater purpose and to find meaning for our existence is an enduring human occupation. We have a particular narrative on how to go about that — find purpose and make meaning. While it may be hard to explain that to people these days, make no mistake — the church is relevant in that conversation.

The challenge is helping people find the right god these days.

The right god

Notice the lower case “g” there — that was intentional (and not a typo).

One of the exercises we were given when I was in seminary was to find where another person experienced God. For the Christians I met on the oncology unit of the hospital I was working in — that was somewhat easy. For the few Jews I met again it was fairly straight forward. For people who had no clear faith perspective, it was more of a challenge.

If a person doesn’t acknowledge that God exists, how could I possibly find where they experienced God? I learned that it depended on how you viewed God.

Many of us, I would hope, would say that we experience God here — maybe in the worship — in the hymns, in communion, in the sermon (possibly), in the prayers. The over-arching narrative for us though, would be that we experience God in each other. (We may not put it that way — but over and over again, we hear that people value this community and how we work to support each other.)

But there are so many people who don’t see value in what we do, in who we are as a community — and others who find that value in other places.

We know that there are a multitude of choices for people today that weren’t around even just a few years ago. People can find community in the running clubs, community service organisations they belong to, sports teams they cheer for, even their favourite coffee shop.

It isn’t easy to explain how we offer something different from any of those at times. Offering someone who isn’t involved in church a different meaning through bible study isn’t probably going to attract many. Offering meaning through prayer and meditation for someone not into that isn’t going to attract many.

If those offerings aren’t going to attract many, … then …

How do we continue the faith of our ancestors?

When I think of the people on the list that we remembered earlier in worship, what do I think about? For some, they were active and faithful members of Holy Cross. Some weren’t. Some never came through these doors.

So, what is it that we’re trying to continue?

Are we trying to continue keeping this place open? Yes — I think that none of us really wants this place to close — even if some of us think that might be the outcome some day.

Are we trying to continue to worship as we have in the past? Yes — I think that none of us really wants to throw out all that is familiar in our worship — even if some of us think that our worship isn’t meeting all the needs of the community.

Are we trying to continue all the programs we currently have going? Yes — I think that none of us really wants to see the good word we do in the community come to an end — even if some of us think that we’re getting older and more tired and it is becoming more difficult to continue all this.

But, the real question is: Is continuing those things REALLY continuing the faith of our ancestors? The faith our ancestors had might have been lived out through those things — or things very similar to them — but none of them are the faith of our ancestors themselves.

Our challenge is to grow — as our ancestors did — to have our faith come alive in new ways — as our ancestors did — to risk — as our ancestors did — to do what is needed to become a community of faith reaching out to the community around — as our ancestors did.

For then we will know where to find God. For then it won’t be a challenge to believe the church is relevant. For then it won’t be a challenge to believe at all — and for that we will give thanks.