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[This sermon is also available in MS Word format]
"I believe in God"
Rollins Chapel
September 23, 2004
Richard R. Crocker, Ph.D., College Chaplain
This series of sermons this term, on the general topic of Christian Faith in a Pluralistic World, will center on the Apostles' Creed - the oldest Christian Creed, dating, we believe, from the second century and still used, in its essential form, in most Christian churches. I center on the Apostles' Creed because one can not talk about Christian faith in a pluralistic world without knowing what Christian faith is - and the Apostles' Creed is both the shortest and the clearest statement of what has been considered orthodox Christian faith through the centuries. My purpose in concentrating on the creed is not because I assume you believe it, but simply to make sure you know it. For both Christians and non-Christians, it is important to have some standard of reference, as wonderful or as problematic as it may be, when we talk about how Christian faith has been described and professed over the ages. The schedule for the term is in your programs. Today we begin:
I BELIEVE IN GOD, THE FATHER ALMIGHTY, MAKER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. To utter these words in a secular society today is to be aware of how problematic they are. To many people, they sound preposterous - just from the word go. But hey - let's be truthful. This is where we start. We believe in God. And in an academic context, we can not utter that statement without being asked, as we should be asked, what do you mean by that? The statement itself, "I believe in God", is carries little significance if we do not fill it out.
But that's the problem. When we say we believe in God, we are talking about a mystery beyond our comprehension. I can not know God in the sense that I know any other object or subject. To believe in God is to place ourselves squarely in the center of a mystery, and to acknowledge that there is an ultimate power and an ultimate reality beyond ourselves, beyond our comprehension, beyond description - but still to believe that such a power, such a force such a reality is One and is good. This is where we start. As Christians, we share this conviction with Jews and Muslims - God is one. The Shema, Judaism's essential Creed, proclaims: Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is One, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." (Deuteronomy 6:4) Muslims say - There is no God but God.
To acknowledge a mystery behind, underlying, suffusing reality is the beginning. We call it God. There are non-theistic religions that simply say reality. The difference comes when we add "The father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth". To say we believe in God who is Father means that God is parent-like, one who stands in relation to creation as a father or mother does to children. Now Father is seen by some as a patriarchal sexist term or image. And certainly it is a metaphor. In some early versions of the Creed, this term "father" is not there. Maybe Mother would be just as good - but it would also be just as limiting. And the word "parent" seems to some of us a bit impersonal. So we are stuck here with a limitation of our language - and with the fact that Christian texts repeatedly depict Jesus speaking of God as father. But the point - that God is parent like is much more problematic substantially than linguistically. We people of faith, especially Christian faith, continue to proclaim that God is good. God is like a loving father. This is a huge statement of faith - and seems contrary to much of our experience. For many people at many times, God - the ultimate power who is supposed to underlie all reality, who is almighty, who has shaped all that is, seems indifferent or even hostile. Yet Christians persist in believing that God is a loving parent.
We may explain such persistence as wishful thinking, or naiveté, or compensation, or as a profound experience of reality - so profound that it goes deeper than disappointment or despair. For it is a fact that people of faith are often people who have experienced suffering and loss. They are not, usually, people who have had an easy time. I think for example of so many people with whom I have stood at a graveside, when they have lost a loved one. I think of people whose children or parents have died or been maimed in war, or who have lost their possessions or homes in storms. Some of them draw from those losses the belief that the world is untrustworthy, and that there is no consolation. But others see, fitfully, beyond loss to something that is deeper and more real. They are able to affirm that life is still the gift of a good creator. Which view is more accurate? Well - either one is a matter of faith. The one who says that life is capricious and pointless is making a statement of faith. The one who says, with Job, "the Lord gives and the Lord takes away - blessed be the name of the Lord" is also making a statement of faith. Which one do you believe? Which is true to your deepest experience and convictions?
Finally - Christian have professed that this God, this almighty father-like one is the creator of heaven and earth. In other words, this God we are talking about is the source and ground of all that is - all that we can see and all that we can only anticipate or hope for. Earth means, in the creed, not just this planet but the whole created order - sun moon stars and all. Heaven - well people have never been sure about heaven. But at the very least it means a place where God's rule is complete, perfect, and unopposed by sin. Heaven is another name for hope - a hope beyond this world. And here again - it is a matter of faith. Some people have hope beyond this world as a matter of faith. Some do not. And that too is a matter of faith. Neither is a matter of knowledge. Such is our state as human beings. We are creatures who must live by faith. The only question is: what is the nature of the faith by which we shall live.
Sermon © 2004 Richard R. Crocker. All rights reserved.
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