By Alasdair Groves '04, Navigators Campus Minister
February 24, 2005
Good afternoon. This passage we just read from Joshua today has really been shaping my thinking about faith over the past few months. Here's what I like about this story: it shows the intrinsic value God puts on people having faith in him. There have really been two little details from this story that have grabbed my attention: first, something that is mentioned in a throw away line a couple verses before the passage we read, which is that the people of Israel camped on the banks of the Jordan for three days before crossing, and second that the priests were told to walk into the river so that it could part. I had never realized that they had to sit there, looking at this river in flood stage for three days, before they went across. I don't know about you, but if I were sitting there watching a flooded river rush by, I'd be thinking long and hard about whether or not I should be taking my family across. And I think that is exactly the reaction God wanted from them; he wanted them to grasp the magnitude of what he was planning.
The second detail struck me even more, not because of what God did do, but because of what he didn't do. After all, he could have had the river parted and waiting when the got there to make it as easy on them as possible, but he didn't. Or, God could simply have lifted them over the river in a whirl wind without asking any participation of them at all, but he didn't. He could have told them to swim across and seen to it than no one drowned, but he didn't. For that matter, he could have just caused a huge drought and dried the river up altogether that year, but again, he didn't. No. But what he did do was have the priests walk in up to their knees, and then he parted it.
What I take from this is simple. It tells me that God is deeply concerned with the faith and heart of his people. He gives them 3 days to think about the physical impossibility of what he's asking of them, and then has them start to wade in before he finally works this miracle for them. I think God wanted them to have a deep appreciation for what he was willing and able to do for them, and wanted them to step out in faith to participate as he blessed them.
But the story doesn't end there. God gave Israel a great experience of their faith in him that day, but he knew his people too well to think even such a crazy thing as parting a river would be enough to permanently overcome their skepticism. What is the first thing God does on reaching the other side? He has them build an altar, not just as thanks and praise to God for his loving gift to them, but to be "a memorial to the people of the Lord forever." God knows only too well that faith is difficult to sustain over time.
In fact, there is only one person who has ever sustained a perfect faith in God's reality and power throughout his whole life: Jesus. And he the ultimate and living altar, for he is both the ultimate expression of who God is and what he's done, and the ultimate "reminder," because he is not just a pile of stones, but a living and eternal being.
For this reason I think it is helpful to consider how Jesus, God incarnate, dealt with issues of faith and skepticism. During the 3 years of his life that we know the most about, Jesus spent a lot of time answering questions, some skeptical some simply confused. The Pharisees asked Jesus questions about the law, trying to trip him up. Others asked him what they needed to do to be saved. The woman at the well in John 8 even goes so far as to ask why he is even talking to her, and when he responds kindly and seeks to engage her personally, she tries to shut him out with theological debate.
Jesus' response is utterly consistent. He always goes for the heart. Jesus draws out the attitude and real heart questions of the person with whom he is speaking; it is never just the surface level inquiry that he deals with. And, while he certainly does give some relatively definitive answers, they are rarely the kind of answer his questioner was looking for. Often he simply answers with another question. To one man he says that in order to be saved he must give away his extensive material wealth. To another, that he must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven. With the woman at the well Jesus gently slips past her accusations and uses the metaphor of drawing water to explain the deep longing of her soul for the fulfillment that comes from relationship with a Holy and Loving God, which she has been seeking in the arms of lover after lover. And to the Pharisees, well, how many times do the gospels say "and knowing what was in their hearts, Jesus said…" and then give his response hardly even seems to deal with the question they verbalized?
So where does this leave us? We can understand that God desires faith for us, and still understands our skepticism, but we aren't Jesus, how can we be expected to know what is in another's heart? How does a person of faith speak to a skeptic and vice versa? The answer, as I understand it, is very simple, and yet very difficult. The answer is that we must speak to the other. Jesus did not run from skepticism nor hide himself from other views, and neither should we. But, and this is crucial, we must make every effort to speak to and understand the heart of the other, not just the argument. This is no easy task.
In an effort to personalize these things, I would like to ask us to consider how we have handled questions and discussions of faith. For the skeptic among us ask yourself "have I really come to God, come to Jesus, and asked him my deep questions? Have I come before him with my hurt, my guilt and my doubt and offered him a real chance to respond? Or have I simply brought accusations or alternate theories and closed the case? Do I interact with people of faith open mindedly, or do I simply write them off as arrogant?" For the person of faith here today, ask yourself this: "what altars have I built to remind my own heart of God's presence in my life? What are the real heart questions, not just the intellectual challenges, of those around me who are skeptical? Am I seeking to answer the real question, or simply to prove to myself that what I believe is alright by defeating or belittling others? Or am I simply silent, in fear for my own faith should it be confronted, in fear that Jesus will crumble between my fingers like old parchment when exposed to the light of reason?
I believe that Jesus is bigger than that. I believe that God's truth is held out to us, and that there is a real answer for everyone in what he did through Jesus. I also believe that Jesus shows us that relationship trumps argument when it comes to answering the deepest questions, and that, just as Jesus cared most for the heart, so should we.
Does this mean we should never get into a theoretical religious debate? Of course not. Talking about the validity of the Bible is important in determining what kind of relationship God wants to have with us. Talking about how a loving God could let a tsunami kill so many people is crucial to understanding whom it is that we are relating to. But let us never forget that it is a relationship with Jesus that a Christian has, and a relationship with God is what a Christian should want others to have. And that relationship is based on faith and deepened through reason, questions and interaction. It is neither a weapon nor a hoax, but a precious gift.
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