"Believe This, Do That"

Romans 10:8-13New International Version (NIV)

8 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

For a awhile now I have been thinking about how complex we tend to make our faith and that got me thinking about how difficult it must be to be a three year old.  Allow me to make that connection more clearer to you.  Cora is getting big enough now that she thinks she can do everything that her brother can do and it drives them both crazy.  We encourage Griffin to play with his sister but once he does, we are constantly telling him that he is playing too rough because he is practicing his wrestling moves on her.  Just yesterday, as they were wrestling on the floor I told Griffin to quit being so rough because I thought Cora was getting upset.  Nope, she was laughing.  We are always telling Griffin to play with his toys when he complains he is bored then we turn around and give him a hard time about not picking up his toys.  We are constantly asking him to be quiet when one or more of his siblings are sleeping and then we ask him to talk to us when something is bothering us.  When you think about, it is really difficult to be that age because there are so many boundaries toddlers are testing, a complex world they do not understand, and instructions coming from a thousand different places.  Its no wonder that the age of three is the hot mess it is.  The potential for frustration is found around every corner.  At that age, there is so much to be learned.  Things that we are supposed to do and things that we aren’t.  People we are supposed to talk to and the strangers we aren’t.  Times when we are supposed to play with others and times when we aren’t.

This leads me to the point of my message today: faith does not have to be as difficult as we make it.  Faith is often observed as a strict obedience to God and the rules and laws found in the Old Testament.  In our scripture for this morning, Paul is trying to show the Jewish people that God does not require that strict obedience that was difficult and nearly unattainable.  Following the Jewish laws, word for word, was extremely inconvenient, uncomfortable and exhausting.  It was nearly impossible to remember all 613 Jewish “laws” let alone the difficulty in figuring out the proper application of those laws.  There are people in the Jewish faith whose sole purpose is deciding the application of those laws.  In modern times, the Jewish faith has adapted and you have to give those who follow the Jewish faith a lot of credit because what they do for their faith is pretty difficult.  Paul knew that they were very faithful people.  He just felt that their faith and passion was misguided.  To some degree, Paul can probably say the same thing about each of us.  We do our best to follow God the best way that we can.  Yet, the way we choose to have faith is as unique as we.  There is no strict set of guidelines that we have to follow.  There is no such thing as an all-encompassing faith because every single person see God and faith just a little differently.  In the past, a big part of religion was the effort to conform people to one set of beliefs.  The creeds that were written in the years after Jesus’ death served as a measuring stick to gauge someone’s faith.  It does not take faith to memorize a few lines -- look at how well Hollywood does that.  But at times in our history, Christians felt that these creeds were the best way to know whether or not someone was a person of faith or not.  

Today, we have other ways of judging other people’s faith.  We know whether or not many people go to church, or at least we think we do.  We sometimes make a big deal out of which people go to which church.  We often criticize a lot of what we do not understand simply because it is different that what we believe or what we understand faith to be.  Well, if we are being honest, there are no two people sitting here today that will have the same exact definition of faith.  Some of us will resemble the Jewish faith by saying that there are certain set of guidelines, rules and laws that we must follow and that is what it means to have faith.  While others of us will say that God is love and after that there aren’t any rules that we should follow.  Somewhere in the middle is where most of us will fall yet none of us will match identically.  And I think this is by design.  I think it is intentional.  Part of us wants faith to be more complex than it really is because we want faith to mean that we are in some sort of club where this is only a certain number of members allowed.  We are afraid of too much spiritual growth because that means a loss of control.  I would even say that sometimes we intentionally stunt growth because we are afraid of one thing or another.  Maybe it is a fear of conviction, maybe it is a fear of change, maybe we cannot really put our finger on it.  

Paul makes faith extremely clear and far less complicated in our scripture for this morning: “...declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved.”  Our declaration of faith does not have to be from a mountain top.  And no one knows for sure what we believe in the depths of our heart except God so how can we judge the faith of others?  If we have not personally heard someone make their declaration of faith and we cannot know for sure what someone believes in the hearts, then who are we to judge the faith of another person?  Who are we to make faith intentionally complex so that we limit those who can participate?  I am not a person who believes everyone should get a trophy but I do believe that God loves absolutely, no ifs, ands, or buts,  everyone.  No matter where they have grown up, no matter what they have done.  God loves them.  God loves us.  God loves you, no matter what.  It is not God that keeps us from faith.  Most likely, it is ourself and other Christians who have made faith difficult.  “For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile -- the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him.”  Gentile, or Jew, Methodist or Catholic, Lutheran or Calvin, Disciples or Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu, God loves.  Plain and simply: God loves us no matter what religious tradition we know and understand best.  The same Lord is Lord of all.  Joel 2:32 says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Faith does not have to be as complicated as we make it.  Life is what is difficult.  Life in all of its decisions, heart aches, pains, sufferings, joys, cries and laughs is what is complicated.  But we get a chance to live it.  Despite the complexities of life, there is a God who loves us.  Despite all the wrong decisions we can possibly make we are loved.  Faith is not complex, life is and God, the Comforter, the Creator who sent his son to show us sacrifice and unconditional love is the best way I know how to help me through the complexities of life.  In all honesty, I am not even very good at but God is with every day helping me to get better.  Helping me to be a better father, husband, preacher and farmer.  God is with you and he has a specifically designed faith just for you.  It won’t look like all the others but it is yours.  Carry that faith with pride.  Use it to help you through the difficult times.  Remember it in the good times.  And encourage others to find theirs.  Amen.