Religion and Uncertainty
Hebrews 13:8 and Selected
September 19, 1971
John M. Buchanan

Carl Sandberg, great American poet and author, is known in literary
circles for his ability to capture the mood of a city or nation in single
story or poem. Consider this one. Sandburg writes of the early days when he
rode railroads back and forth across the country, "I have always enjoyed riding
up front in a smoking car, in a seat back of the 'deadheads', the railroaders
going back to the home base. Their talk about each other runs free. « + Once
I saw a young fireman in overalls take a seat and slouch down easy and comfort—~
able, After a while a brakeman in a blue uniform came along and planted himself
alongside the fireman. They didn't say anything. The two of them didn't even
look at each other. Then the brakeman, looking straight ahead, was saying,
"Well, what do you know today?' and kept Lockins straight ahead till suddenly
he turned and stared the fireman in the face, adding, 'For sure', I thought
it was a keen and intelligent question. 'What do you know today — for sure?!

I remember the answer. It came slow and honest. The fireman made it plain
what he knew that aay for sure: ‘Not a dam thing.'" [cited by George F.
Peters, Interpreting the Times on the Protestant Hour, p. 3]

That little vignette, I would suggest, is a fair description of modern
man. I've used that idiom, "What ao you know for sure?" as a greeting. ind
Itve responded to it in the same general way as the young railroader, "Not
a thing." And it occurs to me that of all the men who have walked the face
of the earth you and I are sure of less and uncertain of more than any other.

Let's think about that for a moment. Modern science, in its constant
pursuit of something called truth, continues to destroy certainties of the
past. In the early part of this century, the laboratory people were te] ling
the world that we had about learned all there was to know: that science had
brought to light all the facts there were and mankind could settle down to
tha task of assimilating this now complete encyclopedia of knowledge. But

then, with the research that accompanied World War II we were hit with

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something called the "kmowledge explosion"; the nuclear age, the age of com-
puters and rocketry. And suddenly we find ourselves thrust into the space
age with the scientists now telling us that we've only begun to scratch the
surface. Today scientists tell us to beware of certainty: because today's
"natural law" just may become tomorrow's old wive's tale, They've seen it
happen.

At the same time scientific certainty has been shattered by the knowledge
explosion, a lot of other hallowed and time honored truths have gone by the
wayside. I can reaall asking my father one time, as we drove past a coal
mine, what would happen when there was no more coal in the earth. His answer
Was simple and reflected the certainty of twenty-five years ago -— "It won't
ever happen". I can recall studying Thomas Malthers in college, who suggested
in the last century that the geometric progression of population growth would
one day result in mass starvation. 4nd the professor told us that Malthors
arrived at that conclusion without knowing about birth control and modern
farming techniques. That was just fifteen yeers ago. In the meantime Malthers
has become a prophet and the heady optimism that life will be supported in-
definitely by the good green earth has been called into serious question. We're
not so sure of that any more. We're not at all certain.

Time was, not long ago, when the integrity of the American government,
not to mention the American dollar, was a vertible bastion of certainty. But
for a growing number of people the Viet Nam debacle is changing that. And
government policies that talk about equal rights in one section of the country
and the sanctity of the neighborhood school in another call that into serious
question.

It's a time of serious uncertainty for our nation. We don't know where
we are headed internationally: the certainties of the post war world arc
gone. We scem to know even less about where we are going domestically: the
tranquility of the Bisenhower years and the bright hope of John Kennedy's

new frontier scem like dreams out of the dim past. Certainty, on all fronts

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has given way to uncertainty. What do we know for sure? Not really very much. ; 4 3
The Church of Jesus Christ has not held up very well in the new age of Se 2
uncertainty. In fact, it might be said that the very concept of uncertainty
runs against the grain of what the church is all about. A less charitable By
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know-it-all. After all it did take the church a long time to stop resisting
men like Galilco and Copernicus. And many modern churchmen are still fight-
ing Charles Darwin. It seems that the church has always had a difficult time
admitting that it doesn't have all the answers. And as a corollary to that, ~~ | \
it seems that the church has olways been inclined to give the stamp of eternal,
absolute truth to everything about itself.
Now we Presbyterians never had an inquisition, but our heritage ond ra
traditions and identity did come out of a period of history marked by its
sense of certainty. The Protestant Reformation happened in the middle of am
intellectual environment that proudly assumed that the mind of man could compre—
hend everything there was to comprehend. When they sat down to write theology
they assumed that they could describe the very essence of God in a long list
of adjectives. I found the recent television series "The Six Wives of Honry
VIII" very interesting at this point. Whatever else Henry was he was not
uncertain, so long as the Archbishop of Cantebury was at his side. Regard-
less of what he did, he did it in full confidence that God would bless it —
whether making war or arranging a marriage - so long as the Archbishop
nodded.
Protestantism was born in that kind of climate. Whenever the reformers
condemned the Pope they did it confidently. Whenever they wrote the West—
minster Confession of Faith they did so with no “ifs' and "buts". And quickly
the church of the Reformation - Presbyterian and Lutheran - committed the same
error that the Church of Rome had been committing for centuries: it baptized
its creeds, rituals, traditions, everything about it, nei'th altdmate and

absolute truth. It was right - it was certain of its rightness. Thus we

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have Methodists, Baptists, Reformed Churches, Disciples, Episcopalians - all

claiming, if not in words at least by innuendo, absolute certainty.

That is the gravest sin of the church and the fact is that there is still
a lot of that old certainty in its ranks. There is still a very vocal brand
of Christianity, and brand of Christians, characterized by smugness, self-
righteousness and pious arrogance. There is still a highly visible brand of
religion that knows all the answers, that refuses to be open to new truth, that
has a Biblical proof text ready for every conceivable situation.

The result for the whole church is simply a lack of credibility. We
live in an uncertain age, and a church that claims certainty in all things will
have 2 limited appeal to those who can't or won't think, but it just won't be
taken seriously by most.

Consider what has happened to the Bible. The Bible is rendered ineffec-
tive as the instrument of God's word to man by those who would defend its
historic accuracy in absolute terms. When Charles Darwin published "The origin
of the Species", and proposed his theory of evolution, churchmen rose up in
righteous certainty and denounced the book as wrong and the work of the devil.
The church's sense of certainty was threatened. The Bible says God created
in six days. Darwin suggested that it took millions of years. But rather
than listen and learn, rather than trust in the providence and sovereignty of
God who is the only certainty, the church fought an unwise battle. The result
was that Christianity was discredited in the minds of many thinking people.
Well, incredibly, that particular battle is still being fought by some, and
everytime it is fought the Christian faith loses a little more credibility.

Psychiatry and Philosophy are asking serious questions in this age of
uncertainty. ‘The old concepts of free will and individual responsibility
are held up to the inquiry of men who say that we're really just a product of
our environment, or our subconscious drives. 4nd to respond to that in
hysteria and call it godless and sinful is nonsense. In Philosophy one book

in particular comes to mind. Richard Rubenstein has written a collection of

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under the title "After Auschuitz" and in the course of the series pases some

very serious.questions for anyone who claims to believe in God. Wow, afted
d4uschuitz,'' asks Rubenstein, is it possible to believe in a nepuoial Ged whe? SES
is suppossed to be revealing his will in the confines of histoty?" How does e
a Jew belicye in light of six million Jewish corpses? *Rabenetein concludes ae f
that it is no longer possible. Now, I'm not in Dr. Rubenstein's league, but
I don't buy his conclusions. The point, however, is that his question ie a
legitimate question; the kind of question the world hoses asking: and while
the answer may not be found, to ignore the question, to be threatened by its
being asked, is simply to be discredited and dismissed as irrelevant.

Consider morality. Por twenty centuries the Christian Church and Chris—
tian people have operated very comfortably on the premise that right is P
right and wrong is wrong and everybody knows the difference. nd in case
anybody missed the difference churchmen were only to happy to point it out. ee
In matters of sex the prescription was simply "don't", at least until you |
are married —- and then try not to enjoy it too mach. In matters of killing
the prescription was a little more complex: ..don't unless you have to, or
unless your government tells you-to. And all of a sudden we. find ourselves
in a brand new and very uncertain situation. Suddenly we have kids who mature
earlier, and are told that sex is to be used on every television commercial
they've seen since infancy, and who have cars and drive-ins. and apartments,
and pills, and no money to get married at 19 and they're asking "why not?"
Suddenly we're confronted with something like a 254 statistic of brides who
are pregnant, a full blown veneral disease epidemic, and the real possibility
of available abortions. ind for too many Christians the whole thing can still
be reduced to an arrogant "don't". It's not too surprising that nobody
seems to be listening anymore.

We live in an uncertain age, and age which I believe needs a church that

knows how to exist with uncertainty, a church that doesn't run away from jis
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serious questions and doubts, a church that doesn't abandon hurting, bleeding

people by hiding behind dogma and arrogant certainty. I believe the world

needs thai kind of church, and I believe people need that kind of religion.
For no matter how you cut it you and I live in both environments, and there
is no one here unfamiliar with some very painful uncertainty.

I began this morning by reading three sections of the Epistle to the
Hebrews. ‘ie've come a long way so let me tell you the essence of each. The
first was a kind of classic statement of Christian doctrine: Jesus Christ is
presented as the full revelation of God. In the second there were two very
remarkable sentences: “Let us stop discussing the rudiments of Christianity
+ «ee Instead, let us advance toward maturity." The third offered some
advice in basic Christian ethics and concluded with the very significant
statement, toute Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever."

I don't think that needs much interpreting. It was written to a group
of early Sholwideas who, were spending too much time talking about their
theology - and not enough time living their new life in obedience to their
Lord. They needed to be reminded that those is only one thing that never
changes, only one absolute - namely Jesus Christ.

whate ia a good and concise word in that for us. We live in an uncer-
tain ie when everything seems to be up in the air. All of us face some kind
of crises: all of us bleed alittle bit as a result of uncertainty: all of us
need something firm and unshakable. Yor some of us the crises is a product
of the times: we're nervous and anxious about our country — the world — how
and if things are going to get resolved. Some of us worry about the kind of
world our children are inhoriting, and lose more than a little sleep over it.
Some of us face an uncertain personal future: we just don’t know what will
happen to us — what next year will bring. Some of us are in the middle of
personal crises - grief over the death of a loved one, sickness, marital
strain. All of us, in some form or another, stand in need of certainty.

It is here offered. Not a list of theological propositions: not a

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collection of churchy rituals and traditions - but a savior: one who means .
God's love: Jesus Christ. SA

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I'm not comfortable using my family as a source of sermon illustrations. ©

But thoy keep) happening in a way that is more relevant 'to me than all the
theology I've over read. And I'd like to share this one. At dinner last weok, S

out of the clear blue sky as always, I was asked what it's like to be in heaven. ee

One of them volunteered that if she died and went to heaven she'd probably just ee
sit around and ery a lot. 3
I think we got it rosolved, but that's a kind of ultimate uncertainty = a
that I think a lot of us carry around in our hearts. How do you respond to * a
that? What do you know for sure? Where is that certainty? Us I reflected ae :

about it later I found myself driven back through all the theological decoras ange

tons, all the church programs, all the books’ I've read - to something Paul said =

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"For I am certain that nothing in all creation can separate me from the PONS SS ee
of God in Josus Christ our Lord" - and to that little statement in Hebrews -
"Sgn Christ is the same yeterday, today and for over." “3
That, to usc the vernacular, is where it's at. If all else falls that :
stands. I am loved of God. Nothing will interfere with that. “No mattor | : ay
what else alters that remains certain. Jesus Christ = yesterday - today — ere E
for ever. 3 ‘ =
Almighty God, we are grateful that in the midst of an uncertain world / ss
some things never chaige. Grant us to know the serenity of faith in him -ta\ % 5
whose grace and love are with us Lonever ~ Jesus Christ our Lord. s (ie 3