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Belief and Unbelief John M. Buchanan
Mark 9:14-27 Broad Street Presbyterian Church
September 12, 1976 Columbus, Ohio

A young boy, thirteen years of age, was invited by his pastor to
become part of a Confirmation Class and to join the Church. The boy hesitated and
with the particular integrity of adolescence, indicated that he wasn't sure he be-
lieved "all that stuff". When the minister asked what he meant by "all that stuff"
he said: "You know - The Apostles Creed: descended into hell - sitteth on the right
hand of God - the quick and the dead ~ all that stuff."

The minister asked the young fellow to take the creed and write out
what he believed and what he did not believe. The “what I believe” list was quite
brief. It included: "Jesus Christ, our Lord, Suffered under Pontious Pilate, was
crucified, dead and buried." And then after a large empty space, "the forgiveness
of sins".

The “what I cannot believe" column contained the rest of the creed:
"God the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and earth, His only Son, conceived by the
Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, descended into hell, rose again from the dead,
ascended into Heaven, right hand of God, quick and the dead, Holy Ghost, Catholic
Church, Resurrection of the Body, Life Everlasting." ( Half-Way to Faith, Lord
Eccles, in Theodore Parker Ferris, The Things We Live By p. 11).

I am suggesting that the brash honesty of youth allowed the young boy
to articulate what is a rather common dilemma among adults. The problem is that for
many people Christian faith is defined as the believing of certain doctrines. The
fact, of which I am quite certain, is that many people shy away from the Church
because they do not understand or do not believe the doctrines which define Christian
faith. Another fact, of which I am equally certain, is that many people in the
Church have serious reservations about particular doctrines, recite the creeds
with their fingers crossed and then feel guilty about their inability honestly to
believe what they assume Christians have to believe.

Now from our beginnings we Presbyterians have put a premium on good
theology and right belief. While other branches of the Church have concentrated on
the heart, we have held out for the head. We have produced, accordingly, more
theology and core theologians. When a Presbyterian is asked what the Church be-
lieves he points to a book - The Book of Confessions, a relatively hefty volume
containing nine separate statements of faith. We think the theological enterprise
is important, that the content of one’s faith does matter, that we are called to
love God with our minds.

Thus, I will be preaching a series of sermons this fall focusing on
basic Christian beliefs. In October a study and discussion group will meet on
Sunday evenings to explore the great theological motifs of our tradition.

But let it be clearly understood at the outset that we skate on thin
ice indeed when we identify Christian faith with believing certain doctrines. The
effect of this identification - and I fear that we are guilty of it - is to damage
our credibility with those who are seeking and to turn away from the gates the
searcher for truth. The effect is also, it seems to me, to cut us off from the
Good News of the Gospel which is that God loves us quite apart from what we are
able to believe: that God moves toward us with love regardless of our theological
sophistication or orthodoxy. Jesus, after all, did not administer entrance exams

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religion continues to be regarded as a body of truth contained in its creeds, and

the Christian life a growing into the acceptance of the truth of those creeds
accompanied by the eradication of all doubt and uncertainty.A Christian is a person
who "knows", The trouble with the Church, Bishop Pike wrote before he died and as

he was being branded a heretic, is that it presents what is historically conditioned
as eternal: "What is relative is presented as absolute, what is packaging is pre~
sented as the product, what is fallible is presented as infallible,,.what is customary
and machinery is presented as final reality; the notions of men are presented as the
mind of God, the words of men are presented as the will of God," (A Time for Christian
Candor, p. 23).

There is an inherent human tendency to endow my understanding of things
with timeless truth, That tendency becomes demonic when magnified in institutions,
The nonsense of Nazism became believable first and then holy truth in the packed arena
at Nuremberg, Ideas so patently silly that an individual would laugh at them in the
neutral quiet of his own study became reality in the movement called national
Socialism,

That is part of the human dilemma, And when religion is infected by it:
when religion presents itself as the ultimate definer of truth: when religious faith
is knowledge: when personal piety is defined as believing certain intellectual con-
cepts to be true we are well on the way toward that saddest of human frailties ~
religious arrogance,

The Christian church has always had to contend with it, In the year 395,
Eunomius, a Bishop in the early church, wrote, "I know God as well as He knows Himself,"
I've talked with people today who presume the same intimate and personal acquaintance
with the Almighty, Much to the point is David Roberts' observation in Psychotherapy
and A Christian View of Man, that knowing God completely "provides the insecure person
with a sense of superior righteousness", Roberts taught my generation of theological
students that in a secular age, with anxiety running high, insecure people "need to
find ways to make their faith impregnable against criticism coming from without or
from skeptical inclinations within",

Where, after all, did we ever get the idea that we could know and under-
stand God? Where Gid we ever get the idea that the function of religious faith is to
provide an answer for every question? Not in the Bible, certainly. There is an in-
scrutable quality, a mystery, an "unknownness" about the Jahweh of the Old Testament,
When Job brought his case before the heavenly court God spoke out of the whirlwind
and in essence asked Job who in the world he thought he was, "My ways are not your
ways", says the Lord of the Old Testament and the Psalmist responded appropriately,
"Phou dost beset me behind and before, and layest thy hand upon me, Such knowledge

is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it." (Psalm 139: 5-6).

The human presumption to know and understand God completely is, frankly,
the ultimate arrogance, It is perhaps the sin the Genesis writer had in mind in
the story of a tree the fruit of which would make men like God, I£ God is God, He
will not be known fully: there will always be mystery and a sense of otherness on the
part of those who seek Him.

Faith - Christian Faith - is not the sum of all the creeds, It is not the
believing of beliefs and the eradication of all doubt, In fact, faith begins some-
where at the opposite end of the scale from knowledge with the admission that it is

—

not within the sphere of the human mind to circumscribe the Almighty. Te begins
somewhere near the point at which the father of the sick boy cried out, "I believe:
help my unbelief,"

The theologians and philosophers have always known that, Thus Martin Luther
light-heartedly admitted that he was not always equipped to "know how things are going
in the heavenly majesty", (Martin Marty, Varieties of Unbelief, p.35). The philosopher
Pascal mused, "I am astonished at the boldness with which people undertake to sp eak
about God." And Harry Emerson Fosdick, the great 20th century preacher, said, "All
intelligent faith in God has behind it a background of humble agnosticism," (Leslie
Waltherhead, The Christian Agnostic, p.36). The possibility of authentic, honest belief
begins when we acknowledge that we do not know and will never know all there is to God.

And then it's a little like falling in love, That delightful human phenom-
enon does not occur as a result of collecting and analyzing all the available data on
the beloved. In fact, if we knew all there is to know about the other person before~
hand we might never fall hopelessly and wonderfully in love, Love comes first; love
happens and then over the years and decades of deepening relationship understanding is
added, So, I would suggest, it is with Christian faith, First there is an impulse ~
love, trust, devotion; and then over the years knowledge comes and the ancient creeds
which once meant nothing begin to have significance of individual experience,

"TJ believe in the Holy Ghost" may:be an awkward and untenable proposition,
But the person who has tried the life of obedient faith and has felt on occasion the
power of God healing and helping and agitating knows exactly what it means, The 'Com-
munion of Saints" - surely an obsolete ecclesiastical formula: but the person who has
lost a dear one and who reflects on the eternity of God's love for that person knows
exactly what it means, "Maker of heaven and earth":surely an embarassing sentiment in
the arena of physical science, But the person who has sat by the sea and watched the
sun dip behind the horizon in fragile hues of red and violet and pink knows exactly
what it means,

Reconstruct it one more time, "All things are possible to him who
believes." "I believe: help my unbelief.”

It wasn't what the father stammered that healed his son, In fact, he ad-
mitted that he didn't measure up, He believed and did not believe, He was somewhere
between the two, Jesus accepted that at face value, It wasn't the man's powerful faith
that healed the boy: it was the grace and love of Jesus Christ.

So our standing with our father God does not depend on how much we can
believe. It depends only on His love for us: and how much we are willing to accept
that - and live in it - and give thanks for it - and be glad about it,

We have postponed, many of us, the time when we will have a vital faith,
We assume that someday, somehow, all the pieces will fit together and we will know and
believe, But the great invitation of the Gospel now is to trust Him, respond in joy
and gratitude to the love you have seen, follow Him as you sense Him leading,

There is a line in an old Gospel song we don't sing much any more that goes:
"Just as I am, though tossed about Fighting and fears within, without,

With many a conflict, many a doubt, O Lamb of God, I come, I come!"

So the invitation is to come, just as we are, "I believe: help my
unbelief,.'' The promise is that the humble, hesitant and halting confession is enough,
Amen,

- jo -
could be as coldly rational and skeptical as the best of them, He said something
which I have seen in print many times since, but which at the time made all the
difference in the world to me, I have never forgotten it. It is still the essence
of the Gospel for me. He said simply, "The crucifixion is net so much the story
of what people did to Jesus of Nazareth as it is the story of what God has done for
us." That is my inarticulate, but precious, doctrine of the Cross,

What happened to Jesus Christ was for us, However we adorn, define and describe
it, it was done for our sakes, \ And because of that; because the crucifixion of
Jesus Christ is something God has done for us, it is a Magnificent Defeat.

"Where is the wise man?', St. Paul asked, "Where is the skillful debater?" They
were seen kneeling before a manger: not theologizing, philosophizing, arguing,
discussing - but kneeling in awe before an indescribable gift.

So - wise people, men, women and children, will be found kneeling before His

Cross,
Amen,

God, our Father, as we move closer to the observance of our Lord's death, open
our minds and hearts to its magnificence, Give us moments of quiet reflection so
that in days ahead we might kneel before the Cross in awe and reverence and lve.

Amen,

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Reverend Buchanan
Page 2
August 18, Lay?

5, I find it somewhat odd that whenever Colson
sought the will of God it led him to seek further world-
wide publicity.

6. As a lawyer, I find most distressing Colson's
lack of feeling for nis chosen profession. When Ellsburgh
turned over the Pentagon papers to the Times--Nixon, Colson,
Krogh and all of them should have left the determination of
Ellsburgn's guilt or innocence to the due process of law-~
especially the responsible United States Attorney. But
no, they had to recruit the press to discredit Mr. Ellsburgh.
In my view criminal responsibility should be determined
only in court.

7. And, when Colson was indicted and was in fact
innocent of the charges, he should have plead not guilty
and made the prosecution prove its case. Since they could
not do so he would have been acquitted. That is how the
criminal law is supposed to work.

But, no. Since he now had found religion and
felt guilty about his past life he had to find something
he could plead guilty to. A bad precedent from the point
of view of the criminal justice system.

9, In short--Colson is not so much a symbol of
the new power of religion as the old power of Christianity
to heal the wounds of those who once knew the truth and
forgot it for a while.

Sincerely,

Wiliam W. Milligan