Healthy Spirituality Part 3:
Study - Faith Seeking Understanding
Text: Romans 5:1-11
I think one of the challenges that I have been finding this Lent is to find a way to stick to this overall theme of Healthy Spirituality. When combined with the various things that are also happening on these various Sundays, it can be a bit hard to try and maintain that focus. Our first Sunday in Lent was led by the Prayer and Praise Group, last week was Baden Powell or Scouting Sunday… this week it’s the Annual Meeting. It’s part of this time of year… but it is also reality. Our Spirituality, our relationship with God, does not happen in a vacuum, it happens in the midst of all of this busy-ness that we experience in everyday life. The real challenge is how we integrate it into our everyday living, how we carry it into the workplace, how we live it out in our homes, wherever we are.
Over the past two weeks, I have been trying to highlight elements of healthy Spirituality. At it’s best, our relationship with God should be as natural as breathing, and is simply part of who we are… even so, it takes a bit of work to achieve that. The first week, I spoke about taking responsibility for our own actions, last week, it was about trust. For the next three weeks, I’ll be talking about study, prayer, and action… all of which individually are conscious efforts to be more in-tune with our faith.
Today I’m drawing from Paul’s letter to the Romans. When he writes his letter, he’s drawing on a wealth of personal experience... and expresses his personal understanding of his faith at this point in his life. Here it is again in a slightly different translation:
1By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace with God. 2Christ has also introduced us to God’s undeserved kindness on which we take our stand. So we are happy, as we look forward to sharing in the glory of God. 3But that’s not all! We gladly suffer, because we know that suffering helps us to endure. 4And endurance builds character, which gives us a hope 5that will never disappoint us. All of this happens because God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with his love. 6Christ died for us at a time when we were helpless and sinful. 7No one is really willing to die for an honest person, though someone might be willing to die for a truly good person. 8But God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful.
9But there is more! Now that God has accepted us because Christ sacrificed his life’s blood, we will also be kept safe from God’s anger. 10Even when we were God’s enemies, he made peace with us, because his Son died for us. Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by his Son’s life. 11And in addition to everything else, we are happy because God sent our Lord Jesus Christ to make peace with us.
(Romans 5:1-11 CEV)
It’s a lot of big words, to be honest, but Paul didn’t simply pull these randomly out of the air. By the time he wrote this letter to the established church in Rome, he had a great deal of personal experience and reflection under his belt. He had met with the success of founding a number of new congregations around the Aegean Sea. He had endured many a long-sea voyage, and had been imprisoned several times, never being sure that he would get out alive. Not by choice did he have these long periods to give some thought to this unexpected faith that he found himself with. He took those opportunities to actually studyhis faith… to really, honestly, and deeply think about it, and in so doing, found ways to be able to give voice to some of his own deep-seated questions.
By the time he writes this letter to the Romans, Paul was now putting his study of his faith into words. The passion with which he writes is tangible. This is good news: that God has made peace with us in Jesus Christ. It is the central core of his theology.
A very important part of healthy spirituality is this willingness to be able to learn and study about our faith. Theologians call it “faith seeking understanding.” The idea is we begin from a point of faith, that there is this relationship with God that we are truly trying to come to terms with. Faith is not blind acceptance of a list of propositions. At its best, our faith in God is living and growing, and is constantly seeking to learn about God’s relationship with us and how we in turn relate to the world around us. At its best, study is quite literally faith seeking a greater understanding of faith.
Yet as Christians, study is not something that we really do all that well at least not as a whole… let’s be honest. We’ve developed a practice, particularly in the last few hundred years to let others do the studying for us. We tend to substitute the memorization of facts for authentic study.
Yet with Paul, the theology that he expressed held a profound depth of thought that allowed him to come to terms with his faith. Remember that he proudly refers to himself as a Pharisee in his letters to the Philippians (3:5), he knew all the facts, he memorized all the right scripture. Yet as he learned in his life as an Apostle, he also knew that from that experience, facts and memorization alone didn’t provide the understanding that tried to make sense of it all. This is not well known, but Paul’s own theological outlook changed and grew during his mission.
By the time we encounter Paul in this letter to the Romans, he is an older man. He is no less passionate about his faith, but he now more seasoned, and not quite has hot-headed. He benefits from the wisdom from what he has learned. He is able to then to truly think about and articulate his faith in a way that is not dogmatic, but springs out from a genuine sense of having wrestled with his own faith, and sought a greater understanding. By many accounts, his letter to the Romans is his greatest known work.
When he talks about his faith, it’s not something out there, but something real for him. His understanding of our relationship with God is far more profound than we give him credit for. In Paul’s own words, “Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by his Son’s life. 11And in addition to everything else, we are happy because God sent our Lord Jesus Christ to make peace with us.” Paul reminds us that everything starts from God. God is the one who acts first, through this act of coming and being with us in Jesus Christ and make peaces with us. That’s a revelation that comes out of Paul’s study and experience in life. It’s something that he comes to terms with and finds himself with a greater understanding… and he genuinely owns and embraces his faith precisely because he’s had a chance to genuinely wrestle with it.
The same is potentially true for each of us… but there has been an unfortunate trend to resist any sort of serious study. There exists a suspicion that somehow studying our faith ultimately leads to unfaithfulness… don’t believe that to be true. Frankly, I think God is a bit more sensible than that. After all, a healthy faith is a faith that we can keep our brains, rather than leaving them at the door.
Amen.
I think one of the challenges that I have been finding this Lent is to find a way to stick to this overall theme of Healthy Spirituality. When combined with the various things that are also happening on these various Sundays, it can be a bit hard to try and maintain that focus. Our first Sunday in Lent was led by the Prayer and Praise Group, last week was Baden Powell or Scouting Sunday… this week it’s the Annual Meeting. It’s part of this time of year… but it is also reality. Our Spirituality, our relationship with God, does not happen in a vacuum, it happens in the midst of all of this busy-ness that we experience in everyday life. The real challenge is how we integrate it into our everyday living, how we carry it into the workplace, how we live it out in our homes, wherever we are.
Over the past two weeks, I have been trying to highlight elements of healthy Spirituality. At it’s best, our relationship with God should be as natural as breathing, and is simply part of who we are… even so, it takes a bit of work to achieve that. The first week, I spoke about taking responsibility for our own actions, last week, it was about trust. For the next three weeks, I’ll be talking about study, prayer, and action… all of which individually are conscious efforts to be more in-tune with our faith.
Today I’m drawing from Paul’s letter to the Romans. When he writes his letter, he’s drawing on a wealth of personal experience... and expresses his personal understanding of his faith at this point in his life. Here it is again in a slightly different translation:
1By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace with God. 2Christ has also introduced us to God’s undeserved kindness on which we take our stand. So we are happy, as we look forward to sharing in the glory of God. 3But that’s not all! We gladly suffer, because we know that suffering helps us to endure. 4And endurance builds character, which gives us a hope 5that will never disappoint us. All of this happens because God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with his love. 6Christ died for us at a time when we were helpless and sinful. 7No one is really willing to die for an honest person, though someone might be willing to die for a truly good person. 8But God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful.
9But there is more! Now that God has accepted us because Christ sacrificed his life’s blood, we will also be kept safe from God’s anger. 10Even when we were God’s enemies, he made peace with us, because his Son died for us. Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by his Son’s life. 11And in addition to everything else, we are happy because God sent our Lord Jesus Christ to make peace with us.
(Romans 5:1-11 CEV)
It’s a lot of big words, to be honest, but Paul didn’t simply pull these randomly out of the air. By the time he wrote this letter to the established church in Rome, he had a great deal of personal experience and reflection under his belt. He had met with the success of founding a number of new congregations around the Aegean Sea. He had endured many a long-sea voyage, and had been imprisoned several times, never being sure that he would get out alive. Not by choice did he have these long periods to give some thought to this unexpected faith that he found himself with. He took those opportunities to actually studyhis faith… to really, honestly, and deeply think about it, and in so doing, found ways to be able to give voice to some of his own deep-seated questions.
By the time he writes this letter to the Romans, Paul was now putting his study of his faith into words. The passion with which he writes is tangible. This is good news: that God has made peace with us in Jesus Christ. It is the central core of his theology.
A very important part of healthy spirituality is this willingness to be able to learn and study about our faith. Theologians call it “faith seeking understanding.” The idea is we begin from a point of faith, that there is this relationship with God that we are truly trying to come to terms with. Faith is not blind acceptance of a list of propositions. At its best, our faith in God is living and growing, and is constantly seeking to learn about God’s relationship with us and how we in turn relate to the world around us. At its best, study is quite literally faith seeking a greater understanding of faith.
Yet as Christians, study is not something that we really do all that well at least not as a whole… let’s be honest. We’ve developed a practice, particularly in the last few hundred years to let others do the studying for us. We tend to substitute the memorization of facts for authentic study.
Yet with Paul, the theology that he expressed held a profound depth of thought that allowed him to come to terms with his faith. Remember that he proudly refers to himself as a Pharisee in his letters to the Philippians (3:5), he knew all the facts, he memorized all the right scripture. Yet as he learned in his life as an Apostle, he also knew that from that experience, facts and memorization alone didn’t provide the understanding that tried to make sense of it all. This is not well known, but Paul’s own theological outlook changed and grew during his mission.
By the time we encounter Paul in this letter to the Romans, he is an older man. He is no less passionate about his faith, but he now more seasoned, and not quite has hot-headed. He benefits from the wisdom from what he has learned. He is able to then to truly think about and articulate his faith in a way that is not dogmatic, but springs out from a genuine sense of having wrestled with his own faith, and sought a greater understanding. By many accounts, his letter to the Romans is his greatest known work.
When he talks about his faith, it’s not something out there, but something real for him. His understanding of our relationship with God is far more profound than we give him credit for. In Paul’s own words, “Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by his Son’s life. 11And in addition to everything else, we are happy because God sent our Lord Jesus Christ to make peace with us.” Paul reminds us that everything starts from God. God is the one who acts first, through this act of coming and being with us in Jesus Christ and make peaces with us. That’s a revelation that comes out of Paul’s study and experience in life. It’s something that he comes to terms with and finds himself with a greater understanding… and he genuinely owns and embraces his faith precisely because he’s had a chance to genuinely wrestle with it.
The same is potentially true for each of us… but there has been an unfortunate trend to resist any sort of serious study. There exists a suspicion that somehow studying our faith ultimately leads to unfaithfulness… don’t believe that to be true. Frankly, I think God is a bit more sensible than that. After all, a healthy faith is a faith that we can keep our brains, rather than leaving them at the door.
Amen.
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