An Adventure with Your Name on it, Part 3

This post is the third in a series from a sermon.  It is continued on May 3, 2023.

Earlier this year I participated in an online course called Women Speak of God.  It was an examination of six women throughout Christian history whose words and lives have spoken – and still speak to us – about God.  One of the women we studied was Georgia Harkness.  She was a 20^th century Methodist Theologian who lived from 1891 to 1974. She taught in the field of theological studies for almost 40 years, and she wrote prolifically about doctrine, devotional practices, and social issues.  According to what I read about her, she worked toward institutional justice for women and laypeople and passionately against the injustices of segregation, violence, and the use of atomic weapons.  Her writings about faith really intrigued me, and much of what I want to share with you today is from her writing.

 There are many in the room who could probably recite the beliefs we share as a church if I phrased it beginning with the words, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth, and in Jesus Christ his only son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.  Is this belief what makes us a Christian?  No.  Belief and faith are not the same thing.  Faith is not agreeing to the truth of a statement – faith is something else – something more. 

 

First, Harkness says, faith is a positive trust – a willingness to place one’s life in someone else’s keeping.  It all comes down to this – it is NOT if we believe God exists. Faith means we TRUST God with our lives. I think churches around the world have many members who proclaim the existence of God, but that belief makes no difference in their lives.  We think atheism means not believing in God, and it does, but the bigger issue in churches is practical atheism.  Harkness says it like this: “The basic atheism is unwillingness to commit our lives to God’s keeping, callousness to God’s demands, the ordering of life as if God did not exist.”

 

The writer of the book of Hebrews said, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  By God’s free gift of loving grace, by Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection, we are forgiven, we are saved, we are transformed from what we were before to people who are moving on to perfection in love. God’s Holy Spirit is in this room with us, right now, and will leave this place with us – will proceed us in our day. This is the assurance of things we have hoped for. Do you believe it? To you trust in God so that you order your life around it? Do you hold in your heart the conviction that like Jesus, you too are called Beloved?

 

Many years ago, when I was a child – and I suppose I was taught this – I would end prayers with “thy will be done.” I remember praying that my great-grandmother would get well, “thy will be done” – but she didn’t.  She died.  It was many years, maybe even more than a decade – before I could use that phrase again.  It wasn’t until I came to the conclusion that I could trust God enough to trust that God’s will was loving and kind – truth worthy.

 

Maybe you think that only people like Terry, or Mark, or other people who carry the title “ordained” are called to ministry.  Maybe you doubt that God has a ministry for you to do. How do I assay this nicely? You are wrong.

I truly believe, and I want you to trust this – that God is calling your name for something. Will you hear God’s call and order your life around answering it? Will you trust God enough to answer God’s call? This is faith.