When faith takes a wrong turn A one-way dead end 1/31/16

When faith takes a wrong turn

A one-way dead end

1/31/16

One night, a couple of years ago, I was coming home from Cedar Rapids on Highway 30 where it is still 4-lane divided highway in Linn County. Suddenly something up ahead didn’t look right. There was an eastbound car coming at me on the westbound side of the highway. I saw him coming, so I just pulled off the road as far as I could and let him pass. I will tell you; even though it turned out ok, it scared the living daylights out of me.

Have you ever turned the wrong way on a one-way street? In the old days, it was an easy to mistake with a map in one hand and the steering wheel in the other in a strange town. Today with GPS, you might think we would be safe, but it still happens and you get things like this.

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It’s not funny because sometimes the results can be tragic.

But what do you do with a sign like this? 

Or how about this one…  you might have to think about that one a minute….

I chose this as the road sign for this sermon in the “when belief takes a wrong turn” series because in theology, just about any time we believe that there is only one-way, one answer, or one truth, or one side to an argument, we run in to a dead end.

 So much of theology is paradoxical, which might be represented with this road sign. A paradox is when we have to hold two seemingly opposite truths together in order to reach a greater truth.

This week I want to talk about two heresies or wrong turns in belief are on opposite ends of the spectrum. We have to hold them together in paradox if we are to avoid the pitfalls of either extreme.

 On the one end is “works righteousness” or “legalism.” You recognize those terms. You know that except for hypocrites, Jesus reserved his harshest criticism for Pharisees who believed that they could please God by doing all the right things… specifically following all 613 commandments.

Works Righteousness is the idea that good works are enough to save us. In other words in the extreme we can essentially save ourselves by doing enough good deeds.

There are three popular ways that people take the wrong turn down the  one-way dead end of works righteousness today.

•        One of them I mentioned last week. “Oh, I live a good life that’s enough.” or “I am spiritual but not religious.” “I serve on this board, and volunteer here and there, and visit my homebound neighbor, so surely God is happy with that.” I am sure that those behaviors do please God, but salvation is not finding a way to appease an angry God. It is coming to God helplessly knowing that we can not save ourselves, and acepting God’s gracious gift of forgiveness and salvation. Thinking that we are “good enough” is just a wrong tirn down the  one-way dead end of works righteousness.

o        Salvation is not a merit badge that we can earn by doing the correct number of good deeds.

o        We cannot make up for our sins by turning around and doing something good to balance it out.

o        There is no amount of money we can give to charity, no number of terms we can serve on a church committee, no number of funeral dinners we can serve, no number of visits we can make to the nursing home, no amount of anything that we can DO; that will make us righteous in God’s eyes.

•        The second way people today take a wrong turn down the dead end street of works righteousness is thinking “I was baptized”, or “I belong to the church. So I am OK with God.”

Bapitm is a sign gift from a gracious God, who wants us to know how much we are loved. When baptism becomes a hoop to jump through in order to achieve salvation, it becomes a sacrament of the God of works righteousness.

When church membership becomes the deciding factor in salvation we make the institution the savior, rather than Jesus christ. I’d much rather put my salvation in the hands of a loving God, rather than the human instiution of the church.

Neither baptism nor membership are a magic key to the kingdom of God. That is just another wrong turn down a  one-way dead end of works righteousness.

•        The final way that works righteousness is expressed today is in the concept of Karma. The popular idea behind Karma might be summarized as “what goes around comes around.” In actuality it is the Hindu or Budhist idea that the balance of a person’s actions in this life and all their previous lives determine their fate in their next life. .In other words, we add up all the good deeds and subtract all the bad deeds and as long as we come up with a positive number we are saved. Life is not a ledger of rights and wrongs it is a journey toward wholeness and salvation in Jesus Christ.

Jesus says explicityly “Without me you can do nothing.” Why is that so hard for us to understand? Perhaps it is our american pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality, except this was happening long before our country was founded. Apparently human beings are just so egotistical that we think that with a few good deeds can accomplish the same thing as the incarnation, suffering, death and resurectin of Jesus Christ.

By no means! A turn toward works righteousness is a wrong turn down a  one-way dead end street.

 The other end of this spectrum says exactly the opposite. These folks take the idea that we can do nothing without Christ and they push it until it breaks. Antinomianism says if there is nothing we can do to earn our salvation, then our behavior does not matter. If good works don’t get us into heaven, then neither will bad works keep us out. Paul battled this in the book of Romans. Apparently, a group of antinomians were saying that every time God forgives me it is a testimony to God’s love and grace. God’s love and grace bring glory to God. Therefore, we should sin again and again so that God will forgive us again and again, God will be glorified again and again.

I will say it is an ingenious argument, but very twisted theology. Paul says “By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?” (Ro 6:2) Of course, we can’t.

There have been antinomians throughout all the church’s history. Folks who said, I am free from the Jewish law, so I can do what I want. The folks who said, if I am free, I shouldn’t have to receive the sign of circumcision. (They won by the way) Folks who said, I can be forgiven for anything, so eat, drink and be merry. All the way up to folks today who say, as long as I am saved, my behavior does not matter. Let me just say…of course it does!

 This wrong turn is like being on a diet and saying at one extreme if I exercise, I can eat whatever I want, or at the other extreme   if I eat right I never have to get up off the couch. No, it talks both good diet and exercise to keep ourselves healthy.

 It is like saying on the one hand, I’m sick, I’m going to die anyway so I am not going to take the medicine.   Or on the other if a little medicine is good for me a lot would be better.

 It is like saying on the one hand all of our problems are your fault, and on the other,  beating yourself up saying all the problems are my fault.

Dr Phil would have a hay day with these folks. None of this is healthy… none of that is rational… none of that is clear thinking… and none of it is good theology.

No- the truth lies in holding both of these paradoxical truths together.

James says “14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

18 But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.”(James 2:14-18)

Faith, by itself if it has no works is dead. Works by themselves, if there is no faith, are empty. It takes both faith and works… belief and action… devotion and deed. Christian discipleship is both building a relationship with God, and sharing the fruits of that relationship in ministry to others.

Paul affirms this basic truth as well. This morning we read in Galatians , “the only thing that counts is faith working through love.” (Gal 5:6) Not the only thing that counts is faith… and not the only thing that counts is behavior. If we have faith, and experience the love of God in our lives, we can’t help but carry that love into our relationship with others and our ministry to the world. Faith works by love.

That is what discipleship is about. Faith put to work by love.

In the Christian life..... faith and works go together like inhaling and exhaling. .. Like inhaling… and exhaling.

Billy Graham said it this way: Faith is taking the Gospel in;...... works is taking the Gospel out." Faith is taking the Gospel in;...... works is taking the Gospel out."

Inhaling and Exhaling!

Inhaling without exhaling is fatal. Exhaling without inhaling is lethal. The difference between lethal and terminal, however, is kind of a silly argument. Either way we are dead.

Believing that a personal relationship with Jesus is all we need is terminal to our spirit.

Believing that loving others is all that matters is lethal for our souls.

Let me say that another way.

Faith that only happens inside our hearts or our sanctuary is crippled because it has no hands or feet.

Faith that only happens in actions outside the church is dead because it has no heart.

 If we think about our ministry statement to focus on know and grow at the expense of love and go is to cut off our hands and feet.

 On the other hand, to focus on love and go to the exclusion of Know and Grow cuts the heart out of who we are.

Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God, and the second is to love others. The greatest is to have faith. The second is to show love. Each and every one of us has a faith to live. Each and every one of us has love to give.

Hmmm… every person in ministry… where have I heard that before. That is one of our goals this year. Every person having both faith and works.

You know what? English needs a different form of the word faith. In English, faith is a noun. We need to think of faith as a verb. Let’s make it up. The verb would be “to faith.” We could say we are “Faithing.”

          That works for me. “Faithing.” The best part is a verb means there is action… we are doing something.

          Let’s make this year, the year that faith becomes a verb in our church. Let’s put our faith into action. Loving God and loving others. Faith and works. Let’s get faithing.