lose your faith
Mar 24th, 2008 by Nathanael
Recently, I’ve been in conversation with some dear brothers over a sermon preached on Palm Sunday by Kim Fabricius found here. It’s clear that this brief sermon struck a chord in some and struck a nerve in others.
Part of the wrestling match that some are going through is the graphic nature and language the pastor adopts, seemingly being controversial for controversy’s sake alone. But I don’t believe this to be the case. The culture to which he is speaking is a product of the postmodern world. No longer do arguments and proofs and creeds carry the same weight that they did with our fathers and with our fathers’ fathers.
His assertion that we should “lose our faith” flies in the face of all we’ve been taught about guarding our faith. And yet the beautiful thing about faith is that it can be stretched and pulled and molded and dropped and broken and put back together again and put on a shelf and even—dare I say it—lost. But the object of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, the risen King, the Messiah of the world, the Redeemer, the conquering Captain of our salvation, the Bridegroom, the Alpha and Omega, never changes. He never changes; therefore, our faith in Him cannot be shaken.
However, our faith in theology, in tradition, in veins of interpretation should be pulled apart and examined with the confidence that He will not abandon us. Our redemption does not hinge on our ability to recite the correct creed or regularly attend a certain church. Our salvation depends on Jesus and on Jesus alone.
The gospel is so multi-faceted that anyone who tries to box it quickly realizes that it cannot be done. And those who lock into one aspect of the atonement, at the expense of the other characteristics of it, do themselves and others and the gospel a great disservice.
The thing I liked about this sermon, whether or not I agree with our brother’s tactics or his choice of words, is that it made me stop and think and reevaluate the actual scriptures, not what someone once told me the scriptures mean. Tradition is great. Theology is wonderful. But we can peel away layers of the gospel message until our fingernails fall off, and we will have just begun to expose the diverse interpretations and mysteries that lie therein.
As we press into the heart of our God, as we pursue Him, as we chase Him, as we fall deeper and deeper in love with Him, our faith can only be strengthened. And that may mean abandoning certain verbiage we’ve grown accustomed to using.
Are we a people who are yearning to understand more deeply and fully what it means to be Jesus-followers? If we are, then sermons like these ought not alarm us.
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Jesus (Luke 12.32 ESV)
