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Where Faith Comes From

FAITH FOUNDATIONS

Where Faith Comes From

January 7, 2007

Text: Romans 10:9-17

…If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. 11 The scripture says, "No one who believes in him will be put to shame." 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. 13 For, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."  

14 But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? 15 And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" 16 But not all have obeyed the good news; for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?" 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.  

NRSV 

      A “new year” encourages us to do healthy things for ourselves. I thought a healthy thing for us spiritually is to refresh ourselves on what’s at the heart of being a Christian: this thing called “faith.” Today I want to explore where faith comes from. Then, over the next few Sundays, we’ll go into practical ways to deepen and expand our faith.  

      Bill Cosby, in a routine he did, talked about when he and his wife Camille had their first child. Erika was sweet and lovable from the beginning. Never a problem. Always smiling. Whenever a diaper needed changing she’d raise her hand, “Excuse me, but it’s time.”

      They enjoyed their first child so much, they decided to have another.

      When their second daughter was born, he said she came into this world with a martini in one hand, a cigarette in another, saying, “All right, who’s in charge here? You? Well, remember when you used to sleep through the night? Forget about it. Every two hours you come in here and feed me—and that’s on a good night!” Bill and Camille named her “Beelzebub”, one of the demons in the Bible. [He was joking, of course!]

      Isn’t it interesting?

      You can have two children from the same parents, with opposite personalities from birth. This is a great illustration of how our personalities are determined by our genes. You can’t change your personality—you can only learn from your experiences, understand your strengths and weaknesses, and adjust.

      There are some things that are simply set for us by our DNA. Personality. Skin color. Specific talents.

      And one person has claimed that our ability to have faith is determined by our genetic makeup.

      Geneticist Dean Hamer has written a book titled, The God Gene: How Faith is Hard Wired into our Genes. He did an extensive study—he interviewed 2000 people, took their DNA, and gave them a detailed questionnaire that indicated how spiritual they were. From this work he claims to have discovered the “God gene.” People who were the most spiritual had the presence of this gene, called the VMAT2, in their DNA. According to his research, whether or not your upbringing is religious has no bearing on how religious you turn out to be - but the presence of the VMAT2 does.

--medicalnewstoday.com, 11/15/2004

      So, whether you sleep in on a Sunday morning, or you go to church—it’s determined by your genes. Whether you read the Bible first, or the sports page first—it’s determined by your genes. Nothing you can do about it—it’s just the way God made you.

      Well, I’ve done my own research into this, and I would make one scholarly observation.

      BALONEY.

      The assumption behind this study is that faith is a “head” thing—you know, you’re able to put aside logic and say, “Yep, I believe the impossible, that Jesus was raised from the dead.” Or that somehow you’re able to have mystical experiences and see things that people without the VMAT2 have or see.

      But faith isn’t a head thing. And it’s not a mystical thing. It’s a heart thing. It’s an orientation in life.

      It’s intentionally asking and answering this question: “Am I going to live as if ‘What I see is what I get, and everybody for her/himself?’ Or am I going to live as if life is open-ended, that there is more to life than what appears on the surface, that there is a connection and inter-dependence I have with all living things?”

      Basically, faith is asking, “Am I going to act as if the cross is the last word in life, or if the empty tomb of Easter is the last word? Am I going to act as if doom and gloom, from womb to tomb, is what life is all about? Or am I going to act as if the hope of tomorrow is not determined by pain of yesterday?” 

      Not everyone is born to be a great artist or musician. But EVERYONE is born with the ability to “have faith” like this.

      It takes something, though.

      It’s not the presence of the VMAT2 gene.

      It’s the ability to LISTEN.

      Paul put it best:

Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.  

      FAITH COMES FROM HEARING THE WORD OF CHRIST. You “hear” the word of hope, breaking through the white noise of everyday life.

      The trick is…to HEAR this word of hope.

      Two older men are talking. One says, “I just got a new hearing aid. I love it. It works perfectly, and I can hear everything so clearly!” “What kind is it?” the other man asks. “Oh, it’s about 10:30.”

      We have trouble hearing as we grow older.

      In trying to be Christian, we often have trouble hearing as well. Hardness of hearing can lead to hardness of heart. So, I’d like to suggest three things we can do that can sharpen our hearing. Let’s call these our three New Year’s “Faith Resolutions.” Do these, and you gain faith—with or without the VMAT2 gene.

      First:

1—PUT YOURSELF INTO A POSITION TO LISTEN…

      WHO do you choose to listen to? Do you surround yourself with people who are positive, who’ve lived through difficulties and still say, “I’ve seen the risen Christ?” Or do you surround yourself with people who complain and gossip, and who delight in running others down? Do you surround yourself with real people who might not be pretty in the eyes of the world, but speak the “Good News?” Or do you listen to those who proclaim, through plastic smiles, the “Bad News”? YOU CHOOSE.

      To be Christian means to constantly choose who you listen to. Choose your friends carefully. Choose who you’re going to be with Sunday morning. Choose who you’re going to be with on Friday night.

      JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF CAN BE SPEAKING LOUDLY AND CLEARLY, BUT HOW ARE YOU GOING TO HEAR HIM IF YOU CHOOSE FRIENDS WHO KILL OTHERS THROUGH THEIR POISONED WORDS?

      Put yourself into a position to listen. Then…

2—…EXPECT TO HEAR THE “WORD OF CHRIST” FROM THESE PEOPLE…

      If you surround yourself with the right people, you can’t help but hear Christ speaking.

      You get involved in the ministries of this church, you can’t help but to have your eyes opened and your heart deepened.

      You see people who genuinely care for each other. You see people who take communion to the homebound and visit the sick. You see people who take time to make a difference in the lives of children and youth. You see people devoting their precious time in countless “behind the scenes” things so we can be a church. You see people giving generously of their time and money to missions, touching lives here and around the world. You see people passionate about speaking out on social issues. You see people who’ve endured pain and tragedy, yet still get up on a Sunday morning and sing, “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.”

      You see people like these, you can’t help but feel faith. You can’t help but know that the last word in life isn’t despair but hope…isn’t death but life…isn’t dark but light.

3—…AND OBEY.

      Did you know that the word “obey” comes from the Latin word meaning, “to hear, pay attention to, give ear to.” Hearing and obeying are intimately connected. You haven’t really heard if your actions aren’t changed by what you’ve heard. [from Judy Cannato and www.etymonline]

      If you REALLY hear the word of Christ right here in this place, you have no choice but to ACT like the people you hear it from. You simply have to put your actions where your ears are. If you hear the word of hope from the people you see in this church, you can’t help but try and be like them. You can’t go back to the life of “what you see is what you get.” The people around you here love, trust, forgive, sacrifice, risk. Can you and I do anything less?

      This old world needs to “hear” what we “do”. People “out there” feel the nails of the cross. They need to hear the hope of the Resurrection. And the only way they will hear is if we obey. In a world where people feel the power of the dark side, it’s absolutely essential that we demonstrate the power of the resurrection-producing God of Jesus Christ.

      Three New Year’s “Faith Resolutions.”

      When you look at them, they’re really not that tough. Whether or not you have that VMAT2 gene, you already have a natural ability to have faith.

      I heard a preacher once say, “You use [faith] all the time. You couldn’t live without it.  Last week I got on an airplane. I never saw the pilot but I trusted that there was one there. I trusted that the pilot was competent [and that]…he or she had not been drinking. I trusted that the mechanic was faithful. You can’t live without faith. You are wired for faith. It doesn’t have anything to do with intellectual understanding because I know nothing about aeronautical engineering. I don’t understand those principles of lift and thrust, but I got on that plane because of faith. Everybody has some faith.”

      If we can so trust those who keep us from dying, how much more should we trust the one who points the way to living.

      I guess the hymn writer had it right.

      “To be happy in Jesus, trust and obey!”