Question

Two Problems:

First, the modern problem (18th - 20th centuries) of believing only in that which we can clearly understand, reduce and catalog.

Second, and even worse, the “post-modern” problem (20th century to present) of our world. Since we’ve learned that we can’t ever know everything about anything, and because we’ve been burned so many times by what we thought we knew, or by what we foolishly believed we could trust, we simply choose not to believe at all.

In short, we decide to take our spiritual marbles and go home.

One of the great interests of my Christian life (which is my vocational life, too -- I am a pastor, after all) is to find a way to speak the Gospel to my own cynical, post-modern generation. I believe that there’s plenty of room inside faith to ask “the questions.” In fact, faith is the only real place to ask them.

I just don’t want people to stop believing that there can be real answers.

That very same impulse has led well-meaning Christians to go on quests for “holy grails” of all kinds. If only we could prove the Bible archaeologically, historically. If only we could unearth some piece of Noah’s Ark, or wood from the True Cross, or locate the Garden of Eden or find an ancient Egyptian scroll that would verify the plagues on Pharoah and the Exodus of God’s people.

Then everyone would believe, right?

Things are never that simple.

Archaeology, paleontology or science of any stripe can’t prove or disprove faith, anymore than faith can validate science.

But that fact doesn’t stop people from trying, on either side of the issue. This week, a new study will run in the Journal of the American Heart Association that claims to scientifically prove that prayer has no impact on health, except perhaps a slightly negative one.

We can’t overlook the tragic comedy of this venture. I have no doubt that the sociologists, psychologists, and medical doctors did their very best to quantify the results of prayer. They looked for a way to take out prayer organs, and weigh them on the autopsy scale. They tried to control all the variables, which are first impossible to completely identify and second, impossible to control. They worked hard, and with great honesty and integrity, to quantify that which is defies quantification.

And then they said, “hey, this thing doesn’t work.”

Funny, that’s exactly what I would say if I declared that my Master of Divinity degree made me a computer expert, then took a hammer and bashed in my hard drive.

Someone out there does have it right. Dr. Richard Sloan, a professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University said about the study, “ "The problem with studying religion scientifically is that you do violence to the phenomenon by reducing it to basic elements that can be quantified, and that makes for bad science and bad religion."

Amen, doc.

Post-modern cynics and scared Christians actually have a lot in common. They both do violence to faith if they have to find proof.

Yesterday I heard about an oceanographer who put forth the theory that the Sea of Galilee was experiencing a cold snap 2,000 years ago, and that Jesus actually walked on blocks of ice, submerged just beneath the surface.

He didn’t say what a regular guy who couldn’t walk on water would be doing out of the boat on a partially frozen lake, ice dancing.

Know what? If you’re a Christian, and his assertion makes you mad, ask yourself why. Do his ideas really shake your faith? Can we not withstand the question?

If you’re not a Christian, does that theory make you feel more confident in your decision not to believe? Why does it?

Do you know the real reason why some people in our world today don’t believe in God?

I think it might have more to do with people of “faith” who kill other people over cartoon images than with the cartoons themselves. I think it might have more to do with folks who spout anger and venom over studies and ice-theories, than with the studies and the theories themselves.
I like what Paul had to say. The Apostle, not The Beatle, though he had some good things to say, too:

“When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.”

First Corinthians 2

Faith isn’t human wisdom. It’s not lofty words. Sometimes it’s not even really plausible.

It’s a demonstration. It’s life lived.

It’s not the enemy of science, inquiry or question. It’s the only real answer.

I’ll never forget how my New Testament seminary class started at that first lecture, years ago. My professor, a brilliant, prolific, deeply respected product of the Ivy League said, “On that first Easter morning 2,000 years ago…something happened.”

I can’t prove it…and I don’t need to.

I believe it. Let’s live it.

Easter is coming.

Grace and Peace,
Adam