“Assembling Your Faith”
Ever go into one of those big box stores and get a new piece of furniture? The
ones that come in the box? Yes-my house is decorated in early Wal-Mart :-)
You get those boxes home and then you have to assemble the contents. I am notoriously bad at that task. All those pieces- slot A, tab B- the whole thing is just confusing.
It's not that I don't work at it! I get the pieces out and prop the box against a chair (so I can see the picture). But soon you can find me sweating and frustrated-cussing and glaring. Thoroughly disgusted that I can't make this pile of junk look like the picture on the box.
This is the time that someone-probably Heidi will come in, look at the directions and assemble it in the blink of an eye.
Has that ever happened to you? If you are a man, I'll bet it has-we men hate to look at directions. I'll bet it happens to women too-they are just better at keeping it to themselves.
But for me, it isn't just not looking at the directions, I can stare at the instructions and it would still bamboozle me! Back to the slot A, tab B thing :-)
It's kind of that way with building your faith isn't it? It's confusing to know what to believe. Some say that Jesus was the son of God-some say No. Some say that the Bible is the definitive work of history and religion, others wouldn't hear of such a thing. Even within the broad category of Christianity there are confusing details.
One group uses the bible to decide how we describe how we should live while another, using the same bible, tells us the opposite. How do you resolve these differences?
To make matters worse, religion is not talked about. My grandmother told me there were 3 things that you didn't talk about in polite company- Politics, Sex and Religion. With my background in business, I can tell you that it was a topic that I preferred my employees not to talk about-I didn't want anyone offended.
Even between close friends, religion is not generally a topic of conversation. How many times have you been out fishing or hunting with your best friend-you know, sitting in a small boat, side by side, waiting-and he turned to you and said, "So John, do you think God has a plan for you?" Not likely.
So where to go for information? Church seems like the only place. But even that is a problem. So many choices! Take a look at Crown Point. How many churches are here? It's been said that every time a bar closed in Crown Point, a church opened where it was! Look in town right now. There is us, the Catholics, the Methodists, the Bible Church, the White Church, the Mormons, the Assembly of God-who am I forgetting? These are the Christian churches-I haven't even mentioned the non-Christian options!
Some turn to the internet or television to try to sort this all out. That makes it worse!! All those groups have as their basic guide the Bible. But their beliefs differ-how can this be?
Building your faith is a tough job-a confusing job. One fraught with with many options. But here is the secret. This is the one thing that you need to help you through the journey. Ready? It's your faith.
I can see some faces out there that are positively screaming "YEAH??"
That's it there isn't any more. It's your faith. It's your journey. You have to decide what makes sense for you.
Which is not to say that you are on your own. There is help.
Here is a big chunk of help right here. Do you know what this is? This is the instruction manual for Christianity. In here are directions. Directions for assembling your faith.
And yet it is amazing the number of people that haven't read the hand book. Think about it.-Have you read it? This is the book that tells us why we are here this morning-but most people, like with men reading assembly instructions for boxed furniture, we just don't read the directions.
But, you might be saying, the book is hard. It has all of those old terms-begat this and begot that-What's the difference between thy, thee and thou? And those place names-Where the heck is Laodicea like in the reading this morning? Starts to strike you like the slot A, tab B stuff from earlier.
You aren't wrong. The book was written hundreds of years ago-in a place far away. The places will seem foreign and they spoke differently than we – and it was 2,000 years ago. But wait – let me take you back just 200 years. I was reading recently and came across this paragraph –
“There’s a tidy craft!” he said, taking it gingerly between his salt-hardened fingers. “Fine sweeping sheer to her and no foolish top-hamper. Sweet bows, and as nice a tumble home to her dead-works as you’ll find anywhere!” (“The Lively Lady” by Kenneth Roberts)
You would think that the speaker was talking about a wonderful sailing craft wouldn’t you? You would be wrong though – This man was speaking about a lovely woman. And this was only 200 years ago and we didn’t understand!
Heck – even as recently as 2 years ago we can misunderstand sometimes. Anyone ever been down South? I was – A guy said to me when I was down there (he being from Alabama) “Coomnovahear” I stopped. I couldn’t figure out what he wanted from me! And we lived at the same time in history!
So understanding something from centuries past? A challenge? You bet!
Further they experienced things we can't really imagine-For instance, these
people lived in the desert. Here in Crown Point on the shores of Lake Champlain,
it is darned hard to imagine having to think hard where your next glass of water
will come from. But for the people in here-it was of critical importance.
So does that make this book inconsequential to us? Does that mean you can ignore this? No-no more than we can ignore other great works from long ago written in a foreign language. Imagine how small our world would be if that was so. The German philosophers of the 19th century, the great Greek stories of Ulysses-not to mention the works of Shakespeare-would be lost to us. The English Literature and Philosophy and World History Departments would be obliterated. No, we need to look at our handbook.
Fortunately, there is help to understand it. Pastor Dave does bible study classes (one starts tomorrow night in the Parsonage in fact) to help you interpret what is in there. There are TONS of resources out there to help. Even Sunday sermons can help. Both Dave and I refer to this book when we prepare to speak to you. We are helping you to assemble your faith.
There is a secret in this book you know. Know what it is? Take the book in its entirety. If you think of this as an instruction manual, you will understand. Let me explain.
These are the instructions to setting up the BBQ grill that recently came into my house. It says in Step 24 to connect the propane tank hose to the "Y". What do you suppose would happen if I were to skip the first 23 steps and just connect the hose first? Or what if I were to do just this part of this step and not the ones before it? I might be barbecuing on the moon! BOOM!!
This is what happens with people and the Bible sometimes. It is easy to look in the bible and find a line and think we know what it means. But when we do, we make the same mistake as if we just arbitrarily connected the propane hose. There are things before it-important things-things we need to understand before we can understand the line that we read.
So that's the big secret-take the verses of the bible in context. Understand
what is going on that made that verse important to be included.
Need help? That's why Pastor Dave is here for. Pastors study and question and
learn-and then they teach. Ministers want to help you understand-they want to
help you make your journey-this journey to assemble your faith. They aren't
there to tell you to believe this or that-I would be worried about one who did.
Pastors want to help you find what you are looking for. But it is your faith and you need to be comfortable with what you believe
Because when it comes right down to it-in the middle of the night--in the middle of a crisis--it is you that has to believe in the faith that you have assembled. It will get you through tough times--and not so tough times.
If you take only one point away from here this morning, let it be this. Your faith is personal and it is up to you to build. There are many that will help you--I would hazard a guess that each member of your church family here today would be happy to help if asked--but it is up to you.
How will you assemble your faith?