Isaiah 50:4-9a
Presented September 13, 2009, by J.D. Kline
The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
In his novel entitled Life Goes On Quaker author Philip Gulley tells the story of Sam Gardner, pastor of the Friends Church in the fictional town of Harmony, Indiana, recalling his seminary days, particularly a time when it felt to him as if he had lost his faith. Sam confided in one of the professors, lamenting that he no longer knew what to believe; he couldn’t accept much of his childhood faith, yet yearned for the simplicity of that faith he held in his younger years. After listening to Sam pour out one frustration after another, the professor reminded him of some words spoken by Oliver Wendell Holmes, one-time Supreme Court Justice. Said Holmes, “The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to its original size.” Sam’s professor recognized that Sam was in the midst of the painful process of letting go of inadequate images and understandings of God, while standing on the verge of embracing a deeper faith, a relationship with a God of far greater proportions, a God able to stretch Sam’s vision and faith well beyond that with which he had been raised. Indeed, the professor reminded Sam, “You’ve been stretched. Now you have to fill your mind with a grand vision. That’s why you’re here.”
It’s tempting—and often far more comfortable—to hold onto a static faith, a faith that provides easy answers. And yet ultimately, when confronted by life’s uncertainties and struggles, such a faith offers precious little to sustain us through those difficult times. In truth, a faith that does not impel us to stretch and to grow is no faith at all. Faith is a verb, a process and not a static reality.
You don’t need to be a seminary student to find yourself dissatisfied with simplistic answers and with an unquestioning faith. Many of us gathered in today’s worshiping community have faced unsolicited events in our lives that have shaken us, sometimes to the core. A crippling illness attacking your life, or that of a loved one; the disillusionment and despair that accompany a broken relationship or divorce; the loss of a job, often accompanied by a sense of having been betrayed by one’s employer, as well as a fear about making ends meet; the challenge of making a difficult decision that may impact the lives of others in both anticipated and unforeseen ways; an accident that forever alters how you see and experience life—these are only some of the experiences and events that can cause us to re-examine long-held beliefs and practices.