ENGAGING OR DISENGAGING FAITH?

 I love going up to the continental divide, the backbone of North America where the continent is split into two great watersheds.  My favorite place on the CD is Cottonwood Pass about 15 miles west of Buena Vista.  At 12,000 feet the air is always cool and crisp, the sky blue and vast, the wind blows, and the view is breathtaking. 

I believe what attracts me is that I can disengage from the world below.  There are no demands made; no expectations to fulfill; no conflicts to settle; no problems to resolve; no complications to sort out.  However, the reality of it is that the continental divide is not a place to live, but a place to enjoy and a place from which to come down.

It wasn’t the CD, but Jesus went up on a mountain, taking a few disciples with him.  Something mysterious and mystical happened to Jesus on the mountain called the Transfiguration.  His clothes became dazzling white and Moses and Elijah appeared.  Whatever happened, there were two very distinct responses:  Peter’s response and Jesus’ response.   

Peter’s response was the human response; the response of us all.  Peter wanted to cling to the experience and make it permanent and stay in it by starting a construction project.  “Let’s build three dwellings, one for you (Lord), one for Moses and one for Elijah.”    

I have always felt that what Peter thought was happening was that Jesus was about to fulfill the popular messianic expectation that he would be a military/political messiah who would lead a rebellion against the Roman oppressors.  Through Jesus the messiah, the enemies of God would be crushed and annihilated. Peter must have thought that moment had arrived and Jesus would begin his campaign, and from this mountain coordinate the campaign.   

Peter’s big plans were stopped dead by a blinding cloud of light and a booming voice that more or less said, "Peter, shut up and listen!”

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ; this is such an important passage for two kinds of faith are represented in this story: the faith of Jesus and the faith of the Peter.  The question for us is, “Which of the two most closely resembles your faith?”

Like the CD is a place for me to disengage, Peter saw an opportunity to disengage – permanently!  But for Jesus the experience was something altogether different.  For Jesus the mountain was not a place to take up residence, but a place from which to come down.

Before they knew it the disciples were stumbling down the mountain behind Jesus headed for the valley below; where demons dwell, people were sick and hungry; hatred of a million different colors ruled people's hearts; where the power of God can be terribly obscured by so much pain, confusion, disorder and conflict; where even the Son of God was finally hung up to die like a slab of meat.

Like the CD separates east and west, this passage separates two kinds of faith: the disengaging faith of Peter; and the engaging faith of Jesus. One is authentic and one is a sham and we would do well to take an inventory to see which our faith resembles. 

Disengaging Faith often takes the shape of easy, clichéd answers and quick judgments. It's a faith that spouts off simplistic Christian platitudes.  I can come to all sorts of conclusions about people while sitting on the CD. It's easy because I don't have to look a real person in the eye. I can put them in a category. From the CD I don't have to sit with someone and hear their story, their struggle, their pain, their pathos. I don't have to touch their sores or wipe away their tears or hold their hand.  Disengaging Faith doesn't dare get too personal, especially with those who are different because if it did, disengaging faith fears it might have to change its mind.

Disengaging Faith often takes the shape of leaving no room for doubt. Philip Yancey, Christian author who writes for the periodical Christianity Today, was asked by the magazine to sign their statement of faith which included the words "without doubt or equivocation." Yancey replied, "I cannot even sign my own name without doubt or equivocation." Disengaging Faith leaves no room for doubt.

- Disengaging Faith avoids taking any kind of risk, and the value of staying safe is one of the highest values of this kind of faith. 

It is no wonder God’s voice silenced Peter and Jesus dragged them off the mountain for he knew  they would fall victim to the subtle snares of Disengaging Faith.

But Engaging Faith is something altogether different. Jesus wasn't in the business of giving easy answers. In fact, much of the time his answers were perplexing and difficult. Often his answers came wrapped in the package of paradox and mystery:  "The first shall be last."   "You find your life by losing it."  "Love your enemies."  "He who serves is the greatest."  "Sell all you have and give it to the poor." "If you are going to follow me, then take up your cross."

Jesus came off the mountain like an avalanche and entered the lives of real people in a broken world.  He enjoyed the company of sinners; touched the untouchables and included outcasts at his table. He hardly seemed like someone who invested in easy answers and clichéd responses. Behind each set of eyes into which he looked he saw a unique child of God, even and especially those that the religious community of his day had discounted and dehumanized. He didn't comfort people with cheap, shallow answers.

Engaging Faith isn't threatened by doubt, but allows tough questions to be asked.  We live in a world where babies are born with diseases and defects; a world where poverty, ignorance and injustice do not go away; where marriage problems don't get solved; where kids in affluent suburbs shoot their classmates; where parents kill their own children; where racism and religious persecution abound, and where people commit unthinkable acts of terror. Doubt! Of course we are going to doubt!   Emily Dickinson said, "We both believe and disbelieve a hundred times an hour which keeps believing nimble." Another theologian said, “Doubt is the ants in the pants of faith.”

Engaging Faith knows about the value and importance of risking for Christ.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer talked about Costly Grace and Cheap Grace.  He knew the difference as he was hung by the Nazis in 1944 for his Christian-faith-based-resistance to the Nazi movement.  His point was that any faith that does not risk for the sake of Jesus Christ is a faith based on cheap grace, not on the costly grace of Jesus’ cross.

Engaging Faith is very hesitant to condemn and judge. Jesus asked, "Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?" The person of Engaging Faith looks inside self and sees two things: a child of God created for relationship with God; and the beast that lives within us all.

One pastor put it this way. A person should carry two stones in their pocket. On one should be inscribed, "I am but dust and ashes." On the other it should read, "I am a child of God."   Martin Luther taught that a Christian is "simil eustis et peccator" saint and sinner simultaneously.  A person of Engaging Faith lives within that paradox, within that dynamic tension.

Don't get me wrong, we need to spend some time on our personal, spiritual Continental Divides and mountaintops.  We need those moments where we are sure, almost without doubt; those moments when everything makes sense and life seems to be working out the way it should; those moments when God feels close and we can almost feel the Lord's arm around our shoulder. But we must never forget that Jesus didn't go up there to stay, he went up there to pray!   He went up there to refocus on his mission – and then he came down; came down with the resolve and courage he needed to get on with his mission - a mission upon which he carried love to the deepest and darkest places of life – even to a cross to die for your sins and mine – so our sins could be forgiven.

It's Transfiguration Sunday and here we are again with Jesus on the CD of two faith expressions.  What are you going to do?  What kind of faith will be manifested in your life?  Are you going to attempt to stay upon some mountain and cling to a disengaging faith?  Or are you going to risk it and follow Jesus down with an engaging faith?   May God give us the courage and the strength!  Amen.