Agnosticism
is a word that has gained in popularity the last 50 years. It is not
the same thing as Atheism which denies the existence of God. Rather,
agnosticism simply claims to have no evidence one way or the other as
to the existence of God. The Agnostic is unknowing. There has been
nothing in his world of experience that either proves or disproves
the existence of God.
I
mention this because Paul begins our reading from 1 Corinthians
expressing the desire that he did not want them to be unknowing about
the Trinity’s actions towards the Hebrew people when they were
wandering in the wilderness between slavery in Egypt and arriving at
the Promised Land. Some people translate that word unknowing as
ignorant, which is inappropriate. The word is actually the word from
which we get agnostic. Paul does not want them left without evidence
either way of the Trinity and his steadfast love and faithfulness
while they themselves were going through the wilderness of disunity
in their fellowship. He did not want them to become functionally
agnostic.
Paul
uses this idea of unknowing quite a bit. Most strikingly he uses it
in Romans Chapter Ten where he explains why his fellow Jews were
rejecting their Messiah. He says it is because they are unknowing or
agnostic with respect to knowing the Trinity’s steadfast love and
faithfulness. The Jews of Paul’s day were a generation or so of
the Trinity’s children who had not experienced the steadfast love
and faithfulness of the Trinity. They had nothing real to base their
faith on and unfortunately did not look back to their story which
claims the Trinity’s abiding presence, love, and faithfulness.
They were functionally agnostic meaning they believed in the Trinity,
but had no proof either way of the Trinity’s existence. They were
trying to serve a God they no longer knew and, thus turned their
relationship to the Trinity into a religion centered on their own
faithfulness rather than the Trinity’s faithfulness to them. That
is why they couldn’t/wouldn’t see who Jesus is.
Many
churches today are filled with functional agnostics. We’ve been
taught to believe in God and things about God. Note that I have not
called God Trinity here for most Christians in Western Christianity
do not have a Trinitarian knowing of God but rather have a unitarian
conception of something we call God, an “in God we trust”. We
will serve this unitarian God dutifully usually through serving the
church because we believe serving the church is good people are
supposed to. But, with respect to having personally experienced the
Trinity's acting on our behalf according to his steadfast love and
faithfulness we are functionally agnostic. We have no personal proof
as to whether or not the Trinity is steadfastly loving and faithful
or present to and with us. Therefore, we wind up being Christians
who place our faith in our beliefs and dutifully serve those beliefs
which we institutionalize in the Church. Worse, some of us will
regard those who say that they have experienced the steadfast love
and faithfulness of the Trinity who is present to and with us as if
they were crazy. The worst cases wouldn’t know an act of the
Trinity in their lives if it bit them because they are too set in
their own beliefs and ways of doing their duty to allow themselves to
be open to the possibility that the Trinity would and does act in our
lives.
Whole
congregations also fall into functional agnosticism. We forget or
are just plain unknowing that the Trinity is acting in and through us
and in turn just do what we believe churches are supposed to do. We
do worship. We have Sunday School. We do fundraising. We help
charities, visit one another, and have potlucks. Yet, somewhere in
the mix of things we loose sight of what the Trinity is actually
doing in and through us. God the Trinity works to build community in
the Trinity’s own image by pouring his Holy Spirit into us that we
may love each other and the world outside as Christ Jesus has loved
each of us. The sure sign of functional agnosticism in a church is
that it winds up doing things for the sake of doing things rather
than taking the risk to build deeper relationships among itself and
with the surrounding community.
Paul
writes the Corinthians hoping to prevent them from falling into this
functional agnosticism. Their churches were being torn apart by
factions competing for control and the resulting disunity was causing
them to loose sight of their Christ-mindedness. In actuality, they
were slipping back into being just like all the other cult-like
charismatic religions in Corinth. So Paul reminds them of how the
Trinity provided for the Israelites in the wilderness. Together,
they followed the cloud and passed through the sea. Together, they
followed Moses, their leader. When, together, they hungered, the
Trinity fed them with manna and quail. When, together, they
thirsted, the Trinity gave them water from the rock. They had
provision everywhere they went because Christ, the Rock, was with
them.
Yet,
regardless of the mighty acts of the Trinity’s steadfast love and
faithfulness and even though the Trinity was personally present to
and with them, many of the Israelites fell into a most tragic form of
functional agnosticism by declaring that none of these mighty acts
were for sure the acts of the Trinity - the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. So they made an idol of an Egyptian god and rose up to
worship it with a feast that culminated in an orgy. They also put
the Trinity to the test, routinely complaining and wishing to be back
in Egypt where the food was better. Most strikingly, because of fear
they refused to enter the Promised Land the first time they came to
it. So, along the way the Trinity struck many of them down and
prolonged their time in the wilderness. Like the Israelites, the
Corinthians were in the wilderness of disunity having to learn faith.
In
the wilderness the Trinity teaches us to rely on his steadfast love
and faithfulness by letting us hunger and thirst for Christ so that
he may provide what we really need and prove his love and
faithfulness. The wilderness keeps us from becoming functionally
agnostic. In the wilderness we can find ourselves tempted to carry
on like the ancient Israelites. We can and do create false gods out
of our perceived needs and serve them hoping that in so doing we will
satisfy our hunger and thirst for “in God we trust”. We will
test the Trinity telling him to prove himself in a particular way
making the bargain that if the Trinity does it, we will believe. We
complain at the Trinity because life in the wilderness isn’t as
fulfilling as doing our own thing was. We complain about what the
Trinity provides us with thinking it doesn’t really meet what we
believe our needs to be.
Yet,
the Trinity provides us with exactly what we need. Learning faith is
learning that the Trinity can and does satisfy our thirst to have
faith. The Trinity leads us into the wilderness of trials that are
common to life, very painful trials where the test is to trust the
Trinity and let him show us his living and healing way out. As
Isaiah said, “God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and our ways
are not God’s ways.” When we find ourselves wandering in the
wilderness thirsty for faith, we just have to trust the Trinity is
doing something for our good. Truly, when the Trinity speaks his
word it accomplishes its purpose. Everything that happens in our
lives good and bad is the Trinity working to establish our faith and
to make us more Christ-like. When we come to the end of our time in
the wilderness, and it does end, we truly do find that the Trinity
has brought forth a new peace and joy in us that satisfies our
thirsting. Somehow he speaks and things happen that teach us his
love and faithfulness and we can’t help but draw closer to him in
faith.
So,
my friends, when in the wilderness seek the Lord because it is there
in the wilderness that he certainly can be found. Pray, read
scripture, spend time with Christian friends, share your trials and
most importantly avoid doing anything that you now is just an effort
to meet what you perceive to be your needs. the Trinity is working
way deeper in you than you can understand. Friends, if you are in
the wilderness, seek the Lord for in the wilderness he can especially
be found. Amen.
