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One of my all-time favourite movies is The Princess Bride. There’s a character in it named Vizzini who overused the word “inconceivable”. He used it so much that another one of the characters, Inigo Montoya (himself known for saying, “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”) had to make the accusation, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” Sometimes we can use a word and use a word and use a word so much that in time we forget what the word actually means and instead it means what we want it to mean. For Vizzini, he thought of himself as a very brilliant strategist who could best anyone in a game of wits. If he made a plan and something happened that wasn’t in the plan, then it was inconceivable; meaning if he did not think of it, then it could not be thought of. That’s not exactly what the word means.
We Christians also have a word that we use a lot about which we could and should receive the same accusation. We use it so much that it has taken on a meaning to us that is different than what it would have meant to the Biblical writers. The word is faith. We use it so much that maybe we have to accept the fact that we don’t now what it actually means or should I say what it meant to the writers of the Bible.
We tend to think of faith as believing certain things or putting our trust in something. We believe there is a God meaning we have faith there is a good. We have beliefs about God that differ from the beliefs that people of other “faiths” have. We trust that God loves us and will provide for us. When bad things happen, we have faith that God has his reasons and we trust he’ll work good from it. Here at Easter, we profess that we believe God raised Jesus from the dead and that is a historical fact and that that event is crucial to our faith. There are various different meanings there for one word.
The meaning of words change over time and this has certainly happened with the word faith. Today we think of faith as being emotional trust in something or cognitive ascent to beliefs or realities that can’t be objectively measured or established by fact. It’s also the opposite of doubt. Centuries ago, fidelity or faithfulness would have been the primary way of understanding the meaning of the word faith. Let me walk us through that.
In the last fifteen or so years in the world of New Testament studies there has been a number of people doing historical language work on what the word we translate as “faith” means. If you’re wondering, the noun form is pistis and the verb is pisteuo. These scholars have taken the time to do the very tedious work of finding just about every known occurrence of it we have from the first couple of centuries of the church in both the writings of the church and from general culture. They found that the word wasn’t used very much to mean belief, beliefs, or trust the way we use it.
These scholars found that the word applied to how one behaved in a relationship and that our words loyalty or allegiance are better words to use to describe what faith is in the Bible. Faith primarily means being faithful rather than just believing and trusting. Faith is what soldiers do when they serve their countries and follow the chain of command. Faith is what civil servants do when they serve the country and its citizens. And my favourite, faith is how the relationship works between thugs and their crime boss.
Faith isn’t just believing in the existence of things you can’t see. Faith is participation in a relationship to which we are committed whether it be with God or with spouse or with parents or friends or an employer. Faith isn’t like our simply saying I believe I have a job. Faith is that I have a job and therefore I will be loyal in my obligation to my employer. Faith isn’t simply believing I have a wife. Faith is that I have a wife and I will be loyal to her.
Well, when you look at the New Testament and ask what did its writers mean by faith, you find that faith isn’t just believing stuff or trusting. The best way I can sum it up is to say that faith is our participation in the sphere of reality in which God is making his promises come about. Faith is our participation in the sphere of reality where God has called a people to himself through whom he is and will work out his purposes for his creation. Faith isn’t just believing there is a god or simply trusting, it is actually participating in what God is doing in this world.
We like to think that faith is how we get saved (Believe this about Jesus and go to heaven). Faith is not how we get saved. Faith is our participation in the salvation that God has brought about in, through, and as Jesus Christ in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit; the salvation that God Big Banged into real history by raising Jesus from the dead. Faith is our participation now in the New Creation that God sparked into being by and as the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead; the New Creation that he will bring to its fruition when Jesus returns and this Old Creation will be changed to be “full of the knowing of God as the waters cover the sea” (Is. 11:9).
It says here in 1 Peter 1:3, “God in his great mercy has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Crist from the dead.” Faith is our living now that new life that is marked by a living hope – not a wishful thinking hope, but a living hope - as God himself has stepped into our lives and marked us with the presence of his very self, the Holy Spirit, so that we now want to live for him as followers of Jesus Christ. Faith is that we find ourselves having an inexplicable allegiance or loyalty to Jesus and desire to live for him and live like him. In a world where there are competing loyalties and lifestyles, we choose Jesus and his way.
Faith isn’t just that we believe God raised Jesus from the dead as a historical fact or something. Faith is that we are participating in that reality, the real course of historical events, that have ensued since Jesus lived, died, and was raised. Faith is allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ and loyal participation in his kingdom reign being manifest now in us as we live as hope-filled people who are prayerful, compassionate, and gracious. Faith is maintaining the prayer relationship with God. Giving God time and space for communication. Faith is loving unconditionally, unselfishly, and sacrificially. Faith is showing extravagant hospitality and generosity. Faith is love of those who would be our enemies. Faith is seeking peace and reconciliation. Faith is being restorative rather than retributive when it’s a matter of justice. Faith is participating in the sphere of reality in which God is healing this hurting world. Amen.
