Before reading this, you might want to read Part 1. Otherwise, enjoy the dialogue and feel free to join in.
Hannah:
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. Heb 11:1 God never intended for us to follow blind faith, or to believe just because someone says so, or even to sit around and speculate about who God might be. Faith is something that comes from having a relationship with God and faith grows as a result of growing closer to Him. When I say I have faith in Nate, that is built on a relationship of trust. I have the substance of knowing who he is, and the evidence of seeing what he’s done.
Jason:
I believe it isn’t as much a matter of having faith vs. not having faith, but a matter of what kind of faith one has. In other words, during Jesus’ day faith in Caesar or Rome was not faith in Christ the Messiah. Everyone has faith. It may not be religious faith (or Christian faith), but it is faith nonetheless. In that respect, most folks (Christians included) mainly struggle with idolatry.
One only truly comes alive (and has any idea what eternal life means) within Christ’s community of disciples. Being born again is more an experience or series of true events than ideas or rationalizations about creeds.
Church, I believe, is that radical group of people who trust God’s story so wholly that they are willing to order their lives after his Way. The world, then, has a prophetic (and often ethically challenging) picture of the kind of social-political reality Jesus believed the kingdom of the heavens to be. His body, the church, is the focus of salvation. I just reread John 3: 17-21. That’s a good passage, perhaps, to help us understand this issue. Maybe next time we can discuss what it means.
The information about who Jesus is may (or may not) be clear to some (like, for example, the disciples), but the living witness of His trustworthiness will have a stronger root (and effect) if the Lord of everything gives it breath and tends the planting. It’s very tempting for us to pursue knowledge (which puffs up) over embodiment and grace-filled reconciliation. God’s salvation lived out in a visible, social and political body deepens our resistance to evil and gives us creativity for the eternal kind of life with God and his body now in this life, in this town, in this neighborhood, in this called-out people named church (and Naked Faith).
May 29th, 2009 at 2:36 am
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May 30th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
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June 1st, 2009 at 7:38 am
Does anyone know how to PREVENT these spammer friends of mine from making totally UNNECESSARY comments on nearly ALL my most popular posts? (Ok…since I set up this frankly dumb joke, I guess I should finish the last line.) “Patrick”–or so goes the computer who generates his automated comments–seems to be following along, but I know better. HAHAHAHA. Badump-chi (that’s supposed to be the sound of the drum roll after a bad joke!)
For real, does anyone know how to get rid of spammers?
June 1st, 2009 at 9:46 am
So, I think I’m hearing that I failed the Turing Test?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test
I hate it when that happens.
June 1st, 2009 at 1:58 pm
“a human judge engages in a natural language conversation with one human and one machine, each of which tries to appear human.” Have you been trying to “appear human,” Patrick? What a very clever test they devised!
June 1st, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Yes, I try to appear human. It is not common knowledge, but I am actually an artificial contstruct composed of a Nutella and banana sandwich and a stack of 5 1/4 inch floppy disks found in an abandoned school building.
That Turing fellow has definitely complicated my quest to be perceived as sentient.
June 1st, 2009 at 8:35 pm
I love how you and I seem to be working on probably the longest comment thread in my blogging history! And it has nothing to do with the post! (Or does it…?)
Anyway, let’s see how long we can take it…
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:08 am
We, the SmorgasBORG, are happy to comply with your wishes.
Our collective would have responded earlier but our construct was corrupted by the inclusion of some penicillian mold, as the bread in the sandwich is growing old. The good news is that this does preclude the possibility of many bacterial infections.
June 5th, 2009 at 8:19 am
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June 6th, 2009 at 5:20 am
We, the SmorgasBORG, are not pleased that our great nemesis Casino 1243354252 has warranted a formal response, whereas our vulnerable self disclosure on the debilitating effects of food spoilage on our artificial intelligence has gone unacknowledged.
You will be assimilated. A statement of faith will be sent to your home. You must surrender your theological distinctives and sign it, in triplicate, with a witness, immediately.
July 13th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
It’s been a while, SmorgasBORG, nothing else to say? I mean, if we got clever enough, maybe we could eventually talk about the actual content of the post. I know that would make Casino (I’m not going to write his last name) more than a little jealous, though. Damn it, Casino!! You’re such a fragile personality. Anyway, I’m up for it. What do you say?