Sermon by Rev. Wayne Irwin
April 29, 2007

Scripture Reading 1 Peter 1:20-25

Magazine cartoon.

Depicting two persons working side-by-side.

Says the one to the other:

“I used to be an atheist . . .

until I discovered that atheists . . .

don’t have any holidays.”

Meant to be a chuckle

 . . . at the expense of atheists.

Presumably a chuckle for theists.

A chuckle at the expense

of people who do not believe in God,

or who refuse to believe in God,

Presumably meant to be enjoyed

by people who do believe in God.

But all of it betraying the temptation,

for people like us who do believe in God . . .

all of it betraying the temptation . . .

for us also to believe

that because we believe in God,

we are therefore . . . better people.

‘It ain’t necessarily so!

And certainly, because of Jesus,

we ought to know

that God’s love has nothing to do

with whether we be theists or atheists.

Noted mythologist Joseph Campbell:

Says he: “The only real difference

between atheists and theists . . .

is in their description . . . of their God.”

Even atheists have a conceptualization of God.

An idea of God that they reject.

And we, who are believers in God,

we have an idea of God that we accept.

And we who are Christian believers in God,

are actually more . . . than theists.

Because we have a special idea of God

that depends on our understanding of Jesus.

In fact, we who are Christian believers in God

are much more than simply

believers in the existence of God.

By choosing to be Christian,

by choosing to be of those

who, as we put it, “walk with Jesus,”

we show ourselves

to be believers

who have also chosen

to be in relationship with God.

Or at the very least

in hope of relationship with God.

Obviously there is a difference.

Between just believing in God,

and being in relationship with God.

In his book entitled ‘Miracles,’

the Irish author and scholar, C.S.Lewis

uses a word picture about shellfish

to illustrate why he thinks so many people

find it difficult

to have any relationship with God.

In Lewis’ analogy,

this particular shellfish

experiences the presence of a human being,

and attempts to report to other shellfish

what has been seen.

In doing so, the shellfish, of course,

describes the experience using shellfish concepts,

and thus presents a description

that in shellfish terms, is basically negative.

The report states, for example,

that the human has no shell.

That the human is not attached to a rock.

That the human is not surrounded by water.

And since each of these conditions

is essential for life for a shellfish,

the report states that the human

must be a sort of amorphous jelly,

existing in a dimensionless void.

And since for the shellfish

the water is what drifts food into reach,

then the human must never take nourishment.

And even if the shellfish believes

that the human exists,

it has no hope of developing any relationship

Lewis argues that a person

can believe or not believe in any kind of god,

but that a person cannot have relationship

with just any kind of god,

nor, therefore, confidence . . . in just any god.

I remember the first time I saw Queen Elizabeth.

She was still the Princess.

The year was 1951.

Travelling in place of her ailing father.

She passed through the railway station

at the west end of Dundas, with Prince Philip,

waving to the assembled crowd

from her viewing place at the back of the train.

I was seven years old,

and I had been putting together a scrapbook

of pictures from the newspaper

of her visit in Canada thus far.

But now, having seen her in person,

it became easy for me after that

to say to myself and to others

“I believe that Princess Elizabeth really exists,

because I have seen her.”

She was no longer just a picture

on the front page of a newspaper.

She existed as a person.

And I believed in her existence.

But I had no relationship with her.

And no expectation of one.

Nor with her son, little Prince Charles.

We in the church are persons

who believe that God exists.

But we also are persons

who are in some sort of relationship with God,

some sort of conscious relationship, that is,

or who are inclined to establish one,

or who expect to begin one,

and who are intentional about doing so.

But it takes good relationship

to inspire confidence.

And just believing in God inspires nothing.

So there we find a major difference

between us Christians

and those who are atheists,

between us Christians

and those who are simply theists,

who are simply believers

in the existence of God. . . . Relationship.

And subsequent confidence.

Now for a twist. . .

I happen to be a Christian

who believes that God does not exist!

But I’m not an atheist.  How can that be?

Well, I’m speaking of the aspect of God

that we traditionally name

as ‘the Father,’ or the Creator.’

We Christians speak of God

using a Trinitarian formula.

It’s one of our ways of distinguishing

our God from other gods,

the God revealed in Jesus.

We say, “God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

Well, I happen to believe that the ‘Father’

in that triumvirate

does not exist.

Rather I believe that the ‘Father’

actually does something else.

Something that is above existence.

Beyond existence.

And before existence.

After all, existence is what ‘the Father’ created.

So God, the Father, does,

whatever ‘the Father’ was doing

before manifesting within creation as the Son,

by means of the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

So, I believe that only an aspect of God

entered into creation . . . into existence. . .

the aspect we traditionally name as ‘ the Son,’

or ‘the Christ.’

That, I believe, is the aspect of God that exists.

The aspect incarnate in Jesus.

The aspect incarnate in each of us.

The aspect of God that exists within creation.

Empowered within Jesus,

and empowered within us, and within creation,

by the third aspect of God that exists –

what we name with the name, ‘the Holy Spirit.’

The Son and the Spirit can be experienced

within existence.

The Father, the Creator, the Initiator, cannot.

Now that’s what I believe.

After a lifetime of reflection.

What you believe is probably a bit different.

Doesn’t matter.

What’s interesting, though, to me,

and perhaps to you,

is that the initiating aspect of God,

which is traditionally conceptualized as male,

as the “planter of the seed,” as the ‘Father,’

is surely like unto the Hindu concept

of Brahma,

the senior member

of the triad of great Hindu gods.

Brahma, in the Hindu belief system,

as in that of the Buddha,

is also above and beyond existence,

beyond contact by mere mortals

and beyond relationship.

So, whatever our religion, or our lack of it,

we all have ideas . . . and concepts . . .

and theologies, and philosophies . . .

that we either accept,

or that we refuse to accept.

And they inform our responses

to the experiences of our lives.

June Callwood, Saint June,

as she was dubbed by The Globe and Mail,

in her last interview on the CBC

was asked if she believed in God.

“No,” she said.  “But I believe in Kindness.”

Well, what’s the difference?

The English word ‘God’

is only a corruption of the word “Goodness.”

If you believe in Kindness,

odds are you believe in Goodness.

A person is only an atheist

in terms of the conventional concepts of God,

in terms of the conventional ways we have

of describing the indescribable.

And regardless of what we accept

or refuse to accept,

all of us are confronted, nevertheless,

by the Mystery,

by the Unfathomable Mystery of Life itself,

and of Love,

by the Mystery of Beauty.

The Mystery of Music.

The Mystery of Humour.  And Kindness.

All of us, be we theist or atheist,

are confronted

by the Unfathomable Unknown

whether we believe in traditional concepts

or whether we don’t.

But it is those of us who make the choice

to enter into relationship

with that Mystery,

who make the choice to embark

upon that adventure,

who discover that it is actually possible.

And those of us who do so,

who do it by prayer and by practice,

by talking with Jesus,

by walking with Jesus,

by being a friend to Jesus

     and to those whom Jesus loves,

we are the ones

who find ourselves thereby enabled

to enter into relationship with Jesus’ family,

     to come to know the truth about God

and to consequently become able

     to live our lives with confidence in God.

And our text today, the 21^st verse

in the First Letter of Peter,

declares this to be the case

for followers of the so-called ‘Way of Jesus.’

The writer, in the name of Peter,

says to the readers . . . says to us:

     “Through Christ . . .

     you [now] believe in God . . .

     who raised Christ from death,

     and gave him glory,

     so that your faith and hope

     would become . . set on God.”

The New Revised Standard Version puts it:

     “Through Christ . . .

     you have now come to trust in God.”

Peter’s Letter is telling us

that it is the aspect of God within existence,

namely the Son, namely the Christ,

who enables us to come into relationship

with the aspect of God that is beyond existence,

with the Supreme aspect of the Godhead.

And so it is Christ, the Cosmic Christ,

who enables our confidence

in the love and the purposes

of the Great Intention that initiated all that is.

And this is accomplished by means of

what is called “the Leap of Faith.”

Our confidence in God is enabled

by our leap of faith,

by our intentional putting of our trust

into living our lives

in the same Spirit that empowered Jesus,

and in discovering, as did Jesus,

that in the face of all evidence to the contrary, God is able to accomplish

whatever God intends to accomplish.

And God is the only One

who can be utterly trusted.

That’s the whole symbolism

of the Crucifixion

and the Resurrection.

No matter what happens, God can deal with it.

And the leap of faith

is actually the leap we take

when we come to the limit

of what we humanly know and understand.

It is the leap we take

from the precipice of our knowledge

into what we believe to be

the Friendly Mystery of what is Unknowable.

And our confidence is born

when we stand on that promontory, as it were,

and leaning past the point of no return

leap into that abyss,

discovering that somehow we are enfolded

and kept safe

and lifted up

and set down somewhere

upon firm ground.

And as for those who, today, say

they do not believe in God,

G.K. Chesteron,

the influential 20^th century English writer

has this to say . . . to them:

“When you stop believing in God

you do not then simply begin

believing in nothing.

Rather, you then begin

believing in anything,

and in everything.

You divide up your loyalty.

And you fix some of your faith

on your finances.

You fix some other of your faith

on your friends.

“And your fix the rest of your faith

on your own personal strengths,

on your wits, and on your wiles.

But experience teaches (Chesterton says)

that none of these things

can ultimately inspire . . . absolute confidence.”

Friends, we are the living organism

that is Centenary Church 2007.

We are a faith community

committed to walking in the way of Jesus.

We are presently asking many questions

about our future.

So, it behoves us to remember

what we are . . . why we are . . .

where we are . . . when we are . . .

who we are . . . and whose we are,

and whose ministry it is in which we share.

With all of the cultural and religious conflict

across the world.

With the lack of understanding of each other.

With all the talk of climate change,

its threat and our future because of it,

with all the controversy over who’s responsible,

we who have confidence in God

can actually rest easy.

Because we know this is God’s world,

not ours.

And that the future of this world

is in God’s hands, not ours.

That we are privileged with the responsibility

to care for this world

and have dominion over it.

But that ultimately

what God wants is what God will get.

And because of Jesus,

we are a faith community

that will maintain confidence in God.

Hymn Writer Maltbie Babcock’s words

from the hymn we’ll sing to close our service:

This is God's wondrous world:

     O let me ne'er forget

          that though the wrong

          seems oft so strong,

          God is the ruler yet.

This is God's wondrous world:

     why should my heart be sad?

Let voices sing, let the heavens ring:

     God reigns, let earth be glad!

Keep your confidence in God!         Amen.