An Argument for Faith

One of my favorite stories about faith was told by one of my pastors in a sermon years ago.  The story goes that a man was on a mountain hike, alone, when he took a misstep and slipped over the edge of a steep cliff.  The only thing that saved him from a free fall to the bottom of the canyon below was a small tree growing on the side of the rocks.  He was able to grab a branch on his way down and held on.  That branch, flimsy as it was, became the only thing between him and certain death.  He was terrified and began to pray as he'd never prayed before:  God, help me!  I haven't lived the best life, but I'm not ready to die!
Suddenly, from above came a voice, clear and loud:  Don't be afraid.  I will take care of you.  The man looked up but saw no one.  He started to have a conversation with the voice.
Who are you?  Where are you?  I don't see you!
I am God.  I can save you from your predicament.  Just have faith that I will.
But I can't see you!  I'm scared and don't know what to do!  I don't know how long my strength can hold out!
I love you.  I won't let you fall.
But...but...how do I know that?  How do I know that you are real and not just a figment of my imagination? How can I be sure that you truly are God?
Simple, the voice answered.  Let go of the branch.

The story ended there.  The congregation sat stunned for a second or two as the meaning sank in.  I'm quite certain that every listener asked him/herself, as I did, if he/she would have the faith to let go of that branch in the sheer certainty that God would provide.  The story had all of the elements of real life: we find ourselves in a pickle; we know our human limitations and have no idea how to resolve the problem; we beg God to get us out of it; then we doubt Him.  It's a Catch-22, of sorts.  'Tis one thing to say we believe and have faith but quite another to live it.  Even Dr. Phil says, "If you're in a sinking boat, pray to God but row for the shore!"  That implies that there should be a partnership with God in our lives.  It is just so...so...unhuman...to give up all attempts at control.  Perhaps we feel that we have more power than we really do.  Or perhaps we comprehend that we are flawed and have no control at all.  Whatever the circumstance, it is often true that we don't turn to faith until we get in trouble...and then we doubt if even faith can help.

If you pick the cliff story apart, it's easy to see that the man's biggest concern was fear.  He was afraid of dying.  He was called upon to believe in something he couldn't see and lacked hope of saving his own life.  I maintain that, when we strip away all of the layers of our own existence and get down to basics, it is fear that is at the root of everything we say and do.

Almost every year that I taught literature in high school, there would be biblical references in what we read that I felt I needed to explain, along with the historical backgrounds that were the framework of society's collective mind when the classic pieces were written.  (Like it or not, both American and British literature have beginnings in religious and political philosophies that modern students may not know.)  Chaucer's Canterbury Tales makes so much more sense when the reader understands what a pilgrimage is and why all of the characters were making a pilgrimage to Canterbury for "the holy, blissful martyr" (Thomas a Becket) to bless them.  In the course of my explanations and quoting from the Bible to explain biblical references, a student would ask, "Why do we have religion, anyway?"  (This is as common as a young child asking, "Where did I come from?"  Every year, classes would also ask, "Who determines what is a 'bad word?"  "Why couldn't Shakespeare write in English that we can understand?")  And so, armed with experience with the question, I spent about 15 minutes of one class per year giving my explanation of why we have religion.

So why do we have religion?  My explanation:
Religion is the fabrication of man, and it goes back to the primitive mind--the very beginnings of human civilization--when man was trying to explain the mysteries around him--the stars, the seasons, where he came from, his reason for being, and what would happen to him after he died.  Gods were created.  Gods of fire, of the sun, of the earth, of fertility, of the crops and the animals.  If man was humble before these gods, he thought things would go better in terms of his survival.  He felt that sacrificing some of the best of what he had would keep the good gods happy and the bad gods away.

And with that, came rules.  If I do everything right in order to keep the gods happy, but my neighbor messes up, that hurts all of us, so we will have rules for people to follow to keep us in good standing with whatever gods there are. What is right?  What is wrong?  What is expected of me in order to remain in the society of my tribe/family/community, etc?  Eat this.  Don't eat that.  Taboos were established and punishments for breaking them established, as well.  Rewards for being faithful to the rules were also set up...and one of  those came by way of thwarting man's biggest fear: death.

Then, somewhere out of the mish-mash of cultural myths about the creation of man and the universe ("Where did I come from?") came the Jewish tradition of one God above all, complete with Moses and the Ten Commandments.  God was to be praised and obeyed--and feared.  Mess up and He will smite you down just as surely as you will die when your time comes.  What hope can there be in that? (This is usually where my classroom explanation stopped, but skip to later paragraphs.)

And then came Jesus, the self-acclaimed Son of God, the ultimate sacrifice to God to atone for all human sins.  The catch?  You have to believe that He can and will do it for it to work.  If you believe, you will "live" after you die.  Eternal life.  Hope that this world isn't all we have to look forward to. According to New Testament scripture,  Jesus was born of a virgin, turned water into wine, fed a huge crowd with a few loaves of bread and five fishes, walked on water, healed the sick, raised the dead, forgave sinners, and predicted his own demise.  And all that we who profess to follow Him have to do is believe all of that.  

And there, my friends, is where my heart and my brain separate.  As a fairly intelligent human being, it pains me to ask people to believe the unbelievable...which is why I don't ask them to.  I can't explain to anyone why I am a Christian...why I believe in what must seem like hokum to some...yet I am not alone.  Millions believe as I do.  Why?  Because believing in less is devastating!  Jesus preached love and forgiveness, no matter if his miracles are believable or not.  Living in fear of the retribution of God is guilt-inducing (but apparently not strong enough to change the behavior of those who would do us ill).  We humans know we are weak, just like children in need of parents to steer them in the right direction and protect them from bad things.  Yet we rebel.  If I am in charge of my own life and what happens to me, I am defeated.  Better to believe in a power above my own.  Better to trust in something or someone ultimately stronger than I that has a finger on the pulse of eternity.  My little life means nothing otherwise.

I have a HUGE problem with people who thump their Bibles as authority for discriminating against others...and most of these are folks who claim to be Christians, as I am.  I'm ashamed that they pick Old Testament rules to judge others while supposedly living in New Testament grace.  It doesn't work.  One of my sensibilities that is offended by this is the notion that Almighty God (note the "almighty" part) needs us to support Him.  Huh?  What makes any human being on the planet believe that the Creator of the Universe needs one single mortal to justify Him?  What OTHER excuses do we need to behave badly in society?  I'm shaking my head...   The whole Kim Davis thing--the county clerk in Kentucky who was jailed for contempt of court because she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples--leaves me cold.  And the backlash isn't over.  Today's American society is so polarized that we have forgotten the message of 9/11.  I'm sad for all of us.  It isn't anywhere close to being over.

Faith is believing in something we cannot see.  Faith is believing that the sun will come up in the morning...that our parents will be there for us...that the spring will follow the winter. Faith is having hope that there is something in the world stronger than we are to dig us out of our problems...to forgive us for being mortal and stupid... to give us answers to the mysteries of life.  It isn't about right or wrong.

I have a dear friend who is atheistic.  He believes that when we die, we are "worm food".  He might be right, but like the fellow holding onto the branch on the cliff, I don't want to find out.  It gives me peace in this life to believe in something beyond my flawed human strength.  What do the seniors in life have to look forward to if we believe as he does?  Decline and death.  Not very uplifting!

I guess I am at a crossroads here, thinking that Mahatma Ghandi spoke a truth when he said:

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”   I'm trying to maintain my faith when so many things in modern society shake it.  All I have ever relayed to my students and anyone else who would listen is that it is necessary in the human existence to believe in something larger than self.  May everyone find something to believe in!