Emphasizing Behavior Over Belief
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
March 20, 2022
Good morning, Friends and welcome to Light Reflections. Today, I am giving the fourth sermon in the series “To Be Thriving and Progressive Quakers in 2022.” Our scripture text for this morning is a familiar couple of verses – often referred to as the “Fruit of the Spirit” from Galatians 5:22-23
22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.
As I have said on many occasions, I was not raised a Quaker. When I was going through the age of accountability (12-14 years old) I had lots of questions and thought I was receiving lots of answers. One of the debates we had, that really made me wrestle, was the idea of “faith without works is dead.” I had been told so many times to not rely on my works - for my works would not “save me” – that I kind of threw them in the theological garbage can.
The great reformer, Martin Luther, even had issues with the term “faith without works is dead” that he decided to tear out the book of James from his Bible.
Faith and works were to be a tight rope balance, but over time it has lost that balance in many religious circles. Faith was to inform our behaviors and actions.
Instead, it has almost become two separate categories that do not co-mingle. This change has been evidenced in the stark difference in Christian’s responses to the Bill Clinton Scandals of the 90s and the most recent Donald Trump Scandals. But let’s not get into politics.
To be a thriving a progressive Quaker Meeting in 2022, I believe we might need to lean a bit more heavily on our behaviors and actions to help get us back to, what I like to call, “the center of Truth.”
To help us explore these ideas this morning, I want to start by giving us some helpful definitions – beginning with an important difference between belief and faith.
Alan Watts, a 20th century philosopher of Eastern religions described them this way,
“We must here make a clear distinction between belief and faith, because, in general practice, belief has come to mean a state of mind which is almost the opposite of faith.
Belief, as I use the word here is the insistence that the truth is what one would “lief” or wish it to be. The believer will open his mind to the truth on the condition that it fits in with his preconceived ideas and wishes.
Faith, on the other hand, is an unreserved opening of the mind to the truth, whatever it may turn out to be. Faith has no preconceptions; it is a plunge into the unknown.
Belief clings, but faith lets go. In this sense of the word, faith is the essential virtue of science, and likewise of any religion that is not self-deception.”
To give a better illustration of Watts thoughts about faith and beliefs, he summed it by saying,
“Faith is like looking at the sky through a clear or open window, with an openness to accepting it as it is: blue or gray, light or dark, starry or sunny, rainy or fair. But beliefs are like blue paint that people decide to apply to the window glass to be sure it will always be the color they wish it to be.”
I sense American Christianity is applying a lot of blue paint in the form of creeds, statements of faith, mission statements, dogmas, and doctrines.
And this is where I believe we as Quakers have work to do. I believe in 2022, we are being called to be “blue paint scrapers” – or people who wrestle with questions of faith while also helping others question what they have learned to accept as beliefs and allow them to see the sky for all it has to offer.
Let’s take a moment and reflect – I want to personally ask you some queries:
· How many of you have held a belief you wished was not true?
Maybe you were raised in a more conservative Christian background like I was. At a very young age, I had what I would call, “a crisis of belief” over people I loved possibly being tortured in hell for eternity.
· Or how many of you were taught that sex was dirty and shameful? And it has continued to affect your relationships still, today?
· Or how many of you have wrestled with a literal interpretation of scripture? One that went as far as to deny science?
Or maybe you have wrestled with these queries and know of people who are still stuck wrestling with them in their lives of faith.
I am sure if we took a real close look, we would find some beliefs we hold in Quakerism that we need to change or ultimately give up.
Some people may even push back and say, but wait, Quakers have what they call Testimonies (which some call S.P.I.C.E.S.). Aren’t those your beliefs.
Well, our testimonies are much different than beliefs, instead they are principles that we work to embody and live-up to in all aspects of our lives. Our testimonies effect our behaviors and actions and flow from our willingness and openness to the leadings of the Spirit in the present moment.
Instead of standing for “beliefs” that offer ways to circumvent death, escape sickness, stress, or poverty, or see our enemies get what we feel they deserve, Quakers center down and seek the Spirit’s leading to help us live a better life in and with our neighbors.
As Quakers we seek a simple life, a life of peace, full of integrity, based in community, acknowledging equality of all, and seeking ways to sustain our planet and each other. These take being aware of our behaviors and actions, not just what we believe.
I sense Brian McLaren would label our Testimonies as “Belief Agreements” which he says “helps us fractious human beings get on with surviving and thriving together.”
Do we all always live a simple life, peaceful, in community, full of integrity, equality and sustainability? No. Rather these testimonies are what we are to strive for to make the world a better place. What we believe about God and our neighbors should support our behaviors and actions.
I believe this is extremely important in the polaristic world we currently find ourselves in. Brian McLaren in the book “Faith and Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It” says,
In times of instability and change, many people become especially anxious. They need somewhere to belong. They feel nostalgic for the certainty, clarity, and belonging that authoritarian groups provide. These days, they quickly discover they don’t need to leave their homes and go to a church building or cult compound to gain the desired benefits of cult membership. From the convenience and comfort of their own homes, they can tune into mass and social media channels that will reinforce their group’s beliefs 24/7, creating the perfect self-reinforcing bubble of confirmation bias, blurring the line between being a free consumer of media and a willing victim of brainwashing. In these media bubbles, all windows show blue skies all the time…
The pandemic brought about a lot of instability and change and many people became extremely anxious and nostalgic in the way McLaren describes. Sadly many also mixed politics with faith which created an ugly monster who full-time is “painting windows blue.”
Again, this is why we need to turn to our behaviors and actions, and seek to have conversations with our fellow human beings. We need to present a whole new way of seeing and understanding faith and belief in this time.
If we take a moment and open up our bibles and look again with new eyes, we might gain fresh insights from Jesus, Mary, Paul, James, John, and the rest.
I love how Brian McLaren put it. Jesus never said, when asked what is the greatest commandment:
“You shall hold correct beliefs about the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: “You shall convert your neighbors who do not hold correct beliefs, and if they will not convert, you shall defeat them in a culture war.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.“
Instead, he said this:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
And there is the kicker. Love is the behavior. It is the action. It is the revolutionary part of faith. It is love beyond - a love that goes beyond myself to my neighbor, beyond the neighbor to the stranger, alien, other, outcast and outsider, beyond the outsider to the critic, antagonist, opponent, and enemy; and even beyond the human to my non-human fellow creatures.
In short it means Loving as God would love; infinitely, graciously, extravagantly and knowing the way we behave towards one another is the fullest expression of what we believe about God.
Instead of getting into trenches about our beliefs, maybe what the world needs right now is a people of faith who are willing to behave and act first out of God’s Love for the World.
A few years ago, I said in a sermon that I rarely use the descriptor “Christian” to describe myself anymore. Some people took offense at that statement. Quaker seems to be a better descriptor for me. Yet some days I am more Buddhist in my practice, or Jewish in my questioning, or Hindu in seeing the greater network of all things, or simply atheist in my doubt.
What if the deeper question as Brian McLaren poses is not whether you are Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, even Quaker, but rather, what kind of Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist or Quaker are you?
Are you living out our text for today, “The Fruit of the Spirit” which is the embodiment, behavior and action of living out this faith - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Are you a believer who puts your distinct beliefs first, or are you a person of faith who puts love first?
Are you a believer whose beliefs put you in competition or conflict with people of differing beliefs, or are you a person of faith whose faith moves you toward the other with love?
Let us end here today and allow these queries to help enter us into a time of waiting worship. A time where we can look at the sky through a clear or open window, with an openness to accept it as it is: blue or gray, light or dark, starry or sunny, rainy or fair.
Let us take this time.