Given at St. John’s Church, Centralia, IL, Saturday, April 28th, 2007; and at the Church of the Redeemer, Cairo, IL, Sunday, April 29th, 2007
“I believe in order to know, and I know in order to believe….”
I wish I knew who said that (I heard it in seminary)….It is a statement that describes the process of coming into a personal relationship with the Lord.
“I believe in order to know, and I know in order to believe.”
Sometimes (oftentimes), I play a game with my wife, and it involves almost any question that she might ask me, in which the word “or” is found….For example, if she asks me, “would you like chocolate or vanilla?”, I always respond, “yes!” My point is: why ask me to choose between two perfectly good and necessary things (in this case, chocolate and vanilla), two things that (in my view, at least), always go together.
So, if you were to ask me the question, “is it believing or knowing?” I would respond, “yes!”
The point here is that we cannot separate believing and knowing….they are two things that go together.
And that seems to be the point of Jesus’ comments to the Jewish leadership[1] that had gathered around Him in the Portico of Solomon of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem.
For, in answer to their question, “how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly”, He says to them today, “I have told you, and you do not believe.”
But why do they not believe? Jesus goes on, “you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.”
We ought to pause right there for a moment….By using the image of sheep, and the shepherd’s voice, whom the sheep know, Jesus is continuing a discourse that has occupied the first 18 verses of chapter 10. In it, Jesus says, “I am the gate for the sheep….whoever enters by me will be saved.” [2] And a few verses later, He says, “I am the good shepherd, I know my own, and my own know me.” [3]
Believing and knowing….
Let’s look at both believing and knowing….
- Believing involves a movement of faith, or as the dictionary says, “to have confidence in the truth of something without absolute proof that one is right in doing so.” So believing asks us to move out of our familiar place into a new place. Believing involves risk.
- Knowing assures us that we have come to the place of (as the dictionary says) “perceiving or understanding as fact or truth, apprehending clearly and with certainty”. So knowing confirms the move of confidence made previously by believing.
But, when it comes to matters of God, are we being asked to step out in “blind faith”?
I think the answer from our Gospel reading today is quite clear: the answer is “no”.
Jesus responds to His questioners today by saying, “I have told you (who I am), and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me…”
So the proof that Jesus offers consists of the works done in the Father’s name and the words He spoke which accompanied those works.
So, in essence, God the Father has provided enough proof in the works that the Son does, and in the words spoken by the Son, to provide a basis for belief. For the Gospel writer, the works are central to proving the identity of Jesus Christ.
But Jesus’ hearers are unable to step out of their “comfort zone” into a new relationship with Him. “You do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep”, He tells them.
The implication (returning to the image of the sheep and the shepherd) is that the sheep have come to know the voice of the shepherd because the shepherd has first gathered the sheep together, and then has proven his leadership by his actions, taken for the welfare of the flock.
So the voice of the shepherd and the shepherd’s actions provide the basis for the sheep to believe in the shepherd, and to come to the place of trusting him.
But what about us?....we are 21st century Christians, who have not had the benefit of seeing Jesus’ works first hand. [4] What proof do we have to allow us to take the risky step of believing in Him?
I think we have three resources available to us, to help us to take that risky step of believing, and through believing, to come to the place of knowing. These three are:
- The words of Jesus, the Good Shepherd: These are recorded in Holy Scripture. But Scripture isn’t a dead book, nor is it merely the record of God’s mighty acts in a time long ago and far away. An example from the musical world will illustrate a central point about Scripture: A great piece of music is merely a collection of notes and words on a page until someone picks up that page, and gives it life when the music on the page is played and heard. Scripture is like that: it comes alive when people pick it up, read it, believe the truths that it contains, and apply it to their lives. So Jesus’ words come to us directly, down through time through the agency of the human author.
- The works of Jesus: In John 20: 30, we read, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in His name.” The intention of the writers of Scripture is to convey to us the truth of what Jesus did during His earthly ministry. They are writing out of their first-hand experience of Jesus’ words and works.
- The Holy Spirit: “when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak what ever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” Jesus tells His disciples. [5] The thrust of John’s gospel account is: the words of Jesus, the written account of Jesus, and the continuing presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit, who will “guide us into all truth”.
What conclusions might we draw from all of this? Is it a matter of believing OR knowing?
Or is it a matter of believing AND knowing?
“I believe in order to know, and I know in order to believe” is the way we began this sermon….
The walk of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is a matter of believing and knowing….Often, we have some basis for putting our trust in the Lord…it might be through the reading of Holy Scripture, it might be through a healing that has taken place in ourselves or in someone we know, it might be through the miracle of a radically changed life (either our own, or someone else’s). For the mighty works that Jesus did in his earthly life are still being done today: healings take place, and lives are radically changed. [6]
So God provides us with some sort of proof that what Scripture claims in the power and the working of Jesus Christ is really true. And we come to believe those claims and that power.
Surely enough, we come to know this for a fact: “truth” with a capital “T”.
And as we come to know God personally, often as a result of that risky step of believing, we are ready to believe still more deeply in the mystery of God, working in the person of Jesus Christ. So believing makes it possible for us to know, and knowing makes it possible for us to believe still more.
For the whole point of John’s gospel account is to bring us to the place of believing and knowing, that we might have life eternal with God through Jesus Christ, His son.
AMEN.
[1] When John uses the term “the Jews”, he is usually referring to the leadership of the Jewish people, that is, the Chief Priests, the Scribes, the Pharisees, and so forth.
[2] John 10: 7, 9
[3] John 10: 14
[4] For us, who have not seen, and yet have come to believe, there is a blessing reserved….In John 20: 29, Jesus (speaking to Thomas) says, “Do you believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not see and yet have come to believe.”
[5] John 16: 13
[6] “Very truly, I tell you (Jesus says), the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14: 12). Clearly, the implication is that Jesus’ works will be carried on by His disciples, the same sorts of things that He did being done by those who believe and know Him.
