BY FAITH
By: BOB KUHN
First Published at Suite101.com
(www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/religious_humor_&_satire)
February 28, 2005
Readers of the New Testament are familiar with the list of Biblical heroes and heroine found in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. This chapter describes the noble characteristics and good deeds of these men and women, declaring that both characteristics and deeds were direct results of their remarkable faith. It is, in a sense, an anthology of stories of “faith-in-action.” Often used in sermons and religious teachings, Hebrews 11 has become a favorite source of exhortation for perseverance in good works and holy living.
However, after recently rereading the passage, I began to realize how few similarities there are between those mentioned in the epistle and most modern day, middleclass, suburban, protestant church attendants. Maybe there are exceptions, but the churches I have observed know nothing of the trials and accomplishments described in the subject chapter. This lack of similarity obviously produces a lack of relevance. In order to achieve a meaningful and practical teaching on the subject of faith for those mentioned, a realistic and identifiable set of examples must be used. In other words, the standard must be lowered. Therefore, I have created a more practical, more realistic, and more “modern-middleclass-suburban-protestant” list of heroes and heroines of the faith.
By faith, John did not curse and cause a scene when he saw that his favorite parking place was taken in the church parking lot, but instead, quietly parked somewhere else.
By faith, Amy trusted God to fix her favorite sports car for a reasonable amount of money so she would not be forced to drive that awful 2 year old sedan to work again.
By faith, Tony stayed awake throughout the entire church service 2 weeks in a row.
By faith, Bob did not despair of life or return to drugs and alcohol when he heard the news that his teenage daughter wanted to get a tattoo.
By faith, Bob’s wife did not kill Bob when she learned that Bob said it was OK for their teenage daughter to get the tattoo, as long as it was on her foot.
By faith, Sheila, who forgot to pick up her new dress at the cleaners, went to church anyway, even though she knew that Rita was going to look more fashionable.
By faith, George did not return the symbolic hand gesture from the driver next to him, which was given because George would not allow the driver to get into the exit lane in front of him.
By faith, Greg gave an extra dollar to the missionary who spoke at church on Sunday night. He would have given more, but Monday was his golf day and he had just enough money to play and buy a bagel and coffee.
By faith, Stephanie paid $75.00 to the Christian bookstore for two really nice looking Christian “witnessing-type” T-shirts, and paid $45.00 for a couple of really hot Christian CD’s, and gave the homeless guy in the parking lot .53 cents on her way to the car.
By faith, Fran and Eric bought their 6-year-old son a new video tape of children’s cartoon Bible stories to watch with his favorite baby sitter on his birthday while they went to the church seminar on family relations.
By faith, Fran and Eric promised to spend some quality time with their 6-year-old son one weekend very soon.
By faith, Fran and Eric’s six-year-old son prayed that God would keep him from hating his parents.
By faith, Mark and Helen sat next to Allen, a man of a different race than they, at church on Wednesday night.
By faith, Allen forgave Mark and Helen for ignoring him during the entire service.
By faith, Associate Pastor Reggie did not repeat himself over and over again during Sunday morning’s sermon just to prove to Pastor Harrington that he could preach longer than 20 minutes.
By faith, Pastor Harrington allowed Assistant Pastor Reggie to preach, even though he felt threatened by him.
By faith, Pastor Harrington and Assistant Pastor Reggie pretend to get along.
By faith, Mrs. Belamy (who donated the flowers placed on the table in front of the pulpit) did not get angry when her name was misspelled in the Sunday morning bulletin acknowledgements.
By faith, the Ladies of the Church group forgave Mrs. Belamy for refusing to buy flowers for the next Sunday’s service.
By faith, the recently fired pastor of Main Street Presbyterian Church believed that God would lead him to a new pastorate.
By faith, the session of Main Street Presbyterian Church believed that God would restore the $30,000.00 missing from the church’s general account.
By faith, the congregation of Way Home Christian Church refrained from exhibiting public gossip about a certain individual and his problems by having many small extensive private conversations about that individual for the expressed purpose of “lifting him up in prayer.”
By faith, the elders of Way Home Christian Church gave the congregation many examples of how to refrain from exhibiting public gossip by having many small extensive private conversations for the expressed purpose of “lifting people & their problems up in prayer.”
What more shall I say? There is not enough time to mention the many suburban, middleclass, protestant Christians who attend church weekly, pay their tithes faithfully, smile regularly, drink moderately, prepare their taxes honestly, and drive safely. Since we are surrounded by such a great fog of witnesses, should we not also persevere in faith?
By Faith I found this blog and read most of it and even intend to read Hebrews Ch 1 and think about it before group ? and promise to go look in the attic when its not so hot later for that box of poetry books and assorted scaps of paper from the past ten to twenty years (mainly at the Christian poems) and find something that is blogworthy. Ugly word. blogworthy. Anyway, the poems are about those of us that my only-Poet- friend, Robert Bly, who everyone assumes is a heathen since he wrote about the Earth Mother in the 70′s, calls “people in a trance”. He meant that modern Christians seem to not really be there in the World (which I suppose is where we thought we should be, NOT part of this “veil of tears”) In a bubble. washed. free. etc. we don’t really confront anyone with our Faith. So even really messed up people, even other Christians, even the Enemy, doesn’t have to deal with us.. because we are very quiet and unassuming folk. right? That’s what I think I was writing about, since I don’t really have a public forum for speaking about it. And since I am forbidden by company policy and federal law from promulgating my Faith in the workplace; or anywhere tax payer’s dollars are at work. That kind of limits me to blogworthy stream of conciousness postings like this. and “poetry”.
Gee Kamin. That’s good stuff, but a lot to digest.
I’m not so sure that we’re as limited as we think we are. It’s our obnoxious brothers and sisters that usually get the hostile attitude from the lost. Most people really don’t mind Jesus … if presented as he really is (except for those people in “power” who don’t want Jesus coming around and messing up their self controlled lives).
Well … poetry, art, and music will always be effective. Keep rockin’.
-Bob
“By Faith”… an interesting, sad, and comical observation of many modern day churches. I can’t help but be reminded of the church in Corinth and the pain it caused Paul to write the first of his two letters to them for probably a lot of the same stuff (though all of it was not mentioned specifically). Issues of the heart are not changed by time in this fallen world we live in, although perhaps the props (sports car & new dresses vs. # of servants & purple linen) may.
I think many of us are interested in the concept of the organic church because we have also observed, perhaps in not as much astute detail, many of the same things. I do exhort us though, let us not be deceived that, whether in an organic or traditional model of church, we, as saved yet sinful individuals, are not susceptible to the same things. I may at one time have an unspoken fear or bitterness that my attire, baking talents, musical giftings, or ability to form & articulate spectacular theological contributions during our meetings are no match for those of others in the group. One of us may shy away from a new member that we can’t seem to connect with because of culture, age, or personality. Jealousy, gossip, bitterness, anger…the enemy will attempt to thwart our care and love for one another using all the same tricks – we are not immune just because we are removed from the traditional methodologies we grew up with.
I wonder, as a body, what does Christ call our little house church to look like? When one of our members needed $18000 to stay in the US (let’s pretend that God didn’t end up providing for her in other ways) would we have been called to “sell our possessions and give to the poor” as it describes in Acts? Is that extreme? I have no answers, only questions at this point. What is our little body of Christ’s larger body to look like? How will we look different from those we desire not to be a part of? We have recognized that we are all looking for something different and I know that we are still in the process of defining what we are and what we are not. Perhaps these questions come prematurely…but they are questions I am looking forward to praying about with you as we seek God’s purpose in “?” and His purpose for each of us as a part of it.
Hey Christina,
Thanks for “blogging” in. That’s some really good stuff. You wrote, “I do exhort us though, let us not be deceived that, whether in an organic or traditional model of church, we, as saved yet sinful individuals, are not susceptible to the same things.”
I couldn’t agree more. My satire comes from “inward” as well as “outward” observations. The articles are not meant to be pokes at the institutional church, or praise for the organic church. (In fact, the “By Faith” article was written several years before we “organicized.”) It’s my way of looking at the way things are while (somewhat humorously) expressing a desire for change.
You also wrote, “I wonder, as a body, what does Christ call our little house church to look like? When one of our members needed $18000 to stay in the US … would we have been called to ‘sell our possessions and give to the poor’ as it describes in Acts?”
My answer is, “Hopefully, that’s where we’re headed; practically, it will take some time.”
Keep asking those questions, Christina. That’s why we’re “?” church.
Peace,
Bob