Faith like a Child
Matthew 18 1-4 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
We've probably heard a hundred times that Jesus has called us to have "Faith like a child." I want to take a real look at what that means.
First if all, I want to talk about the word "Faith", and what it means.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Most people tend to think of faith as something like the creed. Their faith consists in what they believe. St Paul had to struggle against his own culture. Paul was a Pharisee. You've all heard about Pharisees. This is where they came from, and why they were not in the OT.
At the time of Maccabees, the Greeks, under Alexander the Great, invaded Israel. The Greeks realized that the best way to make sure no one ever rebelled against them was to make sure that everyone was just like them. So they made everybody speak Greek, worship Greek Gods, and study Greek philosophy. However, there was a group of Jews who absolutely refused to give up their Jewish Heritage. For example, Jews were not allowed to eat pork. This goes all the way back to the time when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. The Egyptians used to sacrifice pigs to their cow god, and then eat the pork. Moses made a law that said "You can't worship cows, or any other created thing, and you can't eat pork." You'll notice that when Moses came down the mountain with the 10 commandments, he found everybody worshipping a cow!
So the Jews said "we can't eat pork, because we need to be distinguished from people who worship idols." Flash forward again, the Maccabeans (so called 'cause the family in charge was the Maccabees family) said to the Greeks "no way! We're keeping our Jewish Customs. We will not do any of your pagan things to do!"
So not only did they choose martyrdom over eating pork, they also refused to work on the Sabbath. The Greeks eventually figured this out, and would always attack the Jews on the Sabbath, since no one would fight back! (eventually the Jews decided to fight after all.)
So the Pharisees were the intellectual ancestors of the Maccabeans. They basically thought that God had commanded a bunch of arbitrary laws on them, and that they best just obey these laws. St Paul was one of these "Pharisees", obeying meaningless laws, and killing Christians because Christians broke those laws! (Jesus healed people on the Sabbath, he touched lepers and people who were bleeding, he ate with sinners, etc.)
So God inspired Paul to write in Galatians and Romans about how we are not saved by doing a bunch of works prescribed by the law, but by faith!
1500 years later, Luther started the reformation, and one of his major claims was 'Sola Fides"- we are saved by faith alone. To Luther this meant that we don't have to go to Hell, no matter what we do, provided that we believe in Jesus. now Jesus clearly taught that not everyone who called him "Lord, Lord" would enter the kingdom, but only those who fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the imprisoned, etc. Clearly, faith requires a response. In fact, the only time in all of scripture that you see the words "Faith Alone", is in the letter of St James, where it says "We are not saved by faith alone." (Luther wanted that book taken out of the Bible.)
So even though we as Catholics know that what Luther was teaching was in error, his idea about what faith meant and what salvation meant have totally permeated our thought! The Jehovah’s Witnesses have even published a work called "Knowledge that Leads to Everlasting Life". This is essentially a return to an old heresy, called "Gnosticism"- the belief that you can be saved through knowledge.
So here's the thing- we are saved through faith- but faith is not knowledge! If I say to a person “believe in you"- does that mean simply that I believe they exist? Or does it mean that I believe in their integrity and their ability to do the good things that they intend to do? This is what faith is. It is trust in God... even when we don't see evidence, we trust him anyway.
Now part of this has to do with what we believe. For example, Jesus said "the truth will set you free." He also promised us that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth. Part of what faith is, is believing these promises- that God does indeed want us to know the truth, and that he is revealing it to us.
Descartes was the famous philosopher who coined the phrase "I think, therefore I am." Descartes basically felt that unless you can be absolutely certain of a thing, you ought not believe in it. Further, he felt that your senses were not reliable. Just because I see the table in front of me, does not necessarily mean it exists. My eyes could be playing a trick on me. However, Descartes figured that the very fact that he was thinking, is not something that is perceived by his senses, and he could not be thinking unless he existed, therefore he must exist.
After him came a group called the "empiricists" and they said that a thing can only be known to be true if it can be measured. Most people now a days agree with them. This is how science works. If you take something spiritual, which by definition means immeasurable, it is said to be 'unscientific.' But because it is unscientific, people say that it is not true.
So here we are- we live in a world without concrete evidence of God, because the only thing that can be accepted as evidence has to be measurable, and God by definition is not measurable. And yet, people refuse to believe in God because they do not have proof! They accept all kinds of things that lack proof- like the landing on the moon, the existence of the platypus, or that all animals evolved- and yet when presented with something that could not possibly be proven, they reject it for lack of proof!
This is why we need faith like a child. A child does not demand proof of everything. We have become so sophisticated in our own minds, that we think that God for some reason has a responsibility to prove himself to us, or we will not do him the honour of believing in him. We have made ourselves the reference for what is true.
But that is ridiculous! My belief in a thing has no bearing on whether it is true or not. Rather, what is true should have an effect on what I believe! But it requires me to trust that God is in fact revealing truth. This is where faith comes in.
People have this silly idea that the more intelligent people are the ones who are most likely right. Like intelligence gives one the best access to truth. I consider myself rather intelligent. The other night I was at a pro-life training discussion. The speaker, Jojo Ruba, was attempting to demonstrate how to defend the pro-life position, and we got to try to argue the pro-choice position. Suddenly, two guys who were walking by (this took place in a university classroom) poked their heads in, and asked what we were talking about. We told them 'abortion', and invited them in. But we did not explain what was happening.
I began challenging Jojo on his pro-life position, by saying that life begins when a creature draws it's first breath, and that the dignity of a creature depends on its self awareness, since we're all animals anyway, and therefore abortion is not nearly so morally objectionable as is, say, eating a hamburger. One of the guys who had walked in was clearly gesturing with his hands that he agreed with me! All the while I was arguing something that I did not believe was true!
So think about it. If a person has an agenda, or if they already believe in a thing, intelligence will be a detriment to them, because they will be able to believe in the thing all the more firmly. they will not be able to discover truth, because an intelligent person has the ability to persuade themselves of things that are untrue.
The only way that we can really know the truth is by being humble. I think the first requirement towards that is saying "I am not the final authority of truth. If I am to know the truth, it will only be because God has revealed it to me." But even then, there are many people running around, claiming that God has revealed such and such a thing. They all have a tendency to disagree with one another.
So humility requires us to submit to another authority on truth. this is where the Church comes in. Jesus himself appointed the Church with the guarantee that it would never teach wrong teaching. (CF Matt 16) For 2000 years, the Church has successfully not contradicted itself. If the Church says something that I am not comfortable with- say, like, her teaching on homosexuality or women’s ordination or contraception- I have to ask myself this question. Which source is more reliable? The one created by God with the guarantee of never being wrong and with 2000 years of non-contradiction.... or me, with my total of about 20 years of rational thought? Which answer do you think humility demands?
Faith like a child then means believing in God that he will reveal truth, and giving your assent of faith to the Church which God instituted. But it still means more than that.
There is a popular thought that if we simply believe in a thing enough, then God will make it happen. I have heard preachers say that when a woman was healed and Jesus said "your faith has healed you" that Jesus was trying to imply that it was faith itself, and not the god who is the object of faith. Now, I agree that there is power in positive thought. But let's not get all excited about our own faith, as if it is somehow us that saves!
When I was at Bible School a few years ago, a friend of mine was suffering from a problem with her knees. I decided that god ought to heal them. I thought at the time that what was necessary was my own faith- after all the Bible says "Faith can move mountains." So I made a deal with God, that to demonstrate my faith I would do something hard- jog 12 kilometers- and he would heal the girl.
I jogged my 12 kms, but she was not healed.
There is a funny thing about faith, an idea that we can just arbitrarily pray a thing, and god will simply do it because we had prayed. but this is not really faith in God... this is faith in our own faith, otherwise known as "credulity". Simply because I believe a thing should happen a certain way, does not mean that it will. We do not know the will of God. True faith in god says "I know you can do this, I believe it is your will, but I accept your will no matter what it is." Some people think they have a better idea of what is right for them than does God. That's not faith.
The Bible says "God works all things to the good of those who love Him according to his purposes." We need to trust not only that God can and does work for our good, but also we have to trust his purposes. I believe his purposes for us has more to do with our sanctification than our physical health.
Having faith in God means trusting God entirely, as a child trusts his father, to do what is best for us. It is up to God then to reveal the truth to us, to sanctify us, and to provide for our Earthly needs. Faith like a Child means we recognize how small we are before the enormity of God, place our lives in His hands, and then never worry.
We've probably heard a hundred times that Jesus has called us to have "Faith like a child." I want to take a real look at what that means.
First if all, I want to talk about the word "Faith", and what it means.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Most people tend to think of faith as something like the creed. Their faith consists in what they believe. St Paul had to struggle against his own culture. Paul was a Pharisee. You've all heard about Pharisees. This is where they came from, and why they were not in the OT.
At the time of Maccabees, the Greeks, under Alexander the Great, invaded Israel. The Greeks realized that the best way to make sure no one ever rebelled against them was to make sure that everyone was just like them. So they made everybody speak Greek, worship Greek Gods, and study Greek philosophy. However, there was a group of Jews who absolutely refused to give up their Jewish Heritage. For example, Jews were not allowed to eat pork. This goes all the way back to the time when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. The Egyptians used to sacrifice pigs to their cow god, and then eat the pork. Moses made a law that said "You can't worship cows, or any other created thing, and you can't eat pork." You'll notice that when Moses came down the mountain with the 10 commandments, he found everybody worshipping a cow!
So the Jews said "we can't eat pork, because we need to be distinguished from people who worship idols." Flash forward again, the Maccabeans (so called 'cause the family in charge was the Maccabees family) said to the Greeks "no way! We're keeping our Jewish Customs. We will not do any of your pagan things to do!"
So not only did they choose martyrdom over eating pork, they also refused to work on the Sabbath. The Greeks eventually figured this out, and would always attack the Jews on the Sabbath, since no one would fight back! (eventually the Jews decided to fight after all.)
So the Pharisees were the intellectual ancestors of the Maccabeans. They basically thought that God had commanded a bunch of arbitrary laws on them, and that they best just obey these laws. St Paul was one of these "Pharisees", obeying meaningless laws, and killing Christians because Christians broke those laws! (Jesus healed people on the Sabbath, he touched lepers and people who were bleeding, he ate with sinners, etc.)
So God inspired Paul to write in Galatians and Romans about how we are not saved by doing a bunch of works prescribed by the law, but by faith!
1500 years later, Luther started the reformation, and one of his major claims was 'Sola Fides"- we are saved by faith alone. To Luther this meant that we don't have to go to Hell, no matter what we do, provided that we believe in Jesus. now Jesus clearly taught that not everyone who called him "Lord, Lord" would enter the kingdom, but only those who fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the imprisoned, etc. Clearly, faith requires a response. In fact, the only time in all of scripture that you see the words "Faith Alone", is in the letter of St James, where it says "We are not saved by faith alone." (Luther wanted that book taken out of the Bible.)
So even though we as Catholics know that what Luther was teaching was in error, his idea about what faith meant and what salvation meant have totally permeated our thought! The Jehovah’s Witnesses have even published a work called "Knowledge that Leads to Everlasting Life". This is essentially a return to an old heresy, called "Gnosticism"- the belief that you can be saved through knowledge.
So here's the thing- we are saved through faith- but faith is not knowledge! If I say to a person “believe in you"- does that mean simply that I believe they exist? Or does it mean that I believe in their integrity and their ability to do the good things that they intend to do? This is what faith is. It is trust in God... even when we don't see evidence, we trust him anyway.
Now part of this has to do with what we believe. For example, Jesus said "the truth will set you free." He also promised us that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth. Part of what faith is, is believing these promises- that God does indeed want us to know the truth, and that he is revealing it to us.
Descartes was the famous philosopher who coined the phrase "I think, therefore I am." Descartes basically felt that unless you can be absolutely certain of a thing, you ought not believe in it. Further, he felt that your senses were not reliable. Just because I see the table in front of me, does not necessarily mean it exists. My eyes could be playing a trick on me. However, Descartes figured that the very fact that he was thinking, is not something that is perceived by his senses, and he could not be thinking unless he existed, therefore he must exist.
After him came a group called the "empiricists" and they said that a thing can only be known to be true if it can be measured. Most people now a days agree with them. This is how science works. If you take something spiritual, which by definition means immeasurable, it is said to be 'unscientific.' But because it is unscientific, people say that it is not true.
So here we are- we live in a world without concrete evidence of God, because the only thing that can be accepted as evidence has to be measurable, and God by definition is not measurable. And yet, people refuse to believe in God because they do not have proof! They accept all kinds of things that lack proof- like the landing on the moon, the existence of the platypus, or that all animals evolved- and yet when presented with something that could not possibly be proven, they reject it for lack of proof!
This is why we need faith like a child. A child does not demand proof of everything. We have become so sophisticated in our own minds, that we think that God for some reason has a responsibility to prove himself to us, or we will not do him the honour of believing in him. We have made ourselves the reference for what is true.
But that is ridiculous! My belief in a thing has no bearing on whether it is true or not. Rather, what is true should have an effect on what I believe! But it requires me to trust that God is in fact revealing truth. This is where faith comes in.
People have this silly idea that the more intelligent people are the ones who are most likely right. Like intelligence gives one the best access to truth. I consider myself rather intelligent. The other night I was at a pro-life training discussion. The speaker, Jojo Ruba, was attempting to demonstrate how to defend the pro-life position, and we got to try to argue the pro-choice position. Suddenly, two guys who were walking by (this took place in a university classroom) poked their heads in, and asked what we were talking about. We told them 'abortion', and invited them in. But we did not explain what was happening.
I began challenging Jojo on his pro-life position, by saying that life begins when a creature draws it's first breath, and that the dignity of a creature depends on its self awareness, since we're all animals anyway, and therefore abortion is not nearly so morally objectionable as is, say, eating a hamburger. One of the guys who had walked in was clearly gesturing with his hands that he agreed with me! All the while I was arguing something that I did not believe was true!
So think about it. If a person has an agenda, or if they already believe in a thing, intelligence will be a detriment to them, because they will be able to believe in the thing all the more firmly. they will not be able to discover truth, because an intelligent person has the ability to persuade themselves of things that are untrue.
The only way that we can really know the truth is by being humble. I think the first requirement towards that is saying "I am not the final authority of truth. If I am to know the truth, it will only be because God has revealed it to me." But even then, there are many people running around, claiming that God has revealed such and such a thing. They all have a tendency to disagree with one another.
So humility requires us to submit to another authority on truth. this is where the Church comes in. Jesus himself appointed the Church with the guarantee that it would never teach wrong teaching. (CF Matt 16) For 2000 years, the Church has successfully not contradicted itself. If the Church says something that I am not comfortable with- say, like, her teaching on homosexuality or women’s ordination or contraception- I have to ask myself this question. Which source is more reliable? The one created by God with the guarantee of never being wrong and with 2000 years of non-contradiction.... or me, with my total of about 20 years of rational thought? Which answer do you think humility demands?
Faith like a child then means believing in God that he will reveal truth, and giving your assent of faith to the Church which God instituted. But it still means more than that.
There is a popular thought that if we simply believe in a thing enough, then God will make it happen. I have heard preachers say that when a woman was healed and Jesus said "your faith has healed you" that Jesus was trying to imply that it was faith itself, and not the god who is the object of faith. Now, I agree that there is power in positive thought. But let's not get all excited about our own faith, as if it is somehow us that saves!
When I was at Bible School a few years ago, a friend of mine was suffering from a problem with her knees. I decided that god ought to heal them. I thought at the time that what was necessary was my own faith- after all the Bible says "Faith can move mountains." So I made a deal with God, that to demonstrate my faith I would do something hard- jog 12 kilometers- and he would heal the girl.
I jogged my 12 kms, but she was not healed.
There is a funny thing about faith, an idea that we can just arbitrarily pray a thing, and god will simply do it because we had prayed. but this is not really faith in God... this is faith in our own faith, otherwise known as "credulity". Simply because I believe a thing should happen a certain way, does not mean that it will. We do not know the will of God. True faith in god says "I know you can do this, I believe it is your will, but I accept your will no matter what it is." Some people think they have a better idea of what is right for them than does God. That's not faith.
The Bible says "God works all things to the good of those who love Him according to his purposes." We need to trust not only that God can and does work for our good, but also we have to trust his purposes. I believe his purposes for us has more to do with our sanctification than our physical health.
Having faith in God means trusting God entirely, as a child trusts his father, to do what is best for us. It is up to God then to reveal the truth to us, to sanctify us, and to provide for our Earthly needs. Faith like a Child means we recognize how small we are before the enormity of God, place our lives in His hands, and then never worry.
posted by Peter van Kampen at 11:22 AM
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