The eCrozier

Last night I was with the good people of St Luke’s, Hawkinsville for a wonderful celebration of their new ministry as a parish of the Diocese of Georgia. The Gospel lesson for the evening was from Jesus’ high priestly prayer (John 15:9-16) where Jesus commands us to keep his commandments and to abide in his love. The part of that Gospel that we often do not notice is later where Jesus commands us to “go and bear fruit that will last.”

Last week I wrote to you about Miroslav Volf’s work and used it to begin some reflections on the nature of faith. Since the Enlightenment and Reformation we have, along with our sisters and brothers from other reformed traditions, focused on the reformed notion of faith in God’s grace over the works we engage in for the Kingdom. Actually that conversation has been with us for over 1600 years beginning at least with the debate between Augustine and Pelagius. Some could argue the tension was there from the beginning. The Letter of James almost was not included in the canon because some felt it discounted faith and over-emphasized works. But it has been in the last 400 years that “faith not works” has dominated our theological position. It is all about God’s grace.

Well, you will get no argument from me there. I do not want to stand before the great judgment seat of Christ relying on my own merit. God forbid! That being said, we have allowed a distortion of faith to creep in as a popular definition. We have equated faith with believing certain propositions about God. Faith has been equated with holding a right belief and thus we have only a partial idea of faith. Faith is more than right belief. Faith is the union of Orthodoxy (literally “right glory”) and Orthopraxy (literally “right practice”). Faith is the coming together of belief and action so that one’s whole life (mind, body, and spirit) is given in trust to God.

Jesus clearly expects us to “bear fruit.” Our lives in Christ ought to produce something real and tangible like fruit is expected from a tree. Our faith cannot hide behind mere belief (“not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of God”). That cheapens the grace with which God showers us just as Bonheoffer reminded us. We do the people with whom we serve a disservice when we do not tell them the truth of the Gospel; that Jesus expects us to bear fruit. James had it right: “Faith without works is dead.”

+Scott