Turn Thinking and Believing into Doing and Serving
Psalm 37.3 John 12.26
Third Sunday in Lent - The Unobvious Series
Rev. Matthew M. Fry

As we continue to experience The Word of the Lord together, Let us Pray. Lord, Open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that, as the Scriptures are read and Your Word Proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you have to say to us today. Amen.

Hear now The Word of the Lord as it comes to us in Psalm 37. Listen for God’s Word for you today. Psalm 37.3. “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so you will live in the land, and enjoy security.” The Grass Withers, The Flower Falls, but The Word of The Lord endures forever…Thanks be to God. And now hear The Word of the Lord as it comes to us in the Gospel of John. Listen. John 12.26. “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.” The Word of the Lord…Thanks be to God.

I love my theology. Not that theology is mine, but I love my particular understanding of theology, and what I believe to be good theology, and what I want to leave behind as bad theology. You probably won’t have to think too hard to compile a list of what I accept to be good theology and what I consider to be poor theology.

And I love to talk about theology, to talk about belief in God with people. Literally, theology is a Greek word, I show you the root of that word is Greek. It is from two words, Theos, which means God, and logos, which means word. So, theology is literally, words about God. It is how we formulate words that describe the indescribable.

And I have spent lots of time, and mounds of money, going to school to become theologically literate and well-spoken. I majored in Religion / Philosophy in college, at, as I have told you, the Harvard of the South (though really, Harvard is the Flagler of the north). Then, after 5 years spent working in a couple of churches, I went to Princeton Seminary, and spent three years getting a Masters of Divinity. Great title for an advanced degree, isn’t it? Makes it sound like I was working on becoming divine. And now, I’m a few dotted t’s and crossed lower case I’s from getting my Doctorate of Ministry in May from Columbia Theological Seminary. And that education has cost me lots of time, and a good amount of money.

But, I’ve learned as much if not more from late conversations over a cold beverage with people, or over coffee, or over lunch, or riding in a car, or on a train, or sitting in my office, and just talking Religion and Philosophy with all sorts of people. Was that a little Dr. Suess right there? I will talk Theology over a cold beverage, and over coffee. I will not, can let, let theology be. I will talk theology in a car or on a train, all this talking drives others insane. Perhaps you have noticed my propensity in conversations, to always throw in a theological or philosophical remark. It is who I am, and that is why it is what I do.

Because of this life-long obsession with theology, I have become practiced at philosophically discussing theology. I have a long list of experience in debating theology, and a long history of constantly tweaking my understanding of theology. I think that is an important aspect of good theology, that since we believe in a living God, and a living Word, that theology also takes on a living character and is regularly being fine-tuned. The people who scare me the most are the people who have their philosophy all figured out and there is no room for discussion or growth. Those people are dangerous, and I continue to try very hard not to be one of those people.

And still, I love my understanding of theology. Come into my office and see the trophies I have from it. They sit under glass, or as now, on my shoulders. Soon enough, they will be made noticed in 3 bars on the sleeves of said shoulders. And you want to know what, those things and $4.29 will get me a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Thinking and believing are wonderful things. Practicing theology by talking about it, by studying, by learning, by interacting with others, is wonderful and a good discipline that will grow faith. But faith must go further. Otherwise, all that talk, all that study, all that learning, all that interacting is only lip service.

Do you remember our discernment process that we began in the Fall? I have just finished compiling the data about, so we will soon gather again to talk about it. One of the things that came out of the data was that we are a church that is inclusive. This was one of the things that was discussed, and also one of the things that many of you wrote on your questionnaires that you gave to me. And the great thing about that for me personally is that I agree that inclusion of all is a very important part of good theology. This came out when we said things like, “No matter what you dress like, and you know who you are, no matter what you look like, all are welcome here.” We also said things like, “We are a group of people who believe differently on some important matters of faith, but we gather together intentionally and share fellowship and celebrate worship, knowing that we are all one in Jesus Christ.”

Inclusion is important because I believe that Christ invites all, that salvation is offered to all people, that we are all God’s children. And I believe that one of the important things that we can do as a church is to show inclusion by inviting people whom others would deny into fellowship, offering them a place at the table. “This is not the Table of the Norcross Presbyterian Church. This is not a Presbyterian Table. This is the Lord’s Table.” I say those words as a regular refrain as an invitation to the table. I believe in them.

Recently, I became aware of the fact that it was time to give more than lip service to those words. Another couple of things that came up in our discernment process were that you wanted to do Evangelism, and that you wanted some discipleship so that you could talk intelligently about your faith and your beliefs. At about the same time, the Released Time Center invited a couple of people from the Atlanta Freethought Society, self proclaimed secular humanists / atheists to talk to the class about what it means to be an atheist. As I sat in on one of those classes, I was struck with two things. The first was that these people were able to express their particular set of beliefs, or unbeliefs, very articulately. As we had just sat around in a circle in the middle of this space saying that we had a hard time doing that, here were people who believed very differently than we do, but were able to articulate it awfully clearly. I found that ironic. The second thing I was struck with was the fact that I believe that they are children of God. One of them, those of you who came to hear him speak know this, one of them was a clergy kid, whose father was a pastor in a church. And while their presentation was articulate, it was also laced with what I experienced as a sense of bitterness. They were rightly pointing out how many people had treated them poorly for their set of beliefs, which isn’t very American. I sat and thought that it also wasn’t very Christian, to treat someone with disrespect or go so far as to treat someone with hate because of their theology, their words about God. So I sat there, and wrestled with myself. Do I believe in inclusion, or not? I talk a good game about saying that folks are welcome in the kingdom of God, but do I mean it.

Well, with a sense of fear and trembling, I approached session to get their vote on the subject. And it took us a while to decide to invite Ed and his friends, two separate meetings, and the vote wasn’t unanimous. Which is not to say that it should have been, or that folks who voted against it aren’t also inclusive. Part of inclusion is understanding that people of faith can differ on some subjects and still remain together.

Now, I don’t bring this up to say that I have changed my mind or that I want to change who we are so that we can become more welcoming to secular humanists. Were some atheists / secular humanists to walk in the doors today they would be welcome in church, but not welcome to speak from up front about their interpretations of theology. Part of inclusion is also knowing who we are, and unapologetically being who we are. For example, the night the secular humanists were here, we prayed as a community over our meal. And I didn’t apologize to them either in front of people, or in private to them. That’s who we are, and that is who I am, and I should feel like I can do that and still sit at table and share a meal with people with whom I disagree. Which I did. And from those of you who came to the Wednesday night discussion, or from those who listened to the conversation as Ken posted it in MP3 form late that night, I’ve heard that you all unanimously have been strengthened in your belief and in your faith. Which is also a great outcome.

And, I don’t bring any of this up to say that it was easy. In fact, just the opposite was true. I was discomforted by our time together, and have experienced similar emotions as I have thought about that evening, as well as in my further communications with our guests from that evening. I bring it up to show that when thinking turns into doing and serving, it’s not easy. In fact, it’s usually scary. But it is what must happen so that faith comes to life.

See, I love my theology, but if its only in my head, then how am I going to sleep with myself at night? If all I give my theology is lip service, then how is anyone going to respect me or my theology? How will I respect it? More importantly, how will I know if the thoughts have basis, if they bear out, if they prove true of not?

I want to show you a couple of pictures.

This is my beloved Aunt Nancy. This is my mom’s brother’s wife. Sweet as can be. With some theology that hits me like fingernails on a backboard. She once told me that if I believed enough, and if I prayed right enough, I could turn my coke into cherry coke. “God, after all, favors his children and does favors for them.”

That said, to Nancy, one of the important things is making sure that all of God’s children are taken care of. That God’s servants do the favors for God’s children, so that all can be fed and educated. So, because my mother takes this to heart, she adopted by sponsorship this child,

named Hope Bala. She has done this sponsorship with Kayla, in an effort to pass on such wonderful theology.

I want to show you this picture.

This is Nancy with Hope Bala. Nancy and my Uncle John are missionaries in Nigeria, Africa. They have done this since 1980. Uncle John is the principal of the school where Hope gets daily education and food. Nancy is the school/town nurse. We get their sponsorship letters, and the theology that is in those letters still makes me cringe. But you can’t argue with their action and with their service. And as such, they are heroes of mine.

If you really want to test your beliefs, or if you really want to feel them, turn them into doing and serving.

Amen.