Faith and Works? (4/8/12 - 4/14/12)

Last week Saturday I was traveling back from Lansing MI where a friend of mine and I were playing disc golf at an amazing course there. My friend, being like so many people in this culture both "spiritual" and an atheist got us again into a conversation. Here is how it went:

Sam: I don't even know what I am, an atheists (a-theists = someone who does not believe in theism = a god) , an agnostic (a-gnostic = without knowledge = you don't know or don't care what you believe), I just don't know?

Eric: Well, that's easy to figure out. Do you believe that this world, this material is all that exists, or do you believe something that we cannot see exists?

Sam: I think this world is all that exists. 

Eric: Great! Then you are an atheist. Problem solved.

Sam: Yet... There might be something else out there. How did you choose Christianity?

I've heard Sam's comment before. Way too often. Sam being both an atheists and a "spiritual" person is weird, idiotic, and simply stupid. It is simply contradictory - however it is pretty common in American culture. I was not upset about this comment. It was his "how did you choose Christianity" that is fundamentally incompatible with Christianity. Here is how I answered him.

Eric: You are going to think what I'm about to say is purely semantics, but it is not. I did not choose Christianity. Christ chose me! Christianity is not some abstract religion, but a relationship with a personal God. It is not like my life of choice, where I can choose what I eat, where I live, who I marry, what I buy, where and what I worship, etc... The scriptures even say that Jesus Christ was chosen before the foundations of the world were made to save us from our sin and rebellion from God (I Peter 1:20).

Then, feeling like this was a good time to drive the point home, I went even further and said,

Eric: In fact, the scriptures even say that I cannot even know that God has chosen me without first the Holy Spirit illuminating my eyes (and brain) to see his choosing me. 

Sam was quiet and then we arrived at home. 

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This event has left me thinking about a paradox in what I read in the scriptures and what I see in American Christianity, that is, to force our "choice driven culture" into our understanding of Christianity and all that entails: Christ, faith, salvation, eternal life, etc. 

This has traditionally be called "WORKS" by the Giants of our tradition. I wonder if my grandparents would call all of this "choosing" - works? My initial impression would be to say no, however, rather than speculate about it, let me ask you? 

1. Did you ever hear your parents, grandparents, or anyone in the family talk about "faith and works?" If yes, how did they define it?  
2. With the conversation above guiding your next answer, would you say your parents, grandparents, or anyone in the family would say we could choose God?
3. How much of our culture’s (this includes you and I) obsession with "choice" would you say has helped hinder our understanding of the Gospel?
4. Would you have answered Sam differently then I did? If yes, how?
5. John of Salisbury who lived in the 12th century once said:

We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size. Our age enjoys the gifts of preceding ages, and we know more, not because we excel in talent, but because we use the products of others who have gone before."

Do you think we indulge in "excelling in talent" or in being raised up "by their giant size" so we may "see more than they, and things at a greater distance"? 

Please feel free to respond to all of these questions as you see fit.