The Chicken and
the Egg
I think most of
us have heard the question which came first, the chicken or the egg.
I have had a
similar question in my mind for some time now: which comes first, faith, love,
or action.
While both of
these questions can have implications for us Christians, it is the latter which
obviously has the greater impact. I’m
going to share with you my answers to both of these questions today.
Let me start by
telling you about what happened to me about thirty years ago. I had been out of college for a dozen years
and had a good job. I had achieved a
childhood dream of being a pilot and owned my own airplane and a brand new
instrument rating. I had a new home and
a new car. I had married my high school
girlfriend; because all my friends and family expected me to. But I was not a happy person. I was trying to make up for my unhappiness by
acquiring material things. It wasn’t
working; it seldom does. I was living a
lie.
Then in November
of 1981 I met Clyde. I really became
confused then. Could I have a happy life
in a relationship with him? What would
be the ramifications? Would I lose my
job? It was a very different world then
and John Deere was not nearly the progressive company they have become
today. Would my parents reject me? I should have known better than that, but I
still wondered. What about my friends,
my sister and my other relatives? I
would have to start over; no airplane, no new home, no fancy cars. My world was suddenly turned upside down and
everyday was occupied with the agony of indecision.
Then one day, as
I was driving to work I had the most incredibly clear vision of what I should
do. I’ll never forget that day. I had been wrestling with and praying about
what I should do and it was suddenly clear what action I should take. I came to the realization that God had made
me who I am and I believed God wanted me to be a happy person. Perhaps God had put Clyde in my life for that
very reason. The only way I would know
would be to make the change. To have
tried and failed would have been better than not knowing if that was what God
intended for me.
I had faith that
God was leading me in a new direction and I took action based on my faith.
The result was
that I spent almost thirty years in a fulfilling relationship with my partner
Clyde, a person many of you had the chance to know; a relationship that only
ended 29 years later because of his death.
As I look back at my first step of faith, I have come to realize that
faith is truly a journey rather than a destination.
This is a
description that I am not only comfortable with, but appear to be living out as
well. It seems from time to time I have
had a few speed bumps on my journey.
And, like many people, I struggle from time to time with doubts.
When this
happens, I recall a sermon I heard once that was based on some of the writings
of 20th century theologian Paul Tillich.
Tillich said
that faith is like a pendulum; with doubt on one side and belief on the other. Let me demonstrate.
PENDULUM DEMO
Faith then is a
growth journey that we may begin for any number of reasons. Why we begin our faith journey isn’t as important
though as finding a place where our faith can grow; a place where we can take
our faith journey with the support of others, the encouragement of our peers,
the opportunity to learn about God, and be nurtured along the way.
I believe that
one of the challenges facing all churches is to always strive to provide a
place where faith can grow.
A moment ago I
gave a personal example of a time when faith led me to a specific action. Let me share something that I experienced
several years ago.
It was at a talk
given by a young woman from
This is what she
said: “Faith isn’t faith, until it’s all you have left”.
Think about that
a minute, “Faith isn’t faith until it’s all you have left”.
Imagine what it
must be like to be so deep in depression, with only the clothes on your back,
sleeping in the gutter, and hoping against hope that things would suddenly
change for the better.
The only thing
she owned were the thoughts in her head.
Fortunately her thoughts turned to God and God brought her through
it. She believed that God would lead her
out of her valley of death and into a new life.
Her actions had
led her to begin her faith journey.
She started
going to church and getting the help she needed from the local community of
faith.
When I met her
she was touring the country singing gospel music in a group with other women
and telling her story to all who would listen.
Like some of us,
she began her faith journey as a result of her actions of the past. It had led her to share with others the love
for God she had come to know.
We may get
overwhelmed with the complexity of faith, and how it should govern our
actions. When this has happened to me,
and it can certainly happen many times on our faith journey, I recall what
Jesus said was the greatest commandment: to love God and each other.
Taking a look at
today’s scripture, the author asks the question, how can anyone ignore someone
in need if we have God’s love within us and the resources to do so?
Put another way,
how can we have love and refuse to act to help those in need?
Here we have an
example of faith based love which results in actions to help others.
The tone changes
abruptly in verse 18. Like a nurturing
parent to a knowledge hungry child John says: “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in
truth and action.”
John goes on to say that we will know in our
hearts if we do not have love for one another and God will know too. But, by acting out of love, we please God.
It is amazing to
me that out of such a complex, hard to understand passage, comes such a simple
truth: love is actions not just words.
It is this simple and short verse that belies many self proclaimed
Christians that say one thing and do quite another.
While I firmly
believe that we are justified by God’s grace and not our actions, I also
believe that a person true in faith can not help but perform actions which show
God’s love for us and our love for each other.
But there is a caveat
here: we must be extremely careful not
to judge the faith of others by their actions.
Only God can do that.
End of Introduction
I have given you
a few examples that show that faith, love, and action are inter-related
components of our belief and behavior as Christians; in my own life, where my
faith led to action; in the life of another where actions led to faith; and in
today’s scripture where love leads to action.
I’m sure we
could find many more examples that show the relationship between faith, love,
and action. But I still haven’t answered
the question: which comes first: faith, action, or love?
You see; it
doesn’t matter. Faith, love, and action
form the integrated basis of our Christian life. Where we enter this triad of Christian life is
not important; as long as we enter.
Faith, love, and
action are the parts that make up the whole; inseparable one from the
other. If one is missing it’s like
taking our faith journey in a car with a flat tire; a wooden stool with one leg
missing. Growth in any one area leads to
growth in the others and we become whole in our relationship with God and one
another.
And in a like
manner, it doesn’t matter which came first, the chicken or the egg.
They each need
the other to survive and God made both.
May God help us to
grow our faith, increase our love for each other, and serve others as God has
asked.
Amen