Have you ever wondered where faith comes from? I don’t mean from whom. I understand that faith is a gift from God that has been there all along, but I often wonder what causes someone to realize they have it and believe in it enough to fan that spark into a flame?
In the old movie “A Miracle on 34th Street” Maureen O’Hara tells a young Natalie Wood that faith is believing in something that common sense tells you not to, but as I read today’s excerpt from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, it occurred to me that faith is so much more than that. Faith is what causes people to dream of something beyond the status quo. It is the rejection of things as they are and the ability to imagine all that they could be. It is the conviction that things can change, evolve and get better over time. When you stop and think about it, faith is our own personal Declaration of Independence!
Now, I admit, I have been on a bit of a “Hamilton” kick lately. After all, I will be seeing the show in Chicago in two weeks, but today’s reading caused me to wonder if Thomas Jefferson was somewhat inspired by Paul when he drafted his famous document in 1776. It wouldn’t surprise me. The Bible has been the number one best-selling book for quite some time, not to mention the text most widely available in the Western world, so it only makes sense that Jefferson and the rest of the founding fathers would have leaned on its values and lessons as they strove to form their “more perfect union.”
In Paul’s letter, he sets the groundwork for the idea that faith is the kind of thing that enables us to break free of the laws of Man in order to take our place in a larger Kingdom of God. This is the kind of proposition Jefferson promotes in the Declaration when he says there comes a time when people must dissolve “the political bands that have connected it with another” in order to create something completely new. Like the Kingdom, this new idea is often hard to visualize but thankfully, with faith it can be realized!
Paul’s letter also suggests that in this one, great nation under God, everyone is on common ground in much the same way that Jefferson says we are endowed by our “Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Paul’s letter suggests that if you belong to Christ, then you are among Abraham’s descendants and equal heirs to that promise.
Although neither man, nor the people around them, lived a life that was free from sin or human error, they had faith and it was this faith that led their people to rise with one voice and stand against their oppressors in order to create their shining city on a hill. It’s not always perfect, but they don’t say it will be. In fact, I’m sure there are times in which they must have questioned if it was worth it, but there was always something inside of them that encouraged them to carry on.
I’m still not sure what causes faith to go from noun to action verb, but I am sure faith is a gift. However, like the One who gave it to us, it is a multi-faceted proposition. It can break the chains that bind you and connect you with something far larger than you ever imagined possible. It is given to us by God, demonstrated to us through the example of Christ who, like our beloved patriots, were willing to challenge the system head on, and it is felt in the presence of the Holy Spirit like an inner burning that causes us to believe in something when common sense tells you not to.
And it gives us the courage to continue the revolution…even when the going gets rough.
