Authentic Faith

From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. John 1:16 (NLT)

This was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Temple assistants from Jerusalem to ask John, “Who are you?” He came right out and said, “I am not the Messiah. John 1:19-20 (NLT)

“It has been said that the Gospel of John is a pool in which a child can wade and an elephant can swim.” Marianne Thompson, Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Fuller Theological Seminary adds, “…and a pool in which a theologian can drown!” No book in all of literature has changed more lives than the Gospel of John. It was probably the last gospel written by the only apostle who was not martyred. This old survivor often wrote with plural pronouns as if he is representing a community of believers. Can you imagine what it will be like to hear an old preacher from our church preach in the Randy and Rod Halvorson Re-Creation Center – many years after a majority of us are in heaven? Running through the mind of that old preacher (who is likely to be one of the children on our church right now) will be the testimonies of all the collaborative efforts of many heroic individuals -- people who literally invested their lives building a great grace-filled family attempting to be a great caring network. As that old preacher shares about a church with a “positive faith” and church that believes in “teamwork approach”, I can hear that old preacher saying, with emotion and a quivering chin, “This is what we have come to believe with all of our hearts!”
There is so much in the gospel of John that I will not be able to cover, I am thankful that Allan Wenzel will be teaching a class of extended study on this great gospel by encouraging interaction in one of our adult classes.
I love the section where John discusses John the Baptist. John the Baptist was a hero of the Apostle John. John was a follower of John the Baptist before he became a follower of Jesus Christ, so the story of John the Baptist is part of his own personal journey of faith. I have a heritage of Methodism which I revere. My grandfather was a Methodist pastor, and currently both my uncle and cousin are Methodist pastors. I attended a Presbyterian seminary, and it has contributed greatly to who I am. As children, some come from a Lutheran background, or Catholic, or Salvation Army. Maybe the Boy or Girl Scouts or Rotary has contributed to your journey of faith. Maybe even being raised in a very scientific family, or a background of philanthropy and public servanthood has been part of your heritage. Whatever it is, all of it is part of your continuing story of your own faith journey.
John the Baptist was respected because he was a man who knew who he was. He was not a like a “reed blown in the wind by every fad or fancy.” I used to love to work with Junior High kids because they found out who they were sometimes by discovering who they were not. One Sunday they were going to be an athlete, then the next Sunday they would come and say I am not an athlete -- I am going to be a scholar. As their identity changed throughout their time in the youth group, I simply enjoyed being their youth pastor. What an exciting adventurous time of discovering who they were and who they were not.
John the Baptist knew he wasn’t the Messiah, and he knew he wasn’t Elijah. Many times in our search for faith and who we are, we begin by discovering who we are not. Our kids had to discover they are not us and we had to learn that also. But it was a marvelous lesson for both of us to learn. Sometimes people begin by discovering important points such as – “I can’t fake my faith,” or “I’m certainly no Billy Graham.” They will say things like – “My faith needs to have heart,” or “I can’t exclude reason and science from my faith.” Each one of these personal journey points does not surprise God but it might surprise us. And discovering who you are not is not a stop sign, it is a yield sign. That sign says “yield to who God designed you to be. Let’s make our faith as authentic as possible.” Now that is an exciting adventure of faith!

Your friend for the rest of my life,

Tim White