The Problem of Proving our Faith

            The separation of church and state has been enshrined in our constitution and has been a part of our common life from the origins of this country.  The point of it is that the government has no business telling us how or what to worship and that our religious rights are a part of the basic law of this nation.  That doesn’t stop those who are certain of their religious beliefs from taking over when they can and telling the rest of us what it is that we ought to believe in terms of God.  I think of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, who have a way of inflicting themselves on the rest of us by picketing the funerals of veterans, or holding up signs denouncing homosexuality.  It isn’t hard to be offended by their antics and often there are counter-pickets around them.

            Recently, there was a court case in a town near Rochester, New York about who was chosen to offer prayers at a local meeting of commissioners.  For many years, prayers had been offered by Christian ministers, and others objected saying that this was a stamp of approval of the Christian faith and that those of other faiths had been left out.  The case has moved through the courts, and eventually the Supreme Court will have to rule on this.  It seems to me to be a simple enough problem to solve.  The First Amendment speaks clearly about it and those of other faiths, or no faith at all ought to be able to feel included in the way that we address or fail to address God in our prayers.

            This comes, I believe out of our problem with certainty.  Somehow we think that our belief can be proven to be true simply by using scripture.  The confusion of certainty and faith lies at the root of this kind of argument.  Faith is a beautiful thing that has gotten us through some very difficult times.  It lies at the root of how we surmounted the problems that surrounded the Great Depression, the movement to the west; and it sustained us through the wars that have been fought and the difficulties that have plagued us in so many ways.  It has always been a marvel to me how those in this country imprisoned by slavery used their powerful faith to bring them through.  Some of the hymns that are still sung today tell us about the heartache and pain that was suffered.  There is nothing provable about this faith.  It simply springs from the heart of the believer and reaches a hand to the God who makes whole what human beings tear apart.

            In Handel’s Messiah, after the intermission, the soprano sings the beautiful aria that comes from the Book of Job: I Know That My Redeemer Liveth.  That aria never fails to bring me to tears because it is such a powerful statement of faith.  I Know, not I think, or I hope.  This is what religion is all about for me.  I don’t need to prove anything.  My God is real and understandable in my life because of the ways that I have been sustained and helped.  If I am going to convert anyone to my faith it needs not to be with my words, but with my life.  What they see in me is what my faith means.  That is enough.