Not understanding the words...

As I prepare for this Sunday's sermon, I realize that we Christians (as probably with any group of humans) have our own "buzz words" that sound important and meaningful, but do we really understand them?

This week's sermon is on "Faith."  At first, I thought this would be an easy topic.  But what is faith?  I has to be more than just "believing in something (in this case Christ)."  There are a lot of things I believe in, but do I have faith in them?  I believe in peace and nonviolence, but but I don't have faith in it.  If you break into my house, one of us is going to the hospital! (Probably I'll be the one in the hospital because I can't fight, but I'll kick and scratch anyway in defense of my family).  So, what is "Faith?"  It's more than just believing....

The sermon's text is on Abraham's call to "Go."  And without question, he obeys God.  Obviously he had to believe in God to obey God.  We can't obey anyone we don't believe in.  Was it believing the promises of God?  Again, we can't stop there.  I believe in God's promises, but yet I work for a living...and yes, pastoring is work, and no it's not just a Sunday job.  But, didn't Jesus talk about how God will provide all our needs?  Am I lacking faith?  I don't know.

Maybe faith is trust?  But then again, I trust a lot of people, but I may not have faith in them...or at least not the faith I have in God.  I share secrets with people and trust they won't share them, but in the back of my mind, my faith in that is not very strong.

Or, is faith a mystery?  Is Faith in Christ a mystery?  Can we ever fully know what that means?  SHOULD we ever fully know what that means?  Or, is this just my easy way out of a tough question?  Or, is the faith actually God's?  Is it God who is faithful?  Well, yeah, that's true, but do we play a part in that?

We can "believe in" Jesus, but even the devil believes in Jesus.  Many atheists believe in Jesus (that he existed--not the whole God thing).  But that's not enough.  We can trust in God, but is that enough?  What if we discern God's leading wrong?  What if we don't stay faithful to the leading?  Are we then faithless?  I guess that's where grace comes in......hmmm...grace...now what's that mean???