As a fan of the American television serial, \’The West Wing\’ I was recently watching again an episode entitled, \’Shibboleth\’, in which the President has to resolve the dilemma of giving asylum to a group of persecuted Chinese Christians while not offending the Chinese government. He is aware that some asylum seekers pretend to have a faith in order to achieve their goal and so he interviews the leader of the group – hence the use of the word \’Shibboleth\’ the pronunciation of which in the Old Testament was a test of the true Jew. At one point in the interview, after the President has quizzed him about naming the apostles, the Chinese Christian says this:
\’Mr. President, Christianity is not demonstrated through a recitation of facts. You\’re seeking evidence of faith, a wholehearted acceptance of God\’s promise for a better world. “For we hold that man is justified by faith alone” is what St. Paul said. “Justified by faith alone.” Faith is the true . . . uh, I\’m trying to . . . shibboleth. Faith is the true shibboleth.\’
I was struck by the definition of faith as \’a wholehearted acceptance of God\’s promise for a better world.\’ It is not as far as I can tell a quotation – it was produced by the script writers for this episode. The situation is also a powerful one – how would we define faith in similar circumstances?
The President happens to be a Christian himself – a Roman Catholic – but it may be that his Chinese guest does not know that. Therefore his definition of faith is one which could at least in part be readily understood by anyone – it is a reflection on Scripture not a quotation from Scripture or from a theologian. It is also a definition which invites further discussion.
What would a better world look like? How might God bring that about? What evidence is there for believing that this is what God promises? What might it mean for someone wholeheartedly to accept this? And having had that discussion we might then be in a position to explore what St Paul means by being \’justified by faith alone.\’
This interview is being conducted in the Oval Office where Presidents might be assumed to be people who are committed to working for a better world – yet many of the episodes of \’The West Wing\’ set out to show how difficult that can be even for a \’superpower.\’ Faith therefore may have something to do with believing against the evidence and against the odds that it is both possible and worthwhile to work for a better world.
Perhaps the first step into growing up as a human being involves making the decision that you wish to lead a life which is not just for you, for your family and friends. The first step towards faith is concern for the stranger and his or her well being. And having made that step you then discover the difficulty and the demand involved in such a concern. You have to ask yourself, \’Can I really make a difference or is it a pointless exercise?\’
There is enough anxiety involved in the belief that you can protect and care for the people you know and love – why extend the circle of that anxiety? Somewhere along this path you face the challenge of hope. The world may refer to optimists and pessimists, to cynics and realists and idealists, but in the end the fundamental question is about hope, hope for whom and hope for what and how far does that hope extend? What does it mean to lead a life in which confidence is based not on what you have already achieved and gained, but on a commitment to working for something which you individually can never achieve but which you believe to be worthwhile – working therefore for something against the odds?
Such a commitment must be based on vision – a vision which you discover in yourself and through others, through what inspires you. The Chinese Christian refers to \’a better world\’. He could have said, \’God\’s promise of the best world,\’ – that after all is the vision which Scripture holds out when it refers to heaven and to the kingdom of God. And yet Scripture does not provide a blue print for such a world – its vision is made up of hints and glimpses, of poetry and song, of parables and moral challenges.
And that might lead us to ask how we become wholehearted in our commitment to a better world, having decided that that is what hopefully we want to work for? Are practical goals, strategies, and plans of action enough? They may be necessary but are they sufficient? We may see clearly how certain things may be made better, but often improvement can only be achieved by the radical suggestion, the vision which provides the energy to work for something of which you cannot see the end. Commitment to working for a better world may only be sustained wholeheartedly by a vision of the best world.
And at that point you may realise that a vision of the best world can only be revealed, it cannot be worked out. Such a vision is a gift; it is given to you by generations of wise and courageous and inspired members of a community of wholehearted faith, who themselves believe that this vision is not theirs but the gift of God. To have a life sustaining vision which can inspire you to work with all the frustrating details of daily life, means depending on and trusting in a source of energy, courage, and inspiration from outside and beyond yourself. And yet at the same time that external source is nevertheless at work deep inside you, working in ways which you cannot control but which may sometimes surprise you.
And that is beginning to sound like Paul\’s language of being \’justified by faith alone.\’ Paul\’s language of justification may be hard to fathom but its starting point must have to do with believing that there is a source within us upon which we are wholly dependent for living a life which might at its end be greeted with the words, \’Well done, thou good and faithful servant.\’ To which we can only respond, \’Thine be the glory.\’
The Vicar writes
Stephen Tucker