Texts: 2 Sam 5:1-5, 9-10; Ps 48; 2 Cor 12:2-10; Mark 6:1-13 

One day she came to see me in private. She told me that she had never been baptized, and wanted to feel completely part of the church which had provided such comfort and meaning in the most terrible of times. Would I baptize her? Yes, I would—following appropriate preparation.

Our first session was a truly remarkable experience—for both of us, I believe. We began by reading the first article of the Apostles’ Creed:

We read the sentence, and then I asked her two questions:

"Do you believe this?"

She answered, "Yes, of course…"

The conversation that followed was a remarkable exploration into how belief in God was visible in her life. As in many such events, I left having learned as least as much as did the one I was supposed to be teaching.

Many people believe in God—a huge majority of Canadians, if a recent survey in Maclean’s Magazine is to be believed. Almost as many profess to "believe in Christ."

But then we go and ask that awkward question: "What difference does it make?" How does belief in God and in Jesus as the Christ—God’s anointed one—make a difference in our lives?

Certainly unbelief can make a difference, as among the people in that synagogue in Nazareth. Good 1^st-century Jews, they practiced their religion faithfully, and hoped for the day when God would send the Messiah—the anointed one—to save them and to restore the kingdom. They could not believe that this local boy could be anything more than the carpenter they had always known him to be.

There is nothing uniquely Christian about believing in a Messiah, a person sent to deliver, to bring relief, to set a people free. Seeking messiahs is not even confined to religious communities, but is common in political groups. What is uniquely Christian is the affirmation "I believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah (Christ)."

The Christian affirmation gives particularity to the general belief in God’s salvation. It locates God’s action not in some cosmic event "out there," but in real flesh and blood human beings involved in real historic events, from when Abraham set out from his home, to the death of Jesus on the cross, continuing to this day in the ministry of the faithful.

Christians read the Bible to find out about God and what God is like. What do we find there? We don’t find a philosophical treatise or a theological dissertation or even a scientific analysis, but a varied collection of stories and other writings, mostly telling us how God acted and interacted with human beings in particular situations. The Church has reflected on these stories for centuries, in the very important undertaking we call theology, but let us never forget that the primary source of our theology is story.

The Bible story reveals a God who acts in particular situations, in particular ways, with particular human beings. God may have been the great king of Israel, but he nonetheless exercised that kingship through human kings, as we heard David called to rule over the whole kingdom.

We learn of God not as a philosophical idea, but as the creator of all, who nonetheless calls us into relationship with him and his creatures, to find our strength in him, as Paul found strength in his weakness, through the cross.

We learn of God as one who calls us to live in this particular world and to help make it a better place. We hear of God as one who works his continuing salvation through human agency. His great act of salvation came through one man—Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter scorned by his own people, who responded by sending out others to carry on and expand his mission.

Our belief is in Jesus as God’s chosen and anointed one, who calls us in to hear the word, feeds us with his body and blood, and sends us forth to be his hands and feet and voice in this world. As St. Teresa of Avila wrote:

We go from this place today in the knowledge that God calls every one of us to ministry in the world—ministry that will be undertaken in particular situations, with particular people, with particular needs.