Spiritual Hiccups - I Don't Care if You Believe in God

A number of my Facebook friends have said they like a page called,  "Let's see if there are 5 million people on FB who believe in God!  Press Like if you do!"  If they need me to make it to 5 million, they're going to come up short.  Not that I don't believe in God.  But all sorts of people believe in God.  In fact, the vast majority of people believe in God.  But for many of those it just doesn't make a great deal of difference in how they live their lives.  And for another sizable group, it makes a great deal of difference, but in ways that are harmful and destructive.

A couple of today's readings speak to this.  Job's three friends believe in God.  In fact, they haves spent much of the book defending God to Job, insisting that Job accept his fate as just punishment from God.  But God says to Eliphaz, one of these friends, "My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has."  So according to God, Job, who has shaken his fist at God and demanded God give account for his unjust suffering, has spoken "what is right."  But those who have spouted the conventional rhetoric of religious belief earn God's anger.

To my ear, a great many religious folks sound a lot like Job's friends.  And so it seems their religious belief may not be all that pleasing to God.

In the gospel reading today Jesus says, "Those who love their life lose it."  Nearly everyone we meet in the New Testament gospels believes in God, many of them fervently.  But this matters little to Jesus.  Jesus wants to know if their lives conform to God's ways, if they would choose to suffer and even die for God's cause. 

I saw a bumper sticker on a car yesterday that said simply, "Trust Jesus."  I have no idea what the driver meant by this.  But I know a lot of people who mean, "I believe in Jesus so I get to go to heaven."  But it seems to me that trusting Jesus should mean trusting in and doing what he tells us. That includes things such as loving your enemy, giving to all who ask from you, taking up the cross, teaching others to do everything Jesus commands, and a great many other things many of us like to ignore.

If you believe in God (and you probably wouldn't be reading this if you didn't), that's great.  But if that's the extent of your "faith," I'm not sure it matters very much.  The world doesn't need more believers.  It needs more disciples, people who follow Jesus and do as he says.  But I'm not sure you can really cover that with a Facebook page.

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