Faith Is Nurtured Here?
A few years back a university sent a poster to Zion with the words “Faith is nurtured here” encircled by a collage of pictures. The pictures included (clockwise beginning from the top) the profile of a girl receiving ashes on her forehead (though you could not see what the ashes depicted), students around a campfire holding unlit candles held in folded hands, a young man painting (looking closely after flipping the poster upside down one can see he is painting the Greek letters Alpha and Omega), two students reading together an unidentifiable book, two other students who appear to be singing while holding a piece of paper in what appears to be a chapel, the back of a student playing an organ with stained glass windows in the background, a profile of a person smirking, two female students with lit candles, and two students who appear to be serving soup, with one of the students having ashes in the shape of a cross on her forehead.
Putting the best construction on it, the message showed ways students could serve in some capacity as students at that university. The title, however, was misleading. Faith is not nurtured by those means. Faith could be expressed by those means. Assuming each of those students depicted had true faith, for without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6), the pictures could represent a living faith that expresses itself in works. Faith apart from works is dead (Js 2:26) after all.
Just for fun, what university do you think made this poster? A Christian might make godly assumptions about it, but none of the pictures depicted any clear confession of Christianity or Lutheranism for that matter, let alone how God actually nurtures faith, particularly a Christian faith. The letters Alpha and Omega, while often used by Christians reflecting what John records in Revelation about God being the first and the last, could also simply be a fraternity house or something secular. The ash cross on the young gal serving soup certainly is a Christian symbol, but there’s nothing sacramental about receiving ashes. In fact, it’s not even commanded by God in Scripture. The two students singing in what appears to be a chapel could be Jews in a Synagogue or Muslims in a mosque.
The point of this month’s Newsletter is to get us thinking deeper about “faith language.” It is important to define the terms we use when talking about the Christian faith. It is equally as important for us to consider and discern the definitions other people use when talking about faith. When a Christian, and particularly in this case a Lutheran sees the words “Faith is nurtured here”, we immediately rejoice assuming the truthfulness of those words and also thank God the opposite isn’t true: that “Faith is destroyed here!”
But if the university who sent us that poster was truly committed to their motto, they should have been much clearer in expressing how faith is nurtured there. There could have been pictures of the Means of Grace, perhaps a pastor preaching from the pulpit holding a Bible in his hand, a college student getting baptized at the Font, or the Lord’s Supper being celebrated during a Divine Service on campus. At a bare minimum, Jesus would be on it – and more than just an obscure, tiny, upside down Alpha and Omega or an ash cross!
We need to be bold and clear in our confession. Recently at the District Convention, there was an overture on In-Vitro Fertilization. It was unclear. The questions and comments on the floor made that obvious. The overture was sent back to the floor committee and they re-presented it a few hours later. It was much clearer and concise. I whispered to a pastor and our lay delegate, “Calling it now – it will pass 95%!” Sure enough, 95.3% voted in favor of rejecting IVF. The point is, it never would have passed as a vague overture. Bold and clear is the best way to confess Christ Jesus. Christians will rally around that. Jesus is always clear in His Word. We need to be clear in our Confession. Christ nurtures faith by the means of grace. Faith is expressed by the works Christians do. The poster referenced above comingled Law and Gospel. Imagine the student who believed his faith was nurtured by doing acts of service. It would lead to confessing salvation comes by works apart from faith, rather than confessing “we are justified by faith apart from works of the Law” (Rom 3:28)! May God grant us always to be clear in our confession that we might lead others to true faith, which is nurtured through Word and Sacrament!
In Christ, Pastor Hromowyk