The Heart of the Community

Hebrews 11:1-3

From the first century CE to the twenty-first century, the community that became known as the church, the Body of Christ on earth, has been peculiar. And, if you don’t like that word, let’s use “unique.” Not better than any other … but different. From Christ’s Peace to our call to serve – and so be a part of transforming – the world, to our connectionism that orders and defines us in particular ways to serve the universal Way, we are different. And we’re not done exploring why, yet. This morning, the last Sunday in August, we engage perhaps the most critical element of our peculiar community. This morning, we get to the heart of our community: Faith.

Let’s pray …

And let’s begin this way:  Faith is not belief.

I’ve had at least three different openings to this sermon message, three different beginnings. Next time I preach it, I’ll probably have another (or three others). But this morning, there it is. As we engage this unique feature, this peculiar characteristic of the community we have given so much of our life to, we begin by stating that faith is not belief.

That may or may not be confusing for you to hear. If it is confusing, it’s probably because one of the most common understandings of the word “faith” in the United States means holding a certain set of “beliefs”, “believing” a set of statements to be true. And I’ll bet most people – both outside and inside the church – think that Christian faith means mostly believing a set of Christian “beliefs” to be true: believing that there is a God, believing that the Bible is the revelation of God, and believing that Jesus is the Son of GOD and that he died for our sins. And there’s more (get ready to be challenged):

Believing that the Bible is the inerrant Word of GOD; believing in Genesis rather than evolution; believing that Jesus was born of a virgin, that he walked on water and raised the dead; believing that he, himself, was raised from the dead in a physical bodily form and that he will come again someday in that physical body; believing in infant baptism rather than adult baptism; believing in the rapture or believing in heaven and hell. You get it.

In England the world “believer” is a synonym for Christian: Are you a believer?” means “Are you a Christian?”

Affirming the “right” set of beliefs matters to a very good number of Christians. But this preoccupation with “believing”, and with understanding faith as “belief”, turns Christianity into a “head matter”. Faith becomes primarily a matter of the beliefs in your head – of whether you believe the right set of claims to be true. But faith is the way of the heart, not the way of the head. And Faith, more properly understood, is the heart of this community, the Church.

Listen for the Word of God from Hebrews, chapter eleven, verses one through three. Read Hebrews 11:1-3. The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to GOD.

These are some of the most quoted verses of Scripture. This chapter in the Book of Hebrews goes on to provide some of paradigms of Faith – Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and other Israelite heroes – before coming to Jesus, himself, in chapter twelve the “pioneer and perfector of our faith.” ^{Heb. 12:2}  But what does that mean? That Jesus “believed” the most things? Of course not. Faith is much more.

Faith is Trust – a radical trust in the reality we call GOD. Not trusting in a set of truths about GOD, that’s just “belief” expressed in a different way. No … faith as trusting Love, sacrifice, compassion, hope, promise as the Way to full life and the only things that will save the world. Faith as trust is like floating in a deep ocean, Soren Kierkegaard said. If you struggle, if you tense up and thrash about, you will eventually sink. But if you relax and trust, you’ll float. (Think of Matthew’s story of Peter walking on the water with Jesus – it was when he lost trust that he began to sink.^{Mt. 14:30} Whether that story actually happened or not, it’s true.) Faith is trusting in the “sea”, the GOD in which we live and move and have our being. Jesus did so perfectly, we confess.

Faith is also Fidelity. It is loyalty, allegiance, and commitment at its deepest levels, its “heart” levels. Faith means paying attention to our relationship with GOD and not straying. We “have faith”, then, as we gather to worship, sing, and pray, and as we live a life of compassion and justice. There’s an ethical imperative to this “heart of the matter”, in fidelity. We have faith. And so, we live faithfully – in fidelity to the will of GOD. Jesus did so perfectly, we confess. We are called to live in fidelity, faithful, to the Way of Jesus.

Finally, faith is a “way of seeing”. It’s curious even as Hebrews notes that faith “is the conviction of things not seen,” it’s helpful to think of faith as a “way of seeing,” of seeing the whole, of seeing “what is”. How do you “view” the world and your life?

Some people see reality as hostile and threatening. They are anxious about getting hurt. They fear death and so they don’t live. Is that you? I don’t think so.

Others see reality, life, as indifferent. This world, life itself, is not “out to get us.” It’s just indifferent to our desires, our purposes, our hopes. These people may be less anxious and paranoid, but their way of seeing leads to a life that is concerned primarily for themselves and those important to them. Is that you? Again, I don’t think so.

But (surprise, surprise) there is a third way we can see “what is”. Through our faith – through our trust in and fidelity to something More. That’s you. That’s us. This is the heart of our community

Faith is a “way of seeing” the world as life-giving and nourishing, filled with wonder and beauty, even if sometimes a terrible beauty. Faith, our “way of seeing”, allows us a totally different response to life than ones that are always anxious and paranoid, or self-centered and tribally bound. It allows us to go beyond ourselves, leading us to the kind of life we “see” in Jesus – the “perfector of our faith”. Our faith isn’t naïve. Don’t fall into that trap or allow others to get away with telling you that. It recognizes all that is wrong – the powers and principalities of this present darkness, the people and policies working against Love and compassion, and hope. Jesus was well aware and intimately acquainted with the “evil” of this world. He simply and insistently wouldn’t let death – in any of its forms – have the last word. Neither will we. That’s how we see it. 

The heart of this peculiar community, the odd little one nestled here into Pewee Valley, and the larger one that is the Church Universal, is Faith. It is far more than belief. It is trust in GOD. It is fidelity to Christ. It is a way of seeing the world that allows the Spirit to sanctify our lives and all creation, in the midst of all that is wrong, so we can change things.

Now, let’s finish by returning to “belief”. I was a bit hard on it as I began. But belif has its place. In a few moments, after the amen and a hymn of celebration, we are going to remain standing to affirm our faith together, to “say what we believe” using one of the oldest creeds of Christianity. The Apostle’s Creed, and others like it, are called “creeds” because of the Latin word that begins the recitation: Credo. Credo is most commonly translated as “I believe”. And many Christians, even some of us, have difficulty with the creeds because, as we’ve already noted, you think you’re saying “I believe” means giving your mental assent to the literal truth of each statement. We use “I believe” as language of the head. So, let’s address that.

The most literal translation of the Latin roots of the word Credo combine to mean “I give my heart to.” This is the language of devotion. It is clear that our ancestors' generations ago meant this confession to confess that “we hold dear,” “we trust in”, “we give our loyalty to,” “we give ourselves to” … God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit. This is language of the heart, of devotion, of commitment.

It is written out that way in this morning’s bulletin. It may throw those of us who have the Apostle’s Creed memorized from years and years of confession. If that you, try reading it this morning and feel how your heart may engage more fully as you confess.

Faith is the way of the heart, not of the head. Faith is the heart of this community. Let’s sing before we affirm that faith again this morning. Amen.

Reverend Joel Weible, Pastor

Pewee Valley Presbyterian Church / August 30, 2026