Faith is not knowledge. . .

A friend said that faith is not a data dump.  That seems to me where we have lost much of our way in catechesis.  Instead of incorporating people into a discipline, an order, a worldview, and a way of life, we have imparted knowledge.  It shows up in confirmation more than other places where we open the minds of our youth and dump in knowledge and then judge them faithful and ready to receive the Lord's Supper when they can regurgitate to us what we put in them in the first place.  That is how it was when I was confirmed.

Now, let me first say that I am not suggesting that memorizing some things is not important.  Of course, it is a part of catechesis and preparation for Holy Communion but it is not the primary or the only thing.  If you look at Luther's questions and answers on page 329 in Lutheran Service Book, you find that the information imparted there is not information about something but the practical information that affects who the person communing is and who they are as they depart from the Lord's Table.  It is about faith -- the trust that is the beating heart of our relationship with God.

Faith is not simply knowledge but it is a way of life, marked by trust and reflected in a life worthy of the person God says we are.  It is a way of holiness in which goodness and righteousness are not theoretical anymore but the practical stuff of our daily lives.  Read through St. Paul and you constantly encounter this.  Walk worthy...  Be transformed...  Live holy lives... Put off your old self...  We are the live the holy life of faith that belongs to us as the children of God.  None of this earns us anything as regards our salvation but all of this marks us as those whom God has redeemed.  Look at the verbs.  The verbs that address salvation and justification address us with what God has done and we have done nothing -- not even believe.  But the verbs that address sanctification call on us to do something and to be something.

Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  Romans 12:1:  I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice….”

We cannot earn anything of God's favor.  Duh.  If you don't get this out of Scripture, you are not reading Scripture.  But that does not mean God relieves us of any effort on our part to live as the people of His favor.  You could reduce all of St. Paul's letters to a short booklet if you removed all that he wrote regarding the effort we should put forth to be the holy people God has declared us to be.  It is not only about justification.  The freedom we have in Christ is not a license to do as we please (as if the Law or the Commandments meant nothing more to us) and that freedom does not allow us the option of doing nothing.  Faith is not simply about knowledge of what God has done but it is also about what you and I do in response to that mercy and because He is merciful.

We do not do things for God's notice but because God notices we do things.  Is this not the meaning of Jesus warnings about an outward show without an inward faith?  Jesus does not let us off the hook -- no fasting or praying or works of mercy.  Instead He tells us that when we do these, we cannot do them simply for the recognition of others (including God) but as a reflection of our faith and as the outpouring of the Spirit's work in us and through us.   This is at least as much a part of true catechesis as is the part about what God has done for us and why.  But we Lutherans have a knee-jerk reaction to anything that might suggest we need to expend any effort on anything -- including going to Church!  And then we wonder why our catechesis is not helping to keep our people in the Church.  

We think that if we can answer the questions rightly before the pearly gates, the doors will open to us.  But faith is not simply knowledge.  It is the way of life of those who know God's goodness and who seek by the help of the Spirit to be good.  When God judges those who have done well and those who have done evil, it does not mean works earn us our place in heaven.  But if James is correct and faith without works is dead, then works are a sign of faith and give testament to the work of God in us.  I honestly do not understand why this is so hard. Neither do I understand why we are comforted in any way by the fact that Christians seem to live no holier lives than non-Christians.  Unless we think that the only thing that marks faith is forgiveness.  Again, how can you come to this conclusion and read St. Paul?