FAMILIAR FAITH

 "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor."

Matthew 13:55-57 (NIV)

                One of my best friends grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, at the very beginning of the north shore of Lake Superior. If you love the outdoors, the north shore of Lake Superior is one of the most amazing places on earth. The beauty and awe of this wilderness area are breathtaking. My friend was very familiar with the north shore, but he didn’t love it, at least as a youth. Like many of his friends, he could hardly wait to move to someplace more exciting.

                For many of us who grew up in church, our faith experience is like growing up on the north shore. We are familiar with all of the Bible stories but we don’t love them. We have heard sermons preached at us all our lives. But our faith seems dull and boring. There are so many things out in the world that seem much more exciting.

                We have all heard the proverb, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” Familiarity is one of the greatest barriers to maturing in our faith. We know just enough about our faith to make us complacent and unmotivated. In a broad sense, familiarity with the truths of the Bible has fostered a general distain in our society. Familiarity does not equate with understanding, which is the basic problem.

                When Jesus visited his hometown of Nazareth, the people took offense at him because they saw him as just the carpenter’s son. They discounted what they had heard about Jesus, because they thought they knew him. Consequently, Matthew tells us that Jesus could not do many miracles in their midst. I wonder if one of the reasons that we don’t see more amazing things happening in the church today is because we are too familiar with Jesus.

                There is a commercial on TV right now promoting the NHL. One of the lines from the commercial goes something like this. “Did you think you have seen all that there is to see?” I think that is a good question for those of us who call ourselves Christians. Do we think we have seen all there is to see when it comes to our faith? Has our faith become rote and stale? Are we complacent because we are familiar with the truths of the Bible but we don’t really understand and apply them?

                It is essential for us to move beyond a rudimentary understanding of our faith to a vital, energized embracing of our faith. It is not enough to be familiar with the stories in the Bible. Instead, we need to dig deeper into the meaning and impact of those stories.

                Matthew 13 is a series of parables told by Jesus. His disciples came to him and asked why he taught in parables. This is how he answered.

He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: "'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.' But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
Matthew 13:11-17 (NIV)

                There were many in Jesus’ day who were content to settle for a superficial understanding of Jesus’ teaching. Their familiarity blinded them to the deeper truths. But those who had the eyes to see and the ears to hear understood that there was far more to what Jesus was saying than met the eye at first. Still today, those who are willing to dig deeper will be rewarded and those who settle for mere familiarity will fade.

                Paul was unwilling to settle for being familiar with Jesus. He wanted to know Jesus in the deepest ways possible. So, he was willing to do the hard work of gaining wisdom and understanding.

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians 3:10-11 (NIV)

                There are times when I read the Bible and I don’t really see the words any more. I am so familiar with what is being said that I just gloss over it. I have been convicted about this. I have made a new commitment to dig deeper, and to not settle for being familiar with the truth. Like Paul, I want to continually press on toward the goal of knowing Christ fully and completely.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
Philippians 3:12-16 (NIV)