Eric’s Sunday Sermon; “I Believe In You.”

Please believe in today. Please believe in every day. And please just believe in something.

Happy 21^st of July to you. What a very special day it is. I cannot believe it has been a whole year since the last July 21st. Strange that it has no holiday attached to it. Around here I believe we have some special deals planned.

It was during one of those do nothing times I believe that my son and I were talking about believing. See how you can sneak that word in is so many contexts, at least I believe you can.

So is believing really interchangeable with thinking? I kind of believe it is. (I have got to stop saying believing, it is making me nuts like a bad jingle ;-) Think or believe about it for a moment.

A scientist thinks and a preacher believes. But a cop has to believe there is probable cause to make an arrest and a doctor thinks he believes you have arthritis. “I believe in the big bang theory, evolution and atheism”. Well Karl Marx believed in communism. Does belief work that way?

During my son and I having a conversation about belief it started with me saying “you can only believe in God”? So obviously wrong. Or was it? “But dad I believe in you!”

If you as a reader are not going bonkers about this unbelievable start to a sermon then you already are bonkers. I just love that term. But if you read these sermons I have to believe you are bonkers. Around here we say “Loco”. And someone wrote “Livin’ La Vida Loca”. Now it just might be said you need to go all living the loca in order to stop believing and start going away from thinking in order to believe.

Seldom done but in the Sermon I demand on a conclusion. Now if you know me you know I do not tell what to think but rather what to think about. I ain’t got your brain.

“If you cannot believe stop thinking. If you cannot think then stop believing”. That quote is from a very wise man. I fully believe that if you get lost in rhythm and song and harmony your soul just might be free from thinking and believing. And that is a great space. (do not drive or operate machinery until you are danged sure how this affects you)

In writing here I am refusing to look up the words. I believe that is best sometimes. There are advertisements I get for what is “Grammarly” I believe. Now to my understanding this is some kind of writing tool. From what I have heard college students use it to write papers. Now I believe that is really scary. Imagine in a court of law. “Now sir did you write this letter complaining about this breach of contract?” The witness boldly pronounces that he did. Of course on cross examination the lawyer asks who helped him write the letter. “No One!” the sir exclaims. The wise attorney asks him several innocuous questions in order to get full sentence replies. The judge and jury start rolling their eyes at this witness’s horrible and deplorable grammar. “Now good sir it is quite clear that you are nearly illiterate, so I ask again who helped you write this demand letter”. “No one”. Of course no one believes him and so he loses his case. A machine helped him but he believed that was him.

“Fine lady who or what helped you pray?”. “No one”. Well who did you pray to? “I prayed to God”. Who do you believe God is? Now we see this illustration as that no answer is right or wrong. In and of itself a belief cannot be wrong. Isn’t that cool! Think about how funny it is that a dad says to his son that he cannot believe that. See how we twisted that? Who does the Dad think “he” is, the boy or the dad? I wonder what version you believe – or maybe both. I would have to put it in better context in order for you to believe which version is correct.

So how we think about belief requires context. Now our home is a mixed conglomerate of spiritual notions and each must be put in context. Our resident mom/wife believes in luck. But not really. Her context is in doing things properly. She transfers and translates lessons learned and results by following through on them as luck. And she also believes certain things bring us luck. This is deeply rooted in her Southern Asian land of birth. That is all to the good. Nothing negative there unless you act unlucky. So she uses this power of believing in luck to get us to get chores done.

Now our son does not “believe” in luck. Now I believe that if believing in luck associates with believing in doing things right it is a good belief. I like the notion of Karma. I believe in the power of doing things right will yield unbelievably good results. My head is spinning. Time for me to go garden a bit as I believe working outside yields a good garden. Plus I “think” it cures my craziness for a time.

I believe that smashing plates and dancing crazy on Crete has changed me. Back to the mom and wife. She is a devout and a fairly well learned Christian. But she believes in ancestor worship. Now these may be strange to so many but our point is that words do not nearly translate well enough. Believe me.

Fine Catholics do some praying. Many and many a time they seem to pray “to” saints. Perhaps some do and that is sorrowful. They really probably should be asking to a saint. Believe in God and ask others to pray for you. That is how we give saints and ancestors to share our need for love. My wife and son and I pray for each other and often through each other. I figure that is like whenever two or more are gathered in his name. Grandpa prays with me each day yet gone since the 60’s. Grandpa only really prayed in the hull of a ship that was being shelled by the Germans. I do not think I can even believe that. It is beyond me.

So I do receive questions from time to time. You see my son asked me and I replied that I have read the whole Bible over 10 times and all of the New Testament over 40 times. But I do not believe in it. I just cannot bring myself to believe in a written word. However I firmly believe in the Trinity it describes. “Eric, just what the heck do you even believe in?” My friends ask. And the answer is always the same. “I believe in love”. There is no other God and there is no other faith. If you wake up in that morn and love the day, I believe you are in God and God is in you. I believe that if you love another you are praying to God. I believe that I cannot believe except in love (read that both ways). Crazy as all that sounds.

I have no calling except to love. If I preach I do not believe. If I teach I do not believe yet if I love I both teach and preach. Belief in love oozes from our pores. It need not be believed it must be shared. I believe I love you.

“Hey doc. my hands really hurt when I am climbing rope up a cliff” “So stop climbing rope up a cliff”. That is not an option doc. “So neither is the hurt”. “so how about some medicine” “Sure thing, as soon as you stop climbing rope up a cliff”. I believe in my doc. I believe in the hurt.