Habakkuk 2:1-4, Galatians 3:6-9, John 3:13-17

The Gospel text for today is very familiar, and yet you might have noticed that the words were not quite as you remembered them. You heard, from the Revised English Bible: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that everyone who has faith in him may not perish but have eternal life." You might have expected to hear, from the Revised Standard Version: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

In the more recent translation we are called to have faith in the Son of God rather than to believe in him, if by "believing in him" we mean believing certain things about him, because Jesus did not call us to belief but to faith. It is a misunderstanding of the original Greek text of John, and indeed of the entire New Testament, to think that we are saved by our beliefs. Faith-that is trusting in God-not belief leads to eternal life.

Faith and belief may be easily confused because in English the noun "faith" does not have its own form as a verb but shares the verb believe with the noun" belief"; whereas in New Testament Greek the word for faith, pistis, has its own verb form, pisteuo. The significance of this has grown in the twentieth century as believing has come to imply belief, that is having certain ideas about something, rather than faith, which means trusting or entrusting oneself. John's gospel in Greek is filled with references to the verb faith, but in the Revised Standard Version we read only of believing. Therefore, to clarify the meaning of the original Greek text, the more recent Revised English Version of the Bible often translates Greek verb constructions for faith with phrases such as "to have faith" or "to trust," rather than with the English verb "believe."

It is clear from both the Old and New Testaments that we are called to live in faith. For instance, in Habakkuk 2:4 we hear that the "righteous will live by being faithful," and Paul writes in Galatians 3:9 that "it is those with faith who share the blessing (of God) with faithful Abraham." In the King James and Revised Standard Versions of the Bible the noun "belief" appears only once, whereas the noun "faith" is used over and over again particularly in the New Testament. Thus we must assume that whenever we encounter the verb "believe" in the Bible, as we often do especially in the New Testament, it refers to having faith rather than to holding a belief.

For Paul, and for the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, Abraham is the great example of faith. Yet Abraham does not share the beliefs we think are necessary for faith. There is no evidence in Genesis that he has any belief in the Son of God, and no one has ever suggested that Abraham affirmed the doctrines of the trinity and the incarnation. As Paul reminds us, referring to Genesis 15:6, Abraham "put his faith in God, and that faith was counted to him as righteousness." (Gal. 3:6)

This simple fact, that faith is trusting in God and not having certain beliefs about God, is what brings me to engage in interfaith dialogue. If Abraham were here, I would certainly want to learn more about faith from him, even though I expect he would not share all my beliefs. Similarly, I know that I can learn about what it means to be faithful from the descendants of Abraham-from Jews, who trace their descent through Isaac, and from Muslims, who trace their descent through Ishmael-and from all those who because they have faith, as we read in Galatians 3:7, are children of Abraham. (Gal. 3:7) From my own experience I believe this may include persons of faith who have no belief in God, such as most Buddhists and many humanists.

Let me give you an example. A year ago I attended an early morning meditation service in a Buddhist temple in Seoul. During the chant and silent meditation I sang Psalms to myself and prayed. Afterwards, while I was drinking tea with two Buddhist nuns, they began to play music that I recognized as Gregorian chant. When I asked them about it, they said Roman Catholic friends had given them the tape. Together in silence we enjoyed (and were inspired by) this beautiful music of faith-I as a Christian and they as Buddhists.

This example is interesting because it shows that the language we use to distinguish members of one religious community from another often obscures the fact that faith is shared among persons of different religious traditions. Even as Buddhists enrich their spiritual life with Christian music, so Christians benefit from reading Buddhist texts. Hindus are challenged by the life of Buddha, and Muslims acknowledge Jesus as a prophet. Whatever our religious background, we can all learn from one another.

Today many of us are acquainted with persons of other religious traditions. Perhaps you have Jewish, or Muslim, or Hindu, or Sikh, or Buddhist friends, and they have shared their faith with you, in words or through music or in some other way. And perhaps you have shared your faith with them. Or you may have children who participate in a different faith community and you have chosen to attend religious services with them.

The wonderful woman my father married after the death of my mother was first confronted with this challenge to her faith by her eldest daughter, who married a Roman Catholic. As a staunch Presbyterian, Betty found this very difficult to accept, but out of love for her daughter and young grandson she began at times to go to mass with them. When her second daughter married a Jew and converted, she soon found herself joining in their worship and prayer in the synagogue. Her love for her daughters was stronger than her belief that Jews, as well as Catholics, were simply wrong about God. Moreover, her faith grew stronger, as she worshipped with Roman Catholics and Jews as well as Presbyterians.

Does this mean that beliefs are unimportant? No, not at all! Our beliefs give us a way of affirming and communicating our faith and may strengthen our faith by making it more cogent or more compelling. But our beliefs are not faith, and other beliefs that differ from ours may serve others as well as our beliefs serve us. Many Christians hold this view about Christians of other denominations. Many at least entertain the possibility that Methodists and Anglicans and Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians participate in the saving grace of God in Christ, despite their different beliefs.

It is, of course, harder to believe that people who are not Christians might be saved. But if Abraham is the model of faith for Christians, than salvation cannot hinge on holding the right beliefs about Jesus. A close reading of the gospels shows that with parables, through healing, and by accepting death upon the cross, Jesus teaches faith in God. Faith in him is a way of having faith in God.

In the gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke we read that the disciples of Jesus have "little faith." These gospels present as examples of "great faith" men and women who are not even of the Jewish tradition, such as the Canaanite woman who begs for healing for her possessed daughter (Mt. 15:28), the Roman centurion who asks Jesus to give the order to heal his servant (Lk. 7:9), and the Samaritan leper who is cured (Lk. 17:19). Presumably their beliefs, no matter how uninformed or erroneous, were no barrier to their faith.

So we can proclaim that all who have faith in Jesus the Christ may have eternal life because the scriptures attest that this is a way to the God who saves. But we cannot say that those who know God without knowing Jesus, or who trust in a teacher other than Jesus, or who have faith in the teachings of Jesus but refuse to affirm his divinity, or who turn to scriptures other than the Christian Bible, are necessarily shut off from the saving grace of God. We cannot conclude that they are outside the salvation in Christ, because the gospel proclaims that Christ has redeemed the whole world.

Their salvation and ours is God's gracious gift. The faith that saves is the result of God's grace, which is freely given and is not a reward for good behavior or for correct beliefs. We are not saved by keeping the law, or by doing good works, or by adhering to church doctrine. In Christ, we are saved by the love of God.

This is the good news of the gospel! As John's gospel reminds us, we are free in the Spirit, which "blows where it wills" (Jn. 3:8). For we are called to worship God "in spirit and in truth" (Jn. 4:24). And where "the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (II Cor. 3:17). Amen.