Sunday, March 08, 2009

Faith...the nounverb problem

Noun: according to Bob Jones, Northside Bible Church, Jacksonville Florida
http://www.biblefood.com/form.html

Verb: is preferred according to Rev. Steven B. Smethers DD

Both (transitive verb and noun): Merriam-Webster and the Rev. Charlie Foss.

Today's sermon was on Faith. If you where not there, you will have to take it on faith that we heard a good sermon, 12 minutes in length, which brought in all the readings for today and an anecdotal story to boot. The only weakness was when Charlie said he didn't know if his story was a Christian one. I have faith that it was.

The story involved a spontaneous act of pastoral kindness occuring in a healing service at a Christian church. The pastor was moved to hug and cry along with a man who was in pain. Okay, the location, the people involved all sound like Christians. The act sounded a Christian response to me, but some might argue that it is a human response to another suffering human. This type of response may be an uncommon one as evidenced by this video of the old man struck by a car.



Most people did not rush to his side. Doesn't it take a leap of faith to forget yourself for a moment and care for another person. Does faith in God have anything to do with it? Does one have to be a Christian? Couldn't one be a Samaritan?

My question is this, if the Samaritan was a good neighbor, is the Samaritan saved?

3 comments:

  1. If the Samaritan is a Presbyterian, the question is irrelevant.

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  2. Are you referring to the "frozen chosen" stereotype?

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  3. Yup---the predestination crowd---if it feels good, do it because your fate is already sealed. In some ways, they are the theological precursors of the modern moral relativists.

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