In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
“What do I have to believe,” I ponder to myself, “to be a member of the Church?” And I turn to the Creed, to books, to Ecumenical Councils, to writings, to the Fathers—if so inclined I may even turn to the Bible—to find what is at the heart, the core, of our Faith. “What do I minimally have to believe to enter the Kingdom?”
A certain young man came to the Lord. We have to assume he came honestly—he is not identified as one of the Lawyers or Scribes who came testing Christ—and he asked him, “Good Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” He knew the Law, “All these I have observed,” he answers when the Lord tells him but he has a nagging feeling at the back of his mind; “this is still not quite right,” he is feeling deep down, “not quite enough: I still lack.”
In my own pride and hubris I believe I know what it is to be a Christian. “I have this all mapped out,” I declare, “I know the answers to questions when people ask.” Because I have turned our Faith into a set of beliefs, rules which need a minimal following, rather than the totality of Faithfulness. The Lord says elsewhere,
And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
Luke 12:47
Which is to say, as the Apostle James tells us,
Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
James 4:17
Because there is more: it is not about knowing the Faith—as important as that is—but doing the Faith. “If you would be perfect,” says the Lord,
go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.
I need to change myself, from attaining only what I perceive to be the minimum of belief to diving to the depths of its fulness, from seeing Christianity as merely following a moral code to seeing service to my neighbour as service to God, from letting my faith in only on Sundays to my entire life being that of a Christian.
And yet this change, this transformation, is not only hard it is impossible. By my own strength I cannot do it. The Lord replies to the Disciples, “With men this is impossible,” which is to say it would only be a function of my own pride to even attempt it: “but,” he continues, “with God all things are possible.”
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, do not be satisfied with a minimal Faith but seek his Kingdom and Righteousness. To know the Faith is a good thing yet it is better to act on the Faith, to be Faithful to the Lord, to serve the Lord through service to our neighbour, placing the worship of God at the centre of our lives. May this be our calling, that we may honour and worship our crucified and risen God and Saviour Jesus Christ and come to knowledge of his Father by the power and operation of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Brethren, I would remind you in what terms I preached to you the gospel, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast — unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
— First Corinthians 15:1–11
At that time, a young man came up to Jesus, kneeling and saying, “Good Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you call me good? One there is who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which?” And Jesus said, “You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “All these I have observed; what do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions. And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
— Matthew 19:16–26