In high school, I belong to a United Methodist Church in Alexandria, Virginia. My best friend attends the Southern Baptist Church. In one of our conversations about religion, she tells be about her belief in the second coming of Christ: the rapture, the tribulation, the mark of the beast, the book of Revelation. I say, “Susan, Methodists don’t believe in all of that.” “Sure you do.” She says. “You can’t be a Christian if you don’t believe in the second coming.” This news worries me. This news scares me spitless.

I talk to my minister. “Rev. Skelton, do we believe in the second coming of Christ?” “Of course we do. There are many different ways to think about the second coming.” He says. “Remember when we celebrate communion, we say, ‘Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.’” I can hardly believe it. My church is so reasonable. I can hardly believe it. I do not remember any teacher or minister saying one word about the second coming. I can hardly believe it. And yet, I do. I believe it for many years.

I am in my thirties when I learn that there are many different ways to think about eschatology, the study of the end times, the second coming. I decide that I don’t really believe in the rapture, or the tribulation. I believe that Jesus comes to us again and again in the presence of the Spirit. It is a very different belief in the second coming than the one Susan impresses upon me.

As spiritual people, we experience different stages of faith as we go through life. They are like successive holy places on a spiral path that goes around a mountain repeatedly as it goes up the mountain. We keep reconsidering some of the same issues over and over, but each time they arise we see them somewhat differently. Our path keeps leading us into new territory, and we keep getting a wider view.

These movements of faith describe not what a person believes, but how a person shapes belief. The movements are not about the content of faith. Rather, they describe the process of formation in faith.

Movement from one pattern to another is fueled by change. When the answers provided by one way of thinking no longer satisfy, the pilgrim is pushed into new places that offer more complexity, more flexibility, new discoveries.

The last two weeks, I describe the formation of faith in childhood. Those messages are on the St. Luke’s web site.

The transition from childhood faith to adult faith normally begins about age 12. This pattern can be called, “I believe what the church believes.” This is a form of faith that emerges in adolescence. It remains with us in some form throughout adulthood.

The stage provides a stable and well-organized pattern of thinking by which adults can maintain a meaningful faith and life. There are many institutions, including the church, that reinforce this thinking in their members.

This is a form of faith marked by conformity. What people believe is deeply influenced by the expectations and judgments of others. It is likely that people will have difficulty saying why they believe what they believe. Or, like me, will believe things that they don’t really believe. Hence, my claim to belief in the rapture simply because Susan impressed me.

A good example of how such faith is formed is the traditional process of Confirmation instruction. How many of you learned a catechism during confirmation?

The catechism contains both questions and answers to be memorized.

I remember being a bit envious of my Presbyterian friends who had such a convenient system of learning what the church believes in the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him? The word of God, which is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.

Ordinarily the confirmand is not expected to generate independent questions and certainly not independent answers.

For me and my friends growing up, there is little or no resistance to this process of formation because the authority of the church is supported by significant people, our parents and our teachers. It is not that simple for our young people who grow up in an increasingly diverse society. They are surrounded by people whose opinions, expectations, and judgments differ.

Therefore, people choose from several strategies to resolve the dilemma of conflicting authorities. One strategy is to compartmentalize: to act one way with peers and another way with parents, to act one way at church and another way at work.

Another strategy is to elevate one authority over the rest. For example, I might consider my friends and their values as more important than my parents. Or it is important for me to know what my minister (or my teacher, or my coach) believes before I state an opinion.

Why is it important to conform to the expectations of others in this time of formation? Because persons develop the capacity of seeing themselves as others see them. This is a revolutionary event in interpersonal relations, made possible by a new level of thinking.

You will remember that children tell stories that express the meaning of their lives from within the flow of the stream of their lives. Now, these same persons can step outside the flow of that stream and reflect on the patterns and meanings which they see in the stream.

They can also compose images of themselves as they might be or as others see them. Listen to this couplet that aptly expresses this new development in thinking: I see you seeing me; I see the me I think you see. Suddenly the young person believes everyone is looking at him or her and becomes terribly concerned that the me they see is OK.

There is a deep hunger for acceptance by people that are important to me. There is a deep religious hunger for God who know, accepts, and confirms people in spite of all their inadequacies, faults, limitations, and failures.

The development of the capacity to see yourself as others see you also makes it possible to see yourself mirrored in the response of others to you. The intense personal relationship between “best friends” and “first loves” is not true intimacy, but rather the discovery of one’s identity in the mirror of another person’s response. The religious dimension of such mirroring is the discovery of who you are as God sees you. At its best, it is this kind of identity formation that Chris Wilterdink and his team of confirmation leaders nurture in our young people today. “Your people shall be my people. Your God shall be my God.”

A person in this place of formation will be attracted to an image of a God who is deeply personal and affirming. In this image God is perceived as being a friend, a companion, a counselor, or a guide. Qualities of love, caring, and support are central in such an understanding of God. At a time when significant others are terribly important for the formation of a persons’ sense of identity, God is potentially the most significant other in the forming of that identity.

At this time, faith remains unexamined. A person can be very articulate about the images and values he or she holds and can feel strongly about them but still be unable to think critically about them. Reliance on external authority is needed for the forming and sustaining of faith. Such reliance is encouraged by a confession of faith to which members of a Christian community are expected to conform.

It is this pattern of faith around which many churches form. A set of beliefs is put forward by leaders, or by clergy, or by the denomination, as the mark of membership. Questions are not encouraged. Disagreement means leaving the church

St. Luke’s offers a different model. While we seek to welcome all persons, we encourage persons to pursue spiritual growth, to discover what others believe and why, to question, to explore, to make commitments around the radical teachings of Jesus. By rubbing up against one another, we shape our own faith more carefully.

It is one of the reasons why the arts are so important to our spiritual life. Music, art, and drama become vehicles to carry our diversity. It is why mission is the most important expression of our faith. We agree that all faith must make a difference in two places: in here and out there.

(THE APOSTLE’S CREED)

Let’s use this historic confession of the Christian faith to think about differences among us.

Many of us grow up saying the Apostle’s Creed every Sunday. And we participate in that experience on many levels.

Some persons are fed by the communal expression of faith: this is what my church believes.

Others enjoy the communal expression of faith because of tradition. We stand in solidarity with centuries of Christians. However, we bring questions about some of the propositions: God as Father, the notion of virgin birth, the resurrection of the body. In fact, we don’t actually believe the Apostle’s Creed. We believe in the community that seeks to stand together.

For others, saying the Apostle’s Creed is painful. The creed becomes a symbol of indoctrination, of wars fought for religious freedom, both globally and in families, of exclusion.

This pattern of faith formation remains with us throughout adulthood. Every time we move and seek a new church home, we live in this period of faith. As we church shop, it is important to understand what the church believes so that my family will be nurtured. It is important to find some congruence between us.

This pattern of faith formation is crucial when persons come to their spiritual journey for the first time. The spiritual life is nurtured in community and it is important to have trusted mentors who will model for me the kind of faith that I am trying to grow.

This pattern of faith formation is most enjoyed when we celebrate the rituals of holidays. Ann Smith, in one of her exquisite children’s sermons, speaks of her favorite ten minutes of the year when we light candles and sing “Silent Night”. At such times, we suspend our need to understand; we simply enjoy the gifts of God and each other. All is calm. All is bright. Christ the savior is born. Christ the savior is born.