Harry Potter meets Jesus Sermon Podcast 5 - Platform 9 3/4

How can you know if your faith is real ? In a classic scene, Harry Potter is told that the passage to the other world of Hogwarts is achieved by going through what looks like a solid wall. On the surface, this advise makes no sense, but some kinds of truths that can only be known through experience. Today we look at what it means to take the leap of faith and how that is quite different than blind faith. We learn from Soren Kierkegaard what it means to have passionate faith and we turn to the book of Acts to see it in action. We face the reality that we tend to say to God “Show me and then I will trust you”, but we live in a world where God says “Trust me, and then I will show you…”

“The process for getting onto platform 9 ¾ was something anyone could do, but no reasonable person would do unless he or she believed that was the way” – Connie Neal

“…This people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.” – Jesus in Matthew 15:13

Sören Kierkegaard   (1813–1855)   AND THE EXISTENTIAL LEAP OF FAITH
“Kierkegaard’s goal was to wake people from their spiritual slumbers, and turn in faith to God as their one hope. His concern was that the church had become a place where people believed in a list of truths not in a personal God.  He was, however, clear about the fact that we cannot rationally reason our way to God. At some point, we must set aside our reason, and, by faith, reach out and take hold of God’s promises. But Kierkegaard did not mean a “blind leap,” but rather a leap of faith that believes in order to know. The leap is neither blind nor arbitrary- the individual must have a clear idea of what he is leaping to (Christianity precisely defined by means of God’s transcendent entrance into history) and why he might choose to leap (the consciousness of sin). Kierkegaard replaces Descartes’s doubt (the opposite of rational conviction) with despair (the opposite of faith for Kierkegaard). But real doubt is an unwillingness to give assent, and that cannot be overcome by knowledge, but only by an act of the will, a readiness of the will which we call faith.” – Rich Milne

“Man says “Show me… and I will trust you.”
God says “Trust me… and I will show you.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  John 14:5-6

(All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s way was right, because they had been baptized by John. But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.) Luke 7:29-30

Faith is taking the first step, even when you can’t see the whole staircase” – Martin Luther King Jr. 

“When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” – Acts 2:37-38