Matthew 13:53-58: Are you an atheist?

Are you an atheist?  Of course not!  Or at least, that’s the answer I would expect from many of you.  As you probably know, an atheist is someone who does not believe in the existence of God.  The word actually comes from the Greek- coincidentally, the same language that the New Testament was originally written in- meaning “without God” (a=without, theos=God).  Atheism has grown in acceptability over time, causing more and more people to openly state the fact that they do not believe that God exists.  As troublesome as this trend is, perhaps another less noticed trend is more dangerous, specifically to Christian communities.  When Jesus returned to Nazareth, the people did not have faith in Him.   The Greek word used to describe them is not atheist, but apistia (a=without, pistia=faith).  They believed he existed; after all he was standing right in front of them.  However, they could not explain his wisdom or his power, so they simply chose to reject Him, placing no faith in His claims to be the Messiah, the Son of God. I would argue that this attitude poses a far greater threat to our churches today than atheism.  It is not enough to claim to believe that God exists; we must also place our trust in Him.  If we say that God exists, and yet are “without faith”, we are no different than the people of Nazareth that saw Him standing in front of them, but rejected Him nonetheless.  It is a difficult, and yet necessary question to ask ourselves: is the sum of our faith a mere statement that God exists, or is it evident by the way we our lives that we have put our trust in God?  Are our lives ordered differently because of our conviction that God is alive and among us?