Mark 1:21-28
“The Faith that Believes, and the
Faith that Is Believed”
There are some handy Latin phrases that
every good Lutheran pastor and theologian needs to know, and which
can also be helpful to laypeople. One of those phrases is “Fides
Qua” (Q-U-A) and “Fides Quae” (Q-U-A-E)
The expression fides qua means “the
faith which believes.” This is, simply, your trust in Christ. The
saving faith which receives and holds the riches of Christ’s
atonement. It is your belief, as a Christian, that Christ has won for
us the favor of God through his death and resurrection. He gives this
salvation to us through the word and sacrament and we grab it and
hold it by faith. This faith – this saving faith - is what the
theologians call fides qua – the faith which believes. It’s the
fides qua which makes you a Christian.*
The fides quae is a short-hand way
which theologians use to talk about, “the faith which is believed.”
It is, simply, the content of our belief. Or you could say, “our
beliefs”. Here the word faith is like when the pastor says, “let
us confess the faith in the words of the Apostles’ Creed.” Fides
quae is THE faith. *
So we could say that Christians have
faith in the faith. Although it is usually a bit less confusing to
say that we have faith in Christ, by the gospel.
Fides qua without fides quae is belief
without content – an emotionalism with all sorts of heartfelt
sentiments but no understanding of precisely what Jesus is all about.
Fides quae without fides qua – content without actual trust - is
heartless theological abstraction.
So what does Fides Qua and Fides Quae
have to do with our Gospel reading from Mark, where Jesus casts out a
demon? And just as important, what does all of this have to do with
you and me? Bear with me and we'll get there...
Our Gospel reading takes place in the
synagogue in Capernaum. This is actually one of the historical sites
we are pretty sure we've uncovered. I was there in 2007, and they
found the old synagogue that Jesus visited there. On the top level
are the imported white stone foundations of the 4th century
synagogue. But underneath, the black volcanic rock from the local
area that built the synagogue of Jesus' day.
The contrast between Jesus and the
teachers of his day could also be described as black and white. They
spoke with appeals to the Rabbis who taught before them. Gamaliel
quotes Simeon quoting Eleazer, etc... But Jesus spoke with authority.
He taught something different, and taught it differently. “You have
heard it said, but I say to you.” The teachers of men relied on the
teachings of men. But he didn't need any other word to rely on,
because he, Jesus, is the living Word of God, with God from the
beginning but now made flesh and walking and talking among them.
And then something strange happened. An
unclean spirit spoke out. Which is strange enough. But even stranger
is that the demon both knew who Jesus was, and even said so! “I
know who you are – the Holy One of God!” This demon, who works
for the Father of Lies, is telling the truth! He has confessed
rightly who Jesus is, and why he has come – to destroy the forces
of evil.
And yet, no one would accuse the
demons, or the devil, of being a Christian. And here we come back to
the Fides Quae understanding. The devil knows the Bible, friends,
better than any of us do. Luther called the devil a master
theologian. He is an expert in what God's word says. As Scripture
says, “even the demons believe – and shudder” (James 2). You
might even say the devil has a “Fides Quae” faith in God. He
knows the truth, knows it to be true, and in a sense, even believes
it. But he has no “Fides Qua”, no trust in Christ as his savior.
Sometimes we might even be the same.
The danger for us, the temptation for some, is to make the faith an
intellectual exercise. To be more concerned about getting it right,
than that what is right is “for me”. We pastors are often
susceptible to this problem, especially because we've been called to
oversee the public teaching of the church. But just because you have
all the right confessions and all the right doctrines and all the
right theological proclamations, even in Greek or Hebrew or Latin,
doesn't make you a Christian. If even a demon can rightly confess
Christ, in a synagogue, (to his face!) - then simply getting the
teachings right isn't enough, is it? The Fides Quae without the Fides
Qua.
But there is also the opposite error.
And here is where many laypeople are tempted. Christ does command us
to observe or obey “everything I have commanded you”. We are
encouraged to know and keep the word of God, as Moses taught:
And these words that I command you
today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your
children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when
you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You
shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as
frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of
your house and on your gates.
When we think that believing in Jesus
is all that is important, and it doesn't really matter what you
believe, we try to have the Fides Qua without the Fides Quae. This
can lead to all sorts of trouble too. These are the people who think
they've already learned all there is to learn about the faith. “I
went to confirmation class 50 years ago, pastor!” This is the
temptation to put the catechism aside, rather than to continue using
it like Luther intended. The temptation to believe in Jesus, but know
little of what Jesus actually said or taught. Dusty Bible Syndrome.
This is the kind of emotionalism that
is all too common in the church. The idea that it's all about the
heart. That we don't need any of these objective truths or these
doctrines which divide. “Let's just love Jesus and that's good
enough.” But it's a shallow and ultimately a false faith that pays
no attention to what Jesus teaches in his word. If you're looking to
believe in a Jesus who doesn't teach anything of substance, then
you're looking for a false Jesus. If your kind of Jesus is one who
doesn't care about whether you baptize babies, or whether you receive
his true body and blood in the sacrament, or whether you think your
good works get you into heaven... well, then you have the wrong
Jesus, my friends.
But the two really go hand in hand. If
you neglect the content of the faith, you will ultimately turn away
from the faith that saves – because the faith that saves will have
nothing to hold onto, or it will be holding to the wrong thing. And
if you are absorbed in the content and the doctrine but only as a
mental exercise, if you hold that word at arm's length as if its
condemnations and promises don't apply to you – then your knowledge
is pointless and meaningless.
There's plenty of guilt to go around
when it comes to the Fides Qua and the Fides Quae. We are sinners,
after all, and we will – even the best theologians - get things
wrong. Maybe we'll focus too much on the doctrine, or we'll focus too
little. We'll think to much of our own personal faith, or we will
think to much of our own right doctrine. We will break the 1st
commandment by turning our teaching itself or “being right” into
a god to be worshipped. Or we will break the 2nd by claiming to love
God but despising preaching and his word in its very content.
There's only one way out of the Fides
Qua/Fides Quae Quandry for sinners, and that way is Jesus himself.
Jesus who died on the cross, and by it
destroyed the powers of darkness. Jesus the Holy One of God who makes
us holy ones by his blood. Jesus the one with authority over the
demons, and authority to forgive sins. Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith – and of our Fides Qua and our Fides Quae.
He gives his spirit, who works through
his word, to create saving faith where there was none. Whenever we
try to measure and examine our faith we will find it lacking. But
whenever we look to Christ for forgiveness, life and salvation – it
is always enough. Faith in Christ, trust in Christ, is a gift from
him. Even the smallest faith, of a mustard seed, if that faith is in
Christ, can move the mountain of sin from on top of us.
And Christ gives us his word, the
content of our faith. We don't develop our doctrine, but like all
things of God, we receive it as a gift. We are the recipients of the
Bible, and the creeds which summarize it, the catechism which teaches
it, and the confessions which – confess it.
That he calls you to believe in him is
good news! That he tells you what to believe about him is good news!
That despite your lack of faith, weak faith, failing faith – he
still saves, is good news! For he died for all your sins. He covers
all your unholiness with his holiness. He silences all your enemies
with his authoritative word.
Thank God, for the Fides Quae, the
“what” of our faith. And thank God for the Qua, the “in whom”
of our faith, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
*comments in these two paragraphs are
largely adapted from Klemet Preus “The Fire and the Staff”
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