[AI translation] I would like to start a new series of end-of-month communion services like this one. We say the Creed so often, but do we really know what it is we really believe? Well, Lord willing and we are alive, I would like to go through the Apostles Creed in this series. As for the Creed itself, for now, let me just say that it is the best preserved memorial and testimony of the unity of Christ's Church. It is well known that as many Christian churches, sects and denominations as there are in the world, all of them say and confess the Apostles' Creed in the same way as we, the Hungarian Reformed Church. So, even if there are many differences between Protestant and non-Protestant churches in doctrine, liturgy, and piety, we are all one in the Apostles' Creed. We believe in the same God and His saving work, who is Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and who is three times one and the same. That is why I said that, although the one Church of Christ is fragmented into many fragments, yet that in its diversity it is one Church is the most real image and witness of the Sermon on the Mount of Faith. And this is a positive thing that binds us together, despite the many dividing lines.I would now like to talk about the very first word of this Church, 'h i s k e t'. This is the invisible thread on which, like pearls on a silk thread, are strung the successive phrases of our creed: I believe in God the Father, I believe in Jesus Christ, I believe in the Holy Spirit, I believe in one Church, I believe in the forgiveness of sins and eternal life... I believe again and again. So what does it mean to believe? That is what I want to talk about now. It is good to talk about it separately, if only because there are many believers today who feel a little that faith is no longer modern enough. Today everything is calculated, thought through, constructed, measured, negotiated, paid for - that is realistic, but to believe is no longer realistic enough, it is rather very outdated. Some people are perhaps even a little ashamed in this modern world that they still believe. "Do you still believe?" someone asks, and then they are embarrassed, as if they are doing something that is out of fashion, that is no longer appropriate for an educated person.
Well, if by "believe" I mean I don't know something for sure, I can only guess, as we say, for example, I think it will be nice weather tomorrow... maybe. If "I believe" expresses such a vague suspicion, then it is indeed better not to believe, because such a belief is not a real thing. Or if faith is merely a kind of inferior intellectual function whereby I shut off my intellect and submit to incomprehensible beliefs, obsolete dogmas, when I blindly believe what my church tells me to believe: then I say what the world says, that indeed, such 'faith' is now an obsolete superstition. There is no need for it in the modern world. If faith is only a kind of credulity, the spiritual enervation, the spiritual foolishness of a man who does not like to think, who cannot or dares not to think: then he who still practices it should be ashamed of it... But that is not what this very first word of the Apostolicum [Apostles' Creed] means: "I believe". It means something quite different.
We come closer to the essence of faith if we consider that it is not the fact that one has studied a lot that makes faith problematic, since the greatest scientists - Newton, Darwin, Max Planc - were men of faith. It is not difficult to believe today because science has reached such a high level, but because people have been disappointed. Because a man who has been disappointed in an idea, or in a loved one, or in himself, that is, a man who has been disappointed in what or in whom he has believed with a sincere heart and enthusiasm, no longer dares to believe, no longer dares to surrender himself, no longer dares to entrust himself to anything or anyone. Knowledge is not the obstacle to faith, but fear and disappointment. That is why the world today is drifting towards unbelief, because man today is disappointed in so many things and afraid of so many things. So when I say 'I believe', I am in fact committing an unheard of audacity. It means that, in spite of all disappointments and fears, I am still relying on Someone, still entrusting my existence to Someone. As a bridge rests on a pillar, as a house is built on its foundation: so my life is built on a bold certainty, an invisible reality, that there is a God!
So faith is not a matter of believing in a past event, of holding true what is written in the Bible... That in itself is only the so-called historical faith. So - according to the Scriptures, the devils also believe - and are afraid. But our faith is precisely to believe and not to be afraid! In fact! We rejoice! We have complete trust in One whom we believe to be the most powerful Reality over the universe. I trust Him, I trust Him with my past, my present and my future, because I believe He loves me, I believe He wills good, I believe He can do all the good He wills!
In a way, this act of faith is like a bride deciding to tie her life to a man. She trusts him, she dares to trust him completely because she loves him and believes that he loves her. She believes in him! Of course it's a dare! Such a decision must be daring, for I have no tangible, visible proof, only my faith in that other. But that is the audacity: that is faith! "He who comes before God must believe that he exists..." (verse 11,6b) Do we dare to believe that God exists? Do we dare to surrender ourselves with such confidence to an invisible Reality, to rejoice in the fact that Someone loves us, forgives us, cares for us, guides our lives, holds our destiny in His hands, both here on earth and in eternity?! Do we dare to say in this sense: "I believe in a God"?
I know, modern man immediately looks for proof: how do I know that the God I believe in really exists? Is it not just a matter of assuming that there is a God, and basing everything I believe on that assumption? Or is it not the case that I project the concept of God out of myself, and thus believe only in someone whom I have created for myself? Or is it not the case that the existence of God is a logical requirement to explain many things in this world that are necessary, because without it, ultimate questions remain unresolved? So how do I know that God really exists?
How? Well: by faith! Yes: by faith you can know the reality of God's existence. Just as we perceive the diversity of scents with our nose, the world of colours and shapes by sight, the world of sounds by hearing: so we perceive God and his world by faith. If, for example, one is deaf, smelling or listening to a Beethoven symphony is in vain: its wonderful sounds will not reach the soul, because music is not to be smelled, but listened to. A deaf man cannot say that there is no music, that there is no Ode to Joy, because there is - and my heart is enlightened - but it does not exist for him, because he is deaf, he cannot hear it. In the same way, you cannot say there is no God, because I cannot see or understand him; there is no salvation, no forgiveness of sins; there is no eternal life, because I cannot experience it with my senses, I cannot measure it with my instruments, I cannot calculate it...
Well: the person and things of God, the whole world of God, are not to be smelt and understood, but - believed! Faith is the sense that qualifies us to know God. How true this is, is shown by the fact that those who saw or heard Jesus in person 2000 years ago, who witnessed his miracles, who saw his death, who saw the open tomb: you would think that they did not need to believe. Of course they did! They too could only have known God in the wonderful human person of Jesus by faith. They had to believe, just as we have to believe; seeing, hearing and touching were not enough. Those who did not believe in him were disappointed precisely because of what they saw and heard: they considered him a rebel against God and demanded his death. Faith is the antenna of the human soul with which we receive the transmission from God, from Jesus, from heaven. Without this antenna, man can at best create a god, but without this antenna, he does not know that there is a true God.
"And without faith it is impossible to please God." (Heb 11,6a) God reserves the proof of His existence to Himself. We need not trouble ourselves about this. He speaks, He loves, and our faith is only an echo. Our faith is a bow before the God whom we did not seek and find, but rather He sought and found us. A German painter, Rudolf Koch, captured the essence of faith well when he depicted it with a vessel open at the top, as a sign that I can expect nothing from myself - but I am free to expect everything from God. And what I have to do is to keep myself open upwards and always ready to receive what God gives of himself. "I believe": it is to stand before God with an empty spiritual vessel. And while believing in this way: I perceive God as a living reality, I experience that Someone holds my hand, embraces me, comforts me, gives me strength, cleanses me from sin, leads me to victory - He lives! This is what our Word says: "...and He will reward those who seek Him." (Heb 11:6c) The reward of bold faith in God is that I really do come into contact with that God, really do perceive the God in whom I dare to believe at His word.
But it would be nice if we could believe like that, wouldn't it! Let me conclude by saying that it is not necessary to know how to believe, but to believe. We are not here calling you to do anything, nor burdening you with anything beyond your strength. Let no one say that I cannot believe! It is not necessary to believe, it is not necessary to know, but to believe: it is free!
When God says: Believe in Jesus Christ, we are given permission to accept for ourselves all that He has done for us in Jesus Christ, what this table is, what this bread and wine represent: the whole salvation, the forgiveness of sins, eternal life! Free! - "I believe": that is the most sublime freedom. For the weak, for the doubters, for the unbelievers too: free! In fact, it is they who are the first to understand that it is free. Free for you too! For Jesus came for you too! You too are free to say: 'I believe in one God' - and in His full grace, which He has also communicated to me through Jesus Christ!
Amen
Date: 30 August 1959.