Faith and Control

I recently viewed interviews in a series entitled, Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason. Provocative. Moyers interviews both religious and atheist, similar to the composition of our discussion group. Afterwards, the tried to reach consensus on definitions of faith and religion. We came out with an interesting theme. 'Religion' involves humanity's attempt to control. There's a lot that is out of our control. We simplify it, and try to manipulate our environment and the nature of truth. 'Faith' involves trust and what is outside of our control. 

This morning, I came across these words from Eugene Peterson in The Jesus Way.

Faith has to do with marrying Invisible and Visible. When we engage in an act of faith, we give up control, we give up sensory (sight, hearing, etc.) confirmation of reality; we give up insisting on head-knowledge as our primary means orientation in life. The positive way to say this is that when we engage in an act of faith we choose to deal with a living God whom we trust to know what he is doing, we choose a way of life in which bodily senses and physical matter are understood as inseparable and organic to vast interiorities (soul) and immense beyonds (heaven), and we choose to no longer operate strictly on the basis of hard-earned knowledge, glorious as it is, but over a lifetime to embrace the mystery that "must dazzle gradually/Or every man go blind."

As one who wrestles to control life, I resonate with this definition of religion as almost antithetical to faith. In my vocabulary, 'faith' is a positive. 'Religion' is a downer. 'Religion' says, "I must achieve my own salvation through rules." The implication is that I accept that 1) meeting the standard will get me the desired reward, and 2) I can meet the standard, if I apply myself. I have the control. But if I embrace 'religion' according to this definition, I'm lost. Regarding "meeting the standard to achieve a reward," I need to be careful. I likely misunderstand it the same way Jesus's listeners did in the Sermon on the Mount: "You've heard it said..., But I say unto you..." Respecting the second assumption, I'm mistaken if I think that I can meet Jesus's Standard, even if I apply myself. The Gospel is not that I do, and earn a reward for my achievements, but that Jesus meets the perfect Standard that he has articulated and applies his record to me. For his part, he accepts the exile that I deserve for all my inability to grasp and comply with the Standard, rightly understood.