Faith, Certainty, and Me
Friends, you’ve made it! It’s the final Sunday of Stump the Preacher 2025, sermons requested by you and then researched and delivered by me. A few of you put ideas in the proverbial hat that are already in the lineup for Stump the Preacher 2026! For today, the finale of Stump the Preacher, season 2025, we get Andy’s request: this question about what faith is, what doubt is, what certainty is, and which of those things I have. Well, here goes nothing. But first, an old story, about some teacher at a college somewhere, beginning a lecture in a business class by putting a large jar on a table. He took out a bag of big rocks, and dropped them in the jar one by one until they reached the top. He asked the class, “is this jar full now?” The class nodded, but the professor said “no, it isn’t!” Then he took out a bag of gravel, and poured the gravel in the jar until the gravel filled in all the cracks between the big rocks, and reached the top of the jar. The professor asked the class, “...