AProp4

Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28; Psalm; Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-31; Matthew 7:21-29

June 1, 2008

Just have faith.

Have faith in God and he will see you through.

Just have faith in Jesus and you’ll get the answer you need.

How many times do we hear words like this –

or offer them as encouragement to other people?

Just have faith.

Mike is fifty-five years old, at the peak of his career,

awaiting his first grandchild and…he finds out he has cancer.

He never has attended church regularly, but believes there is a God.

And so a well-meaning friend who is a Christian says,

“Just have faith in Jesus, and let him into your life,

and he will help you fight this thing.”

Joan is a thirty-five year old mother of two small children

who has just gone through a messy divorce.

She does attend church regularly

and wonders how God could have let her husband leave her

when she had been faithful both to God and to husband.

To top things off, she has just had her hours cut at work

and feels absolute panic about how to pay her bills.

Joan, too, hears the familiar words meant to encourage and comfort:

“If you’ll just have enough faith, there isn’t anything God can’t do.”

When someone’s world has turned upside down,

who is wondering where in the world God is,

does it help to tell them that it is up to them to get God involved?

When something goes drastically wrong in a good person’s life,

when they have done the right things, made the right choices,

does it make sense to tell them they have to do one more thing,

have enough faith?

This kind of advice makes sense …and then it doesn’t.

The gospel lesson this morning is the conclusion

of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

He finishes with an image of a house built on a firm foundation

that can withstand even the stormiest of times.

If this firm foundation is about having a strong faith,

we can picture ourselves practicing all the things that Jesus taught

in that sermon – about how to pray, why not to judge others,

how to understand God’s abundant love for us

when we think of how a loving parent provides for a child,

or that we should not spend our life worrying about material things,

when we see how God clothes the lilies of the field so beautifully.

Wonderful ways to practice the presence of God…

to build up our spiritual house.

But it’s hard to be building a house when the storm has already hit.

Our lesson from Romans includes the famous verses

that caused Martin Luther to say,

“No, we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

We are saved by faith alone, no by anything we do.”

During a time when the Church was teaching

that salvation could be earned by doing certain works,

‘saved by faith alone’ was a radical assertion.

But how can we understand faith in a way

that it’s not something else we have to do?

Today is Reformation Sunday.

And you certainly might say that Martin Luther’s teachings on faith,

were a big part of the reformation that gave birth to

the protestant, protesting, churches.

Somehow, instead of depending completely upon God’s grace,

the Protestant theme edges over so persistently to:

You’ve got to believe in Jesus in order to be saved.

It’s like all the shoulds have been reduced down to one:

The one thing we must DO is muster up enough faith.

Romans 3 says so clearly that being right with God,

having God on our side, for us, does not come from anything we can DO,

does not depend on our faith,

be it strong as a rock, or small as a mustard seed.

All the faith we need, we already have.

All the grace we receive comes from something God did

–        something God showed forth on the cross -

rather than from something we must do.

‘But now, apart from the law,

the righteousness of God has been shown to us,

the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.’

Romans 3:21-22

There is a little technicality in the Greek phrase

‘through faith in Jesus Christ’which is very helpful.

The words in Greek do not actually include the word ‘in’.

It just says ‘faith Jesus Christ.’

And the grammatical form of the word ‘faith’ indicates possession.

Faith is possessed by someone in the sentence.

It is either possessed by the believers to whom Paul is writing

or it is possessed by Jesus Christ.

We tend to accentuate that it is OUR faith that matters

when Jesus’ faith is very much in the phrase.

Some studies indicate that it makes more sense to understand it this way:

‘the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ’s faith – for all believers.’

In other words, the faith that Jesus had in God,

that made him strong enough to endure the cross

rather than lose faith in God,

is the faith we have as a free gift, not earned.

No matter what condition we are in does not depend upon our faith,

but is held within God’s love through the faith of Jesus

which proved stronger than death.

No, life’s worst storms, not even death can undo such faith as his.

So, what good does Jesus’ strong faith do us

When we are at the end of our rope?

When our firm foundation seems to have turned into a house of straw

and the sand is being washed out from under it?

Two things might help:

In Holy Communion, it helps to remember that it is Christ’s faith that we receive.

We simply walk up and open our hands and hearts

and his faith comes through to us.

It’s not our hearts and hands that have to do any work.

As the beautiful collect says:

Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love

on the hard wood of the cross

so that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace.

Perhaps we can understand ‘the community of the faithful’

as not a group of people who have strong, impeccable faith,

but as a group of people gathered around the faith of Christ.

The second thing is - faith is more than an individual experience.

When a person experiences the strong faith of Jesus

it is a wonderful source of strength.

It feels like a solid house firmly set upon a rock.

But faith doesn’t only come in individual packets.

You might say that when a person is surrounded and upheld

by the community of the faithful,

a group of people gathered around the faith of Christ,

faith is available -  wholesale and in bulk.

Part of the gift of faith is that it can be shared among us.

When Mike or Joan feel like they are losing their footing on that rock,

when their faith is shaken or lacking

and it is difficult for them to make themselves have faith,

there is nothing that they have to DO.

Faith comes not by telling them to believe,

but faith comes to them through God’s love lived in Jesus

and through Christ’s faith living in the faithful.

And so, when someone’s individual faith gets shaky,

The community of the faithful sidles up to them,

like bulkheads against a storm

and stands with them, the strong love of God enfleshed and close.

So, perhaps the next time we begin to say, “Just have enough faith in Jesus,”

we might consider something like this, “The faith of Christ surrounds you

and will never leave you.”

AProp4

Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28; Psalm; Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-31; Matthew 7:21-29

June 1, 2008

Just have faith.

Have faith in God and he will see you through.

Just have faith in Jesus and you’ll get the answer you need.

How many times do we hear words like this –

or offer them as encouragement to other people?

Just have faith.

Mike is fifty-five years old, at the peak of his career,

awaiting his first grandchild and…he finds out he has cancer.

He never has attended church regularly, but believes there is a God.

And so a well-meaning friend who is a Christian says,

“Just have faith in Jesus, and let him into your life,

and he will help you fight this thing.”

Joan is a thirty-five year old mother of two small children

who has just gone through a messy divorce.

She does attend church regularly

and wonders how God could have let her husband leave her

when she had been faithful both to God and to husband.

To top things off, she has just had her hours cut at work

and feels absolute panic about how to pay her bills.

Joan, too, hears the familiar words meant to encourage and comfort:

“If you’ll just have enough faith, there isn’t anything God can’t do.”

When someone’s world has turned upside down,

who is wondering where in the world God is,

does it help to tell them that it is up to them to get God involved?

When something goes drastically wrong in a good person’s life,

when they have done the right things, made the right choices,

does it make sense to tell them they have to do one more thing,

have enough faith?

This kind of advice makes sense …and then it doesn’t.

The gospel lesson this morning is the conclusion

of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

He finishes with an image of a house built on a firm foundation

that can withstand even the stormiest of times.

If this firm foundation is about having a strong faith,

we can picture ourselves practicing all the things that Jesus taught

in that sermon – about how to pray, why not to judge others,

how to understand God’s abundant love for us

when we think of how a loving parent provides for a child,

or that we should not spend our life worrying about material things,

when we see how God clothes the lilies of the field so beautifully.

Wonderful ways to practice the presence of God…

to build up our spiritual house.

But it’s hard to be building a house when the storm has already hit.

Our lesson from Romans includes the famous verses

that caused Martin Luther to say,

“No, we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

We are saved by faith alone, no by anything we do.”

During a time when the Church was teaching

that salvation could be earned by doing certain works,

‘saved by faith alone’ was a radical assertion.

But how can we understand faith in a way

that it’s not something else we have to do?

Today is Reformation Sunday.

And you certainly might say that Martin Luther’s teachings on faith,

were a big part of the reformation that gave birth to

the protestant, protesting, churches.

Somehow, instead of depending completely upon God’s grace,

the Protestant theme edges over so persistently to:

You’ve got to believe in Jesus in order to be saved.

It’s like all the shoulds have been reduced down to one:

The one thing we must DO is muster up enough faith.

Romans 3 says so clearly that being right with God,

having God on our side, for us, does not come from anything we can DO,

does not depend on our faith,

be it strong as a rock, or small as a mustard seed.

All the faith we need, we already have.

All the grace we receive comes from something God did

–        something God showed forth on the cross -

rather than from something we must do.

‘But now, apart from the law,

the righteousness of God has been shown to us,

the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.’

Romans 3:21-22

There is a little technicality in the Greek phrase

‘through faith in Jesus Christ’which is very helpful.

The words in Greek do not actually include the word ‘in’.

It just says ‘faith Jesus Christ.’

And the grammatical form of the word ‘faith’ indicates possession.

Faith is possessed by someone in the sentence.

It is either possessed by the believers to whom Paul is writing

or it is possessed by Jesus Christ.

We tend to accentuate that it is OUR faith that matters

when Jesus’ faith is very much in the phrase.

Some studies indicate that it makes more sense to understand it this way:

‘the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ’s faith – for all believers.’

In other words, the faith that Jesus had in God,

that made him strong enough to endure the cross

rather than lose faith in God,

is the faith we have as a free gift, not earned.

No matter what condition we are in does not depend upon our faith,

but is held within God’s love through the faith of Jesus

which proved stronger than death.

No, life’s worst storms, not even death can undo such faith as his.

So, what good does Jesus’ strong faith do us

When we are at the end of our rope?

When our firm foundation seems to have turned into a house of straw

and the sand is being washed out from under it?

Two things might help:

In Holy Communion, it helps to remember that it is Christ’s faith that we receive.

We simply walk up and open our hands and hearts

and his faith comes through to us.

It’s not our hearts and hands that have to do any work.

As the beautiful collect says:

Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love

on the hard wood of the cross

so that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace.

Perhaps we can understand ‘the community of the faithful’

as not a group of people who have strong, impeccable faith,

but as a group of people gathered around the faith of Christ.

The second thing is - faith is more than an individual experience.

When a person experiences the strong faith of Jesus

it is a wonderful source of strength.

It feels like a solid house firmly set upon a rock.

But faith doesn’t only come in individual packets.

You might say that when a person is surrounded and upheld

by the community of the faithful,

a group of people gathered around the faith of Christ,

faith is available -  wholesale and in bulk.

Part of the gift of faith is that it can be shared among us.

When Mike or Joan feel like they are losing their footing on that rock,

when their faith is shaken or lacking

and it is difficult for them to make themselves have faith,

there is nothing that they have to DO.

Faith comes not by telling them to believe,

but faith comes to them through God’s love lived in Jesus

and through Christ’s faith living in the faithful.

And so, when someone’s individual faith gets shaky,

The community of the faithful sidles up to them,

like bulkheads against a storm

and stands with them, the strong love of God enfleshed and close.

So, perhaps the next time we begin to say, “Just have enough faith in Jesus,”

we might consider something like this, “The faith of Christ surrounds you

and will never leave you.”