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Faith – The Real Thing
A sermon preached January 18, 2009 at
University United Methodist Church, East Lansing, by John Ross Thompson
Matthew 17:14-21
14 When
they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him.
15 "Lord,
have mercy on my son," he said. "He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He
often falls into the fire or into the water.
16 I
brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him."
17 "O unbelieving and perverse generation,"
Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with
you? Bring the boy here to me."
18 Jesus
rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that
moment.
19 Then
the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, "Why couldn't we drive it
out?"
20 He replied, "Because you have so little
faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you
can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing
will be impossible for you."
Hebrews 11:1-13
1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope
for and certain of what we do not see.
2 This is
what the ancients were commended for.
3 By faith we understand that the universe
was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was
visible.
4 By
faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was
commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith
he still speaks, even though he is dead.
5 By
faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he
could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he
was commended as one who pleased God.
6 And
without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him
must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who
earnestly seek him.
7 By faith Noah, when warned about things
not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he
condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a
place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he
did not know where he was going.
9 By faith he made his home in the promised
land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and
Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
10 For he
was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is
God.
11 By faith Abraham, even though he was
past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he
considered him faithful who had made the promise.
12And so
from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the
stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13 All these people were still living by
faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw
them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens
and strangers on earth.
How many of you believe that the snow outside will
be gone by sometime in April?
How do you know it? From experience, of course.
You can’t see the melted snow yet, but our
experience every year is that it will happen, so we know it even before we see
it.
Based on today’s text in Hebrews, Jim Wallis of
Sojourners said, “Faith is believing in spite of the evidence and then watching
the evidence change.”
Pastor Kennetha and I are preaching a series of
sermons on the values that we have identified in our church’s visioning
process. Two weeks ago, I spoke about vision. Last week, she preached on
prayer. Today’s topic is faith. The next two weeks, topics will be spirituality
and love.
In the gospel text today, it seems that
Jesus is scolding the disciples for having too little faith. They ask why they
cannot heal persons like Jesus did. Jesus told them they did not have enough
faith, but if they had faith, they could move mountains.
The Hebrews text recounts the mountains that
were moved by the heroes of faith in Old Testament times. Even today, all
around us there are persons who have seen mountains moved through faith. Ask
others their stories.
“Faith” is impossible to put
adequately into words, but, like obscenity, “we know it when we see it.”
Faith is not factual certainty,
but assurance. Yes, “blessed assurance,” like the well-known hymn we will sing
today.
In my years as a pastor, I have
encountered many persons who feel they do not have enough faith. In my
experience, the desire for faith is the strongest indicator that there is faith.
In other words, the more you want more faith, the more faith you already have.
On vacation last week, I read an historical
novel about Ireland by Andrew Greeley. The love interest of the main character
is a woman who professed no faith, but went to mass just in case, and said the
rosary at times of need. Her heart trumped her head. Her inner assurance led
her where she would not admit she wanted to go.
Hebrews 11:6 – “God rewards
those who earnestly seek God.”
Tomorrow is Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. Day. What motivated him? There is no doubt that was his faith. He
is acclaimed as a man of faith who preached it and lived it.
Words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.: “On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's
roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that
the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be
constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway.”
Obama's comments about faith on January 11
with George Stephanopolous gave a faith perspective. He talked of faith as a
bridge of service across the poverty divide in America.
Civil rights pioneer and United
Methodist pastor James Lowery reflected on saying the benediction at Tuesday’s
inauguration: “Like all Americans of
good will, I say a prayer that a wise God will continue to guide and bless our
new president as he navigates the ship of state through dangerous and
challenging seas. But I know too, as always, that the God on whom we depend did
not bring us this far along the way to abandon us. And, I know that what we are
about to witness is an omnipotent God using his faithful and trusting children
to continue the labor of bringing the Beloved Community to reality here on
earth.”
Faith has both inward and outward dimensions.
Inward – deep within – an assurance that like
the prophets and Biblical forebears of long ago, we know what we cannot yet
see. That’s the real thing.
Outward – changing who we are and what we do,
knowing that what God has revealed to us is enough to make a difference for us
and for the world.
That’s faith! The real thing,
not something imaginary.
May God bless us all as we seek
faith and help us to know when we have it. This same God will guide us in using
that faith to make the world a better place for all persons.
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