19th Sunday after Pentecost [Pr.22] October 3, 2010 “Series C”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, through the power of your Holy Spirit, unite us together as a community of faith, that we might genuinely care for one another, and embrace each other as members of your heavenly kingdom. Empower us to provide a growing environment for our children, that they might be strengthened in faith, and embrace the life to which you have called them in baptism. Inspire us to live by the principles of our faith, that we might witness to those around us that your redeeming grace makes a difference in our lives. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
Each of our lessons for this morning address the issue of faith. In our first lesson, Habakkuk laments the fact that Israel is not living according to the precepts of God’s law, and receives from God the assurance that the righteous shall live by faith. In our second lesson, Paul says to Timothy “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.” And in our Gospel lesson, the twelve apostles said to Jesus, “Increase our faith!” And take note, that there is an exclamation point at the end of that sentence.
Thus, I would like to address the subject of faith from the point of view of these three lessons. Habakkuk was living in troubled times. As a prophet who observes the life of Israel as being filled with violence, wrongdoing, destructive behavior, contention and a lack of concern for God’s law, he cries out to God, “How long shall I cry to you for help.” He seems to be tired of proclaiming the Word of God to a society that seems to reject God’s will and vision for life. God answered Habakkuk by telling him to keep the faith. God reassures Habakkuk that his vision for life is just, and that at the end of time, there will be judgement.
This past week, I had a luncheon meeting with Pastor Don Hake, who is now serving Holy Trinity, Hermitage. During our conversation, he shared with me that he believes there is a growing number of people in our society that seem to believe that they don’t need God. It is as if they believe that whatever they do, short of murder, is okay. They are so self-centered. Then he asked me, “How do you preach to them? What do they need to hear?”
I responded to Don, “You preach law and gospel.”
“But they don’t need to hear the gospel,” Don replied. “They already feel free to live as they want. They need to hear the law, because they don’t believe that they sin. Just look at our society, and how far we have traveled down the wrong path since we grew up. They need to hear the law, and realize that there will one day be judgement.”
“Yes,” I said. “That is what those persons need to hear. But our calling is to preach both law and gospel. We can not be responsible for what the people hear. As long as we are responsible in proclaiming what we have been called to proclaim, it is the Spirit’s work to open their hearts to hear the message and come to faith. We must remain faithful to the Word of God.” End quote.
This leads us into our second lesson for this morning. To be sure, some people come to faith through remarkable conversion experiences, like that of the apostle Paul. On his way to Damascus, where Paul intended to rid the synagogue of those who had come to faith in Jesus as the Christ, he was struck blind, and hear the voice of Christ challenge him to come to faith in him. As a result, Paul became a Christian, and was responsible for spreading the Christian faith throughout the Gentile world.
But I believe that most of us are more like Timothy. We come to faith in Jesus as the Christ through the witness of our family, or through the ministry of our congregational family. Our faith is the result of a communal, corporate experience. Although faith is ultimately personal, it is never lived out in isolation. We are surrounded by a community of people who share common beliefs, which serves to uphold and nurture faith in us.
I recently read a statement that suggested a profound understanding of faith. It said, “Faith is not a self-generated act of affirmation, but the gradual participation in the communal assumptions that surround us.” If I understand this statement correctly, it means that the values that our community holds dear and embraces as truth, soon become the values that are passed on to our children. For example, if the communal assumption that surrounds us is that money is the most important thing in life, we gradually begin to believe that it is, live by that principle, and pass that assumption on to our children. Communal assumptions help to shape our lives.
This reminds me of what Luther stated in his Large Catechism, when he explained the first commandment. He stated that we can have faith in many things, but that not all faith leads to redemption. The faith that saves is a faith in the one true God, and his redeeming grace in Jesus the Christ. This is why I believe that participation in the life of Christ’s church is so important. For it is here that God’s Spirit speaks to our hearts and surrounds us with a community of persons who can nurture and sustain us in true faith. What we hear as we gather for worship and fellowship are the communal assumptions that I pray help shape our lives and the lives of our children.
If this is true, if community assumptions greatly shape our faith, it brings up some interesting questions to ponder. What do you think people see as the assumptions of our community of faith? What characterizes our faith community, into which we invite friends and new members to participate? What inheritance of faith do we wish to pass on to our children? These are difficult questions, but questions that we need to ask ourselves as we evaluate our life together. Few of us would deliberately set up roadblocks to faith development, but we need to remember that our actions often speak louder than our words. For example, we say that we want our youth to grow in faith, but do we set good examples for them? Do they see through our actions the importance of worshipping God on a regular basis, and the ongoing need to learn from the Word of God?
This brings us to our Gospel lesson for today. As I said at the beginning of my message, note the exclamation point that emphasizes the apostle’s statement to Jesus, “Increase our faith!” The exclamation point pushes us back to what Jesus said to the apostles, just prior to this statement. In verses three and four, we find that Jesus has just said to his apostles, “Take heed to yourselves; if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him; and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
Here, Jesus is saying that one of the assumptions of our community of faith is to be characterized by forgiveness. As we live in community, there are bound to be times in which we will be called upon to forgive one another, perhaps over and over again. In fact, Luke tells us that Jesus suggests that if one sins against us “seven times a day,” and repents, we are to forgive them. This is Jesus’ way of saying that our forgiveness should be unlimited!
Is there any wonder, then, that when Jesus suggested that forgiveness was to be such an important assumption of the community of faith that would be his followers, that the apostles responded with an astounded, “Increase our faith!” Clearly the apostles understood that to be called to embrace such forgiveness, would not be easy, without the help of God.
Again, forgiveness is not some vague or esoteric principle. It is corporate or communal in nature. Forgiveness is a relational activity and does not take place in isolation. If we want our young people to understand the forgiveness of God, they need to experience forgiveness in how we relate to one another. It needs to be an active aspect of how we order our lives as a community of faith.
Forgiving each other and seeking to live by the Word of God are the communal assumptions in which Jesus invites us to participate. But not only does Jesus invite us to adopt these communal assumptions, he also empowers us to live by them. As we participate in worship, as we hear his Word and receive his grace in the sacraments, we are empowered by God’s Spirit to be faithful people.
Faith is not a self-generated act of affirmation, but the gradual participation in the communal assumptions that surround us. For Christians, the communal assumption is that it is God’s gracious action in and through Jesus the Christ, that gives life, salvation and faith to us all.
Amen.
