What is faith? Faith is a little word that is often taken for granted. The word faith is thrown around by a lot of different people in a lot of different ways. Everyone has faith to some degree or another. An atheist may not have faith in God but he or she has faith in something. If they drive a car, they have faith it will start and carry them to their destinations. If they live in a modern home, they have faith the lights will come on when they flip the switch or that the hot water will be there when they desire to take a shower. Faith means many things to different people.
I have a somewhat different view of faith. Faith, at least to me, has four components, God’s word, God’s presence, obedience to God’s word, and action on our part. We read God’s word; we reflect on it and recognize God’s presence around us; we are obedient to God’s word, and follow God into work among his people. To me this is faith and I believe this is what faith requires of us all. I believe that faith has great power when it is exercised and put into action. Has there been a time in our lives when we prayed for something that God provided but required that we step out on faith to secure the promise?
Have we been presented with choices where we had to trust God that we made the correct one? Have there been times in our lives where we just had to trust God that the way before us was the road we should travel?
I think the answer for us gathered here is probably yes. We’ve all had to at one time or another trust God and put our faith into action. The fact that we’re here is an act of faith, obedience, and action on our parts. When we turned our faith into verbs in our walks with God, was there any time that God was not present around us?
I can remember a time in 1983 when I was required to leave my home and family in North Carolina and move to Israel for my job for about a year and a half. I can remember praying and seeking God to know if this was really the path I was supposed to walk. God had opened the doors for this opportunity but I still had some reservations about leaving my family.
I can remember being excited about going and about the chance to see the sights I had read of in the Bible but I worried for the wife and three small children I had to leave behind for this journey. I can remember my wife gently saying that everything would be okay; God would take care of them so I need not worry.
I remember saying my goodbyes at the airport, gave kisses and hugs all around then I boarded the plane for the long trip across the pond still wondering if I had made the best choice for my family. I was going into the unknown and leaving everything that was familiar to begin work in a land that was very different from the one I left on faith that things would be better for it.
I was putting my faith into action. I was working for an Israeli company at this time and I needed to make this trip to reach higher in the company. My career and my livelihood for my family depended upon this trip. To fail was to go back to a mediocre existence of dead end jobs, struggle, and poverty so I had to have faith that the sacrifice we were making would be worth it. I stepped out of my box and moved forward. My family and I were better for it. Was it hard to do? Absolutely, but the rewards of exercising faith were certainly worth it.
I’ve discovered that when we exercise our faith and are obedient to God good things usually happen. I can’t remember an incident where someone exercised their faith when God called them to something and then withheld the blessing. The new nation of Israel as they were being assembled to enter the land, into an unknown, had to put their faith into action to enter the land of promise so very long in coming. They had to realize that God now required something from them. God required that they turn their faith into verbs, wait on God to move, and then follow in God’s footsteps.
Stepping out on faith is not easy; in fact it can be very frightening. I can remember what it was like when I finally answered the call of God to become a minister of the gospel and discovered I was going to have to come up to COS at Duke for a whole month away from the parish, every year, for a minimum of 5 years? Now I not only have to get to know our congregations, write sermons, do all the things required of me by our respective churches and our vocation, I now have to re-enter the educational world I thought I had left behind me, many, many, years ago on top of everything else.
I remember what was going through my mind. I felt I was at my Jordan then, waters raging, and looked around and tried to find God in the busyness of it all. God was there but in my frustration, I could not feel his presence. We’re not comfortable with the unknown, are we?
It’s very difficult for most of us to leave what we know or what we’re used to and strike out in obedience when God calls us to a new work especially having never done anything like it before.
I think there is a lot of fear involved with following the paths God opens for us at times, isn’t there? Place yourselves for a moment in the sandals of the Israelites as they stood on the banks of the swollen Jordan, waiting, trusting, putting their faith into action, waiting for God to move and desiring to follow.
When God calls us to new service or new things it’s often a major chore, at least for me at times, to put one foot in front of the other because of all the other work we have on our plates.
There are Administrative Council meetings, Bible studies, visitation at hospitals and convalescent homes that may often require the entire day, Wednesday evening services, district boards and conference meetings through out the year, Conference CONAM meetings, Course Of Study, mandatory retreats, mandatory seminars, charge conference paperwork, well, you can name it and it seems like it’s on our already overflowing plates, taking what little time there seems to be left, and there are still have Sunday services to plan. In the course of all this busyness taking place I have go back to a truth, a requirement of God. Our calling requires faith and obedience and these require action on our parts, Don’t they?
I think that God is calling us to change the way we think of faith, not just as the dictionary defines it as belief in God or doctrine or confidence in a person or thing. I think we should begin to look at faith as a verb, something that is active and working in our lives and the lives of others.
This new nation of Israel changed they way their faith was defined. No longer was it just a head knowledge of what God can do and an understanding that God might be among them to lead them. No longer was it merely something they spoke of in worship but their faith became a verb, tested, action that lead the nation into the land promised to Abraham and his descendents. Their faith became knowledge within their hearts and moved them to action led by the presence of God and by obedience they received the inheritance.
Do we put our faith into action as the Israelites did when they were faced with the flooded Jordan they were told to cross or do we stop at the river’s edge? Do we see the way before us as so difficult it can’t be traveled; do we step into the unknown waters of faith by obedience and work where God is working? Do we sometimes think that we are left alone to face the floods in our lives or that God is not among us but is somewhere far off, inattentive to our plights, unapproachable, too busy to be bothered with our needs and concerns? I admit to you today that I entertain those thoughts at times as I face the various problems of life.
I believe that God is calling us out to where the work is being done and desires we act out our faith. I believe God wants us to take “church”, our arks of God’s presence, out among the people and creation today. We are being called to come along side of God in faith and work where God is already at work.
God’s presence is not just found within the walls of the church. God’s presence is in the alleys, the highways and byways, the brothels, the speakeasies, the clubs. Wherever broken, hurting people are, wherever there’s a Jordan to cross, God’s presence is at work calling us all back into fellowship with the one that created it all but at times I can’t help but feel that we’re alone in our service. Do we not all feel this way at times?
Pastors are no different from anyone else in this. Often people may feel that they are alone to face the challenges of life. The Israelites needed the reassurance of God’s presence as they stood by the banks of the Jordan that day; we are no different. We often need that same reassurance and we are tasked with introducing others to the God we love and serve, the God that searches to heal and forgive. Yes, I believe the presence of God is meeting people where they are. God is still among his children and is leading us all through this life to the land of promise if we keep our faith grounded in God.
See folks, the Churches, our arks of God’s presence, like faith should be thought of as verbs, active forces. I believe that church is something we should be doing daily among the people not just something to attend on Sundays. Church is not the beautiful buildings where we gather together in on Sundays and midweek to honor and worship God. Church is not just a place to gather for special occasions. Church is more than this.
Church is the people and God among them, not the building that contains his people. Church, the presence of God is the life blood, or should be the life blood of the community. We need this church, our arks, the presence of God, to be at the center of our lives just as God’s presence was among the nation that was about to cross the angry, flooded Jordan river in our reading. All we do should center on God’s “Church” and branch out from the center of God’s will to reach the people with the message that God loves us and is among us.
Faith can be the strongest spiritual muscle we possess but like our physical muscles, faith has to be exercised in order for it to become strong. Israel exercised their faith on the banks of the swollen Jordan and entered the land so we, like them, must also exercise our faith to bring others into God’s reign. As our physical muscles need food and exercise to grow and become strong, our spiritual muscles need the nourishment of the Word, prayer, and the presence of the Holy Spirit of God.
Our faith in God begs the questions: “What are some ways we can get involved in the lives of people and carry our arks to them? How can we reach out to families, young college age adults, the un-churched, and help them face the trials they have in their lives or cross the Jordan’s in their lives. How can we lead them into the reign of God on earth? How can we work to bring the kingdom of God to them where they are?”
God takes attendance not by who is on the pew beside us but by those who are not. God doesn’t really care about membership roles of our churches; God cares about membership in the kingdom. We need to ask the Lord for boldness in our service and place our doubts, fears,
frustrations, and uncertainties, we don’t have those, do we?; into God’s hands, as Joshua and the Israelite's did that day so long ago, and be guided by this thing we call “Church”, the Holy Presence of God and we need to take it out of our sanctuaries to where the people are.
I ask you today, has God ever called us to do service and then left us to face it alone? Has God ever failed us in anything? God was there when the nation crossed over and God is there when we need to cross the raging Jordan’s in our lives. We can be assured that God’s presence will never leave us as we seek to serve the kingdom.
God has said in Hebrews 13:5b, “I will never leave you or forsake you”. God will go through the heaped up waters of life with us. God will never leave us to face trials alone so lets put our faith into action. Let us exercise it, strengthen it, read the scriptures, pray without ceasing, and let ourselves be led by the hand of God into deeper waters of faith and action that God may be glorified to a broken world. Let’s make church and faith verbs…. Amen
