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Sermons
You Gotta
Have Faith! (But do you really want it?)
Gn 12:1-4(a); Rm 4:1-5, 13-17
The Downtown Presbyterian Church
Rev. Kenneth M. Locke
During this season of Lent we are
looking at our faith and at ourselves in relation to our faith. Most of our weekly epistle lessons are going
to come from Romans, the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in
Last week, Paul talked about
spiritual life and death in terms of Adam.
Like Adam, most of us most of the time are spiritually dead. We are naked before God, desperately covering
ourselves with whatever fig leaves we can find.
But if we choose, we can be alive in Jesus.
Today, Paul and We are looking at
faith. And just like last week Paul is
using a familiar example from the Old Testament: Abraham. In Paul’s day Abraham was the prototypical
faithful Jew. Talking about faithfulness
to God meant talking about Abraham. And
that is exactly what Paul does. Listen
now for the word of God.
(Scripture
For many years one of my issues with
Christianity was we never had to walk over hot coals. Climbing the highest mountain, swimming the
largest seas: don’t have to.
Giving away all our money and starving in a cave: not required. Christianity in many ways was simply too
easy. There’s almost no barrier to
entry, only a very low bar.
I wonder if Abraham felt that way
when God called him. There’s
nothing special about Abraham, nothing to commend him. He isn’t keeping the rigid Jewish laws
because the laws aren’t there yet.
It will be hundreds of years before Moses comes down from Mt Sinai with
the Ten Commandments. Abraham has not
climbed the highest mountain or sailed the 7 seas. He just is.
“Wait a minute, God.
You’re going to bless me in this wonderful way, make me the father
of many nations, my progeny as numerous as stars in the sky and sand on the
beach, and I don’t have to prove myself worthy?” “That’s right! All you have to do is believe my proclamation
that you are good enough just as you are and then go do it.”
So Abraham went home and burst in
the door and said, “Sarah, guess what.
God says I’m good enough just the way I am. God’s going to make me the father of a
great nation. And I don’t have to
prove myself.” And Sarah
said. Well, we don’t know what
Sarah said. Maybe she said, “Of
course you are dear, I’ve known it all along.” Or maybe she said, “Yeah, right.”
Either way Sarah and Abraham sold
the house, packed the truck and moved to
Perhaps this is a good time to say
exactly what we mean by faith. What is
faith?
First of all, let’s make sure
we understand faith is not lived in a vacuum.
We don’t take it out of the closet with our “Sunday go to
meetin’ clothes,” and then hang it back up before our afternoon
nap. Faith is not living with total
disregard to Monday through Friday.
Faith is not anti-intellectual,
blind belief. We don’t look at the
mysteries of life and God and say, “I give up. I’ll never understand it. I’ll never fully fathom it so I
won’t worry about it, I’ll just believe.”
Like many of you I enjoy reading
bumper stickers when I’m driving and like you I’ve seen some good
ones and some bad ones. To my mind the
most anti-Christian, most blasphemous, anti-faith bumper-sticker I’ve
ever seen is the one that says, “The Bible says it. I believe it.
That settles it.”
That’s not Christian faith.
That’s anti-intellectual arrogance, denying the brains and insight
God gave us.
No, faith is not like that. Faith is lived in the here and now; daily,
constantly, effecting our lives. If
faith doesn’t directly impact each moment of how we live it is not faith.
Faith recognizes our brains are a
gift from God. Faith is something we are
constantly learning about, reading about, struggling with. Faith - is constantly seeking
understanding. Faith does not get
confused and give up. Faith keeps on
trudging.
And faith knows there is no proof
for faith. Indeed, proof necessarily
rules out faith. If we have proof God
exists and God loves us we have no need of faith. Paul wrote to the people in
Others are saying, “Prove God
exists. Show me a mathematical formula,
show me a logical argument, show me a cosmic event proving to my skeptical mind
God does indeed exist and God loves me.”
But that’s not faith, that’s proof.
I have some dear family friends,
people I’ve known since I was a teenager, who used to believe in
God. But now they only believe in
proof. They have no faith. They only believe in numbers on a page that
can be added up and dealt with once and for all.
Faith, Christian faith, believes
without proof and accepts as true, but constantly struggles with and explores,
the Christian proclamation. Christian
faith believes the Christian proclamation and every day struggles with living
out that proclamation.
That’s what Christian faith
is: believing and struggling with and every day living out the Christian
proclamation.
And what is that proclamation? If you remember nothing else today, remember
this. Wake up the people who are sleeping, grab a pen out of the pew and write
this down. Repeat it to yourself on the
way home. Remind yourself of it every
morning when you get up and every night before you go to sleep.
The great Christian proclamation,
the proclamation in which we have faith, is this: God loves us just the way we
are. In Jesus Christ we are all good
enough. In Jesus Christ we are all OK.
Walking across hot coals? Not necessary. Climbing the highest mountain? No point.
Hair shirts and starvation? Fine
if you want to but not required. Giving
all our money to God and living as paupers?
Getting the cart before the horse.
The great Christian proclamation is
God loves us just as we are, without one plea, doing nothing to deserve it.
Christianity is faith in the
proclamation God loves us just as we are.
We can accept it or not. We can
believe it or not. We can have faith in
it or not. That’s our choice. But that’s what it is.
If we have faith in that love
certainly we’ll want to respond to it.
Having faith God loves us means responding by loving others. We will be kind, we will share of ourselves,
we will give our money and time and energy to support the work of God.
You’ve heard me talk about how
much money it costs to run this building.
And it does cost a lot. But let
me tell you a story. Prevent Child
Abuse
Last Tuesday I was talking to one of
the women. She and her boyfriend have
been coming to the Taizé Tuesday services and fellowship before their
class. I asked her about her week and
how life was treating her and did she herself have any children. She said, “I have two daughters and
I’m fighting the state to let me keep them. That’s why I’m here.” “Oh, well. Is it helping?” “Yes, believe it or not I’ve
learned something from these classes.”
That’s one story about a life
being changed in this building. That
life is being changed because you and I have faith in the Christian
proclamation and are responding to God’s generous love with generous,
self-giving love of our own.
That’s what Christianity is. It’s faith, faith in the proclamation
God loves us just the way we are.
You,
me, Abraham, Sarah: we’re all the same.
God is calling us with a proclamation of love just as we are. We can have faith in it or not. There’s no proof we can hold up and
examine or put under a microscope. We
have some stories written long after the events they describe. We have a handful of letters, some of which
are a bit obtuse.
But they all point towards one
thing. They all agree by Jesus’
death on the cross you and I are OK. God
loves us just the way we are.
Do you believe that? Do you have faith in it? Does your life show it? Are you responding like Abraham by following
God wherever God so lovingly wants to lead?
Or do you discount it? Do you demand signs or wisdom? Do you reject it and live out the self-hating
life of those who really don’t believe they’re OK, who don’t
believe they can be loved just as they are?
Easter is coming; which is good news
if you have faith in its proclamation.
Now is the time to look at ourselves and decide if we have faith. Amen.
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