October 2, 2022
Proper 22C<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Faith – What do we thank we mean by that? Does it always have the same significance? Belief? Trust?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Notice in Habakkuk – the prophet is fed up with injustice and evil\u2026 Then he says, \u201cLook at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What does that mean?
The proud do what is wrong – but the righteous LIVE\/do\/ act by their faith – by their trust – they DO what is right\u2026Pretty close to James: Faith without works is dead – In other word, faith IS obedience – it isn\u2019t just agreeing that something is true – they LIVE it –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So when we come to the Gospel – The apostles say, \u201cIncrease our faith!\u201d
Look. Have you ever felt that way yourself? Or have you ever been pressured to \u201cincrease your faith\u201d so that something would happen? Is faith measurable in that way? Quantifiable? Is God somehow disappointed that your faith isn\u2019t \u201cenough?\u201d
And what\u2019s \u201cenough\u201d anyway?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes Jesus\u2019 answer is translated badly- which helps to reinforce that sense of \u201cnot enough-ness.\u201d
If we hear him say,\u201d If you HAVE faith the size of a mustard seed you CAN say\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that\u2019s not what Jesus says at all. It\u2019s as if he doesn\u2019t even like the question – He retorts – \u201cIf you HAD faith the size of a mustard seed, then you could\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other words, you don\u2019t even have THAT much faith – you aren\u2019t needing more faith – that\u2019s not the problem here –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem is – you want magic, maybe, but not the trust that simply does what I ask you to do!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have a friend who is always saying to other people for whom she has responsibility, \u201cJust do it! Do it NOW\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other words, if you trust me – if you believe I am who I am, get with the program. That IS what faith looks like –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now I understand that using Language of slavery is difficult in our country with our unresolved issue of historic racial slavery and continuing racism, and discrimination –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But try to hear what Luke is up to – The story assumes the sort of slavery that was common in the Roman Empire – and it also assumes that everybody knew what that was. Now none of the disciples were probably wealthy enough to have slaves anyway – They were ordinary people whom so far as we know – did their own work.
But the story says what they all understand. A slave – or a son – does what the head of the household tells him to do – He doesn\u2019t get the privilege of sitting at the head of the table – He will eat, but not until the master, the head of the family, has eaten.
And since thanks were reserved for special gifts or actions that were not expected, it wasn\u2019t common to \u201cthank\u201d people for doing what they were expected to do.
What Jesus is up to here is a rebuke –
Not an invitation to figure out how to get more faith to make more stuff happen –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You don\u2019t even have faith – trust – the size of a tiny seed!
Faith comes by doing what I tell you to do and then you\u2019ll see that I am trustworthy –
When see you that I am trustworthy, you\u2019ll simply do what is just and right and good – and not stop to congratulate yourself about it –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other words, they are asking the wrong question –
And pretty often, so do we!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s a contemporary example for you:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A tightrope walker is getting ready to walk across Niagara Falls –
And having heard about how good he is, you watch as he prepares. Wanting to show your faith you say, \u201cWow! You can do it! I know you can! You\u2019re the greatest!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And he turns to you and says – \u201cGet on my shoulder..come with me!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What do you say then?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
October 2, 2022Proper 22C Faith – What do we thank we mean by that? Does it always have the same significance? Belief? Trust? Notice in Habakkuk – the prophet is fed up with injustice and evil\u2026 Then he says, \u201cLook at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3576,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3575\/revisions\/3576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}