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Faith
leads to LIFE! Luke
18: 31- 43; 19: 28 - 44 The
society in which most of us grew up in had no place for believing.
Believing was a private affair! Our
world was a world that said reason
was responsible and science sensible. It meant that we placed a higher
value on university training, and in daily life the material things. Think
of your school days and the emphasis on education and higher education.
Remember the importance of science and maths – the means of discovering
all the wonderful things that would change our lives and make things
better. And indeed science gave us a new heart; science also gave us the
atomic bomb. Today
our young people are in a world that says change
is challenging and new experiences are essential. They go to
school where things happen quickly. Their parents are changing jobs and
technology is always changing. Yesterday’s things are old. Computers and
technology only last a short while before we have something new and
better. Whereas we grew up in a secure
world the next generations are growing up in a mobile world. Where we older ones baulk at change, the
younger generations are tyrannised by change.
By tryrannised I mean change rules their lives. For them
yesterday’s new thing is today’s old thing. Where
did faith fit into our lives?
For us older ones religious faith
was a private affair. It
was something that happened over weekends. Our education and culture was
slowly but steadily distancing itself from religion. The experience of the
mystery of God was replaced by rational explanation of the Faith.
Intellectual discussion in our denomination is one of our strong points.
Religious institutions had a practical place - they provided our
entertainment and organised our social life. Finally only a few retained
the Faith – for many it was the memory that is now hidden by habitual
practices of charity, fellowship that has become friendship and worship
that is ritualistic. In spite of all this religion God is seen from time
to time in the Church. For
younger generations the religion speaks of obsolescence. Go to a religious
function and things are just the same as they were in your parent’s
time. What teenager wants to be like their parents. Yes, granny and
grandpa are quaint, but this is the real world. The younger generation
can’t live in a history lesson. The music is the old, the building is
old and the language is a dialect that is hard to understand. The church
sings of joy and looks unhappy; it speaks of hope and is anxious about the
future. If faith is a factor for the younger generations it is only about
having faith
in oneself. Yet
all generations long to live life more fully. How can that be possible? Our
story has something to say to us about our predicament. That beggar, has something
to teach us. That beggar who has no
social decency. That beggar who interrupts Jesus. I mean Jesus
was on his last journey. He was highly focussed on what lay ahead. The
enormity of the moment that he alone understood he rudely interrupts.
And the crowd! Dear me they were annoyed. They had come out to see
this great teacher. They heard rumours that something might happen. They
were curious, but not committed. They were interested, but not
understanding. At least the disciples who didn’t understand were
committed. They had got to like Jesus. They were companions and they hoped
for something better, but what? That
beggar interrupted everyone with his
shouting. And what a shout! Did he know what he was doing? He
could get into trouble calling Jesus the Son of David, and asking him to
have mercy on him. The
authorities wouldn’t have liked Jesus being named the messiah / the
Christ, because that was what it meant to call someone the Son of David in
the way the beggar did. And to couple it with the distinct and discreet
work of God by asking for mercy. Only God could be merciful;
“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on
me!” [Lk 18:38]
We Jews believe in the one true God, and we know that it is only
God who can show mercy to us. And he didn’t do it once. He kept on shouting this to Jesus
until he stopped proceedings. Then
came that amazing response of Jesus. Yes, he stopped in the middle of his
most important journey to attend to him. But that wasn’t it. He said to
him, this beggar, this sinner, this loser, who has … well no place in
society. His not important,
I’m sorry to say that, but he wasn’t. I mean what had he done for
society, his family, and his children. He was a beggar. He didn’t have a
decent job. Possibly uneducated too!
And Jesus says to him, mind you, “Receive
your sight, your faith has made you well.”
[Lk 18:42].
“Your faith” mind you, has made him well. How could this
beggar’s faith be so good? I mean better than, well not mine, but the
religious ones who really say their prayers every day. What was it with
his faith? A
remarkable truth has come to light in this story. Jesus declares that the
beggar’s faith has healed him. We must understand this carefully. We
must not assume that this man had faith and we haven’t. Neither does it
mean he has more faith than the next. The distinction is not between
degrees of faith – having the right amount, but between believing and
not believing. This man’s faith has made him whole because he
acknowledges Jesus as Lord and trusts him. The connection between
acknowledging who Jesus is and experiencing blessing is important. To put
it simply it is about treating Jesus as a person,
a not a thing to be used. It is not surprising to find people who
turn to Jesus and ask for things without acknowledging who he is, and with
no intention of relationship. Faith
implies: v
respect
for the person trusted. v
a personal
knowledge of the
one trusted. Not knowledge about the person but knowledge of the person.
This knowledge may be intuited and /or experienced. A relationship has
begun. v
a relationship
with the person trusted. v
a dependence
on the other. Like a small
child is dependent on a parent so are we are God. Whether the dependence
robs the child of freedom does not depend upon the child depending, but
upon the nature and character of the parent trusted. Faith
opens one: v
to the Other in a new way. v
to new
possibilities. v
to change. v
to adventurous living. v
to Life. v
to freedom
– the freedom move out to new things, new situations, new people,
because one already has a faithful companion who will keep you. You are no
longer on your own. The
preacher, H E Fosdick said; “It
is cynicism and fear that freeze life: it is faith that thaws it out,
releases it, sets it free.” Faith
is not about beliefs. Beliefs are what we have in our head. Faith is what
fuels our passion and compassion. I sometimes wonder if we don’t confuse
this. So we talk about believing in God and think we have faith. Instead
we have beliefs, but we don’t act upon the beliefs. But
faith is always a means to the end, never an end in itself. Faith is a way
of being that leads one to the Life-Giver – God in Christ. Bruce
Larson tells a story
in his book Edge of Adventure.
It’s about a letter found in a baking-powder tin wired to the handle of an old pump, which offered the only hope of
drinking water on a very long and seldom-used trail cross the Amargosa
Desert in USA; the letter read as follows: “This
pump
is alright as of Jun 1932. I put the new leather suck washer into it, and
it ought to last several years. But this leather washer dries out and the
pump has got to be primed. Under the white rock, I buried a bottle of
water. There’s enough water in it to prime the pump, but not if you
drink some first. Pour in about one quarter, and let her soak to wet the
leather. Then pour in the rest, medium fast and pump like crazy. You’ll
get water. The well has never run dry. Have faith. When you get watered
up, fill the bottle and put it back like you found it for the next feller. Signed
Desert Pete. P.S.
Don’t go drink up the water first. Prime the pump with it first,
and you’ll get all you can hold.” If
you were on that trail and desperately thirsty would you do as ‘Desert
Pete’ says? Or would you drink from the water.
Would you trust him? This
story reminds us basic truths about faith. Firstly, we all have faith and
exercise it. Secondly faith requires commitment.
And thirdly, faith involves the courage to act.
Belief requires none of the above. Our
beggar reminds us of these and
more. Christian faith is in the person of
Jesus
as Lord and Saviour. The one who walks always the way to
Jerusalem and goes the extra mile up the Via
Dolorosa to Calvary. Christian faith results in a personal relationship with God in Christ. ******* Peter C Whitaker, BUC: 16/03/2008
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CLICK TO EMAIL ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS TO : pgwhitaker@netspace.net.au |