This is a special musical presentation of Find Us Faithful by the Faith Lutheran Church Chancel Choir. 

Grace to you and peace from God our creator, Jesus our Savior, and the Holy Spirit our guide. Amen.

Happy Reformation! The day we celebrate the start of the Lutheran Church. The day we celebrate change. The day we look at what makes us Lutheran. As I was thinking about how Reformation can be considered the start of the Lutheran church, I was thinking that we celebrate a lot of “starts” in our church. We celebrate Advent - the start of the church year; we celebrate Christmas - the start or birthday of Jesus; we celebrate Easter - the start of a new way of thinking about salvation; and we celebrate Pentecost, the start of the Holy Spirit among us and what some would consider the start of the Christian church. So, if nothing, we are certainly flexible, or we just love to celebrate the church.

When thinking about Martin Luther and the Reformation, I came up with 3 C’s that I will reflect on in today’s sermon. The first is “change” - reformation - re-forming - changing the church. Luther didn’t want to start a brand new branch of the church and he certainly didn’t want his followers to call themselves Lutherans, he simply wanted to change some of the practices of the church at the time that didn’t fit with what the word of God, the bible, said. He felt the church structure had become something that was getting in the way of people’s connections to God. One of the main issues was that the church 500 years ago was very focused on “doing the right thing” or doing “works as prescribed by law” in order to obtain favor with God and get into heaven. Then, in case you were concerned you didn’t have enough good works, you could simply buy indulgences as a way to guarantee your sins would be forgiven. Luther wanted to change the church and get rid of these practices since they were not what the bible was saying was the way to be right with God.

Yes, Luther changed the church, or ended up creating a division since the church didn’t want to change (not that a church today would ever be reluctant to change!) We might be tempted to think that because of what Luther did, the change part of the reformation is done.  It isn’t.  As noted as a footnote in the book “Baptized, We Live: Lutheranism as a Way of Life” it says “If we are faithful to the spirit of the Lutheran Reformation, we will ask ‘What are our indulgences?’ - meaning ‘What is there in our institution which hinders us from hearing the LIVING WORD?’”

So, yes - we need to constantly be thinking about our church and what is hindering us from truly experiencing and proclaiming God’s living, loving, redeeming word - the gospel - the good news. This can be many things from church structure at all levels of the church - ELCA, Synod, and congregational levels; our worship services; our physical buildings; ourselves; and more. This is part of what the Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church, that the last churchwide assembly created, will be looking at for the ELCA. How do we need to change, how do we need to reform ourselves, to keep the focus on God’s Living Word.

We can’t use the excuse of “well, that’s the way it has always been” as to why we shouldn’t change. The church has changed a lot over the years, including if you think back to the start of the Christian church, it was focused a lot on community. Our second “C” for today. The start of the church was people gathering in each other’s homes - sharing stories, sharing the Good News, coming together to help those in need. All this, not because they were told to or had to, but because they wanted to - they believed in the message of Christ, the Living Word, and came together in community to support each other and share that message. Over the years, the church became more structured, more hierarchical, more bureaucratic. I personally think that the church as a whole could learn a lot from going back to a community focused approach, much like I see in many aspects of our congregation. Our food pantries, our parish house for refugees, our various food drives, our quilts and kits for Lutheran World Relief, and more - they all show how we support our larger community.

However, we also support our own community. I am preaching today as part of community. This is another thing that Luther was all about - lay people getting involved in the word. Luther translated the bible into German so that people themselves could read the Bible and learn from it directly instead of having the priest be the go-between for them. In fact, when I was telling someone this past week that I would be giving the sermon today, they were a bit surprised, thinking that only a pastor could give the message. So Lutherans, and some other denominations, are still unique in that aspect, that the message, the Living Word, belongs to everyone and can be shared by everyone.

The past week and upcoming weeks are a very strong example of how our own community support each other. As we continue to support and hold in prayer Pastor Ellen, Ken, and all of Dorothy’s family - this community of Faith continues to come together to share our gifts with them, so that the work that needs to be done is shared. This happens over and over again in our congregation - with people rotating to share leading Sunday School, with Deb or Kathy stepping in to play when Bruce is gone, with Pastor John filling in for Pastor Ellen when she needs to take care of other matters. The church isn’t the pastor, the church isn’t the building, the church isn’t any one person, the church is all of us coming together in community.

And this leads to the 3rd “C” - we gather in community to share our common confession.  I’m not talking about confession as confession of sins - I’m talking about our confession of faith - what we deep down believe - the core of our faith and beliefs. Now many of our confessions are covered in the creeds, the one we are focusing on today is the confession that makes Lutherans Lutheran. The confession that we are saved by grace through faith, not by works. This was the core of what Luther found in his studies. There is no way to earn our way to Heaven, to be in God’s good standing, since it is gift from God.

In our reading from the Gospel of John, we hear Jesus say, “...you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” and the disciples, ever confused, asked, “What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”  Just like we often ask in the Lutheran tradition - “What does this mean?”  So a story.

This past May I was on vacation using a rental car, and at one point, I backed the car into a larger truck which was not damaged, no one was hurt, and the only damage was part of the back end of the rental car was crunched a bit. Now, since this is church, I am being live streamed and recorded, and there are children present, I will not share what I said right after I had the accident. However, it was the feeling I had next that I want to share - I was consumed by this. I was trying to figure out what to do, what did I do wrong, how did I miss the truck, would this cost me any money, who do I need to report this to, where do I find a number to call, etc. I tried to focus on my visit with my family, but my mind kept getting drawn back to the accident and what I needed to do to make it right. I was certainly not free. I could hardly focus on anything else.

So, when the Gospel talks about being free, it isn’t just in the physical captive sense, it can be our mental state and how we live our lives. And this is how it can be if we had to keep focusing on making sure we are “right” with God, that we have done everything to make sure we will be saved and make it to Heaven. It would be hard to focus on the community part of our faith, hard to focus on living our lives, if with everything we did we were worried about if this will please God and will we be rewarded or punished.  We would start having to add up and keep track of everything we did during the week to make sure we did enough. Now, based on how I felt after my accident, and the thought of tracking everything I do - that doesn’t sound like a fun way of living.

This is the good news, we don’t have to do that - we have been made free by the Son, by Jesus, by God’s Living Word, as John says “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” - and the Son and God have made us free. And this isn’t just a New Testament message. Our loving God is consistent through the Bible, always loving us and forgiving our sins because of God’s commitment to us. As it says in our reading from Jeremiah today, “No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.”  Let’s focus again on that last part, “I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.”  Yes - our sins have been forgiven, not because we ask or do the right thing, but because it is God’s will and God has already done it.

Our reading from Romans shares the same message, “For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Our sins are forgiven and remembered no more, not because of anything we do, but because it is a gift from God. We are forgiven, saved, justified, by our faith. Again from Romans, “For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.”

This would be a nice place to stop, but there is always that pesky question that remains.  If we are justified by faith and not by works - then why should we or why do we do good works? We were just told that we aren’t justified by our works, so why bother?

We should note that nothing says that good works and the law aren’t important, it says that “works prescribed by the law” isn’t what gets us into Heaven. As noted in Jeremiah the Lord says, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”  The law, the urge to do good works, is part of who we are as Children of God, our very being. It is our calling to show our faith, show who we are as God’s children, by working to live into the law, live into what brings forth God’s kin-dom of love for all.

Back to my rental car this past May. Long story short, my insurance covered all of the damage, I paid nothing out of pocket, overall it was easy to deal with, and nothing bad happened. You could say all was forgiven. Had I known this would be the outcome, maybe I wouldn’t have been so consumed by it when it happened, and could have felt more free in that situation. So, since in the end it all turned out OK, I could really go out and do it again and again, since I have the insurance and they’ll take care of it, aka “forgive” me.  (We’ll ignore the part of my insurance premiums skyrocketing and then probably canceling coverage). But I won’t purposefully go out and do it again, because I know it isn’t the right thing to do, it doesn’t provide benefit to people. I don’t avoid accidents because it helps me get further in life or gain me any favor, but it is simply the right thing to do, and is part of who I am - to be a safe driver and work to do everything right, not because I have to, but because I want to.

It is the same with good works - we don’t do them to gain favor with God, we do them because it is part of who we are, part of having God’s law being written in our hearts, part of our faith, our desire to bring forth God’s kin-dom to all, part of our calling as people of God. We recognize that this can be a struggle at times, since while we strive to do good in the world, we know there is evil, the forces in the universe that draw us away from God’s love and kin-dom - so we follow Jesus, not because we have to be perfect and do all the right things like Jesus did, but as an example, a role model, a reminder of the way God wants us to live into our faith and God’s kin-dom.

Our church is changing and needs to continue to change, so we can focus on our community, and live into our confession of faith - the good news. The good news we are justified by grace through faith. Our sins are forgiven and remembered no more as gift from God and there is nothing we can or need to do to earn this favor. We are freed from focusing on ourselves and our sins, so that we can focus on bringing forth God’s kin-dom into the world, yes - often by good works. We could simply not do any good works and we still receive God’s gift of salvation, but is that the life you want to live? I leave you with this question to ponder for the week, “Why do you do good works, when you aren’t required to?”  Amen.

This is a special musical performance of Offeratory sung by Bob Nelson at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

From time to time our grandchildren stay with us for a few days. A few years ago, when our granddaughter, Vivian, was five years old, she loved to run, as most children do. And, when she stayed with us, she would continually run through the house with Ken chasing her. She would start at the front door, run past the kitchen and dining room, run through the living room, run around the table in the three-season room, and then head back, running through the living room, past the kitchen and dining room and back to the front door, where she would start in all over again.  As she persistently ran this course, she kept saying, “Vivian never gives up, Vivian never gives up!”

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus tells the story of a persistent, stubborn widow who simply never gives up. I think, far too often, when interpreting this parable, an assumption is made that the unjust judge is God, and we are to relentlessly badger God with our prayers and requests as did this widow who was so persistent with the corrupt judge.  When such an understanding is asserted, we get far too preoccupied with the unattractive comparison of God as an unjust judge and consequently we don't get into the deeper meaning of what Jesus is communicating. God is not like this corrupt judge, and he is NOT unjust!  This story is a parable, and remember, when we hear a parable, we can place ourselves in any one of the characters.  Also, Jesus’ parables are meant to be cognitive time bombs that shock us into new understandings as we think about them over time. 

The scene of this parable unfolds in a place that is something like a hall of justice where a judge is seated on his judgement seat and throngs of petitioners are gathered about, some represented by lawyers while others are just shouting their requests from the crowd.  And, this widow is in that crowd every single day when the court convenes.  She wants vindication against an unnamed adversary.  She wants justice!  She relentlessly pleads for justice!  Day after day after day, she is present shouting out for the justice she deserves.  And, every single day the harsh, unsavory, immoral, corrupt judge, who “neither fears God nor respects people,” ignores her.  Yet, this poor, defenseless widow obstinately badgers the corrupt judge until he finally relents and renders a favorable judgment. 

Now, we must remember the writer of Luke is communicating to a Greek audience, people who would picture a typical Roman judge.  Judges in that culture had vast power within their jurisdiction.  If they wanted to, they could decide cases based on personal whim alone and they frequently did just that.  The judge in this story is such a judge, and he is depicted as having no concern for justice.  Jesus says the judge felt no “reverence” for people, but also no sense of “shame” in how he treated them.   And, the contrast in the story is between this powerful magistrate who can do whatever he feels like doing and a poor widow who must simply take what she can get. 

It is significant that Jesus portrays this woman as a widow.  Widows, at that point in time, were powerless and the poorest of the poor.  On the “power scale,” the judge is at one end and the widow at the other. Widows in the ancient world were incredibly vulnerable.  And, threaded throughout Hebrew scriptures we find widows listed along with orphans and resident aliens (immigrants by the way) as those persons deserving special protection. The fact that this particular widow, unattended by any family, daily goes to beseech an unsavory judge who neither fears God nor respects people, highlights her extreme vulnerability.  Her single-mindedness drives her to, on a daily basis, stubbornly persist in her pleas for justice.  She keeps haranguing this judge, apparently making a public spectacle of herself...and him.  She mercilessly bothers the judge.  And, in fact, a more vivid and accurate translation of the judge's complaint when he says, “she keeps bothering me,” would be “she is giving me a black eye."  She's embarrassing him and calling into question his reputation by persisting with her case.  She is speaking truth to power.  When discussing this brave widow’s actions, one theologian suggests:

Like all black eyes, the one the widow's complaints threaten to inflict have a double effect, representing both physical and social distress. That is, the judge complains that the widow's relentless badgering not only causes him physical harm but also risks publicly embarrassing him. For this reason, he says -- perhaps justifying his actions to his wounded sense of self? -- that he relents not because he has changed his mind but simply to shut up this dangerous widow.

This judge finally decides that if he doesn't grant the widow's petition, she will wear him out - either figuratively or literally.  So, eventually, despite his callousness and his lack of integrity, he gives the woman what she wants.

In our own time and in our own culture, we have been experiencing a steady drumbeat of news, giving us reports of injustice after injustice.  And what has been done? The fact of the matter is that what we do as we work for justice is a form of prayer. Many of us do work for justice in a variety of ways and, when that longing for justice burns in your bones as it does in mine, seeking justice becomes part of the fabric of your life.  In this country, over time, civil rights laws were established; and they have brought some progress, though such progress often comes quite slowly, and now it alarmingly seems to be regressing.  Many organizations like ELCA AMMPARO, the ONE Campaign, Bread for the World, and ELCA Advocacy have been working to raise awareness regarding human rights, equality, and poverty.  And these organizations have been working hard to encourage lawmakers to enact policies that will help the poor, feed the hungry, and treat immigrants in humane and compassionate ways.  But, quite frankly, there are too many who, seeing such things, speak words of lament but then go right back to doing whatever else it was they had been doing. They then become complicit in the outcome. So, I wonder and I ask: what does this parable mean for us today?  

If this parable offers a mirror for our lives, then maybe the face many of us will see when we peer into that mirror is the face of the unjust judge who daily hears the cries of the poor and vulnerable and does not respond.  Or, are we like that vulnerable woman, tirelessly petitioning the judge for justice?  For me, I must say that the desire for justice calls me to never give up naming the injustice, denouncing the injustice, and working and calling for change in our culture, our country, and our world. You see, part of our baptismal calling is all about working for justice. It is also an active form of prayer.

When Jesus told a parable, quite often the deepest meaning in the story is the message of what God is like, what God is about, and what God is doing in this broken world.  So, as we hear the gospel in this parable, just maybe the really good news for all of us is that God is the one who is like that widow – unrelenting, persistent, assertive, and tenacious.  God is the one who does not and will never give up.  God has not, does not, and will not ever give up on us, even when we have acted as though we "neither feared God nor had respect for people."  Just maybe, the real message in this short little story is that, because of God’s great love for us, God became vulnerable like that poor widow, even to the point of being nailed to the cross like a common criminal.   And, in the death and resurrection of Jesus, God’s reign has broken into this world and continues to break into our world, bringing forth justice for all people.  Now that is the kind of good news worth sharing.  That is the kind of message each one of us can daily live as we relentlessly work for justice while proclaiming this very good news!

This is a special musical presentation of I Will Awaken the Dawn by the chancel choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

We have heard a great deal about boundaries over the past few years.   And, while I believe some boundaries are necessary, very needed, and extremely healthy, I also believe that far too often we impose boundaries and build walls that not only keep others out of our lives, but also fence us in, isolating us from others and the world.  And, quite frankly, too often, as we have seen in our current political climate, we simply draw a line in the sand, create unreasonable boundaries, and then refuse to cross those lines to seek common ground. 

When we meet up with Jesus today, he is continuing his journey to Jerusalem, his journey toward the cross.  As he and his disciples continue that cross-bound journey, they move into a border area, the boundary between Samaria and Galilee.  This boundary was a scary and uncomfortable place.  It was a boundary the Jewish people did not like to cross because it took you into that place where those hated and despised Samaritans lived.  And, look who Jesus meets at that border – ten lepers who raise their voices and cry out to Jesus saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”  These lepers, knowing they are unclean, keep their distance from Jesus, because that is what the law stipulates.  By law, they are not to go near those who do not have leprosy.  Enduring the labels of “outcast” and “unclean” they are required to live apart from the rest of society.  They are required to live within yet a different kind of boundary, one that keeps them totally estranged from all others.  Considered ritually unclean, they were quarantined and treated as objects of revulsion and fear on the part of their neighbors.  So, as these ten lepers cry for mercy, not one of them breaks the social conventions that surround their disease as they cry to Jesus from a distance.

The writer of Luke’s gospel tells us Jesus sees these lepers and tells them to go show themselves to the priests.  This was also required by law because the priests would have to inspect the lepers and verify their cleanliness.  Only then could they be readmitted to the temple and be freed from their status as unclean.  So, they go, and while on their way, they become clean.  All ten are healed, but only one comes back to say thank you to Jesus for the healing.  This one leper, when he realized he had been healed, turned around and came back, shouting his gratitude and glorifying God. 

So, why did only one leper return to offer thanks?  Part of the answer may be found in the identity of this healed man. He alone is identified as a Samaritan.  He was considered an outcast, not just because of his disease.  He was considered an outcast because he was a foreigner, a hated Samaritan.  As such, he was twice scorned, twice rejected, and twice removed from community. 

It really is interesting that this despised Samaritan is the one who expresses gratitude and stops to say thanks.  The writer of Luke’s gospel again chooses a Samaritan to make a point.  And, as he does, we can pretty much assume his point is not about the proper etiquette for saying thank you.  Luke is not giving his first-century listeners a lesson in proper protocol for receiving healing.  No.  Again and again, we find Luke’s Jesus teaching in parables and living in ways that disorient his followers with the shock of something new.  Again and again, Luke’s Jesus shows the people that God is close at hand, in your neighbor, in those you don’t consider neighbors, in an act of compassion and in a touch of healing. 

So, why did the Samaritan, the foreigner, come back to thank Jesus?  Jesus had not made a formal thank you part of the bargain.  He simply told them to go and show themselves to the priests. Well, we really do not know why the Samaritan is the only one to return.  However, just maybe the writer of Luke was more interested saying something about faith and also interested in describing the boundaries, or maybe we should say lack of boundaries, when it comes to God’s grace.  You see, when it comes to God’s grace, imposed boundaries will ultimately expand to include even those the world defines as unclean, immigrant, alien, foreign, and impure.  Luke seems to be telling us a story about faith and a very daring boundary crossing.  A crossing that is daring on the part of Jesus, and also on the part of the Samaritan. 

So, the Samaritan alone returns and, if we look at his posture, we discover that he comes close to Jesus and humbly lies down at Jesus’ feet.  Of the ten who were healed, he alone – a despised foreigner - breaches the boundaries and moves from an experience and life of isolation to one of grateful intimacy.  While the other nine perform the necessary rituals and practices, he alone feels obliged to say thank you.  And maybe, just maybe, in his need to say thank you there was a yearning for intimacy with God, a sense that faith cannot simply mean performance of ritual.  Faith requires relationship.  Faith – something that in itself is all gift – lures us, grasps us, and draws us into relationship with God, a relationship that is healing, intimate, humbling, and yes, even dependent.

I cannot help but wonder if part of the illness we are seeing within our present culture and broken society, is due to a deep self-centeredness, a viewpoint that assumes we are right, that assumes we are entitled to what we have.  We draw deeply entrenched boundary lines, and we do not want to cross those lines.  We become so preoccupied with our own needs, our own wants, protecting what we have while attempting to justify our unwavering position and perspective, that we maintain our distance from others while holding on to an illusion, yes an illusion, of absolute independence.  In doing so we continue to create divisions among people, cast others aside as unclean, and attempt to make others appear as outcasts.

“Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back.”  One turned back from maintaining the protection of distance, turned back from going his or her own way, turned back from self-justification, turned back from the illusion of independence, and knelt down at Jesus’ feet, proclaiming ultimate dependence on God.  And, in doing so, gave thanks and showed deep gratitude.  It is worth noting that Jesus does not remove the gift of healing from the other nine. However, he does reinforce the statement he makes so often, “Your faith has made you well.” This seems to suggest a deeper level of spiritual or existential healing that this grateful Samaritan will enjoy, a level of wellness that goes beyond the physical.

Gratitude!  Honestly, to “have faith” is to live it, and to live it is to give thanks. It is living a life of gratitude that constitutes living a life of faith – this is the grateful sort of faith that has made the Samaritan truly well, wholistically well. And gratitude is an expression of our need for others, of our need for God.  We cannot live within our deeply entrenched boundaries, live at a distance, and become truly healed at the same time.  The fact of the matter is, all that we have, all that we think we are entitled to, all of our stuff, our health, our position, our job, the list goes on and on, all is gift. 

When we begin to grasp and understand that all is gift, we begin to know gratitude.  And, it is gratitude that teaches us about the truth of our very lives – the truth that we live in a profoundly interdependent world.  The strength and health of our communities, our country and our very selves comes to us as gift when we live in relationship to others. 

The healthiest people I know are those whose lives are not lived as the self-made man or woman, living within their protective boundaries, and thinking they are so very independent.  The healthiest people I know are those whose very lives express deep gratitude as they have reached across boundaries to enrich and embrace others and be enriched and embraced by others.  The healthiest people I know are those who understand that to be truly well, to become truly whole, requires the embrace of the alien grace of Christ’s daring love, the embrace of the God who crosses all boundaries to love us where we are and as we are and make us God’s own.

This is a special musical presentation of Precious Jesus by the chancel choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan with a solo from Richard Triemer. 

I invite you to again listen to the beginning verses of our first reading in Habakkuk, as we find them in The Message translation of the Bible:

The problem as God gave Habakkuk to see it:

God, how long do I have to cry out for help before you listen?

How many times do I have to yell, “Help! Murder! Police!”

         before you come to the rescue?

Why do you force me to look at evil, stare trouble in the face day after day?

Anarchy and violence break out, quarrels and fights all over the place.

Law and order fall to pieces. Justice is a joke.

The wicked have the righteous hamstrung and stand justice on its head.

When we read those verses at our Tuesday Noon Bible Study, everyone in the group felt as though the prophet Habakkuk was writing words for us in our present time and current cultural context. The truth is our present context is one in which we sometimes find ourselves feeling as though we are trying to cling to our faith. The people of Judah were trying to cling to their faith. The prophet articulates their fear and their questions as they are facing military threats from their neighbors in Babylon and Egypt. And, after articulating their cries for help, Habakkuk then urges them to be faithful to God who will in time save them.  The fact of the matter is that all of today’s readings are about clinging to our faith when everything around us seems to be (pardon my expression) going to hell in a handbasket. In our New Testament reading, Timothy seems to be losing his grip as a leader of the early church. And, in our gospel reading, the disciples – those who are closest to Jesus himself – seem to be wrestling with some crisis of faith.  So, I find it hopeful that we hear these words today because they are so relevant for us in our present context.

Over the past few weeks, we have heard some rather perplexing and harsh stories from Jesus.  And it is easy to read today’s gospel passage and receive it as yet another harsh message of condemnation.  However, it seems to me Jesus is communicating something else.  So, listen again to the beginning of this passage with new ears.  When the disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith, listen as Jesus answers the disciples with words of kindness, love, tenderness, and maybe even a bit of a smile.  Jesus replied, “Why, you do not need more faith.  Even this much faith (his thumb and forefinger pinching together) is enough!”  You see, if we hear Jesus speaking with love it totally changes our hearing of his remarks.  This passage is not really about quantity and having more faith.  It is all about understanding what faith is, what faith means, and what faith does.

So, what is faith?  In his famous 1 Corinthians 13 words, Paul understood faith as one of the three greatest gifts – faith, hope and love.  In the New Testament, especially the writings of Paul, faith is often paired with love or said to work in conjunction with love. Furthermore, in Hebrews we read, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” 

If we think about what faith is not, we understand that faith does not equal security, and faith is not assurance that all will go the way we want.  Faith does not mean that we are assured of going to the holy wishing well and being given exactly what we think is in our best interest.

No.  Faith in God seems to really be about a kind of surrender, a kind of letting go, a kind of commitment and a conscious recognition of where we place our trust.  In his Large Catechism, Luther provides an explanation for the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me,” and I think his words might be helpful.  He writes:

A “god” is the term for that to which we are to look for all good and in which we are to find refuge in all need.  Therefore, to have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe in that one with your whole heart.  As I have often said, it is the trust and faith of the heart alone that make both God and an idol.  If your faith and trust are right, then your God is the true one.  Conversely, where your trust is false and wrong, there you do not have the true God.  For these two belong together, faith and God.  Anything on which your heart relies and depends, I say, that is really your God. (The Book of Concord, p. 386)

It is so very difficult in our “do it yourself” culture to just let go and place our faith and trust in God.  I really wonder if this lack of willingness to let go, to let go of our need to control, is more often the problem than the amount of faith we might have.  When talking about this challenge, Richard Rohr writes:

A common saying is, “God helps those who help themselves.”  I think that phrase can be understood wisely; but in most spiritual situations it is not completely true.  Scripture clearly says, in many ways, that God helps those who trust in God, not those who help themselves.

We need to be told that very strongly because of our “do it yourself” orientation.  As educated people, as Americans, as middle-class people who have practiced climbing, we are accustomed to doing it ourselves.  It takes applying the brakes, letting go of our own plans, allowing Another, and experiencing power from a Larger Source to really move to higher awareness.  Otherwise, there is no real transformation, but only increased willpower.  As if the one with the most willpower wins! Willfulness is quite different than willingness.  They are two different energetic styles and normally yield very different fruit.

The reality is we already have the faith we need.  God gives us the faith we need.  But, as Richard Rohr has said, we must show a willingness to allow God to be the one in charge, to trust in God even when this might seem so very hard, even when it seems like everything is going to hell in a handbasket.

Yes, God gives us the faith we need.  However, we must be willing to actually use it, to actively live it, to allow God to use us and that is so very countercultural.  As I hope all of you are aware, we use our faith to serve God, not to earn God’s love or salvation.  We use our faith to serve God through our actions and the way we live together in community for the sake of the world because that is what faith will expect of us.  As theologian, Kimberly Long, suggests, “You already have the faith you need.  Now fulfill its purpose: live it!”  And, this is where the second part of this gospel comes in.

To understand faith in this way is to understand faith as a way of life.  And, it is important to remember that we do not do this alone.  We do it as we live together in community as the broken body of Christ.  I think, the issue at stake is how we live together in community.  God gives us what we need to flourish abundantly in faithful community.  As the second part of today’s gospel reading suggests, in the economy of faith, we who serve depend on a benevolent master who not only expects us to obey but gives us all that is required to do so.  And, much of that comes by living together as the community of the baptized.  The Rev. Dr. Anna Madsen, in her book I Can Do No Other: The Churches Here We Stand Moment, writes about this baptized community and the life of faith.  Her words are helpful as she remembers what she learned from seminary Professor Walt Bouman. She writes:

You see, as Bouman taught many of us, baptism only “works” if it is “used,” that is, if it is trusted.  Our God is that in which or in whom we trust.  Baptism initiates us into a life of trust in God, of our participation in the community God, into the risen Jesus.  The word community is key here, for baptism is not only an individual matter.  It is, of course, a promise to each individual person (we are known by name).  But baptism initiates us into the community of the baptized.  We are, in a sense, baptized into a community of trusters. (I Can Do No Other: The Churches Here We Stand Moment, p. 22)

Yes, we are “baptized into a community of trusters,” the community of faith.  And, when we live together and work together as the broken body of Christ, the faith we have been given enables God to work through us and do some amazing things.  We have seen such faith at work in our own congregation as we joined other congregations to create Michigan Refugee Hope, an organization that has enabled us to provide life and hope to young refugees.  In fact, through this effort, this congregation has taken in over fifteen young refugees.  We will likely be taking in more yet this year. That is what faith does. 

When Jesus speaks to us today, he is not so much talking about quantity of faith.  He is talking about what faith is and what faith does.  Faith is not stockpiled in a storehouse for the working of spiritual wonders. No.  Faith is lived out as obedience to a just, merciful and loving God.  And, as we walk together in community as the broken body of Christ, we find that the God who expects much from us also promises much and does provide all the faith we need.  God provides all that we need to live into God’s call to do the work of justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.