August 8, 2010
Faith Will Lead Me Home
- Luke 12:32-40
- Dr. Teri Thomas
Life is unpredictable.
You know that feeling
that things are just totally out of your control.
Maybe you put on a good show to others,
but inside you are coming apart at the seams.
Perhaps your business is failing.
Maybe you can't find a job in this economy
and the bills are piling up.
Maybe you have a relationship that is on the rocks.
Maybe you're living between doctor appointments
and you are scared to death.
Maybe you are leaving your home
and moving to a new place.
How do you get through it?
"Don't worry about your life," says Jesus.
"Don't be afraid."
Why?
Because God wants to give you the kingdom.
No matter what is happening to you
No matter what you are going through
This is not the last word
God made us for joy- not sorrow
God made us for peace- not turmoil
God made us for light- not darkness
God made us for love and wants to give us the kingdom.
And what do we need to do to get there?
According to this morning’s lessons
we need to have faith.
"Faith is the assurance of things hoped for,
the conviction of things not seen."
The scripture doesn’t say this is easy.
It doesn’t say people of faith are perfect,
or are always in control,
or have all the answers.
People of faith are not better than other people.
People of faith are simply those who have learned,
like Abraham, Sara, Paul, Jesus- that God can be trusted.
God can be trusted to give peace in the midst of the storm.
God can be trusted to take what is evil and transform it into something good.
God can be trusted to empower you in the midst of trouble.
God can be trusted to receive you when you die.
God can be trusted!
To be faithful means that when we cry out to God-
“Hey God, I'm in deep,"
God replies, "I'm deeper."
When we ask "How deep?"
God sighs, "Let go and see."
Scripture says that faith grounds us and moves us- at the same time.
Faith is the peg on which we hang our hopes. Faith provides a ground to which we may hold fast. It is the rock- the anchor- that holds us in place.
But faith also turns us loose and sends us forth.
Faithfulness is a form of courage
that launches out into the unknown,
moving into the future with God,
knowing the future is God's.
It is not always so easy
to balance these two dimensions of faith?
Some of us find it easy to "hold fast."
We know the stories—stories of the Bible,
stories of our congregations,
stories of faithfulness and sacrifice.
These stories give us our bearings.
They help us work out where we stand, who we are, and what we ought to do,
but we find it harder to "move forward" into the future.
We are not that fond of tents, and we travel with lots of baggage.
Others of us have little trouble moving forward. We like to camp.
We travel light. We ask, "Where can we join what God is doing now?"
We are a people on the way, on the move, knowing that the future belongs to God, but we need help "holding fast," learning the story of God's faithfulness. We need to know of loyalty and endurance that persevere even when the path is rough and long.
So we need both dimensions of faithfulness. We need to hold fast to the promises of God and to move forward into the future which is God's.
This kind of faith requires equal measures of imagination and courage,
the imagination to see a reality beyond what is right now
beyond our personal experience
beyond what we know to be real
and the courage to live life as if it were true.
Trusting in God means setting out on a journey,
like Abraham and Sarah – and so many other people in the Bible –
a journey of faith toward a future
where God's design for creation will be fulfilled –
toward the "Heavenly City," toward the kingdom God wants to give us.
Trusting in God means seeing God's goodness even in the worst of times,
believing that God's blessings will outnumber the stars in the sky,
seeing beauty and grace in what may seem like the smallest of wonders.
It is faith that gives substance to our hope.
When it looks like life is just too hard to bear,
when we struggle with that pain or loss
or loneliness or doubt,
faith enables us to reach out
and feel the grasp of God on our lives,
to know that we are headed on that journey
to the heavenly city
where all of God's purposes will be fulfilled.
Faith, is much more than belief that there is a God.
Faith it is trust that God rewards those who seek God.
Faith has a long memory
and profits from the experience of those who have gone before us.
Frederick Buechner:
"Faith is different from theology because theology is reasoned, systematic, and orderly, whereas faith is disorderly, intermittent, and full of surprises….
Faith is homesickness. Faith is a lump in the throat.
Faith is less a position on than a movement toward,
less a sure thing than a hunch. Faith is waiting"
“Remember that faith is more of a process than a possession,
on-again-off-again than once and for all.
Faith is not being sure where you’re going,
but going anyway.
A journey without maps.”
(Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons)
A wonderful prayer by Thomas Merton -
"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone" (Thoughts in Solitude).
Amen.