Sermon Blair Both 08-8-04 Church of the Holy Communion

SUNDAY SERMON

NOW FAITH IS…
Pentecost 14, Proper 11, Yr C
August 8, 2004

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen…By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place…and he set out not knowing where he was going…By faith he stayed for a time…living in tents…By faith he received power of procreation even though he was too old and Sarah was barren because he considered the One who had promised to be faithful. [Heb. 11.1, 8-11]

This is a sermon about faith. Because I believe you cannot talk or argue people into faith, I want to approach the subject with a story.

It's the middle of the night in the middle of the desert. The wind is blowing steadily and the tent is flapping. The man inside is half asleep but restless. Don't be afraid.

The voice is barely audible. Is it the wind? Then again, don't be afraid, Abram. My name; yes, the voice said my name. I'm awake now and of course I'm afraid. Everyone back home in Ur talks about people going deaf, dumb and crazy in the desert, especially if the gods start speaking to them, calling them by name.

Am I dreaming? Am I losing it? Here I am lying in my tent trying to sleep and I hear, don't be afraid. Just because I followed your call to this strange land doesn't mean I haven't been scared. You keep promising things that don't pan out. Don't be afraid. Well, I have lots of fears; I can't help it.

Do you have any idea what it's like for a man not to have a son? It's bad enough to have a wife who can't conceive but it is humiliating not to have a son and an heir. The thought of Eliezer my slave inheriting everything I have is too much to bear. I keep wondering if I did the right thing, leaving Ur, coming here with Sarah. At 75, I was no spring chicken. And then that business down in Egypt. Boy, we had a few close calls with Sarah posing as my sister and all.

Don't be afraid, Abram…your reward shall be very great. What reward? The only real reward you could give me is a child and since I remain childless, what can you give me? If you really cared about me, I would have a son. Without an heir, there is no future. It's that simple!

Abraham stretched and got up. He felt himself magnetically drawn outside the tent-out into the cold night air of the desert. He looked up. He stared at the vastness of the dark, inky sky. It was jammed with stars. It took his breath away. Never, ever had he seen so many stars. For a long time he stared and stared, mesmerized, craning his neck til it ached.

Then out of the darkness came the voice: look at the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count that high. That's how many your descendants will be.

Abraham just kept staring. He'd run out of words. He'd run out of questions and arguments.

Starry, starry night…how can it ever be forgotten?

And yet apparently, memory can fade. A bit later in the story [Gen.18], Abraham has another visitation from God. By now he is pushing 100, Sarah's 90 and they are still childless; no descendants. The voice of God tells him he is in fact going to have a son-at which Abraham falls out laughing. When Sarah overhears this news, she does the exact same thing. Laughs her head off. Ludicrous, ridiculous. But God doesn't seem to hold their laughter against them. Instead he tells them the boy's name is to be Isaac, which in Hebrew means laughter!

And why the laughter? Frederick Buechner writes about Abraham and Sarah by saying: "They laughed because they knew only a fool would believe that a woman with one foot in the grave was soon to have her other foot in the maternity ward. They laughed because God expected them to believe it anyway. They laughed because God seemed to believe it. They laughed because they half believed it themselves. They laughed because laughing felt better than crying." And lo and behold, they did have a son and they did name him Isaac.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. What kind of faith is the Bible promoting? Is it blind faith? It seems in this story that faith is laughter at the promise of a child named laughter.

Abraham and Sarah's story keeps me from getting too intellectual or analytical about faith. It keeps me laughing at myself when I think I have made some headway and have "grown in my faith." In fact faith is not a possession [it's not my faith]; it is better understood as a verb than a noun. We might talk about "faithing" like we talk about doubting. There is an off-again-on-again quality to faith; it comes and goes, ebbs and flows. It is not a fixed state at which one arrives. Faith is a process.

Someone recently commented to me about my move back to N.C. and the fact that I do not "have a church"-i.e., a job. She said, I wish I had as much faith as you do, Blair; you must have a lot. And I said, not really. Some days I do-especially the day my house sold in 24 hours. But some days I don't-especially when a couple whom I had married calls in excruciating pain after yet another miscarriage. Will we ever have a child, they ask. I don't answer. I don't have an answer. And I know it is not the time to talk to them about faith.

There is ample evidence in the Bible and in our lives for understanding faith as dynamic, not static and certainly not as a set of commandments, rules, or creeds. Faith is a journey which entails not being sure where you are going but going anyway just as Abraham and Sarah did. And the journey of faith necessarily includes doubts. "Doubts are," as Buechner says, "the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving."

I want to end by introducing you to a friend of mine and of Jesus. He's not famous like Abraham. In fact we don't even know his name. But he speaks the best one-liner about faith in the whole Bible. This man shows me that it doesn't matter how much faith or how little faith I have or how troubling my doubts may be. His story is found in Mark, chapter 9-which I am well aware is not one of today's readings!

This man is a father with a very sick son. He brings the boy to Jesus explaining that the disciples had failed to heal him. The boy is writhing on the ground in pain. Not very full of faith, he says to Jesus, if you can do anything, have pity and help us. Jesus repeats the father's words back to him [if you can do anything], then he says, All things are possible to him who believes. Immediately the father cries out with tears, I believe; help my unbelief. [Mark 9..22-24]

I believe; help my unbelief. There it is. The greatest cry of faith in the entire Bible. The father is at the end of his rope and has been seized by hope. He has been seized by the power of God. He puts himself and his son in Jesus' hands. This faith is not agreement with a religious principle or position. Nor is it a matter of a large portion of faith. Rather, this faith is radical trust in the person of Jesus.

What this tells me is that the only person with perfect faith is Jesus Christ. When he says, all things are possible to him who believes, there is a sense in which he speaks first of himself. It is by his faith, his faithfulness, that we receive our own faith.

The writer of Hebrews makes the same point when speaking of Abraham. Abraham received the impossible-a son and heir in his old, old age-because he considered the One who had promised [God] to be faithful.

What about you? Do you have faith or would you say, a lack of faith? Would you call yourself a believer or an unbeliever? No matter how many doubts you have, no matter how inadequate you may feel in comparison to others, no matter how much you may feel you are just going through the motions, you wouldn't be here this morning if there wasn't a germ of faith in you, however small. That germ, that seed is all the Holy Spirit of Christ needs; it is enough. Trust God to make it grow. We no longer need to say, "I wish I had more faith." Instead we have the incredible privilege of praying, Lord, I believe; help my unbelief. AMEN.

Sermon preached Pentecost 10, August 8, 2004, at Church of the Holy Communion, Memphis by the Rev. Blair Both.

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