|
|
Sermon for 18 Pentecost Yr C, 3/10/2004 Based on 2 Tim 1:3-5 &
Lk 17:5-6 By Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson Pastor of Grace Lutheran
Church, & Chaplain of The Good
Samaritan Society’s South Ridge Village, Medicine Hat, Alberta “A Lasting Faith” Back in the Second World War, when
the Nazis bombed London, there was an elderly woman who remained peaceful and
calm when others could not even sleep at night. When someone asked how she
could be that way, she answered, “When I go to bed at night, I pray to God
and then I go to sleep. There is no sense in both of us staying awake!” Now
that’s faith! During that same war, found on the walls of a cellar in
Cologne, Germany where Jews were hidden was the following statement of a
solid faith that endured all manner of sufferings and persecutions: “I
believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when I
do not feel it. I believe in God even when He is silent.” Now that too is
faith!
In both today’s second lesson and
gospel we learn of how important faith is in shaping and forming our lives as
well as in being the motivator for us to act and accomplish the LORD’s
purposes. After Jesus his disciples about how to practice forgiveness, they
respond by asking him for more faith to be able to put into practice what he
has just taught them: “Increase our faith!” they say. Jesus responds by
reminding them of the tiniest of seeds from the mustard, which takes 725 to
760 seeds for one gram of weight. Now that is very tiny! Yet, Jesus
encourages his disciples and us by reminding them and us that it’s not the
quantity of faith that really matters. Rather, the tiniest of faith, like the
tiny mustard seed, can make what seems impossible quite possible. Such
mustard seed faith can take a very deeply rooted mulberry tree, uproot it,
and plant it in the sea, Jesus says.
And in our second lesson, Paul speaks
of his own faith and that of Timothy’s. He emphasises in verses three to five
how important an influence our parents and grandparents can have in modelling
faith for us and in passing faith on from one generation to another. Paul
says, he is able to worship God with a clear conscience because his ancestors
modelled that faithful worship for him and passed on their faith to him. He
also acknowledges the faith of Timothy’s grandmother Lois and mother Eunice;
faith which was passed on by them to Timothy. This message too is one of
encouragement that we as parents and grandparents can take to heart. Even our
mustard seed faith can be passed on to our children and grandchildren and
make, what seems to us, the impossible possible. Indeed, some of us here
today, could also attest to this truth, for it was our parents or
grandparents who passed on their faith to us. As inheritors and recipients of
this faith life has made a difference. Such faith is like a priceless
treasure to us and therefore worth passing on and sharing with others.
This faith is often tried and tested,
and especially in facing the difficult things in life; our faith matures, is
refined and strengthened—as both Jesus and Paul knew so well. It is, in the
most difficult of times that faith finds ways of serving others and serving
God; which transform dead ends into new adventures. Very often encouragement
comes from words written or spoken by people who have known real trouble of
one sort or another. John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, written in a 17th
century jail, is an example. On another occasion he
wrote, “There is nothing like faith to help at a pinch; faith dissolves doubt
as the sun drives away mist—let it rain, let it blow, let it thunder, let it
lighten, a Christian must still believe.” After the war, Group
Captain Leonard Cheshire, war hero and founder of the country wide Cheshire
Homes, had many ups and downs when trying to discover the best way to use his
life. In his, Autobiography and Reflections he stated: “A spirit of
adventure, of putting one’s self and one’s future second, and the needs of
the deprived first, comes as a breath of fresh air.” Eventually this way of helping
less fortunate people became his way of life, but he realised the help had to
be given because of the persons themselves, not just because of their
handicap. He wrote: “If I am physically disabled and dependent upon someone
else’s support, I have a special need to feel what is being done for me is
not out of a sense of duty, or still worse pity, but purely because I am me.”
1
Leonard Cheshire was correct; faith helps us see beyond handicaps, beyond duty, beyond pity, into the real person, beyond barriers and differences; one who is a brother or a sister, ultimately, just like you and me. That, of course, is what the ministry and life of Jesus was all about—inviting and including people from every walk of life into his kingdom. Paul too endeavoured to follow Christ’s example, in his missionary journeys and preaching of the gospel, he offered people, no matter who they were, an all-embracing, inclusive faith. Such a faith as both Jesus and Paul demonstrated, is worth living and dying for.
So today the Good News is that even
the tiniest of faith, like the tiniest of mustard seeds, can make the
impossible possible. Such a faith is a priceless treasure and can only
blossom and mature through the ups and downs of life. So, we too can affirm
what poet William H. Bathurst said: “O for a faith that will not
shrink,/Though pressed by every foe,/That will not tremble on the brink/Of
any earthly woe.” 2 ____________ 1 Cited from: F. Gay, The Friendship Book, 1988, meditation for January 30th. 2 Cited from: Rueben P. Job & Norman Shawchuck, editors, A Guide To Prayer (Nashville: The Upper Room, 1983), p. 275. |
|