Sermon "Faith and the Future"
Rev. Dr. Steven A. Peay
Sunday, October 4, 1998
"Faith and the Future"
Two phrases from the readings have stuck with me for days. The first is the apostles' request to Jesus: "Increase out Faith." The second are Paul's words to Timothy: "...rekindle the gift of God that is within you." As I've reflected on these readings, watched the news, read the papers, and talked to folks I think I know why these have stayed with me. We live in an uncertain world. There is little, over which we have control, in which we can put faith. The stock market looks like a roller coaster, there are doubts about the world economy, the stability of many nations is in doubt, and our government is racked with moral scandal. With so little certain, so little in which we can place trust, that request, that reminder is timely indeed.
So, what are we asking to have increased and what do we seek to rekindle or stir up? Faith, Hebrews 11:1 tells us, "is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The turn of the century philosopher Tagore wrote, "Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark." Faith is, at once, a thing of both the present and the future, but it is, most importantly, the result of an encounter with the living god. One cannot pray: "O God, if there is one, save my soul, if I have one" and be a person of faith. Tagore's bird sings because it has known the dawn, we believe because we have come to know a living, loving God.
Paul reminded Timothy that his "sincere faith," was one that "lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice." It was a faith that had been given, handed on to him by the example of his mother and his grandmother. Faith is rooted in tradition, in the most literal sense of the word. Tradition comes from the Latin "tradere" and means to "hand on." Traditions that which is handed on. Tradition is a living relationship, not just rigid adherence to a set of customs. When we speak of the Christian tradition we should be talking about, as one writer has put it, "the living faith of the dead" and not the "dead faith of the living."
Think of your 'faith roots,' who handed the faith on to you? In my case it was, especially, my grandmother. Her faith in God was deep and lived-out in the way she treated people and approached her world. Some of my fondest memories are of her in prayer and knowing that it was her faith, her prayer that carried her through the loss of two husbands, three children and all sorts of calamities in life. her experiences of God in the midst of life constantly increased her faith and she grew closer to Him as the years went on. Faith, then, must not only be handed on, it must be cultivated and grown.
There's a story told of the poet Coleridge who had listened to a vehement argument by a visitor against religious instruction for the young. His visitor had concluded with the statement of his determination not to prejudice his children in any form of religion, but to allow them at maturity to choose for themselves. Coleridge made no immediate comment, but a little later asked the visitor if he would like to see his garden. Having received an affirmative response he led his guest to a strip of lawn overgrown with weeds. "Why this is no garden," said his guest, "It is nothing but a weed-patch." "Oh," replied Coleridge, "that is because it has not come to its age of discretion. The weeds you see have taken the opportunity to grow and I thought it unfair of me to prejudice the soil toward roses and strawberries." Timothy could not have "rekindled the gift" if it hadn't been given. My faith wouldn't be what it is had my grandmother, and others, foster families in faith, been such good models. Faith must be handed on, planted, grown.
The faith to be increased, the gift to be rekindled is what has been revealed to us in the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Christian faith is focused on Jesus Christ, and in that act faith is placed in the God who brings the dead to life. So, while one can talk about 'philosophical faith,' it's still not something that one is argued into. Reason, without question has a part in the whole process of faith-- and I'm afraid there isn't time on a Sunday morning to go into the whole theology of faith, though I can recommend several good books--but reason is not the essence of faith. In fact I believe what Augustine wrote, "Faith opens the door to understanding, unbelief closes it." Which is similar to what Tertullian said, "I believe in order to understand."
Faith is there simply because it is. Faith is something which is, at once, embraced and embraces and opens us up to a whole world of knowledge. The act of faith allows God to come into action and brings us to submit to his dominion, to become children of his promise. Love follows in the same vein and flows from faith. As Augustine said, "There is no love without hope, no hope without love, and neither hope nor love without faith." When we come to faith we embrace, and are embraced by, the promise of God: "You will be my people. I will be your God." It was in that faith that Abram left everything and went in search of the land of promise.
In Jesus the promise takes on a whole new dimension, as Paul writes to the Colossians, "the mystery hidden for generations but now made manifest....Christ in you the hope of glory." In Jesus the promise is revealed, made evident through the Incarnation, the Cross, and the Resurrection from the dead. This is what Paul tells Timothy when he speaks of the power and call of God, "which he gave us in Christ Jesus ages ago, and now has manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." Jesus has revealed the eternal purpose of God. As one writer puts it: "Death is not the goal of creation; the goal is everlasting life."
Faith makes us participants in this renewed life--which is a here-and-now, not just a bye-and-bye thing--and in it we are given freedom. Freedom from fear; freedom from existence which has neither meaning nor purpose, because we have been given a spirit which is "strong, loving, and wise." Hope only exists where there is freedom, if not externally at least internally. As children of the promise we are free and we are also children of hope. That's why Paul can talk about life and immortality in the same breath.
To most of us the concepts of life and immortality are incompatible. We think of life as a present, and thus possibly understandable, reality. Immortality, on the other hand, is something in the future and incomprehensible to us. In Christ, through faith, the present and the future go hand-in-hand. As children of the promise we live our future in the now--the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is a visible reminder of that as it seals and makes the covenant, which is at once an event both past and future, present to us. I like what the contemporary German theologian Walter Kasper has written:
Christian hope therefore opens up a horizon on the basis of which one is given fresh strength to proclaim and master the present. In the horizon of Christian hope the present is not drained of its significance but is rather given its significance back again: it becomes the place of conversion and decision, the place of faith and love. The gift of the future thus also provides the foundation for the task of living as new men and women practicing truth, justice, freedom, love, and peace. Prayer and work, contemplation and action must here from an indissoluble unity.1
When faith is expressed in the practical business of living, one is already participating in the future world in the here-and-now.
For Christians, children of the promise, children of hope, death is not something morbid or frightening. It is not an ending, but a continuation of what has already begun in us when we were baptized into Christ. As Paul told the Romans, "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you." (Rom. 8:11) for us life is changed, not ended and we live in hope of that which is both a future present and a present future. What we have as a gift is nothing less than the meaning of life and life itself.
This gift which should be constantly rekindled, this faith which should be continually increased should lead to action. Jesus was chiding the apostles when he told them "If you had faith the size of a mustard see, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you." First, they didn't have it and second, faith doesn't call us to do things like that--the signs of faith lead to life, not mere exercises of power. Jesus was making a point. I think it's the same point Walter Kasper makes when he writes:
The Spirit of God is at work wherever someone breaks out of the prison of egoism and devotes himself or herself to other people; wherever someone leaves everything behind, forgets and forgives; wherever someone, on the basis of the ultimate depths of trust, ventures on the future or in silent resignation accepts his or her fate and confides himself or herself to an ultimate meaning and mystery.... We should much rather trust that God's Spirit is at work not only in other churches but also in other religions, in civilizations and historical movements, to the extent that these do not barricade themselves against humanity's future but rather try to help it come to birth. The presence of God's future through God's Spirit can therefore take place everywhere in the world in many different kinds of ways and often anonymously. God indeed wants everyone to be saved and that means he grants everyone a genuine chance of God's [eschatological] future.2
God has offered us the possiblity of being his very children--children of the promise, children of hope. Our faith is a response to that offer and our service--the way we live our lives--demonstrates where we have place our faith. In the midst of uncertainty there is this certainty: God loves us and both our present and our future are his. Rekindle the gift...increase the faith...rejoice in the promise of faith and the future. Amen.
1Walter Kasper, Faith and the Future (New York: Crossroads, 1982), p.15.
2Kasper, p. 17.
