Spiritual Oxygen and Christian Faith

What's faith about? Is it static or dynamic, a complement or an opposite to reason?

Father Goodrich preached this sermon, based on Genesis 12:1-9, Romans 4:13-25, Matthew 9:9-12, 18-26 to a live congregation of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Dubuque, Iowa.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:03

When people learn that you are a person of faith , when they learn that you are a Christian , when they discover that you go to church and they happen not to be a person of faith themselves , these are some of the thoughts that might be going through their mind . Faith , a belief in something that can't be proven . Faith , wishful thinking . Faith , a static belief system to be held unchanged at all costs , against all comers . Faith , an outdated form of human thinking and direct opposition to scientific thinking . Now , most people are too polite to actually say that to your face , but that's what some people are thinking . When they discover that you are a person of faith . And today's lesson from Genesis , the very first book of the Bible , the camera lens focuses in on just one man or perhaps a couple , we might say , and it sets the stage for everything else that will happen in the whole rest of the Scriptures . In Genesis 12 , we discover a man named Abram , a wealthy Middle Easterner , not a believer in the one God at this point , a pagan , so to speak , and he is advanced in age , or , as someone in this congregation sometimes says , a person of significant years , and he is very well established in his life . And this is what God tells Abram in Genesis 12 . Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you . I will make you do a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing . So , in this sense , faith could be thought of as a journey of leaving home in order to seek a country of blessings and to be a blessing . Now , sometimes this analogy the life of faith , the journey of faith sometimes applies literally , like you got to grow up and you got to leave your parents' house , but more often it applies metaphorically leaving the home of your comfort zone , leaving the home of the ways of thinking that are very familiar to you , that perhaps have not been serving you so well , maybe they've never been serving you so well . To seek out that unknown country , to seek that land of blessings , to live a life seeking blessings and to be a blessing , a life that has certainties and a life that has uncertainties . In other words , to live a life of faith , a life of faith that is supported and made possible and sustained by God's grace . Let's say those two words together God's grace . And that's what St Paul is reminding us in Romans , chapter 4 , today , a very important reminder . We're not going to say a lot about it , but he emphasizes the whole life of faith is made possible by God's gracious favor towards us , toward you , toward me , even if I mess up , even if you mess up , even if I'm doing the right thing or if I'm not doing the right thing . Important reminder from Paul , romans 4 . Okay , so let's get back to Genesis .

Speaker 1 3:57

Have any of you read the saga of Abram and Sarah , later known as Abraham and Sarah ? I see a couple of hands , a couple of hands going up there . They were the model couple . Right , they were the model couple Perfect teeth , perfect kids , perfect living room . Well , how shall I say ? Not so much , they had issues , to say the least . And yet that is God's peculiar pattern . A hundred times over throughout the pages of Scripture , you find that God chooses messed up imperfect people And God blesses them , and God chooses to work through them to bless others messed up in perfect people . People like me , people like you Turn to somebody and say it . Like you , like you , people like Abraham and Sarah .

Speaker 1 5:08

Now , interestingly , throughout the pages of the Bible , holier than thou individuals . raise your hand if you've ever met a holier than thou individual . Hey , those kind of individuals in the Bible do not fare well . They flunk the test of faith in the Bible . So faith , using this analogy of the journey , faith is seeking this unexpected in this unknown country . Now , check this out . Check this out . Faith is not a journey into ever increasing levels of airtight certainty that can never be questioned , changed or challenged . I'm going to rewind that one Booo . Faith is not a journey into ever increasing levels of airtight certainty that can never be questioned , changed or challenged . Got some rewinders here . If I were to take a glass container and put it over a candle , oh , look , there we are , there's a glass container . So if I take this glass container and I put it over this candle , what is going to happen to this flame ? Eventually it will die out . It will die out for a lack of oxygen . Biblical faith , christian faith , has to remain open to God , to other people and to the world in order to receive the sustaining spiritual oxygen of the Holy Spirit . And a faith that is open to the world and to other people and open to God will burn more brightly than a faith that is closed off from all criticisms , questions and doubts . And this flame has gone out under the glass container .

Speaker 1 7:10

In college , my major was philosophy . Any other philosophy majors here ? Okay , we've got maybe one , as usually how . It was like two people , the whole school And I would semi-radically read and really get ridiculed by other people's parents not my parents , not other students and other college kids but I would be ridiculed by other people's parents . They would say something like a philosophy degree . What are you going to do with that ? You're going to have a more sophisticated conversation with people at the unemployment office , you know . Or they say something like philosophy . What do you do ? Have a clever chat with the people whose table you're waiting on at the restaurant , and that's usually how it went . But actually philosophy is a very useful subject to study . Philosophy is the study of truth and logic and reason . Philosophy is the rational expiration of very simple and very complicated topics like ethics and God and politics and locusts Okay , not so much locusts , But all sorts of things . Philosophy studies Anyone here ever taken a philosophy class in college ? Okay , you survived . Good , good , good .

Speaker 1 8:36

One day when I was in college I was in the student center . I was just kind of hanging out And when I ran into someone that I was in several philosophy classes with a fellow student , extremely bright , extremely sharp guy . We were just chatting , shooting the breeze , and I just happened . I wasn't thinking about it , i just happened to mention that I was going to church later that day . His jaw dropped , he had a shocked expression on his face and he just blurred it out without thinking . But you're too smart to be a Christian . So , unlike most people that you and I meet , or at least a good deal of them , he didn't hesitate to share with me , probably out of shock , what he thought about the fact that I was a person of faith .

Speaker 1 9:25

Truffle's statement you tell me there is an intellectual component to Christian faith . True , now , it's more important for some people than others , absolutely , but every Christian should both feel their faith and think their faith . Now , depending who you are , you might struggle one way or the other on that side of the equation , whether it's the feeling or the thinking side . Some of the world's smartest people over the centuries , including to this present moment , are people of Christian faith . Now , i'm certainly not one of them . I wouldn't put myself in that category . But what I can tell you is that , yes , philosophy , reason , science are wonderful compliments , not obstacles to faith . Wonderful compliments , not obstacles to faith . They are gifts given to us by God and we should use them . Are you using them ? We should use those and we should make use of those in our faith life .

Speaker 1 10:43

But here's the thing After all the thinking , after you've done all the thinking , after you've done all the deducing , after you've made sense of all the complicated things as best you can , you still have to leave your metaphorical home and go into the unknown country . Now , hopefully , you do that with God , but we all have to do it , regardless of what we believe . The unknown country of raising your kids . The unknown country of your relationship , your marriage . The unknown country of your diagnosis . The unknown country of tomorrow . The unknown country of what's around the corner . Bishop Rowan Williams anyone heard of him ? Former Archbishop of Canterbury , probably the smartest , wisest people on planet Earth . He has been for a while . Here's what the bishop says about this topic .

Speaker 1 11:44

Quote knowing God . Call it love , yes , only that can sound too emotional . Or call it faith , and that can sound too cerebral . And what is it ? Both and neither . It's the decision to be faithful . The patient's refusal of easy gratification is how you learn of a God who will not be fitted into my categories and expectations . The living truth is too great for me to see , trusting that he will see and judge , and you're not turned me away . End of quote .

Speaker 1 12:27

Beth Moore , the great Bible teacher and author , puts it more simply and provocatively I don't know how , but I know who . I don't know how , but I know who . So the good news of the Christian faith is triumph faith , this faith in a God of love , is that in Jesus , god has been revealed to us , and so , by accepting Christ and walking with Christ , we can have confidence that we are heading toward that country of unknown blessings . And the blessings aren't just at the end . No , there's blessings all along the way . But it is an unknown and unexpected country , and we all go through the ups and downs of that faith journey each and every day of our lives .

Speaker 1 13:12

But we don't walk by it ourselves alone . No , we walk this journey with all those messed up and imperfect people just look left and right , especially look straight ahead who , all the way back to Abraham and Sarah , have responded to God , people who were willing to leave by what was familiar to them , what was known to them , to walk the sometimes very steep and muddy footpaths of faith . This is the kind of faith that we are to pass on to our children and to others , a faith that's a journey , a faith that grows , a faith that encompasses the head , the heart and the hands and the feet . You know , with the Christian faith there's always more , whether you're nine years old or ninety years old , there's always more to know , there's always more to experience .

Speaker 1 14:18

And this Christian faith may sometimes require you to leave behind persons , places and perspectives that were very dear to you . You even thought of them as home , but you leave that behind to seek a better country . That's faith in life , faith every day , faith through the heart , faith in the joy . In today's Gospel from Matthew , jesus invites this tax collector named Matthew to enter into a whole new way of life , yet to leave behind so many things that were familiar to him , to take this journey of faith to seek out this unexpected country . And , by the power of the Spirit , jesus is inviting you to take that next step in your journey of faith . What is that next step for you ? Hear afresh these words spoken by the Spirit now to you Follow me , amen .