Faith, Worship, & The Christian Life Proper 14C

 Faith, Worship, & The Christian Life

Faith. It’s a word that gets thrown around. And it is, writes the author of the treatise known as Hebrews, central to a God centered life. As I write that, it seems quaint. Almost unheard of, that a person would live a God centered life rather than the more modern and more popular self-centered life as advocated by Ayn Rand and her disciples among Libertarian and Conservative political movements. 

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16 tells us: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Not to get into the weeds of translation and the Greek text, but the argument has been made, persuasively, that it ought to read more like, “Now faith is the reality of things hoped for, the proof of things not seen.” [i] By striking a contrast with the customary understanding of this verse, in which it asserts the obvious truth that faith involves confidence about things that cannot presently be verified, what Hebrews actually asserts is that in faith the believer already anticipates the final outcome (the reality) of what is believed. That is not to say that believing makes something true or that whatever one actually believes will happen, but that faith itself has a kind of eschatological power. Similarly, “conviction” speaks to a personal belief that something may happen, whereas the Greek means “proof” that it will happen. Rather than a claim about personal belief, Hebrews makes the highly provocative claim that faith itself moves in the direction of the realization of those things that are presently beyond demonstration.[ii] 

The originating example of this movement of Faith, the originating story of the Bible, concerns Abraham and Sarah – who are moved by faith to leave everything behind them – home, family, friends – and journey toward two promises of a new home and nearly infinite progeny! As we all know, they never see either one.Bbut faith moves their unlikely progeny, (astonishingly so given their advanced ages – “and he as good as dead!”), become twelve tribes who multiply for generations in Egypt, and another two generations in the wilderness before the proof of those two promises is a reality. Jesus does not see the fullness of the kingdom of God he proclaims, yet, as it was for Abraham and Sarah, so will be the future fulfillment of the kingdom of God. 

In all the examples marshalled in Hebrews, God is the object of Faith. And as the First Letter of John (4:7-21) reminds us, God is Love: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. … Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.” 

Faith is God’s love moving in us, through us, and all around us. Just as important as it is to know God and God’s love as the object of Faith, we need to know what the opposite of Faith is. Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, author, and teacher asserts that the opposite of love is not hate, but rather indifference. It was the indifference of neighbors who saw the evil that was happening throughout Europe that allowed the Nazi driven Holocaust to happen. There was no significant uprising until it was too late. In his memoir, Night, Wiesel writes that those in the camps believed that even God could not know what was happening. Yet, when they were released from the camps, they learned that the whole world had known. And in particular, the US State Department had hard evidence of what was going on, and chose to do nothing until Japan eventually drew us into the war. 

The subject of Faith is God/Love. The Opposite of Faith, therefore, is indifference. Love is a verb, not a noun, not a feeling or belief, but what one does! It is in faith that we act in the direction that God and Christ call us to prove what will be the ultimate reality for all people – a world of mercy, love and justice. 

Worship. The poet-prophet Isaiah explores the connection of faith with worship. Specifically, the Temple worship in Jerusalem. Isaiah announces that God is not happy with the sacrifices at the Temple: “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who asked this from your hand? Trample my courts no more; bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me.”( Isaiah 1:1, 10-20) There is also a harsh word for the people’s prayers, “When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.” Thus, the expression, there is blood on our hands – not only for what the people do, and what is done on our behalf by our leadership, but for what the people of God and our leadership are not doing. 

Why this condemnation of worship and prayer? Because both tend to be self-centered. We often  use worship, sacrifices, and prayers to manipulate God to do what we want. Which is backwards. We are there in the Temple, the synagogue, the church, to learn just what it is God wants from us. What God wants us to do. And for Isaiah, it is all quite simple: “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” We are to love our neighbors – to love those who are vulnerable, and in need of a helping hand. 

In Luke 12:32-40, just after the story about the self-centered man whose sole concern is to build more, bigger, fuller barns, Jesus puts a fine point on it: “Sell your possessions, and give alms.” And later in Luke Volume 2, The Acts of the Apostles, we see a community living in Jerusalem doing just that: “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.  Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts,  praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:42-47) 

That is, worship and prayer are not a means by which we manipulate God to do our bidding. Worship and Prayer are the means by which God seeks to change us – to lead us in the Way of Love. The Way of Faith. And Worship and Prayer are the means by which we give thanks – Eucharistia – that God invites us to be those people who proclaim and live out of God’s Love for all persons, all creatures, and all of creation. The invitation to “sell…and give” in Luke, together with the call “to be dressed and ready,” suggests that our use of financial resources is inextricably related to our conviction that the future and our destiny lies ultimately with God. Then living our of our Faith about the future affects how we live in the present. 

When we allow worship and prayer to help us become those who trust in God’s reign, makes possible that our lives will be God centered with love for all our neighbors. Amen.

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[i] Newsom, James D., Texts For Preaching: Year C (Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville: 1994) p.465-66

[ii] Ibid, Newsome

Experiences of God Proper 13C

 Experiences of God

“The wrath of God is his relentless compassion, pursuing us even when we are at our worst. Lord, give us mercy to bear your mercy” – Maggie Ross

Luke more than any of the four evangelists seems concerned with the problem of “Affluenza.” Although we tend to think that most of Jesus’s most ardent followers as those who were land poor, homeless, collaborators with the Empire like tax collectors, the lame, the sick, and the demon possessed. Yet, Luke, writing to a church a generation or two after the Crucifixion, and perhaps a decade after the destruction of the Temple and all of Jerusalem, which now has attracted people of wealth, land holders, the oiko despotos, and there are inheritances at stake. 

Luke tells the story of a Prodigal Son which revolves around the inheritance of two sons. And this story which begins with a question about an inheritance: someone in the crowd asks, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me."  [Luke 12:13-21] Jesus is a shrewdie. He knows what we all know. There are family members who no longer speak to one another because one of them got the tea cup, and the other got the saucer. 

I’m no probate judge, he says. “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." What I am is a rabbi, a teacher, and I tell funny stories. There was a man whose farm produced abundantly. What shall I do, he says to himself? I will build more and bigger barns to store all “my grain and goods.” Then I will say to my Self, “Self, we have accumulated all this grain and all this stuff. Let’s eat, drink and be merry. I am set for years to come! Relax!” When suddenly from offstage comes the Voice of God: “Self, you are no self. You are no soul. What you are is a fool. Look at you celebrating all by yourself. You’ve got no friends, no neighbors. All you have is barns full of stuff, and tonight your life will be taken from you. Whose will it all be now? That’s the question for all of us. Whose is it now? Psalm 24, which follows right after the 23^rd Psalm, reminds us, “The Earth is the Lord’s, and everything therein.” We are just temporary stewards of what is the Lord God’s to begin with and for evermore. 

In case we have all forgotten this comes the punch line: “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God." Grain is no good stored in barns. Everyone listening to Jesus knows that much. There are rats. And mold. It rots. It’s no good unless it is sold or given away for those who can use it for the daily bread we are meant to pray for. He just taught them how to pray. And he didn’t say to pray for a freezer full of bread, and meats, and veggies for the future. Pray for bread that is given daily. The man in the story could be feeding all those who have no daily bread. That’s what it means to be “rich toward God.” For those called to love God and love neighbor, it’s all pretty simple. We don’t need more and bigger barns, larger investment portfolios, and offshore bank accounts. We need to keep the grain, the goods, and the wealth in circulation for it all to do any good. 

As to helping our neighbors, as the hymns says, as the Letter to the Colossians says, “all are neighbors to us and you.” To those of us “made new” in Christ, “there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!” [Colossians 3:1-11] Or as it might be written today: There is neither black, brown, yellow, red, or white, nor male or female, gay or trans! We are all humans created in the image of God! All deserving daily bread, forgiveness of debts, and to be spared the times of trial. The danger is not in having great wealth, it’s having what the text says in Greek, pleonexia – literally “the desire of gaining more and more.” It was a problem then, and surely is a problem today. It is placing one’s life, one’s security, in the abundance of possessions.

 

As Father Brendan Byrne, SJ, writes in his commentary on Luke, The Hospitality of God, the theme is prominent in Luke’s gospel is that “nothing is more destructive of life and humanity than preoccupation with acquiring, holding onto, and increasing wealth. The problem is not so much the possession of riches as such. It is that the desire to acquire and enhance them, fed by insecurity, prevents people from attending to the relationship with God that brings the only security that counts. Such desire also erodes the concern for the other that is the basis of true community. Attachment to wealth is incompatible with living, sharing, and celebrating the hospitality of God.” [i] Like the man in the story, you end up celebrating all by yourself. 

And now, the rest of the story. Jesus turns to his disciples, which of course means us – we the baptized ministers of his Community of Love we call “church.” The underlying message is to seek the kingdom, for “life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.” [Luke 12:22-34] Consider the birds who have neither storehouses nor barns – but God our father feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? And consider the lilies of the field, how they grow – “they neither toil nor spin, and yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these!” Solomon, of course, represents the culture of conspicuous consumption. We are told in 1 Kings 4:22 that “One day's food supply for Solomon's household was: 185 bushels of fine flour 375 bushels of meal 10 grain-fed cattle 20 range cattle 100 sheep and miscellaneous deer, gazelles, roebucks, choice fowl,” and a partridge in a pear tree. While others in the kingdom starved, Solomon’s household ate really really well. 

Finally, Jesus urges us, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” 

How are we to know this? Some eight hundred years before Jesus and Luke, Hosea reminds people that the more they stray from God’s Way, the more God loves them – like a mother with her only child: “The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and offering incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks… I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.”[ii] The God of the Old Testament is a God of Love.

When we suffer from “all kinds of greed,” when we worship idols of money and possessions, our God suffers with us and wants to hold us with “bands of love, with cords of human kindness.” God calls us to a life in his kingdom, and wants to know, where is our heart? Where is our treasure. Jesus issues a call to a fundamental reallocation of material and social goods according to our knowledge of God’s justice, for this is what can make us “rich toward God.” [iii] This will make us a people who love God and love neighbor. It is this love that characterizes God’s reign, God’s kingdom. And it will be this love that shapes us as a Community of Love.

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[i] Byrne, Brendan, SJ, The Hospitality of God (The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN:2000) p.114-115

[ii] Hosea 11:1-11.

[iii] Ringe, Sharon, Luke (John Knox Westminster Press, Louisville: 1995) p.179