Saturday, October 2, 2010

Confirmation Sermon, 3 Oct 2010. A Call to Faith and Good Works

Psalm 137
Luke 17:5-10
Ephesians 2:8-10

The gospel reading set for this Sunday is a wonderful reading to read on a confirmation Sunday, where we not only confirm, but also remember our own confirmation and public declaration of faith. So in a sense a confirmation service is also a re-affirmation service for us all.

Our gospel reading is one of those that we don't always know exactly what to do with.

It has the disciples asking the Lord to increase their faith…. very good prayer for us to copy…. Except that the Lord goes on to say: Chaps, with just a mustard seed size of faith (in other words, a very small amount of faith) you can tell this mulberry tree to pull itself up by the roots and run into the sea and plant itself there, and it will do just that.

It's an amusing picture and one that Jesus used on another occasion when he was standing next to a hill and said: With faith the size of a mustard seed you can say to this hill …go and throw yourself into the sea… and it will do just that.

With these words, Jesus isn't encouraging us to become magicians or tricksters, but rather he is encouraging us to become heroes in the faith as we bravely do good works in the world around us.

He is saying it is the quality of our faith which is important, and not the quantity.

So what is quality faith? Quality faith is faith in God as revealed in Jesus Christ.

Some folk have faith in God as they see Him revealed in nature. So they look to the world around them, to beautiful mountains, to breathtaking sunsets, to lovely colourful flowers, to caterpillars that go into cocoons and come out as butterflies, and they see a God who is great, awesome, creative and so on, and they worship him.

Others have faith in God as they see Him revealed in the Old Testament. Such people can become very obsessed with laws and keeping laws and they are led to believe, like the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law of Jesus’ day, that if they keep enough laws and don't sin, then they will be good enough for God to save them. They can also become like the person who wrote the Psalm set for this Sunday. “By the Rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, and oh how we wept when we remembered Zion.” It's a beautiful psalm, written at a time when the nation was in exile and far from Jerusalem and the Temple …..and of course it was turned into a lovely song by the group Boney-M in the 70s….. except…. Boney-M left out the last two verses: Babylon, you will be destroyed. Happy are those who pay you back for what you've done to us; who take your babies and smash them against a rock.

Some people have faith in God as revealed in the Old Testament, a God of law and the God who, if you step out of line, will send fire to destroy you, or send someone to destroy your enemies and their babies!

Quality faith is neither of these two that I have mentioned; quality faith is faith in God as revealed in Jesus Christ.

Yes, God reveals Himself to us in the world around us and especially in the beauty and wonder of creation, and of course God reveals Himself to us in the Old Testament, that's why it is so important to read it. But God’s full and final revelation of Himself to us is in Jesus Christ. In Christ we see God fully revealed and we see humanity fully revealed. Jesus shows us what a human being can be. Jesus shows us what life, real life, abundant life, really is. Jesus shows you and me what it means to be human, but in particular what it means to be a born-again human being, the only type of human being worth being.

What type of faith do you have? The only faith worth having, the only faith which saves, is faith in God as revealed in Jesus Christ and which leads to good works in the world around us. Our reading from Ephesians reminded us that it is by God's grace that we have been saved through faith…. what kind of faith….. faith in God as revealed in Christ. The verse goes on…. it is not the result of your own efforts…. in other words it's got nothing to do with how many laws you've kept, or how little you have sinned, and then the verse goes on…. salvation is God's gift, so no one can boast about it. God has made us what we are and in our union with Christ Jesus, he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do.

A mustard seed size of faith in God as revealed in Christ deals with a mountain or a forest full of sin and dumps it in the deepest part of the ocean and sets us free for a life of good works… which leads us to the last part of our gospel reading from Luke.

Jesus tells the strange parable of the master who has a servant who ploughs all day in the field and when he comes home, he doesn't pamper him and say: O shame, you've worked hard all day, sit down and have some food and drink and rest.
No, says Jesus. When he gets home from his hard day in the field, he must first do the work necessary at home, cooking for the master and waiting on him. Jesus goes on and says the servant doesn't deserve thanks for obeying orders, does he? It is the same with you; when you have done all you have been told to do, say ‘we are ordinary servants; we have only done our duty.’ These words are from the Jesus who on another occasion said: I didn't come to be served but to serve.

You and I are ordinary servants and as we serve in the Kingdom we are called to do our duty. So what is our duty?

Now the answer to that question of course could be a whole sermon in itself, rather than just a conclusion to this one. Be that as it may, in the context of today's Gospel lesson and in the context of confirmation and reaffirmation of our faith I suggest these duties:

Cultivate faith and pray: Lord increase my faith;

Look for God in the world around you, and look for him in the Old Testament as you read it and study it, which I suggest we have a duty to do, but look ultimately and primarily to Jesus to see what God is like and what He wants us to be like; and

Follow the example of Jesus and do good works in the world around you.