Let us pray: Come Holy Spirit, activate these words, that we might know and trust you more and more, growing our faith. Amen.
In many of today’s readings there is this idea of faith. From Romans speaking about the “Father of the Faith” Abraham: “The promise…did not come…through the law but through the righteousness of faith…it depends on faith…he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God…therefore his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:13-25). And from our Gospel reading we have the faith of Matthew who got up, left everything and followed Jesus. And the leader of a synagogue whose daughter had just died who came and knelt at Jesus’ feet, beseeching him to come and lay hands on her so that she might live.
And the women who had been bleeding for 12 years who reached out to touch the fringe of Jesus’ cloak that she might be healed. “Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well” (Matthew 9:22). These are instances of peoples’ faith. Stories of miracles and healings, of the impossible, the unbelievable made possible and believable, stories of faith. Many times, I think we confuse faith and belief. They are not the same thing. To have faith doesn’t mean to believe in someone or something, to believe that it is true or exists, no, it means to trust, that you trust in someone or something, even though you can’t be 100 percent sure,
you trust that this person will care for you and treat you with respect, or you trust that this situation in your life will work out, somehow, in the end. And to have faith doesn’t mean that you believe all of the right things, all of the specific teachings or understandings, or dogmas about who or how God is. To have faith means that you trust God to help you discover who you are, and who God is. Learning more about who God is and how God is at work, is the process of growing our faith.
A healthy faith life is NOT based on certainty and absolutes, but on questions and constant seeking. This is one of the things that I love about the Episcopal church. On many Episcopal church signs and bumper stickers, you can find the slogan, “The Episcopal Church welcome you!” I think we should change it to, “The Episcopal Church welcomes your questions!” This is how we get to know God, this is how we seek to better understand who we are, who our community is, and who the divine presence at work in our lives and our world is.
One of the reasons I love working with young people is because they aren’t afraid to ask questions. They want to know why? How? How come? And so, they ask. They question, they wonder, and in this way they grow. I wonder, if we as big people are afraid of asking questions, afraid of appearing dumb, like we don’t know everything we should, or maybe we think we already DO know,
or have things all figured out. My friends, we can’t possibly know everything there is to know about God, in fact, we can’t even really know everything about ourselves, yet! Questions are good. Doubt is OK, and normal. It’s how we grow! Following Jesus doesn’t mean knowing all the right answers, or believing all the right things. Being a Christian means searching for God revealed in the life of Jesus, in our own lives, and in the world all around us.
The prophet Hosea speaks about a people who have turned from God, making the decision to return and seek God, to be in relationship.
“Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord whose appearing is as sure as the dawn, who will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth” (Hosea 6:3). This is their example of faith, trusting in God’s goodness and salvation, and choosing to seek and know God more closely. There is an important distinction to be made here that shows up in many of today’s readings as well. It’s the distinction between our efforts to earn God’s favor or merit God’s love through what do in our lives, and God’s grace. God’s love, acceptance and forgiveness freely given, unmerited, underserve, unearnable. This is central to the Divine identity. God is love. God made us out of love, for love, to be in loving relationship with our Creator, with humanity and with all of creation. The idea of earning our way, of achieving, or meriting good things is really engrained in the United States mindset. This is called a meritocracy. Meritocracy is a system in which people receive things, prestige, power, standing, etc. solely based on ability, talent, and individual effort, in which getting better or receiving more things is based on performance, on how “good” of a person you are, with worth measured through examination of what we have done, or what we have your achieved in our lives (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meritocracy ). This system is engrained in our society, and unfortunately, has also become a way of viewing our relationship with God and the basis for salvation. Friends, I have good news for you, THE GOOD NEWS, this is NOT, I repeat, NOT how our good and loving God works. Our salvation, worth, dignity, and lovability are NOT based on perfect works or beliefs, on knowing, believing, reciting, living or acting out specific beliefs or behaviors. NO. They are based on God’s grace and our response to that grace, on seeking to know God, on being in relationship with God, on desiring to know God more intimately.
“Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord whose appearing is as sure as the dawn, who will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth” (Hosea 6:3).
Further on in Hosea the prophet tells us what God wants from us: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6). God covets our love, not our attempts at doing everything perfectly. God wants to KNOW us, to REALLY know us, to be in relationship with us. And when we reach out, call out, seeking God, we will find and be found.
“Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and make good your vows to the most high. Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall honor me” (Psalm 50: 14-15) Thank God! Call out to God! God will listen to you and be with you and care for you. As you seek to know God and enter into relationship, your faith will grow, your trust and reliance on God will grow, and, like Matthew and the other disciples, men and women from all walks of life, you will be able to get up and follow Jesus, you will have faith in God’s call to you, you will kneel at Jesus’ feet asking for healing for your loved ones and for yourself and for our world, trusting that God will work, that God is working, using us to offer hope, dignity, and wholeness, through the sharing of the good news: God’s love freely given to all, the invitation to relationship, to trust in the God who comes with mercy, reaching out hands to lift us into loving relationship . “Take heart daughter, your faith has made you well!” Amen.
