August 8, 2004
Wisdom 18:6-9 + Hebrews 11:1,,8-19 + Luke 12:32-48
Fear or Faith.
It is one or the other in the life of a disciple of Jesus Christ.
The story of fear opens the Old Testament
so that the story of faith can be told.
It begins with a couple who are afraid,
afraid of God, afraid to trust, afraid even to obey.
Their fear leads to violence, and one of their children kills the other.
It is a story told again and again in the human family.
Fear leads to violence.
That first story of fear however, leads to the next story of faith,
and we have heard something of it today so that we might better open our hearts
to the lesson Jesus offers us along the way of his journey.
That second story is again about a couple.
This time it is a couple of faith not of fear: Abraham and Sara.
They are the risk takers, who live by faith, not by fear.
Unafraid, Abraham leaves his homeland for a place he’s never been.
Unafraid, old, and thinking they are finished with life;
they conceive life because they are not afraid.
Unafraid, trusting that God will provide all things, Abraham risks,
not just life in a new land, not just conceiving a child,
but he even risks that child in moment of faith
that is as much a test of God as it is a test of Abraham.
There is yet another story of faith to be told.
It is the story of our lives in this place, in this time.
It is a story shaped by the Rabbi, Jesus,
the one who teaches us during his journey how to make our own.
Each of us in here writes the verses of our story every day of our lives.
It is either a story of fear or of faith,
and our story like Abraham’s will be illustrated by how we use what we have.
It will tell of our trust in God, and it will measure our faith.
If we are afraid to follow Christ, it will never be a story of faith.
If we are afraid to love, to give life, to accept God’s gift, it will never be a story of faith.
If we fear to give up, do without, or give away anything in our lives because it is the right thing to do, because God asks it of us, we shall not have story of faith.
In just a few moments we are going to stand and profess our faith.
Thirty minutes later when we leave, the rest of the world will know how much faith we have by how we live the rest of the week.
The faith of Abraham, which is the faith of Jesus
is not a creed, a set of rules, dos and donts;
it is not a theological concept to be studied in books.
It is a relationship, a relationship to be lived.
This kind of relationship is what “love” means.
Different from affection, sexual attraction, and sentimentality,
this “Love” – God-style.
It is a gift in the context of a relationship that allows for risks in the face of fear.
It is what makes marriage a sacrament – a holy union,
because it rests upon faith that allows for no fear.
It is a love that lets two people set aside their fears and take the risk of forever.
The fear of the future, the fear of being a mother or a father,
the fear that they might find someone else and leave,
the fear that love might grow cold must be replaced by faith.
This is the faith Jesus calls forth from those who would be his disciples.
That is the faith that led him to Jerusalem and sustained him
through all that would happen there.
It is the faith we must have if we shall be with him in the New Jerusalem.