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Proper 22 C
The Cathedral of St. Philip
11:15, 10.7.07
Preached by the Rev. William R. Payton
From Paul’s second letter to Timothy: For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God within you. And from the Gospel we just heard, One of the disciples asked Jesus; Lord, increase our faith.
Like the rest of us, the disciples did not receive Gospel power from Jesus as a once and for all self replenishing gusher of grace. Paul says that they and we are a bit like leaky clay jars into which the Gospel has been poured, the gift of faith seeps away something like a sponge dripping rivulets of water into the kitchen sink. The Gospels unanimously report, that even Jesus was continually in need of prayer and solitude with Abba to rekindle in himself the fire that would enflame the lives of others.
The Christians of the NT realized that this fire of faith had to be rekindled as Paul tells Timothy in today’s lesson or increased as one of the disciples asks Jesus. While faith is always a gift of God which cannot be achieved or earned, the fire of faith could not be a taken for granted kind of thing as Jesus reminds the children of Abraham or children of lifelong Episcopalians who want to rely on their religious pedigree as a substitute for an intimate, living relationship with God. The “Hebrewcrats” and we “Episcocrats” often remind me of a quote from my father who used to say with some pride that we came from a long line of Baptist who served God all there lives, but only in an advisory capacity. The fire of faith was then and now a gift to be sought after, nurtured and then given away.
How then, are we to be people of rekindled faith? How can our faith be increased or deepened, from nothing to next to nothing as demonstrated by Jesus’ hyperbole in his mustard seed analogy. In our time we rely heavily on steps to get us where we want to go. Last week as I prepared for this sermon I ran across four practical steps we can take to rekindle our faith. So, I invite you to take of these what seems meaningful to you and use them as the Spirit attracts you.
The first step is: Everyday ask God to renew the gift of faith God has given you. Nobody came to deeper faith by trying to believe something about the Unseen. Faith is not as Mark Twain said, “Believing what you know ain’t so”. Faith is the movement of the soul open to and caught up by grace. Faith is never forced; it is received. It is given by the Spirit who arouses in us the desire for God, and then leads us to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. While the sun rises and the rain falls on the just and the unjust, only those desiring deeper faith experience the most cherished gifts God has to give. About faith, a holy person once remarked: “The thing that we tell of, can never be found by seeking, yet only seekers find it.” And how deep can this rekindled faith go? The greatest response is found in the history of the church, where people over and over have willingly given up their lives before they would give up their faith.
The Second way to allow a rekindling of faith is to abandon yourself to an established community of faith. Rabbi Abraham Heschel said that “the surest way to suppress our ability to connect with God is to take things for granted. Indifference to the sublime wonder of the Holy is the root of sin”.
The picture of the early Christian Community reveals anything but indifference to being “in-Christ” and to being faithful in corporate worship. The second chapter of Acts reminds us: “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” This was the four part method of rekindling faith in the early church, and it is no different today. Faith grows and flourishes in collectivity. Individualism in the early church was unknown except in the realm of personal prayer. Without regard for education, wealth, status, political leanings, ancestry, or authority, the Christian Community called members of the Body to solidarity, a mutual commitment to the Gospel, and a common affectionate reverence for one another as sisters and brothers in Christ. Those uninterested in this devotion remained people of little faith. Since I was diagnosed with Leukemia last October, Joan and I have been grateful for the almost overwhelming acts of support from this community of faith: prayers, gifts, cards, calls, and on and on. My favorite metaphor is that it has been like relaxing in a hot tub and being surrounded by a living presence which is there to be a buoy of gentle, firm support. Your prayerful presence encourages our hope and rekindles our faith. We continue to need your support in the days and weeks ahead.
The third way to rekindle faith is to make whatever sacrifice is necessary to love the people you’re with. Mother Teresa remarked, Today the world seems upside down, suffering so much because there is so very little love in homes and in family life. We have no time for our children; we have no time for each other or ourselves.
The heart of faith is giving love and giving it not only to the marginal and the forgotten, but also to the people closest to us. For too long our witness has suffered from the example of people proclaiming God’s love for the world, while neglecting to love the people we are with. There is just nothing simpler and more needful than to express our faith by loving the people we are with.
And fourth: Give back to God financially not what you think you can afford to give, but what you deeply feel God is calling you to give. There is no greater barometer of faith – or the desire to rekindle faith- than one’s capacity to give……And to give freely, happily, unconditionally. God loves to give and the presence of God in our lives engenders the holy desire to give. It is too often our desire to control….to designate where my money goes, to monitor exactly how its spent, and to hold out the threat of withholding future funds if our designations are not met…this attitude of course, inhibits our giving as a way of rekindling faith.
Money may be thought of as energy, which means that it can be used either for good or for ill, like electricity. A sage once taught the unworthy person develops their wealth at the expense of their character; the mature person develops character by means of their wealth. Perhaps Luke has painted an overly idealistic picture of the early Christians, but some of this abundant giving went on and it reflects the kind of rekindled faith Christians need to embrace today.
Four ways to encourage the rekindling of faith: Ask God daily to renew your gift of faith, Abandon yourself to an established community of faith, Sacrifice in order to love the people you are with, and Give back to God not what you think you can afford to give, but what you deeply feel God is calling you to give.
Faith is a matter of trust and confidence in the freeing power of God’s love for us and the power of God to fulfill God’s promises. The disciples question about faith had been an anxious one. We can sympathize with their worry; who of us has not imagined that we could accomplish so much more if we were just smarter, braver, older, and younger. Jesus hyperbolic image of the mulberry tree’s vast root system being uprooted and obediently replanted is meant to assert that the life of faith relies only on God’s power which is sufficient.
Faith means freedom, the freedom to give up the anxious and impossible task of keeping oneself from falling. It means freedom to turn from oneself as the source of one’s own life and hope, freedom to give up the struggle to control everything by one’s own power. Faith gives us an always renewable invitation to be at home in the presence of a loving God. Amen
Comments? Contact The Rev. Bill Payton at: bpayton@stphilipscathedral.org