Keep faith and keep the Faith!
This morning’s scripture speaks of faith in two aspects, the quality by which one believes in God through Jesus and that which is believed by Christians.
As believers we respond to God subjectively and in different situations but we also hold to the faith of the church through the ages expressed in the creed and church catechism.
Faith has a subjective and an objective aspect, an individual and collective side, all of which is illustrated by our readings with the Old Testament and Gospel readings going for the subjective, the epistle for the objective aspect.
Habakkuk affirms in the NRSV translation the righteous live by their faith (2.4) and Our Lord in Luke 17, following a warning to beware of stumbling blocks to faith, gives a shocking response to the apostles’ demand: Increase our faith! saying were your faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you. A little faith in a great God goes a long way. Jesus goes straight on, though, to warn against overconfident believing paralleling the obedience of faith. We are merely servants: we have done no more than our duty (Luke 17.10).
Keep faith – he’s saying – but keep it humbly.
Keep the faith – is the invitation of the second reading which again has a latent warning against individuals setting themselves above themselves as believers. The set passage from 2 Timothy is preceded by this affirmation from Paul of personal faith: I know the one in whom I have put my trust. This precedes our passage’s affirmation of the need to grasp the consensus of Christian believing handed down from the apostles. Keep as your pattern the sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. You have been trusted to look after something precious; guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. 2 Timothy 1.14
At the end of 2 Timothy Paul summarises this as Keeping the Faith. These later New Testament writings called the Pastoral Epistles show the Church adapting after the death of the apostles to a succession of faith guardians from which our bishops descend. When I became a priest I became so before the congregation assembled with the Bishop making a declaration of assent to apostolic faith in these words professing the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds, which faith the Church is called upon to proclaim afresh in each generation. Over my 45 years as a priest I have faithfully endeavoured to hand on the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds over almost two generations and at considerable cost. It’s meant challenging thinking: that Sunday obligation’s unbiblical, baptism’s a form of baby blessing, hell’s questionable, marriage’s renegotiable, ordination’s leadership, male and female are interchangeable, the devil’s a myth - and I’ll stop there! Keep the Faith I say to myself and to others. If you don’t keep to it, Christian faith in its fullness, the whole counsel of God as Paul puts it elsewhere, the catholic or whole faith, if you don’t keep to it, you’ll end up not keeping faith. The Jesus you see will diminish from the contours or dimensions of apostolic faith. The way you see God will be the way you see him, not as he has actually revealed himself and handed down through the apostles and their successors, witnessed by the creed, the sacraments, the commandments and the Lord’s Prayer. You have been trusted to look after something precious; guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
Keep faith and keep the Faith.
I am reminding you to fan into flame the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you. Paul writes to Timothy in today’s lesson; God’s gift was not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power, and love, and self-control.
Without God’s grace, without the Holy Spirit’s anointing, without knowing our Bibles, welcoming Holy Communion, praying, confessing our sins, we will be unable to live in that obedience which is Christian faith.
To live forgiving all who hurt us and thinking of others more than ourselves, to live with both enthusiasm for the Gospel and sympathy for the many in our acquaintance who’re far from Christ – all of this we flag at accomplishing without the Holy Spirit, whose life within us, given at baptism, needs rekindling again and again!
We need the Holy Spirit to keep faith, and we need him to keep us abreast of the Faith, to grasp again and again the rich wonder and cohesion of Christian faith and draw us back from settling for Christianity-Lite! Of course we can’t make the best the enemy of the good, and the Lord gives us the most brilliant example here, affirming marriage as unbreakable and yet protecting an adulterous woman, applauding utter integrity and yet absolving a thief.
Keeping the faith is something for you and I. Judging unbelief is a matter for God. As Chesterton said, looking through history, with various upsets and persecutions, Christianity has appeared to be going to the dogs seven times over its history - each time the dog has died! Currently our heels are being snapped at by arrogant secularism, behaving as if all the immense knowledge we now have is more significant than the wisdom of past generations. Then there is resurgent Islam at our heels with its naïve and wrathful simplification of Christianity.
The lectionary today recalls faith in two aspects, the quality by which one believes in God through Jesus and that which is believed by Christians. How well do you know your faith? Confirmation classes might be a long time back, the world has moved on from there, even if Christianity remains with the unalterable newness of Jesus! Might it help you to pursue a fuller grasp of Faith than a sermon can give, attend the next study group, or find a good book on Christian basics to help you field the questions people put to you rather than keeping your head down when religion’s an issue. I have some copies of my ‘Elucidations - light on Christian controversies’ (show) which Fr Ben has commended and some church members are reading. Do have a chat with one of the clergy after Mass if you want guiding to teaching resources.
Religion will always be an issue, God-given yet man-handled! 20 centuries of Christianity carry wisdom but that wisdom is ours to seek and you don’t get it any more here in Britain by osmosis. Indeed without actively seeking to increase your apprehension of Christian Faith there’s so much that’s counter it around that the default is more and more renegotiation if not surrender to its plausible yet deceptive alternatives.
Faith in the Christian perspective is as Paul defines it in Romans 5:11 is exultant trust in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Keep faith – keep the Faith – and may the Holy Spirit anoint you this morning through the eucharist so that you gain fresh resolve to seek the Lord and get yourself more abreast of the faith of the Church which is the good treasure entrusted to you..(by) the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
No comments:
Post a Comment