I’ve had some pastoral encounters recently in
which people have taken me aside to ask how they can regain the faith their
parents instilled in them so they can find hope to carry them through a trial.
It’s a reminder to me of how Christianity’s getting eroded all around but that
there are residual embers of faith that can be fanned into flame.
People say they find faith hard,
but it’s simply a matter of opening up to God, opening your inner eye as suggested
in today’s second reading. The letter to the Hebrews famously defines faith as conviction of things not
seen. That conviction is just the
same as the one that clicks the kettle on to release an invisible power. Being
a Christian is being like a kettle. We always need the surge of the Holy Spirit
to warm us up to boiling point so that faith fizzes out into overflow. I hope
our children will remember what overflow there’s been from Anne and my
believing and seek the same for themselves. God has no grandchildren.
When we possess faith, that
conviction is practical wisdom. Its practical in that it counters our fears, which
is why Jesus says to his disciples in today’s Gospel Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure
to give you the kingdom.
Faith sets your sights on the
big picture of things, as we read in the letter to the Hebrews, it is to desire a better country, that is, a heavenly
one. As for Abraham in the first and second readings faith is taking God at
his word when he promises you something good ahead of you. By faith Abraham obeyed when
he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance;
and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he
had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and
Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city that has
foundations, whose architect and builder is God… because he considered
him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one person, and this one as good
as dead, descendants were born, ‘as many as the stars of heaven and as the
innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
We, people of God, are the descendants
of Abraham who is our father in faith!
So this morning I want to remind
everyone that we have a mission action plan at St Giles Church to grow in faith as well as in love and
numbers.
How can we grow in faith?
We need to commit again and again to
God in Jesus Christ. God, give me a
vision of yourself more to your dimensions and less to mine. Open my inner
eyes! If we really prayed that prayer day by day we’d have an awareness of
God in the present moment that wouldn’t just satisfy inner restlessness but
make our faith grow, warm up and fizz out to bless and serve others.
To grow in faith, as our Hebrews
passage said, we need the conviction of things not seen…By faith we understand that the worlds
were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things
that are not visible.
Thomas Aquinas wrote wisely that to one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without
faith, no explanation is possible. The wisdom of this saying is brought out
in the story of the acrobat who wheeled his son in a wheelbarrow as part of his
high wire act. When they asked his son how he felt about the exercise his only
comment was I trust my dad.
Here is faith defined as the extra sense it is, quite beyond
the natural senses, but nevertheless based on experience. The boy needed no
explanation for the faith he had in his father though few others would rise to
it. By analogy Christian faith in God is the certain conviction you will be
carried forward in all the perils of life by one who loves you beyond reason.
The strength of Christianity lies in this revelation of God as the Father of
Jesus who acts by his Spirit to carry us forward through all the pitfalls in
our life to resurrection glory.
Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good
pleasure to give you the kingdom Jesus
says.
How can we grow in faith?
Commit yourself to God – and see
yourself more fully as he sees you. This means more prayer, more space
to ponder God in his creation.
It also means a certain biblical
literacy, that is, getting into scripture, where there are so many promises
addressed to believers. Those praised in today’s purple passage from Hebrews
are praised like Abraham for taking God at his word. Only when you experience a
passage of scripture being underlined to you by God and the consequences of
that, can you see the powerful implications of taking God at his word.
Repentance is one of the implications. The Book of Common Prayer
exhortation says because it is requisite
that no man should come to the holy Communion, but with a full trust in God’s
mercy, and with a quiet conscience; therefore if there be any of you, who by
this means [of self examination and prayer] cannot quiet his own conscience, let
him come to me, or to some other discreet and learned Minister of God’s holy
Word, and open his grief; that by the ministry of God’s holy Word, he may
receive the benefit of absolution, together with ghostly counsel and advice to
the quieting of his conscience, and avoiding of all scruple and doubtfulness. It’s
appropriate I mention the special confession time on Saturday 6pm before the
Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary but in the spirit of the Prayer Book you can
approach the priest at any time.
To grow in faith we need from
prayer, scripture and turning to God in repentance a fuller sense of who we are
as his children, filled with his Spirit, promised his provision and destined
for his glory.
Seeing yourself more fully as
God sees you is a real eye opener. It comes though from a readiness to allow
the opening up of those inner eyes that are the Spirit’s gift to every human
being, even if, mysteriously, so few seem graced to see them opened.
As something God-given, faith is inevitably mysterious.
Believers hold things together in their experience that live in tension from a
rational perspective. Hence faith is seen as both a virtue and a gift, a human
act yet one prompted by God, a personal act yet inseparable from the corporate
faith of the church. The paradox of faith is captured in the famous definition
of Thomas Aquinas: Believing is an act of
the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God
through grace.
Though seen as a human virtue, faith is seen as something moved by God through grace.
So here we are this morning open to grace, seeking those
inner eyes to operate more fully in an unbelieving culture. Here we are encountering God in word and
sacrament, coming close to God who embraces us in the eucharist, as a mother
embraces her children, to assure them they are loved.
May the love of the Lord be upon us as we put our faith in
him!
