On Faith and Believing

Sermon

On Faith and Believing

Mark 5:21-43

July 1, 2012

This is a hard one – my last sermon at Grace in the Desert; my last day at Grace in the Desert; and my last week in Nevada before leaving for St. Paul’s my new church home in Delray Beach, Florida. All that - and the Fourth of July as well!

As I started to write this sermon I felt a real kinship with today’s stories about the woman with the hemorrhage and Jairus.  I was desperately in need of help. My mind was a blank. In an effort to successfully put pen to paper, I imagined myself reaching out and touching Jesus’ cloak and suddenly being filled with inspiration; or like Jairus’ daughter, I dreamed of springing to life with creativity from a deadened state of writer’s block. I closed my eyes and worked hard at imaging; however…not much happened.

And then, I went to the bank to close my checking account.

As I stood in a long line of hot, tired and restless customers all waiting to be a little richer, or a little poorer, I watched the three tellers hard at work behind their Plexiglas cage windows.

The first teller was an oriental lady whom I have known for several years. She has always been highly competent, extremely fast, very calm and expressionless. The second teller was a middle age woman whom I had never seen before. Her pale face was flushed and she appeared exasperated and rushed as she focused her full attention on her computer screen and her teller’s drawer, never making eye contact with her customers.

Finally, the third teller was a rather large woman who seemed not at all like a bank teller. Her hair was all over the place; her glasses kept falling off; and, while she worked her face worked with her. She had an expression for each and every banking action that she completed. Every once in a while she would look directly at her customer and smile. Despite all this activity, she was as calm as a cucumber.

When my turn finally came I found myself facing teller number three and explaining to her that I was closing my account as per the authorized form I had just handed her. I said, “I’m leaving Nevada and going to Florida for a new church job.” Without stopping her work of closing my account and counting out my remaining funds, the teller said, “I’m going to Florida soon too, I know I am. I am going to Sarasota where the circus is. You’ve heard of the circus, right?”

I have to admit – I was really taken aback. I said something idiotic like, “Yes, I have.”

The teller continued, “Oh yes, I have always wanted to be a circus clown.” She smiled proudly as she said, “I am a member of Clowns of America and I work at my routine all the time. As soon as my son finishes high school, I am going to Sarasota to join the circus. I know that it will happen – I pray for it to happen every day. I know God will answer my prayers; I know that I will get to Florida and become a clown with the circus – all of my life that’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

By now the teller had my full attention. I mean I was really looking at her, and as she spoke these words of faith her face became beautiful – just completely beautiful. Her expression relaxed; her eyes shone; and, it was plain to see that she could hear, touch, feel and smell her gift from God – the gift of being a clown; and that it was already hers, although she has yet to join the circus, because of her faith - a faith that has filled her with inner peace and outer beauty.

In today’s Gospel Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” In other words, have faith.

In Hebrews, Paul said, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)

Saint Augustine said, "Faith is to believe what you do not see. The reward for this faith is to see what you do believe."

Scripture – both the Old Testament and the New Testament – is filled with words that eloquently describe both the power of God and the power that faith in God can bring to our lives – if we take advantage of it.

In Pharaoh’s Egypt God heard the despairing cry of the Jews who had been enslaved by pharaoh’s desire to accumulate power and money through becoming an agricultural monopoly. The Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians…the cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have seen how the Egyptians oppress them.”  (Exod 3:7-10)

The Israelites did not ask to be saved. But, God in his grace saw their dilemma and delivered them from their enslavement to a system that used and abused them.

After exiting Egypt the Israelites found themselves lost and starving in the wilderness. They were angry and confused. They wanted to return to the old ways of oppression and a full stomach. God would have none of it. Instead, he offered them a gesture of divine grace in the palpable form of bread – manna from Heaven. Overnight, the starving exiles had bread from heaven that sustained and nourished them.

Once again, God’s grace was freely given; salvation given freely to those who were fearful, lost and suffering.

And, so the Israelites came to Sinai. They came from the nightmare of greed and abuse by way of the miracle of grace and abundance. God’s gift of grace had freed them. As they approached Mt. Sinai the Israelites asserted: “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.” (Exodus 19:8)

The story of God’s grace given, and frequently unseen and/or rejected, goes on throughout the entire history recounted in Scripture - right up until we meet Jesus. Jesus - God’s ultimate gift given in an effort to open our eyes and our hearts to his grace and salvation.

In today’s gospel the power of grace and salvation flows outward directly from Jesus himself. Jesus receives nothing from those who seek to be healed. He receives nothing, but he gives abundantly; he blesses; he heals. His abounding grace flows outward. He says only, “Do not fear, only believe.”

These are powerful images –

-         a people lost, frightened, hungry, thirsty, without hope in the midst of a hot and deadly desert;

-         a woman suffering from an illness that renders her an outcast who has spent all her money seeking a cure and is now a pauper living on the streets banned even from the temple because of her uncleanliness;

-         a dead child surrounded by mourners already preparing her for the grave.

All of them saved - saved by God’s grace with only one caveat - believe; have faith.

In a sermon given about one month following the destruction of the World Trade Center by Al Qaida, William Sloane Coffin, an American liberal Christian clergyman and long-time peace activist, said:

 “Being optimistic is hard, of course…Let us remember how bleak the scene, how dismal the future to the eyes of Habbukuk, who still went on to say, ‘Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation.’ He understood that God’s grace wends its redemptive way through the disorders of the world and that religious folk must keep the faith, despite the evidence, knowing that only in so doing has the evidence any chance of changing…What makes sense, eternal sense, is ‘God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.’ With that understanding may God bless America.”

 …religious folk must keep the faith, despite the evidence, knowing that only in so doing has the evidence any chance of changing…

And so, my dear friends, I leave you with these thoughts on God’s grace, faith, and the salvation that comes through faith.

God’s grace is always there; it has always been there. We need only to believe. Through faith we can be saved from servitude to a life ruled by those who use power to control and abuse. Through faith we can move toward the unseen; the unimaginable – God’s eternal Kingdom.

And on this Fourth of July let us proclaim, 

God of our fathers, whose almighty hand
Leads forth in beauty all the starry band
Of shining worlds in splendor through the skies,
Our grateful songs before Thy throne arise.

Thy love divine hath led us in the past,
In this free land by Thee our lot is cast,
Be Thou our Ruler, Guardian, Guide and Stay,
Thy Word our law, Thy paths our chosen way.

From war’s alarms, from deadly pestilence,
Be Thy strong arm our ever sure defense;
Thy true religion in our hearts increase,
Thy bounteous goodness nourish us in peace.

Refresh Thy people on their toilsome way,
Lead us from night to never ending day;
Fill all our lives with love and grace divine,
And glory, laud, and praise be ever Thine