So you may have noticed this great pattern wherein I have been taking my access to a pulpit as a way to strategically (or shamelessly) promote our parish’s youth program. Well, this evening/or morning is no different. In fact, it has been another exciting month in youth ministry at Redeemer. We’re talking about the saints with the middle schoolers and playing my new favorite game (it’s already up there with kickball) called Jedi dodge ball. The seniors are meeting in a part of Gillespie that we’ve called “The North Wall” and they have been hearing about a Biblical and theological view of salvation interspersed with a good amount of Mario Kart. Over the past few weeks especially, I have been so impressed as God continues to form the faiths of our young people, and you would be amazed at some of the things they come up with, and how well so many of them can articulate their lives in Christ.
I must admit that I was far less articulate in my young faith.
But that didn’t stop me from being opinionated. And kind of rude, really. It led to a lot of loving redirection from my friends who actually had a better idea of what they were talking about.
During one of many brotherly corrections, a friend of mine once told me that one of his daily prayers, one that he said often throughout the day, was a fairly simple set of words: “Lord, increase my faith.” I always thought that was really strange when I was younger. I mean, as far as I was concerned, he had his checklist of faith pretty well covered:
Jesus is Lord: check.
God is one and three: check.
Golden rule: check.
Prays and reads the Bible: check and check.
I figured, what else could my buddy be asking for? He seemed to believe the right things, I figured that he must have wanted to have more stuff to believe, more doctrine, revealed to him! We could read some books together! You may see where this is going: but I’ll say it anyway. My young faith was blessedly confident in the truth of doctrine, but was probably not all that connected to the fact that God knows and loves me very much. I hadn’t connected the word on the page to the word on my heart yet. That gap was bridged for my friend, and as I learned, he was ever striving to lean into God’s will and to trust in God’s love and direction.
As an aside, while I’m a little ashamed of my brutish eggheadedness, especially having seen God so powerful in mercy in his work in my life over the past few years, I still haven’t met all that many people who still relish the chance to learn about doctrine like I do. When I told Fr. Marsden that I read systematic theology for fun, I think he thought I was setting up for a joke. Imagine his horror when the punchline never came.
Turning, finally, to our reading from St. Luke’s Gospel, I think the desire for trust and alignment is the source of the apostles’ petition to “Increase our Faith.” Throughout Luke’s account of Jesus’ ministry there is a constant contrast drawn, sometimes explicitly and sometimes implicitly, between those who are participating in the building of God’s Kingdom with Christ and those who are more interested in the status quo. The status quo of the first century in Palestine consisting of Roman occupation and religious systems that appeared increasingly indifferent to the needs of the people. Jesus’ proclamation of the coming kingdom certainly challenged those things. He announced a Kingdom whose citizenship status and authority superseded Rome’s. His ministry was with sinners, sick people, rich people, poor people, religious insiders and out; and he always found a way to bring God’s message of reconciliation to them. You can see why the apostles would want to better align with this new Kingdom, why they would want to trust in Jesus and his proclamation.
The apostles’ desire for an increase in faith comes as a cry for a solution to the discontinuity they face before them: Jesus has shown himself to be trustworthy through his teaching, healing, and signs. Yet, Rome’s presence persisted and Jesus was still a marginal voice in the religious conversation of the day. Their cry, then, seems similar to ours at times. We proclaim the Gospel of a reconciling God who even destroyed death in order to make a way for us. We announce His Kingdom, having tasted the first fruits of communion with the one true King. And yet, our trust in God, our faith faces the challenges of the things that we observe about the world every single day.
What I had failed to realize a few years ago with my pal, was that the concept of faith is extremely multi-purposed. When my buddy was praying “Increase my faith,” he was less concerned with the “faith as received from the Apostles” or the “holy teachings of the Church” and more concerned with the desire to be more trusting of the Lord, or perhaps to enter into a fuller alignment with his will, despite the drama of young adulthood unfolding around him. The doctrines were important to him, as they were and are for me, because they give conceptual shape to the eternal things in which trust has been placed. I don’t think it is wise to avoid the questions of Christian belief and doctrine, but if pressed I’d say that belief is only relevant when our theological imaginations are ignited by the grace of Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
In closing I’d like to report that the small petition of the apostles, and of my friend, for the increase of faith: that is a regular part of my Spiritual life. Just as probing the depths of theology and history are regular parts as well. I’m not going to stand up here and say that I always trust The Lord perfectly. I’d hate to lie to you nice people. But I like to think that by praying to trust more, perhaps The Lord will help me to trust Him more. He is, after all, the most faithful in all things.
And if you feel so moved to join the apostles in their desire for more faith, please remember to keep each other in your prayers.
Amen.
Sermon preached by the Rev. David S. Bumsted
The Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida
20th Sunday after Pentecost
6 October 2013