Thought for the Week

10 August 2008 – Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

Collect:	Almighty and everlasting God, Who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, And art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve; Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; Forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, And giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, But through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Readings:	1 Kings 19, 9 - 18
	Psalm 85, 8 – 13
	Romans 10, 5 – 15
	Matthew 14, 22 –33

You have probably heard of the man who fell from a cliff top and managed to save himself from certain death by grasping a tree growing from the side of the cliff. However this did not solve his problem entirely as his weight was pulling the tree out by its roots which meant that if something didn’t happen pretty soon this was a mere interlude on his way down. He prayed and the Lord answered and said to him let go and I will send my angels to take you in their arms -- taking you gently down to the bottom. « Lord, » he said, « is there some other way we can solve this problem ? ? »

Dear old Peter ------ I think if it weren’t for him I for one would certainly have given up a long time ago. Impetuous, unthinking, agressive and on this occasion full of faith in his Lord, full of belief about what he could do through Him. But then he seems to have lost it and began to sink, fear overtook faith and he began to sink ; saved by his Lord who extends his hand and saves him.

How many of us go from a service, a retreat, rise from prayer, visit Spring Harvest and our faith, our belief is reinforced, strengthened. We feel ourselves renewed in the Spirit ready to face any demands that may be put on us, on our faith ------- we come down from the mountain where the air is pure and get involved in the hum drum experiences of life once more. We get overtaken by the demands life puts upon us, by the worries, concerns of just everyday living ; how many of us by the end of the week feel that not only do we need a shovel but a very large mechanical digger to move that mountain ? You of little faith Jesus says to Peter --------- and yet it was on Peters faith that subsequently The Lord promised to build his Church.

Peter’s faith was the faith that allowed him to deny his Lord three times remember.

Faith is a bit like the wind, you can’t see it but you can see the effect and affect of it. For the majority of us it is something that is never tested.

What do I mean by that?

Well put yourself in the shoes of the chap on that cliff face hanging on for dear life; put your self in the shoes of Peter walking on the water and the storm getting up. All is OK whilst the water is calm and like glass but what happens when the storm comes; the going gets tough and the chips are really down.

I am minded of a time when I travelled to London one Monday morning from the safety and luxury of my home in Ascot. There sat by chance next to me a chap from Romania, a Christian who, as it happened, I had heard the evening before give his testimony. This was some time ago now during the reign of Ceausescu when things were different.. He and his family had, because of their Christian faith, been severely persecuted. They had been hounded from the home, his father had lost his job, There was little or no money coming in and they were forced to beg. He couldn’t get work as a teacher because of his faith ----- a job that he had trained for, but teaching was working for the government. So the family was in a bad way and survived only because relatives were prepared to take them in.

With this background I said to him that at least because of what he had gone through he knew that his faith was real; something which I did not, nor do I now, know about my own faith. When the time comes to go over the top will I be up to it ---will you? Until it happens the only thing we can be sure of is that we have faith and are prepared to declare that faith in the comfort of rural France or county England. What about if we lived in N. Korea; China to name just two countries where persecution of Christians is commonplace. Bless Peter the storm came and he sank, the cock crowed three times and he sank ------- and thank God he did in a way for it gives the rest of us hope.

As Peter shows us faith is not a cure all in this life. Because we have faith doesn’t mean we are not subject to the vagaries of this life. What a turbulent world we are living in ! There is no certainty about anything. Prices are rising steeply, the pound has gone down against the euro steeply. The environment is bruised and battered. There is political unrest in this country –witness the street parades that are taking place throughout France ---and when you look at the news the same problems are occuring throught the world. In this turmoil do we have peace. Our faith gives us that ultimate peace --- peace with God through our faith in Jesus Christ. We have that peace that the world cannot give through faith ……..Jesus has assured us that in him we may have peace; our faith gives us the peace of Christ. Peace with God can only mean one thing –that we have become reconciled with him—it is the gospel of reconciliation. Isn’t that something worth shouting about …. ? ? ?

Then why don‘t we ?. Why, I ask, do we who call ourselves Christians seem to give an impression to the world that peace is far from us ……. ? Because the world sees us fighting between ourselves interdenominationally and even within the same denomination –just look at the mess the Anglican church is in over women’s ministry and over sexuality. It is always this disagreement, lack of peace, that hits the headlines and in fact the disagreements have nothing to do with salvation.

Why do Christians seem to insist in giving God a bad name ? ?

But we learn that faith not only gives us peace with God ---and what can be more important than that?—but it works itself out through love. Galatians c 5 tells us that the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love ….. Faith without action is dead says James but, if we are open to it, faith begets love; God so loved the world that ……. love one another as I have loved you ------ as I have loved you , Jesus loved and gave himself for the socially unacceptable, the poor, the leper, the prostitute, the woman taken in adultery yes as well as the Pharisee, the self righteous, and those easy to love. Jesus loved us all to death. whatever our condition, failures, vulnerabilities, Whatever our weakness, our state of mind, our resentments,our anger. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

So what is this thing that Paul is writing about – this faith?

Faith is not going to make you immune from the slings and arrows of life. You may still have that accident, you may still be made bankrupt, you may still loose your job you may still be made homeless your loved one may still be murdered----- faith doesn’t immune you from the vageries of this life. Your faith may well be tested in such circumstances and its understandable when people cry out in their distress of finding themselves in any of the circumtances outlined or when they loose a loved when in whatever situation Why me Lord? Why is this happening to me ? What have I done to deserve this? The answer to that question is nothing.. Jesus himself has said of the man born blind that neither this man nor his parents sinned when asked who had sinned to cause the affliction.

Faith is not an umbrella to protect you from the things life may rain down upon you ---- rather it is a pair of wellington boots to help you wade through the resulting flood. It is God saying to,you that no matter what you are going through I love you, my Son died for you and your faith in that God underpins what you are going through even though sometimes you may feellike saying ---- where is God in all this ?. You know it is perfectly permissible to go out to the centre of some field and shout at God ------ he can take it!

So let us claim this faith and stand by it whatever the adversity.

Paul in Ephesians exhorts us to put on the full armour of God part of which is the shield of faith.to protect us from whatever may be thrown at us. It was T.S.Eliot who said that the greatest proof of Christianity for others is not how far a person can logically analyse his reasons for believing, but how far in practice he will stake his life on his belief.

The majority of us are not asked to stake our life on our belief. But Paul in his letter to the Romans in our reading today does tell us that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead then the certainity is that you will be saved for it is with your heart that you believe and that you are justified and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Not reason, not wisdom but the heart ---- justifying what T.S.Elliot had to say. May I just remind you that Jesus did say we have evertlasting life now. In John 6 we read « He who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life » ---Has not will have, may have, will probably have or possibly may have but has.

An interesting question to ask ourselves is « Are we an Abraham or a Thomas? The one blind faith the other not so blind.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11 tells us. Hope has, I believe, an element of doubt about it --- you hope something will happen but there is a chance it may not. How therefore can you be certain of something hoped for ? Because faith takes out of the equation the risk of it not happening ----faith changes a hope into a certainty for him with faith. It changes an insurable risk into an uninsurable certainty ---- it is why your faith is not and cannot be an insurance policy against what might happen when you die. This is where there is black and whte in our religion –you cannot have it both ways. Faith is what makes the difference. All roads do not lead to Rome – that’s the universalist’s argument; and then you have to ask yourself why Christ?

Yes of course there are people who have a love for theiir fellow human being, yes of course there are people with compassion for their fellow traveller in this life, yes of course there are naturally good people who carry out good compassionate loving deeds and we give thanks for them but those acts deeds do not lead to an everlasting life after death, they do not of themselves bring you into a relationship with our living God. Just as Faith without deeds is dead in the water as James tells us so deeds without faith is equally dead. Acts 4 tells us that there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved ------ it is faith in that name, it is faith in the holder of that name that makes the difference.

Doesn’t it??

Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame Paul tells us so when the trial comes if our faith is real we have a promise that we will stand and not sink: « fix your eyes upon Jesus look full in his wondrous face and the things of the earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace » Says the chorus.

Mel Fancy: Reader, Anglican Chaplaincy of Midi-Pyrénées & Aude

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