A person of faith is a person who trusts in God's unconditional and unending love for us.

 

 

Nineteenth Sunday in OT  C  2022

 I have a question for you:  Do you see yourself as a person of faith?

 What does that mean for you?

 As a person of faith, does it mean that you practice considerable spiritual disciplines?  Does it mean that you are a very moral person?  Does it you have memorized the Nicene Creed without looking at the screen?  Does it mean that you keep all the rules and the commandments or at least most of them?

 What does it mean?

 First and foremost, a person of faith is a person of trust.   For Abraham and Sarah in the second Scripture reading today, their faith was life changing – such was their trust in God’s loving kindness.

 

Faith is the willingness to risk, to jump when we are not in control and to trust that we are in the hands of God.

 

Faith is trusting God is holding onto to us in both the green pastures and the dark valleys of life.

 

Faith is our trust in God’s unconditional and unending love for us.

 

Are we able to be people of faith when our spouse or our child goes home to God?  Do we believe that the world is not coming to an end and the sun is going to rise the next morning?

 

Are we people of faith when our children do not make the life choices that make sense to us and still trust they are God’s beloved sons and daughters and that our love for them is unending.

 

Are we people of faith in the senior years of life when our health is slipping a bit, but our souls are still vibrant with God’s life in them?  Physically we may be on the back nine, but our spirit is alive with our faith in God’s unending love for us

In today’s Second Scripture Reading, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews speaks about two faith-filled people, Abraham and Sarah. He recalls how our early faith ancestors placed their trust in God.  Abraham and Sarah left their comfortable home and set out for an unknown land because God called them. They passed through great deserts and villages full of strangers; dwelt in temporary shelters along the way.  When God promised them that their descendants would be as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sands of the sea, they were old enough to be great-grandparents and Sarah too was sterile. Even though for so long they saw no fulfillment of the promise, they believed. They had the virtue of faith, a lasting confidence that God's Word would be fulfilled someday.

 

And when God finally granted them a son, He asked Abraham to sacrifice him and still continue to believe, to trust, and to hope that the promise would still somehow be accomplished.  Abraham, faithfully listening to the Word of God, 'hoped against hope' that his son would be restored to him, even as he was willing to sacrifice him. It is shocking to think that somebody was willing to sacrifice his own son to God. Essentially, Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son is an act of trust, of faith, in which he was proved right. We consider Abraham our father in faith, and he is a model for our own times – he took great risks; he had no agenda other than his faithful obedience to the God in whom he trusted completely.

 

The gift of faith was life changing for Abraham.  He relied completely on the steady reality of God’s loving kindness.  On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your trust in God in your challenging life situations as did Abraham?

 

Is our faith a remote part of our life resembling our belief in a detached divine power in the heavens or is our faith our trust in the personal presence of the person of Jesus within us all the days of our life?  Yes, there are times we act in unlovable ways and yes we do not wish to be defined by the dumbest things we have done in life.  Yet, God still loves with us with an unending love.

 

We live in a very scary world. This week we experienced the moving funeral service for officer Anthony Mazurkiewicz. He was killed in a most senseless act of violence.  The war in Ukraine continues to result in the deaths of thousands of innocent people.

 In the midst of this madness, can we continue to believe that as people of faith, our future is full of hope no matter what circumstances in life we are facing.  We are always surrounded and lifted up by a loving God.  This is not too good to be true.  This is the truth of our lives.  This is the meaning of our faith.

 

 In the big scheme of things, at the end of the day, what are we waiting for?  What is your hope for the future?  What is your ideal retirement?  Would it be wealth or power or pleasure? 

 

 Jesus warns us that material possessions can capture our heart, not allowing us to be free to follow him.  Jesus challenges us to reveal what it is we truly value --  may we truly value loving and being loved.  In faith, we are loved by Jesus completely and unconditionally.  May we find the fulfillment we are looking for in the ways we love and serve one another.

 Our faith in Jesus calls us to face life or meet death, not because we can see, but with the certainty that we are seen; not that we know all the answers, but that we are known. Faith is not merely us holding on to God -- it is God holding on to us. And He will never let us go!

 

In the world that we live in which there are deadly random shootings of innocent people, in a political world in which decency and civil dialogue is hard to come by, in our society in which too many relationships have been broken, is there any room left for trust?  In our Church, is trust the defining characteristic of who we are as the disciples of Jesus or is the lack of trust more of a reality in our Church today? 

 In the midst of all this stuff, Jesus assures us in the Gospel: “Do not be afraid any longer, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.  Sell your belongings and give alms.  For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

 

With a spiritual sightedness, may we know that our treasure is the gift of faith that enables us to trust in God’s unending and unconditional love for us.

 

May you value the gift of faith in your life.