Faith is the Key... Sunday August 7th 2016

This past Sunday, I did something I had not yet done here at Woodlawn Christian, I introduced my sermon with a song.  Precisely the song "People Get Ready" by Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions circa 1965.

People get ready

There' a train a-coming

You don't need no baggage

You just get on board

All you need is faith

To hear the diesels humming

Don't need no ticket

You just thank the Lord

People get ready

For the train to Jordan

Picking up passengers

From coast to coast

Faith is the key

Open the doors and board them

There's room for all

Among the loved the most

There ain't no room

For the hopeless sinner

Who would hurt all mankind just

To save his own

Have pity on those

Whose chances are thinner

Cause there's no hiding place

From the Kingdom's Throne

So people get ready

For the train a-coming

You don't need no baggage

You just get on board!

All you need is faith

To hear the diesels humming

You don't need no ticket

You just thank, you just thank the Lord

Yeah Ooh

Yeah Ooh

I'm getting ready

I'm getting ready

This time I'm ready

This time I'm ready

Faith, it's rather a small word... but, it's such a tremendous and difficult concept.  We know we are called to have faith over and over again in scripture, especially so in the New Testament.  The exact number of times the word "faith" is used in English Translations would depend upon which translation you are using, some render more words into our word faith than do others.  In the New Revised Standard Version (which is what we use for Pew Bibles here at Woodlawn Christian) we find 'faith' used 18 times in the Old Testament and 246 times in the New Testament, for a total of 264 recitations; that's a whole lot of usage, especially in the New Testament.  The word "faith" appears 247 times in the King James Version, 250 times in the New American Standard Version, and 270 times in the New International Version (so perhaps if you really want to have 'faith' you should read the NIV...).  And then you also have the words 'faithful' and 'faithfulness' which add roughly another 100 or more usages again depending upon the translation that you're using.

It seems this 'faith' stuff is of some significance especially to us as Christians, seeing as to how very often it is used in the New Testament.  But just what is faith? From christianbiblereference.org we learn the following:

Wherever we see the words "faith" or "believe" in the New Testament, they are usually a translation from the original Greek root word pistis. The noun form of the word, pistis, is usually translated as "faith" and the verb form, pisteuo, is translated as "believe."

The ordinary definitions of "faith" and "believe" imply intellectual agreement with an idea or accepting something as truth, but pistis means more than that. As used in the Bible, it also implies trust in and reliance on God or Christ, surrender of our wills to God or Christ, and conduct consistent with that surrender. All those elements are present in any mention of "faith" or "believe" in the New Testament, but from the context we can often see that some of the elements are emphasized.

Unfortunately, there are no words in the English language that capture the full meaning of the original pistis and pisteuo, so we are stuck with the often inadequate words "faith" and "believe."

In the New Testament, the words "faith" and "believe" often imply confidence, trust, reliance and humility with respect to God or Christ.

Of course, this brings to our attention once again how very difficult translating from one language to another truly is; especially, translating from Greek which is a much more nuanced language than English. There is often a varying degree of depth or 'flavor' if you will that gets lost to us when reading the Bible in English.

Today's scripture verses come to us from the book of 'Hebrews'.  Not too long ago we finished a study of the book of Hebrews during our Sunday Evening Group.  As all that attended those gatherings knows, I am of the belief that the book of Hebrews was written after the destruction of the Temple in the year 70 ad.  The Early Christians, who were still at that time Jewish followers of Christ were obviously at a true crisis of faith.  How do we worship God without the Temple, a very genuine problem...  of course the Hebrew people had been in this quandary before, but still not during the lifetimes of any of these individuals.  So, in no small way the entirety of the book of Hebrews is about the faith and the belief that we can worship and have a relationship with God without the Temple.  For we now have the faith and the belief in the New Temple, and that is, of course, Jesus who is the Christ.

Let's take a look at our Scripture verses for today:

Hebrews 11:1-16 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

11 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. 3 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.

4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain’s. Through this he received approval as righteous, God himself giving approval to his gifts; he died, but through his faith he still speaks. 5 By faith Enoch was taken so that he did not experience death; and “he was not found, because God had taken him.” For it was attested before he was taken away that “he had pleased God.” 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 7 By faith Noah, warned by God about events as yet unseen, respected the warning and built an ark to save his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with faith.

8 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. 9 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. 10 For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old—and Sarah herself was barren—because he considered him faithful who had promised. 12 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.”

13 All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, 14 for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.

Let's take a closer look at those first three verses:

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. 3 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.

There is perhaps a bit of Greek Philosophy slipping in here with the idea of things being made from what is unseen.  Of course, neither the Greeks nor the writer of these verses could have had any idea about how accurate their words actually are.  The world is indeed made up of what is unseen, the entirety of this Creation around us is made up of atoms.  Atoms are of course invisible, and an atom consists of virtually nothing at all,  if a hydrogen atom were the size of the earth, the proton at its center would be about 600 feet across.  An atom is almost entirely empty space, the only thing that keeps my left hand from passing through my right hand is the negative charges of the electrons involved. Which also means you never really 'touch' anything, as the charges repel one another before they actually collide.  I will mention that atoms are actually made up of even smaller particles, but we won't go that deep into the physics of it all; for our use today atoms are small enough.

So all of Creation is created out of what we cannot see, should we be any more surprised that the remainder of our lives is made up of what we cannot see?  The future is out there and we're all moving through it, hopefully with faith in our Lord.  Faith, like an individual atom, is not something we can see, but those who have experienced the effect of faith and belief can attest that it is very, very real.

In Curtis Mayfield's song that we listened to at the beginning of this sermon we heard him referencing 'faith' as the ticket that gets us onto the train headed to Jordan... headed to the promised land. Just as in Mayfield's song faith is the ticket for Abraham's movement in our Scripture reading, to the promised land.  One of the interesting things about both illustrations are the reference to movement.  In the song we have a train, really the train of life that is carrying us from birth until death when we arrive at the pearly gates of Heaven.  In the Scripture Abraham is moving, though he isn't sure where to and he and his family are living in tents, they are nomads.  Moving is their way of life, moving in faith that that which is promised lies ahead... ahead somewhere as of yet unseen.  Just as the passengers on the train have not yet seen their final stop, neither has Abraham.

Faith, genuine faith it seems implies that there is movement, we can't truly profess 'faith' while cowering in a corner and hiding from life and the world around us.  Faith means stepping out, living the life that God directs you to live and living it faithfully.  Movement, action, engagement are all a part of genuine and obedient faith.

We are all 'moving' through our lives here in this world, we are all just as Abraham, nomads.  Nomads in this realm of existence, just visitors here to this place waiting to move forward into the very presence of our God.  All of us are as I said moving through our lives, each growing older day by day, each drawing nearer to the judgment day.  We as Abraham live here in these tents that we call bodies, temporary shelters in this world.

Each of us is here for a reason, whether or not we live up to that reason is entirely up to us and our relationship with, and our obedience to God.  It's not up to us to know the exact path we are to follow in this life, we are to be as Abraham. "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."  Let us move forward, involved in God's Creation, obedient to His direction... filled with faith in His provisions.

Movement, involvement, obedience... these sound a bit like works.

James 2:14-26 New Revised Standard Version

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. 20 Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is barren? 21 Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works. 23 Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.

Not long ago I was visiting with a young man about his faith and his spiritual relationship with God.  He told me that he believed in God and that he wanted to be a good role model to others and that was why he was so involved in his community.  He also told me that he didn't believe he needed to attend Church to be religious or a Christian, and thus he did not do so.  I pointed out to him that this was all very well and very good, but that if he truly had faith in God and he truly wanted to be a servant of God, he would want those people that are looking up to him as a role model to understand that he was also a believer and follower of Christ.  I used the example of my Grandfather Fletcher, I've talked about Grandpa before... Grandpa was known throughout the County back home as a very good man, a man that would do anything to help out anyone, but above all else, he was known to be a firm and devote believer in Christ.  Everyone knew he was not just simply a good person... he was a good Christian, a man who strove to live his life modeled after his Saviour.

A good way to let people know that you are a follower of Christ is to be known as someone who regularly attends Church.  If I hide my faith, my light, my belief in my Lord under a basket and do not let the world see it as a testimony and witness to God... then what good is my faith?  Now, I'm not saying to parade around and throw your religion in everyone's face because that can certainly backfire, but do not be ashamed to let people know that if you've done any good in this world that you do so under the authority and direction of God the Father.

As Curtis Mayfield says in his song "Faith is the key... you don't need a ticket... just get on board"  You certainly do not need a ticket to get on the train car named faith, but there is a cost.  The cost is obedience, and living a life in conformity to that belief, that faith...

Remember that definition of faith from christianbiblereference.org, part of which stated:

The ordinary definitions of "faith" and "believe" imply intellectual agreement with an idea or accepting something as truth, but pistis means more than that. As used in the Bible, it also implies trust in and reliance on God or Christ, surrender of our wills to God or Christ, and conduct consistent with that surrender.

Let us each surrender our wills to God, to trust and rely on God, and live a life of conduct consistent with that surrender and reliance.

The last thing I will leave you with today is the reminder that faith or belief is never a straight line.  Each of us has times when our faith is stronger, and then times when our faith or belief is weakened.  It is precisely because of this that we need each other as a community of believers to reassure, to witness to each other, to support and love one another.  Remember in those times of weakness, the exclamation of the father of the boy who Jesus is asked to heal in the 9th Chapter of the Gospel of Mark... "I believe, help me in my unbelief".  Lord, we all believe... help us each in our unbelief.

May God bless you and keep you and may you each...

Be a blessing to someone today!

Faithfully,

Roy