Year C Proper 23 2022 Has Our Faith Saved Us?

 Year C Proper 23, 9 October 2022

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Has Our Faith Saved Us?”

Collect: Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

2 Timothy 2:8-15

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David-- that is my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. The saying is sure:

If we have died with him, we will also live with him;

if we endure, we will also reign with him;

if we deny him, he will also deny us;

if we are faithless, he remains faithful--

for he cannot deny himself.

Remind them of this, and warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth.

Luke 17:11-19 

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

Good morning! This morning, the natural tendency might be to do a sermon on gratitude. Studies have repeatedly shown the benefits of gratefulness playing a huge part in our mental and physical, and I would add, spiritual health. “Thank you!” could be some of the most important words we learn to say. Being appreciative instead of deprecating makes a huge difference in relationships, in our own perspective, and even how we start our day. Just writing down one thing every morning for which you are grateful can make a huge difference in your day.

Meister Eckhart, German theologian, philosopher, and mystic, said, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is Thank You, it will be enough.” Pretty powerful statement. Pretty powerful truth.

When we see the Samaritan leper come back and thank Jesus, we see a model of appreciation. The 1 in 10 percentage has not changed much either in 2,000 years.

But today I want to look at Jesus’ summation of the encounter, more than the actions. And let that be the mirror that we use for growth and reflection.

To the grateful and healed leper, Jesus said, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” Faith as the key to healing is a repeated theme in Luke, the lynchpin in several of the stories told in this Gospel. We want to be passive recipients of healing. Not good! Or worst case scenario, we want to blame people when healing does not happen on their lack of faith. Not good either! 

But how do you see your faith as a prime part of how you face the world? To be blunt, how has your faith made you well? Is it what keeps you sane in an insane world? Is it what you take before you reach for the aspirin? Is it a buffer when we receive the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune?”  What does your faith mean to you? How has your faith made you “well?” Has your faith saved you? Would it if you needed it to?

The New Testament has several images and definitions of faith.

In Ephesians 6, St. Paul likens our protection as a Shield of Faith, part of the many things that are the Full Armor of God. If our faith is to save us, a shield can at times stop things out to stop us.

In the sermon of Hebrews, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Sometimes when things are bad, the only thing we have going for us is our hope. Faith is that assurance that we need to take the next step, to do the right thing when it's the last thing we want to do. Faith is what lets us hear that still small voice of God whispering, “Don’t give up!”

In Galatians 5, St. Paul says that Faith is one of the Fruits of the Spirit in our lives. As we live and breathe and move in God, the Spirit bears fruit in us. Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control. They all spring forward, and because it is a fruit, fruit bears fruit. That is what a fruit is, a seed-bearing product that creates more life and more fruit. Our Faith brings about more Faith! Deeper, Truer, Enriching, and Empowering. Our Faith is the outcome of trusting God, and our Faith drives us more fully into lives of Faith!

There are times and places where we are unwell. It might be a physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual ailment, but unwell is unwell. Our faith affects all of these. But I think of the man whose friends lowered him through the roof for Jesus to heal him of his paralysis. Jesus forgives his sin. The judgmental Pharisees were at it again, thinking, “Who is this Jesus to forgive sin?” But then he went further so they would “Know [his] authority…” And he then heals the man’s paralysis to boot. Sin gone and walking restored. It was a pretty good day.

The hemorrhaging woman who grabbed the hem of Jesus’ garment, her faith saved her. 

The Centurion’s servant, the soldier’s faith saved his devoted servant.

The Blind Man near Jericho, his faith saved him.

This repeated theme in Luke screams at us. Our faith makes a difference. It may include a miracle as we call it, or it may not. Maybe the miracle is that we have our eyes opened that God loves us and cares about us. Instead of damning us, God gives a care. That may be the real miracle that we truly need.

Friends, this is not a new salvation by works, as in “If I just have enough faith then I get what I want/ what I need/ what I desperately hope for!” Prayer is not a vending machine, and faith is not the coins we put in.

Faith is as was mentioned, a shield, an assurance in the dark, a fruit that bears more fruit. Faith is about staying true, even when we lose. Especially when we lose.

One of the hardest lessons we have in life is that Faith does not guarantee, or even grant, success. That is part of the particularly American heresy. God calls us to be faithful. God NEVER calls us to be successful. We are called to be true, even when the world is collapsing around us. 

There was a darkly satirical movie that came out near the end of quarantine about the end of the world. I was shocked, not by the stark commentary at our particular moment in history, but that the people who told everyone that the end was near and that we needed to do something RIGHT NOW stayed true. They stayed true to their message. They stayed true to one another. And just before the final calamity, the simply sat at a table as friends and family, and broke bread together and prayed. Never expected that out of Hollywood! But friends, none of us have ever faced anything near that. Faith, staying true even in the worst of times, is the only thing that we bring to the table. And remaining faithful is when we are even godly.

In our New Testament reading from II Timothy today, St. Paul quotes a hymn to Christ about God’s faithfulness. 

If we have died with him, we will also live with him;

if we endure, we will also reign with him;

if we deny him, he will also deny us;

if we are faithless, he remains faithful–

for he cannot deny himself.

Even when we are faithless, God is faithful. He maintains his Covenant Fidelity. Thanks be to God! And when we are faithful, despite the world going to hell in a handbasket at times, God is pleased.

There are times and places when we will fall flat on our faces, when we are laughed at and scorned, those we love the most may deride us like Job’s wife did taunting us with “Curse God and die!” But if we have that smallest of specks of Faith, even the size of a mustard seed like Dawn+ preached on last week, that is enough. Some days that is all we have. And then, even then, God can work miracles.

If you look at the story of faith recorded in the Scriptures, it is a litany of failures and rejects, the bungled and the botched. Murderers, prostitutes, scallywags of every sort, but they had one thing in common. They had faith. And God started with that. And lives were transformed.

That is what God wants. God does not call the equipped, God equips the Called. And who goes to the front of the line? Those who have those kernels of faith, who plant them deep in their soul so they bear fruit; those who come back to say thank you before the miracle even takes place because they can see that whatever is happening is on God’s radar screen and the outcome is in his hands.

Some of you are facing some hard days right now. Some hard diagnoses. I see so much faith. I see tears, tears of very human fears, and tears of supernatural agape love. I see a community surrounding people, bathing them in prayer, hoping for miraculous intervention.

I met with a parishioner here a few years ago, facing a hard, HARD situation. I let them know that I did not have any magic words, and that I had no special powers. I could not snap my fingers and make it go away. But I did let them know that I was with them and this community is with them, and they are not alone. And the God who calls us and saves us, the God who calls us to Faith and who has been with us every step of the way, is with them, too. With just a little faith we can make it.

And when even that kernel, that mustard seed, is gone, we come together in our collective faith to pull each other through. No matter how bad things are, no matter how dark it seems, if thirty years of ministry has taught me anything it is this. 

Nothing is ever wasted in God’s Economy. The storm you are going through today prepares you to minister in a way that only you can tomorrow.

That may be a statement of faith, but friends, it has proven itself true so many times I take it for fact, or to be more scientific, a theorem of faith, anyway.

We are a community of faith, walking the path responding to God’s call. Take that next step so that we can all hear Jesus say of us, “Get up! Go on your way, your faith has saved you!” Amen