Wadhams United Church of Christ
2569 County Route 10, Wadhams, NY 12993
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Sermon by Steve Smith Order of Service
Abiding Faith
By Steve Smith
May 18, 2008 1 Corinthians 13:13
And now these three abide, faith, hope, and love…
I grew up in a world looking for heroes; I suspect some of you did, too. It used to be that we looked up with respect and admiration to the people who served their country or community. We went looking for heroes during times of adversity, or in the midst of war, or in the great depression. Somewhere along the line, someone would rise to the challenge and do something heroic or extraordinary, and they would be lifted up as an example for the rest of us to follow. To this day, my brothers hate me for that. “Why can’t you be more like your brother?” My parents would say to them, and once again my brothers would begin plotting their nefarious schemes to make me suffer.
Apparently, there haven’t always been enough heroes to meet the need, so if the authorities couldn’t find enough of them in the real world, then they secretly hired authors to make them up. When I couldn’t see anything especially heroic in the efforts of segregationists to violently disrupt the peaceful demonstrations of the Civil Rights movement, at least I could find a hero on the pages of Marvel Comics. When it became increasingly difficult to paint our soldiers in Viet Nam in any heroic tones, I could always turn on the TV to find Batman and Robin beating up on some really bad people.
Even in these fictional works, the superheroes were ordinary people who had endured some tragedy or trauma, and subsequently discovered their incredible powers or talents. Spiderman, for instance, was very nearly killed by a spider bite. Talk about your trauma; it doesn’t get much worse than a spider bite. Wonder Woman, I’m pretty sure, went through the grueling ordeal of plastic surgery so she would fit better into her superhero outfit. The Hulk must have had a really bad experience with steroid use, and Superman was tragically separated from his parents at birth when he was sent to earth on a rocket ship.
The fantasy begins to break down when our own encounters with the tragic or traumatic episodes of life don’t seem to endow us with any extraordinary powers or unusual talents. No matter how many times I’ve been attacked by ferocious, flesh-eating spiders, I’ve never been able to shoot sticky webs from my hands. I have, however, been known to spontaneously levitate several feet off the ground from a kneeling position after brushing up against a spider’s web while doing some gardening. And in spite of my brothers’ misguided efforts to build a rocket ship to send me to outer space, I’ve grown into a reasonably well-adjusted adult.
The truth is that the world doesn’t need supermen or superwomen. What the world needs is supernatural people who can learn to abide in a faith that is continually transforming them. The world needs supernatural women and men who are open to allowing God to guide and shape their lives in times of trial and triumph, and who look to God to use their very ordinary abilities to touch the lives of others in extraordinary ways. This abiding faith is constantly calling upon us to turn the self out of our lives and to find ever more ways of living selflessly, so that God can be at work in us and through us. This abiding faith challenges us to let inspiration take the place of aspiration, and to set our sights on spiritual growth rather than the accumulation of riches and fame.
No, God doesn’t need supermen and superwomen. God needs regular people who are willing to answer the call of faith to move beyond the familiar, the convenient, and the complacent into the realm of the unknown. I know, that sounds a little like Star Trek, but try to stay focused for a few more minutes, okay? God needs people like you and me who want to be part of something bigger than ourselves, and who turn their lives into instruments of Divine Power. With these kinds of instruments, God can transform the world without the help of tragically mutant superheroes.
Since I’ve never had a really bad experience with steroids, and not even plastic surgery would help me fit into a superhero outfit at this point in life, I find myself wondering what it would take to become one of those instruments of transformation under the direction of God. This notion of abiding faith seems to be a key ingredient, whether the person involved believed in God or in the strength and rightness of their cause. Without this abiding faith in something or someone bigger than themselves, people can be overwhelmed by the circumstances we encounter in life. With this abiding faith, people are able to rise above their circumstances and become the heroes that they need and that we need in times of crisis and difficulty.
Moving toward this kind of approach to life requires a shift in the way we look at life. While I couldn’t see anything heroic in the reactionary stance of the people who felt threatened by the Civil Rights movement, there was a profound heroism on the part of the people who were brutalized by segregation and its protectors. Their heroism inspired me then, and inspires me still when I recall the ordinary people who suffered as a result of their nonviolent approach to transformation. I remember one of them coming to seminary to talk about his experiences. His name was Charles Perkins, and he talked about being arrested after protesting the mistreatment of two young black men falsely accused of a crime in their small Mississippi town.
Without due process, he was imprisoned, and once under the control of the local police, was tortured to the point of bloodshed and blackout. He was rudely awakened by the police and handed a mop so that he could clean up the mess he had made while bleeding. After his release, he had to be hospitalized, and during his recuperation, one of the officers involved in the torture came by to see him. The officer was there because he couldn’t get Charles out of his mind, and he couldn’t rest until he understood more about the faith which had inspired him to persist in his cause in spite of his mistreatment. Some ten or fifteen years later, this officer was a different man, and quietly supported the work that Charles was doing in rural Mississippi.
For all the quiet, heroic stories of faith that can be found, we can also find stories of people who have been wounded by proponents of faith who used their belief system as a weapon against those who do not hold the same beliefs. Where one fills us with inspiration and hope, the other horrifies us and fills us with cynicism and doubt. But what would happen if we approached these horror stories with a different perspective. What if we used the indignation they sparked as motivation to look for a different kind of faith?
In her book, “Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience,” author Sharon Salzberg poses that question. “What if we were to look at faith in a new way,” she writes, “one that is not associated with dogmatic religious interpretation, or divisiveness? What if we approached faith as something fresh, vibrant, intelligent, and liberating?” Take the thought a little further: what if we were to look at faith as something that serves to integrate our lives, and provides us with a base of meaning from which we can be transformed by the events unfolding in our lives?
“This view of faith would not go looking to argue with others in an effort to convince them that they are wrong,” Salzberg continues, “but instead seeks to find ways to connect with others.” It’s pretty radical stuff, isn’t it? Faith, after all, is often used interchangeably with the word “trust.” Because we have been wounded, we learn how to distrust the people around us, especially those who remind us of the people who did the wounding. Growth in faith is the result of a growth in trust. Faith is an inner quality that unfolds as we learn to trust. While we can easily get stuck in our interchanges with people who let us down, faith calls us to acknowledge our pain, our cynicism, and our apathy and to move past those reactions as we pursue a deeper understanding of that which we describe as sacred or divine.
The path of this trust can take on very different shapes and forms, depending on the personality and perspective of the pursuer of truth. Those of us who believe in an external God who sits enthroned in the heavens have to work at personalizing our faith in such a way that it unfolds internally and transforms us from the inside out. Those of us who believe in an internal God present in every life form have to work at externalizing our faith in such a way that it unfolds externally and transforms us from the outside in. Either way, faith will agitate us until we are dissatisfied with the status quo. Either way, faith will call us to continue on the journey through all the days of our lives.
When we turn faith around to look at it from a different perspective, it has a way of transforming the very stuff that would seem to be impediments to faith. In this light, for instance, the questions and doubts that arise in the course of life are no longer weapons of destruction, but are hammered out and retooled as tools that we can use in our pursuit of abiding faith. As we look anew at our questions, they can inspire us to integrate our latest experiences and deepen a faith that can weather the storms of life. As we look anew at the nagging doubts, they can prompt us to re-examine what we believe about God, about life, and about God’s role in our lives.
While the great Protestant Reformer Martin Luther didn’t like the book of James and wanted to exclude it from the Bible because it didn’t fit his understanding of salvation by faith alone, I’m glad it’s still there. Its very presence is a constant reminder of that agitating question: does our faith make any difference whatsoever in our lives? Does it ever move beyond our inner ruminations to actually make us behave differently, or treat others the way we would want to be treated? Is our faith a purely internal or academic exercise, or can other people see the difference it makes, and it moves them to find out more about this transforming faith?
Abiding faith has a magnetic quality which touches other people’s lives. It grows into this bone-deep assurance which issues forth in lived understanding of its transforming truth and an integrated lifestyle which is constantly pursuing a fresh understanding of what others are going through and a deep-rooted compassion which challenges the self-centered lifestyle to which we have become accustomed. Tavis Smiley is an enterprising man who became a mainstay on Black Entertainment Television, and recently broke through the color barrier by becoming the first African American to host a program on one of the cable network news channels.
When asked about his faith, he gave a fairly traditional response. “I believe that faith is the substance of things hoped for,” he replied, “and the evidence of things not seen. Life challenges us,” he continued, “and in those situations where we can’t see any evidence of God or a higher power, faith chooses to believe that something is going to work out, and it’s going to work out in a way that’s best for me.” I agree with him that faith invites us to believe that things are going to work out in a way that’s best. But it doesn’t always work out in a way that’s best for me. I’ve reached the painful conclusion that the universe doesn’t revolve around me, and does that ever make me angry.
But if I can move beyond the self-centered lifestyle to which I have become accustomed, faith invites me to lift my gaze to the people around me. Sometimes things work out for their advantage, and not mine. Sometimes the lessons I learn are intended for a wider audience than the handsome guy I see in the mirror every morning. Sometimes, in fact, things work out for the good that God wants to bring to others who have been traumatized by life. Abiding faith opens our eyes to the good that God can bring out of the tragedies and traumas of life, and frankly, that’s good enough for me.
Order of Service May 18 , 2008 Back to Sermon
"NC" refers to The New Century Hymnal, The Pilgrim Press (1995)
Welcome, Announcements, Joys & Concerns
A Candle for Peace NC #571 (verse 1)
Call to Worship
Leader: O God, source of hope that does not disappoint, and of love that fills our hearts, be with us in this time of worship.
People: O God, open our hearts and minds and souls to hear your word as if for the first time.
Leader: Help us experience anew the surprise and joy that your presence in the word can bring us.
People: Fill us with the Holy Spirit: to teach us endurance, to strengthen our character, and to lead us to you.
Leader: Fill us with grace and truth. Help us to nurture each other to grow in faith, hope, and love.
People: Teach us to act and speak in such a way that our lives may be testimonies to your love.
ALL: Come, Lord of Life; come into our worship, into our church, into our very selves.
Hymn NC #403 My Hope Is Built
Leader: Children of God, let us lift up our prayers, for our God hears them, every one.
People: The God who created all things, listens to our prayers, every one.
Leader: Lord, our God, we lift up our prayers, trusting in your love and mercy in our souls.
People: We thank you for the gift of your Spirit in our lives and in our church. We thank you for the gifts you give to each of us, that we may work to create your beloved community here on earth.
Leader: We give you thanks for all of creation, that it may be honored and preserved and protected.
People: We give you thanks for all you have given, for all we have received. We bring before you our gifts of substance, and the gift of our lives.
Leader: May we always be open to your Spirit. Continue to give us visions and dreams for this church. Bring it to new life.
People: We lift up to you all who are ill, whether in body, mind, or spirit;
Leader: All who mourn, whether for the loss of loved ones, the loss of a job, or even the loss of faith;
People: All who are hungry, homeless, or in nursing homes or assisted living facilities;
Leader: all whom we think of or hold in our hearts. (Silence) Fill them with your Spirit of compassion and strength and healing, that they might know they are never alone.
Pastoral Prayer, Lord’s Prayer
Hymn NC #456 More Love to You
Psalm 85:1-2, 6-13, John 14:9-14, James 2:14-24
Sermon “Abiding Faith"
Offering, Doxloogy, Dedication
Hymn NC #475 God’s Eye Is on the Sparrow
Leader: Precious Lord, let your words and the meditations of our worship, lead us in the way of Jesus.
People: We are your body in faith and in mind. May we reach out to others as examples of your hope and love in the world.
Leader: And now, “ May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in God, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)
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