‘Oh, it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith. And so it is impossible for it not to do good works incessantly. It does not ask whether there are good works to do, but before the question rises, it has already done them, and is always at the doing of them…
…Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man would stake his life on it a thousand times. This confidence in God’s grace and knowledge of it makes men glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and all His creatures.'
- Martin Luther
Sermon – Pentecost 12 (Proper 15A)
The
Rev. Maurice C. Frontz, III
St
Stephen Lutheran Church
August
20, 2023
Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ.
It
is good to be back in the pulpit here at St Stephen after fourteen days in the
heartland of America. Two weeks ago I was with my friend Jason from seminary in
Iowa. The occasion was very bittersweet. We were there both to bury his wife
Amy, who had died from cancer, and the next day to witness the renewal of vows
between his daughter Maia and her husband Russell. The wedding itself had taken
place weeks before, before Amy died.
I
preached on Jason’s church on Sunday the 6th. Then Rebecka and I
went to Oklahoma City for the NALC’s Lutheran Week, including a theological
conference and the biennial Convocation. Bishop Dan Selbo was reelected for a
second four-year term as bishop of the NALC. He was installed at the closing
Eucharist and we heard the bishop of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane
Yesus preach. Let me tell you, if you ever think my sermons are long, you need
to listen to an African sermon!
Then
we went to Wichita Falls, Texas, where Rebecka’s great-great-great aunt had
emigrated from Sweden, and gave land and money to start a Methodist church,
which is still there and is named after her and her family: Friburg-Cooper
United Methodist Church. It was a small church, smaller than ours, but their
welcome was generous. The books with the photographs of Rebecka’s long-ago
relative were all laid-out and they had a special announcement in the service. We
got back late Wednesday afternoon.
So
it was a long trip, a good trip, and all through the trip we had many
testimonies to the power of faith. Faith is the topic of our Scripture readings
today. Indeed, one might say that faith is always part of our Scripture
readings – the lack of faith, the need for faith, the possibility of faith, the
fruits of faith, the sufficiency of faith.
Martin
Luther sang faith’s praises in his commentary on Paul’s letter to the Romans:
‘Oh,
it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith. And so it is impossible
for it not to do good works incessantly. It does not ask whether there are good
works to do, but before the question rises, it has already done them, and is
always at the doing of them…
…Faith
is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man
would stake his life on it a thousand times. This confidence in God’s grace and
knowledge of it makes men glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and all
His creatures.
‘Faith
is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace.’ This is a wonderful definition
of faith. Faith is often misconstrued as simply taking as fact what the Creed
says, or what the Bible says. That’s part of it, but the faith we want is the
faith that says, not just Jesus was born, but that he was born ‘for me.’ Not
that Jesus died, but that he died ‘for me.’ Not that Jesus was raised from the
dead, but he was raised ‘for me.’ And so forth, and so on.
This
is why we say at Communion: ‘The body of Christ, given for you,’ and ‘The body
of Christ, shed for you.’ These are two statements which require faith to
grasp: that Christ is present underneath the bread and the wine, and that
Christ is present for you for the forgiveness of sins. To say ‘Amen’ to these
words given with the bread and the wine is to grasp in trust that Christ is
truly present and ‘for you,’ and that is the faith which is commended to us.
Here
in Scripture today we find an example of this faith, this fthat Jesus is Lord
and that Jesus is Lord ‘for me,’ in other words, that his promises, which are
always, ‘Yes,’ apply to me. We have the Canaanite woman, who is not a Jew, not
trained in Jewish Scripture, who, in Matthew’s account nevertheless recognizes
Jesus as the promised Jewish Messiah even before Peter does! She calls Jesus
‘Lord’ three times and the first time calls him by the kingly title ‘Son of
David.’
To
Jesus’ apparent objection that it is not right to take the children’s food and
throw it to the dogs, a not-so-subtle reminder that she is not part of the family
of Israel, she responds with faith that even this will not disqualify her from
receiving a crumb of God’s mercy. And Jesus grants her request, restoring
health to her daughter. He says, ‘Great is your faith!’ The word in Greek for
‘great’ is ‘megala.’ So one might say she has mega-faith. Contrast this
to the disciples who, as Jesus says, have ‘little faith.’
Now
it might be off-putting to some that Jesus says what he says to the woman,
given that we have been brought up for our entire lives in an egalitarian
society in which we believe that all people are created equal and have rights.
The concept of universal human rights, however, was a long way from being
invented at the time of the New Testament. Much more well known was the concept
of gods doing whatever they wanted and not necessarily in your favor. The woman
did not believe in her right to anything but instead staked everything on her
belief that God was merciful. Even when reminded of her lack of standing to ask
for what she was asking for she still asked, not out of pride but humility,
putting her trust in a merciful God.
We
can’t go to God with anything of our own to demand he do right by us. Even
those things which we do have are his, our time and our possessions, the very
strength of our bodies and minds, and when we give them, we give them out of
thanksgiving and not as if we can buy God’s favor or protection. And so we do
not ask God for the things we ask him for in the Lord’s Prayer out of any sense
that God is obliged to do for us what we want. Instead, if we come before God,
we come before him with nothing; nothing, that is, but faith that God’s
promises are true and true for us.
This
faith will cling to God’s good word even when it appears that God is silent or
refusing to give a good answer. We always pray for health, wealth, and
happiness, peace and security and tranquility. But even in the midst of trouble
we may have faith that God, whose word is trustworthy and true, will bless us
with strength to meet the challenges of the day and will give us the fulness of
peace at the end of all things.
At
the beginning of the sermon I mentioned my friend, Amy, who died last month of
a rare and stubborn cancer. She, I’m sure, prayed for remission and for a
longer life. But in the end she put her trust not in what she could see, but in
what she could not see – the mercy of God that willed life for her in Jesus
Christ. I know that this was not without tears and confusion and doubt. It was
not an easy road for her, and I’m sure it won’t be for her family.
But
oh, ‘faith is a living, busy, active, mighty thing! It is a living and daring
confidence in God’s grace so certain that one would stake one’s life upon it a
thousand times. This confidence in God’s grace and knowledge of it makes one
glad and bold and happy in one’s dealings with God and all his creatures.’
Whenever Amy would post on social media about her cancer journey, as she called
it, she always included a picture. Her at home. Her on the way to the hospital.
Her in the hospital. Her on her way home from the hospital. And always, in the
picture, she was smiling. Always grateful for the medical care, always grateful
to God, often speaking of her hope in Jesus Christ. Glad, and bold, and happy.
Her faith created life – created community, in her town, in her church, across
the network of relationships which she had really around the world. Glad, and
bold, and happy in dealing even with illness. And so we, when we are given the
gift of faith, may also be glad and bold and happy even in the midst of turmoil
and doubt, even when there is no peace, security, or tranquility; when health
is precarious. Sin sticks to us, and death awaits us all, and yet faith will
never let us down, because Christ will never let us down. May we be found
faithful, and may we receive all of God’s promises, which are sure.
