<< Back to Main Sermon Page

The Rev. Mark Byers
February 10, 2006- Year B, 6th Sunday after the Epiphany
St. Ives’ Episcopal Church, Arlington

The Simplicity of Faith (And Why It’s So Hard!)

I say that faith is simple, and I may find right at the outset that I have people disagreeing with me. Of course, some of those folks may come around because I’ve added that faith is hard, too.

And of course, I would distinguish between believing that God exists, or even believing IN God, and having faith. It is one thing, to use an analogy, to say that a given man or woman exists, or has certain characteristics. It is quite another thing entirely to be married to that person. Faith is a condition of relationship with God that exists over and above simple theism. It is our living connection with the reality of Jesus Christ’s presence at our center. And so it is simple in that sense.
                       
But like a marriage, like any deep relationship, it is also hard, because it means getting to know God. I won’t say it means that God gets to know us, because that is a given. God knows each of us more deeply than we know ourselves, as scripture repeatedly drives home. Faith is a gift from God that opens us up to the one who made us, who loves us more than we can possibly imagine, who wants for us to share in an eternal inheritance. And the road along which it impels us is a difficult one.

It is ever the case that there are those who live beyond the edges of the comfortable interior of society. There are lots of reasons for this: poverty, lack of access to education, having the wrong skin color or religion, speaking the wrong language, even having a disease or condition that others fear. Lepers, such as the man who approached Jesus, were commonly required to live apart from the community, announcing their uncleanliness to their neighbors as they drew near. People feared the various illnesses that were called “leprosy” and understood them to be marks of divine disfavor and ritual uncleanliness.

Here’s the difference between belief and faith. The leper begs Jesus, kneeling on the ground. He is desperate, but he also sees the power and love of God inside Jesus. He knows, just as the unclean spirit that Jesus drove out of the man in Capernaum, that Jesus wields power from on high. “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

That is faith. And it is simple: “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” But it is VERY hard. He seeks out Jesus. He sinks to his knees. He begs him. Try doing these things if you don’t think that they’re tough. Faith will wrench us out of our comfort zone and show us our deepest hidden disease, the stuff that distances us from God and keeps us saying things that minimize the power and love of Jesus Christ to try to keep him on the outside.

Then some bibles say, “Moved with pity,” but many scholars think that another translation, meaning, “Moved with anger,” is the original phrase. So “moved with anger, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.” If anyone is unfamiliar with the Book of Leviticus, there are two consecutive chapters containing lengthy descriptions of leprosy and conditions of the skin that may result in being exiled from the community. Jesus reached out and touched this man, in spite of his condition. And not only did he want him to be healed, but he was angry. Angry at the waste and meanness that comes from separating ourselves from the sick, the poor, the weak. Angry at ostracizing the unfortunate or the sinful, because he knows firsthand that no one among us would be worthy to remain if others could see us as God sees us. Angry, in the end, at the bitter irony of human existence that many times those who are ostensibly farthest from God are more likely to know their own need for God, while those who believe themselves most righteous starve in the midst of God’s plenty.

Faith relates to God in the knowledge that God is always loving and always listening. And faith knows that not only does God love and listen and touch us, but God gets angry. This is another thing that some people find hard about faith. Many of us are uncomfortable with anger or confrontation. Many of us think of Jesus as being a kind of benevolent, easy going type, perhaps a bit ineffectual, but certainly very nice and compassionate.

If we imagine that Jesus doesn’t get angry about exclusion, just like this leper suffered, then we need to think again. If we imagine that God is neutral about what goes on in the world, we need to think again. God may not have a favorite country or leader, but God hates untruth and dissimulation, hates seeing the blood of innocents shed during wars, no matter who sheds it or whether we deeply regret it afterwards, hates seeing us tear one another to shreds and using the bounty we are given to wage war, pillage the earth, and make the wealthy wealthier. Jesus is angry about the increasing inequality between rich and poor and about the cruelty and indifference of so many people who occupy positions of power and privilege. Jesus is angry that our personal relationships are often exploitative and self-centered. That may sound threatening or it may come as a tremendous relief. Hopefully both simultaneously.

Honestly, friends, I think that it’s good news. I think that it’s the Gospel. I think that it’s a blessing that makes simple faith easier. If we are hurting inside, or we are in despair because we want to love Jesus and serve him, or we are confused about how it is that we are supposed to relate to one another in a world transformed by the reality of the Cross, then this is good news indeed. He loves us enough to be angry at what we suffer through, and angry at what we have inflicted, or allowed, in our own lives and the lives of others. This is exactly as it should be. Because honestly, as much as I might feel convicted in my sinfulness by Jesus Christ’s righteous anger, I can’t imagine loving a God who isn’t compassionate enough to touch the untouchables. (Including me.) And I can’t imagine loving a God who could ignore our wickedness or refuse to sustain us in our tenderness. Talk to God. More importantly, listen to and be touched by God. Jesus loves and heals us in our suffering. Jesus insists on our facing up to the sin of this world, including our own. Faith is that simple. And it’s that hard.

<< Back to Main Sermon Page