In the Epistle for today, Paul implores us to remain established in the faith, which brings up the question, what is the faith? What is faith itself? There is a popular idea of what faith is out in society, and many churches do teach it. It is the idea that faith is about having the right answer. You need to have the right answer about knowledge, you need to have the right answer about the nature of God, or the correct Biblical interpretation, or the morally correct position on some social matter, or knowing the right words to say. That is what faith is: being right. And since faith and salvation are so intertwined, it creates an anxiety about what happens if you fail the test, and the depth of the consequences if you do. In some traditions it is not failing the test, it is about getting any one answer wrong. If you don’t get an A+ it isn’t good enough. What are the implications of that? It can create a huge sense of anxiety in people, even trauma for understanding the faith in this way.
I don’t think that is a good thing. Not only can it create anxiety, it can lead people away from the faith. It is also not the faith we see unfolding in the Biblical story. When we look at stories of faith in the Scripture, it isn’t about getting the right answer. It is about being engaged with God. We see in our first reading today the perfect and beautiful example of what faith is all about. Abraham and God get in a conversation. God is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because the people were inhospitable and didn’t take care of the widows and the orphans. In the understanding of faith that requires the right answer, the answer is always what God wants, so you think destroying the people would be the right answer if that is what faith is all about. Abraham should say OK, but instead we see the great ancestor of our faith pushing back on God. He asks, are you really going to destroy the city? What if there are 50 righteous people? Abraham and God get into this conversation in which Abraham pushes back on God. He argues with God, he haggles with God. That is faith.
We see something of that in the Gospel. The Disciples want to know the right words to pray? John gave his Disciples the right words, can’t you do so, too, Jesus? Jesus says fine, here are some good words. And they are good words. The Lord’s Prayer is lovely, and we say it every Sunday. But then Jesus goes on to say that having the right words is not what it is about. The life of prayer, the life of faith, is about seeking, it is about asking and searching and knocking. It is about trying. It is not about getting it right. It is even trying up to that point in which you become an irritant. That is faith. When you are trying to engage with God so much that God gets annoyed with you, that, Jesus says, is faith. Perhaps like the irritant that gets into the oyster and becomes a beautiful pearl of great value. That is faith. So, my friends, engage with God to the point of being an irritation.
Paul tells us that we are to be rooted and built up in Christ. So as we engage with God as those who follow Jesus, we should be trying to do it in a way that models our lives on Christ and on his way of love. To love the Lord your God with all you heart, mind, and soul, and love our neighbor as ourselves. That is what Paul says is so important for us who follow Jesus. But here is the thing: when we fall short of that, when we mess up, when we are not perfectly able to love God or perfectly love our neighbor, or we can’t understand that our enemy is our neighbor, the point is to keep trying, not to be perfect.
So, my friends, try. You’ve already started today by showing up here. You came here to engage with God, and that is good. Keep trying the rest of the day. Keep engaging with God throughout the day, and tomorrow when you wake up, try again. And the day after that and the day after that, and the week after that, and the month and the year. On and on throughout your days, keep trying. Keep engaging with this God who wants to be in relationship with you. It doesn’t mean other things aren’t important, like the questions of the nature of God and Biblical interpretation and morally correct positions and the right words to say. Those are all valuable things, but they are not the core of the faith. Ultimately, the point is not the answer, the point is trying.
So, my friends, try. Keep trying day in and day out. Try to the point of getting to be an irritant, and remember that Jesus told you to.
AMEN.
