A Place for Faith: what moves us

Faith Lutheran Church: a place for life. That is what we are. A place for hope; hope is what we hold onto. A place for faith; faith is what moves us. Today, our series on life in the vineyard continues with a look at and discussion on what it means to be a place for faith. A good place to start then it is to talk about what faith is and looks like.

A man finds himself on the roof of his house with the flood waters rising steadily beneath him. A canoe comes by and the people say to him, “Come on in. We’ll get you to safety.” The man replies, “That’s not necessary. I have faith. God will save me.”  Time passes and the water continue to rise. A motor boat comes by and the people say to him, “Come on in. We’ll get you to safety.” The man replies, “That’s not necessary. I have faith. God will save me.” The water is now at the bottom of the roof, and rising faster and faster. A helicopter flies hovers over head and calls down to the man. “We’ll throw down a ladder. Climb up and we’ll get you to safety.” The man replies, “That’s not necessary. I have faith. God will save me.” Well, the man is overcome by the water, and now finds himself standing before God in heaven. “O, Lord,” he says, “I had such strong faith that you would save me from that flood. Why didn’t you?” God looks lovingly at the man and says, “I sent you a canoe, a motor-boat and a helicopter. What more did you want?”

Our Series on life in the vineyard continues today with a look at faith and how faith moves us. What we are talking about in this series is all connected. The source and foundation of this is the life that we have in Jesus. He is the vine, we are the branches. The life that we have and live in him is what makes this a place for life. Since this is a place for life then that means that this is a place for all of our life for all of our days.

Knowing that we have this life in Jesus means that we also have hope. We have hope because our God is faithful in keeping his promises. So when he promises that we have forgiveness, life and salvation because of, and for the sake of Jesus. Then we can know with great certainty that we do have those things. Because whenever God does something, he does it right. Right? Right!

Now, it is important to understand that faith is not necessarily the same thing as belief; although, we tend to use the words interchangeably. What we are talking about when we are talking about faith is more than that. So there are three things that we can say about faith.

First, is that faith is a gift from God. The Holy Spirit works through the Scriptures and the sacraments of Baptism and communion to give and strengthen faith. He is the one who gives us this faith. He is the one who keeps us in this faith. We confess that we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus or come to him, but the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies and keeps us in the one true faith.

Second, is that this faith is a saving faith. We are saved by grace through faith. This is not our own doing it is the gift of God, lest anyone should boast. We are not saved by anything that we do. We do not do anything to make God love us. We do not do anything to earn his salvation. He does not love us because of what we do for him. He loves us simply because we are his. We have forgiveness, salvation and life because of Jesus’ perfect life, death, and resurrection.

Do you realize how important this is? Do you realize what this means for you; for us? We can be confident in the life and forgiveness that we have in Jesus. We don’t have to try to earn it, deserve it, or be worthy of it. We don’t have to spend our entire lives trying to be sure that God is happy with us so that we can possibly have a chance at heaven. It is ours through Jesus. Because, while it is something that is impossible for us, with God all things are possible. So the faith the he gives to us is a saving faith.

So then, if we have this faith as a gift, and it is a saving faith and we have heaven not because of anything that we do, then what do we do with the time that we have left on this earth? Well, that is the third thing to keep in mind about faith. And that is that faith is active. We spend our time loving, serving, and caring for one another, for our families, for our neighbors.

You see good works are not necessary for salvation. God does not need our good works. But this does not mean that they are not necessary. Indeed they are. Because while God does not need our good works, our neighbors sure do. So we do good works in order to show the people in our lives the love that God has for them. Think of it this way: God has placed you into the lives of the people around you, so that through you they would know that God loves them.

As Lutherans we do a good job of being able to recite Ephesians 2:8-9. For you are saved by grace through faith. This is not your own doing it is the gift of God, not the result of works so that no one may boast. And that indeed captures the first two things to remember about faith. That is that faith is a gift from God and that that faith is a saving faith.

What you don’t hear as often, but we would do well to remember is what comes after those verses and that is verse 10. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. If verses eight and nine show us the first two things to remember about faith, then verse 10 shows us the third; that faith is active.

We see this in our Epistle lesson for today in the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians. As Paul writes about their work of faith, labor of love and steadfastness of hope. When you think about what you want to be known for as a congregation, these are not bad things; faith, hope and love.

Now, we are talking about this all in the context of the vision for this congregation. That Faith Lutheran 

Church is a place for life. That being, said, I do not believe that it is a coincidence that the name of this congregation is Faith.

I have in my office a copy of the very first bulletin, from the very first worship service of Faith Lutheran Church. Took place in the auditorium of Garfield school. On the back is a brief history of how the congregation came to be. This is entitled “A Venture of Faith.” It is a nice play on words.

This congregation was named Faith, because life lived as the people of God in mission is a venture of faith. We walk by and step out in faith. Sometimes not knowing where are going, but only that God’s hand is leading us and guiding us.

So then, when we talk about this congregation being a place for faith, or that faith is what moves us, we are keeping in mind all three things about faith. That faith is a gift from God, that faith is a saving faith and that that faith is an active faith.

This means that we value things like worship and being in the presence of God to receive the gifts that he so graciously pours out into our lives. Where not here to get our attendance credits, but we are here to receive what God gives us through his word and sacraments.

This means that we value things like prayer and Bible study in our own lives. Now I will be honest, daily Bible reading can be difficult, even for a pastor. Because while I am in the word as I prepare for Bible studies or sermons, that is not the same thing as daily Bible reading. So if you have trouble with this, know that you are not alone. But we have make the journey together.

This means that we value things like service and doing things that help others and show them love. If you read the vision document we handed out a couple weeks ago, you know the importance of service. I will spend a little bit of time talking about that next week.

Faith moves us to have these things in our lives. Not because they earn us anything, not because God will be mad at us if we don’t do it, but because we know that they are live giving. We know that in them we grow and mature in our life, and in our relationship with our God. And what could possibly be better than that?

Our lives have been touched by God’s love, grace, mercy and forgiveness in a big way. We have been redeemed and belong to him. We have this because of Jesus. In him we have life. Because we have life in Jesus, we also have the hope of knowing that we get to experience life lived forever with our God. That life is here and now, and will go beyond to the new heaven and new earth. Having this hope we are then moved by faith. And living lives of faith we live lives of love, service, prayer, scripture reading and worship.

In doing this we experience the abundant life that Jesus promises to all who come to him. It is yours. May you experience this life in all of its rich abundance, and may that life be for you a constant source of hope, peace and joy. Now and always. Amen.