The Faith Life: 1.
Foundation
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The scriptures are separated in the service, with comments at each rather than all in one sermon
Today we begin our August series on ‘faith’ – but before we can get to what faith means, or what faith is, or what faith results in, we need to understand the foundation of our faith – for me that means God, at the most basic; for others it may mean Jesus, the man who became so in tune with god that he and God were one.
Who we believe God to be is the most basic faith issue.
Everything we do, everything we believe
everything about our faith life depends on this basic:
Who, or what, do we believe God is?
I recently sat with a 20 year old student at Elim Bible college. She was having trouble with the fear-based belief system that operates there – dress this way or you’re not a Christian and you’re going to hell. If you believe God is a gatekeeper who says who’s in and who’s out based on whether they have tattoos or not, then of course you’re afraid to step out of line, and you toe the line.
My father sees god as Judge, and Jesus as sacrifice necessary to appease this god so angry at human sin. This means that he is worried about meeting this God, so he is afraid to die.
Rob Bell has a great video called “Rhythm” in which he suggests God as a song, and our lives are either in tune with the song, or not. That video has opened me to other images that are so much more meaningful – and have so much more impact on my life, including an incredible experience on vacation (but we’ll save that for another sermon this month!)
What we believe about God deeply impacts ALL of our life.
All of our scripture writers today picture God out of their own particular situation – for our situations impact who and what we think God is.
I invite you to listen in each scripture for a picture of God drawn by that particular writer. Jot it down, draw it or write it.
This writer is a prophet (proclaims God’s word to reclaim
god’s people) -- sees his people as rebellious and arrogant, mindless of what
their God had taught them, and he tells them, God says:
Here we see God as mother and father, sad over how far the children, Hosea’s people, us?, have gone from god’s dreams for them. God says, the more I call, the more they go off,
the more I tell them the right things, the more they do the wrong (sound familiar parents?)
Yet I’m the one who taught them to walk, held them in my arms, led them with one of those children’s harnesses, fed them at my breast.
I cannot give up on them.
A lovely, and realistic, image of God, but perhaps it keeps us always in the child position?
This writer sees himself as lost, wandering in a wilderness, hungry and thirsty but unable to find a way to something that satisfies, something that feels like home.
Here we have a picture of
God as rescuing Loving Guide – one who recognizes when we’re in trouble and
answers when we call – finds us, guides us, leading us to places of nourishment
and thirst quenching refreshment.
Also a lovely, and realistic,
image—
Sometimes we feels a bit
lost, out of place, seeking a place to feel at home
we are often in
trouble – big trouble or little trouble is all trouble and all needs a helping
available God:
maybe your parents are driving you crazy
maybe your
children are doing drugs
or a marriage is on the rocks
or you just talked to the
oncologist
And we are often guided by
God to places and people who can help us:
a youth counselor listens
Drug rehab is arranged
A pastor stops by
A friend holds your hand
A vitally important God
image when its needed
But perhaps, as a
permanent image, this too keeps us eternally as humans who’re a bit stupid and
who’ll never get it right.
Do you believe the Divine
intends us to be forever recalcitrant children or stupid humans?
Let’s see where the gospel
reading takes us, see what Jesus might have to say about us…..
Luke 12:13-21
Jesus invites us to go
deeper than we usually like to, invites us to do some
soul work, and I’m inviting us to do today.
Jesus answers the man
concerned about his money and what’s due to him with a question of his
own: who said I was a judge?
You’ve got your image of
me wrong, fella.
This guys question is self
centered – it’s about what HE wants
But Jesus raises the
listener away from self, away even from Jesus himself, and points to God….God
is the direction we must face, he says.
What is most vital in life is not your stuff, your wealth, but your
relationship with god he says –
What is ‘rich’ to you, and
me?
What is the richest part
of your life? Is it our relationship
with God?
Jesus tells a story about
life with abundant ‘stuff’ – then contrasts that with an image of God as
Abundant Life—now there’s a different god image. What would change in our lives if abundant
stuff was replaced by abundant life as our life style?
Piece of paper, one side blank the other with picture of candles being blown out. Handout with 4 squares to draw in – god is like…
Blank side – here’s a picture of God. I know, you can’t have a picture of God.
I can’t have a picture of breath either, but I can have a picture of what it does.
Today we are hearing 4 different bits of the Bible, and they have different ways of thinking about who God is, and so do you. you can draw some pictures of what you think God is like.
I want to take a moment to add one more bible excerpt today; it’s the one that’s assigned for today from the epistles, or letters, in the Christian scriptures.
It’s from Colossians 3 and I just want to highlight a verse or two.
Listen for what God’s intent is for us recalcitrant children and mere humans….
The writer lists a bunch of behaviors that are very human, things like impurity, evil desire, greed,
but says that since we belong to Jesus, things must change
These are the ways you once followed, he says,
when you were living that life; but now you must get rid of all such things –
anger, malice, slander, abusive language, lying…for you have stripped off the
old self and have clothed yourself with the new self, which is being made new
according to the image of its creator…
A new self, according to the image of
its creator.
We are called by God, the RE creator, to grow more and more into the image of God.
We are intended, destined, drawn into god’s dream for us, as we become reflections of god, just as Jesus was. John Wesley would call it becoming perfected in love
What we believe about God is reflected in our lives
When we’re behaving like children, or don’t want to grow spiritually, god as father, mother is an image that makes sense
When we’re troubled, we need a seeking guide of a God, like the shepherd in that other psalm
When we’re unsatisfied with life we go to Abundant Life God who fills and satisfies us more than our ‘stuff’ ever can
And God can be all of those things
But we need to be careful of using, or perhaps abusing God for our own needs, to beware of making God in OUR image, instead of learning to grow into God’s image, new selves, different selves from what we have been.
When we are parents, reflect father/mother God
When we are mentors, teachers, friends in faith, reflect God the Guide
When we are surrounded by a culture of acquisition, let’s not get caught in the barnbuilder syndrome; let us treat our possessions carefully, so they do not possess us. Let’s seek richness, abundance, in our relationship with God.
Let us grow into the image of God, and since our behavior reflects the God we believe in, may others see it as a believable God.
Amen.
This
writer is a prophet (proclaims God’s word to reclaim god’s people) -- sees his
people as rebellious and arrogant, mindless of what their God had taught them,
and he tells them, God says:
This
writer sees himself as lost, wandering in a wilderness, hungry and thirsty but
unable to find a way to something that satisfies, something that feels like
home.