Sunday, March 8, 2009

“Faith in Uncertain Times”

Romans 4:13-25

Reverend David Wiggs

Senior Pastor

What puts you in right relationship with God?

That is Paul’s question. That is what he is discussing in this passage from his letter to the Romans. Another way to put it would be to ask: How are we saved?

We have stepped into a discussion going on between the role of the Jewish law and the role of faith in Christ alone. Paul is writing to a new Christian community composed of those who we might call Jewish-Christians and others we could call Gentile-Christians, because they have a difference in background previous to becoming followers of Christ. Now although Paul is a Jewish-Christian, in the sense of background, he has come strongly over to the side of stressing the role of faith in Christ alone as the door to salvation or right relationship with God.

To address this mixed group he goes way back to the beginning of the story of the Hebrew people and chooses the patriarch Abraham – the first person recorded as responding to Yahweh, God of the Hebrews. He came before there was a Jewish law. He says the promise of God, to make through Abraham a great nation and to bless the world, did not come through the law. He argues that this great promise came to fruition through the fact that Abraham had faith. In verse 16 we hear it clearly: For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace.

The question is: What puts you in right relationship with God?

The answer is: Faith coming through the grace of God.

But Paul goes even further with this illustration to say not only did it start with faith, but even in the face of uncertainty, Abraham still remained faithful – believing that God would do what he promised. (v. 19-21)

Now this is where I think this intersects squarely with our life and times. The issue is having faith in God in uncertain times. Have you had a conversation with anyone lately about whether or not this new President can get the job done? Uncertainty.

Or maybe you have had a conversation with someone or watched on the news folks discussing whether or not we can get out of this recession. More uncertainty.

Or maybe you know someone who has lost a job or can’t make the mortgage payment or lost a good deal of income because of the stock market plunge or has just encountered a personal crisis of some sort. Even more uncertainty!

How can we have faith in uncertain times? Paul says look to Abraham – he had faith even in the face of uncertainty and he can be our role model. This is powerful, Paul says: Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what [God] said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. (v. 18-21)

There it is. In uncertain times do you focus on what is not happening or on what God said is going to happen? Eugene Peterson does an amazing job of translation in The Message Bible – he renders this same part like this: When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do.

In uncertain times there are two choices. Some conclude you can’t believe God because it is not going the way I thought it should. Others conclude I am going to believe in God even more because it is not going the way I thought it should.

Do you know the name Millard Fuller? He died recently. He was the founder of Habitat for Humanity. But before he founded Habitat he was wildly successful in the world. Before he hit thirty he had finished his education and become a self-made millionaire. He was married to a wonderful woman and had several beautiful kids. He thought life was grand and business was booming, until one day he came home and the only thing he found was a note. The note from his wife informed him that she and the children had moved out because he was rarely at home with them.

In that moment his life became very uncertain. He was a Christian man. He could turn away from God or turn toward God. Fuller turned toward God by going to some fellow Christians and seeking counsel and advice. Out of that crisis he changed his lifestyle. He and his wife got back together and moved the family to Africa to serve as missionaries. There he saw a model of providing decent housing that captured his imagination. He brought the idea back to the U.S. and founded Habitat for Humanity. He spent the rest of his life pursuing decent housing for those without and through Habitat for Humanity provided housing to over a million people who were in need.

By the time I was 24 I had graduated college and was going to seminary. I had already served as a youth minister at five different United Methodist churches in Oklahoma, two of which were in the top ten of our largest churches in the state. While in Kansas City I had secured a position on staff with one of the largest Disciple of Christ churches in the country. I had met Mary, although we were not yet married. Life was good. I was responding to the call of God, I was serving, I was doing well in school, I had a supportive and tight knit family. I saw myself as an adult. I was out of state, going to school and working and I had it all under control.

Then my father began to have some health problems. He began to have some chest pains. He went to the doctor and they thought it was brought on by stress and that if he would adjust his schedule some, that would probably take care of it. It didn’t. When he first went to the doctor it was late February. He got worse. Within a month he began to experience a loss of strength on one side of his body. By March, it was affecting his ability to walk normally. One leg was starting to lag when he walked.

He saw a series of doctors before they diagnosed brain cancer – by then it was August. He died December 2, 1981. I was 24; he was 56. That sense of mastery and “I’ve got this life under control” was gone in a flash. I thought I was standing on my own two feet, but as it turns out my life was like a four-legged table: I was two legs and he was two legs. Tables don’t do too well with only two legs. When my Dad died it felt like someone had maliciously kicked two legs out from under my life.

I wanted him to live a long life. I wanted to stop the cancer. I could not. He had slipped into a coma by Thanksgiving. All hope was gone; it was just a matter of time. I felt so helpless.

But you know, I did not turn away from God. I did not doubt my call. I did not quit going to church.

Oh, it didn’t seem fair. It seemed so wrong; something had gone terribly wrong. My young life was upended. The pain and the grief were deep; they resurface from time to time, even today, more than twenty-five years later. But I didn’t blame God. I knew I needed God and the Church more than ever to walk me through that deep valley of death.

In uncertain times some conclude you can’t believe God because it is not going the way I thought it would. Others conclude I am going to believe in God even more because it is not going the way I thought it would. I chose to cling to God all the more. I believe God strengthened me through that ordeal. The faith community helped steady me.

When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway.

When do you feel hopeless? Death of a loved one? One of your children is in deep trouble and far away? Your parent is failing and you find you have become the caretaker now? Diagnosis of terminal illness from your doctor? Recognition that the dream you had held for so long is never going to come to fruition? Your marriage is in trouble? You just lost your job?

Lots of things in life can cause a sense of hopelessness in our lives. Paul says that God has raised Christ Jesus from the dead for our hope and for our salvation, so that when everything looks hopeless we can believe anyway! We can believe anyway! We can believe anyway!

Amen and thanks be to God!

Romans 4:13 – 25

Faith In Uncertain Times 3/8/09

What puts you in __________ relationship with God?

…stressing the role of faith in Christ alone as the ________

to salvation or right relationship with God.

In verse ____ we hear it clearly: For this reason it depends

on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace.

The question is: What puts you in right relationship with God?

The answer is: __________ coming through the grace of God.

How can we have __________ in uncertain times?

v. 18 - ____

When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway,

deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do

but on what God said he __________ do.

In uncertain times there are two choices.

Some conclude you can’t believe God…

Others conclude I am going to believe in God even ________…

Do you know the name Millard ____________?

He could turn away from God or turn ____________ God.

When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed ____________

When do you feel ________________?

Paul says that God has raised Christ Jesus from the dead

for our ________ and for our salvation…

Kid’s Question: What puts you in right relationship with God?