Sermon on Faith-5/20/2012

The Rev. Julia W. Messer
May 20, 2012—7^th Sunday of Easter
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

Faith may not look the way you expect it to look like.

I grew up going to Episcopal churches and going to an Episcopal camp. While the location and the focus of these two places were different, they both focused on God. Yet to me growing up, the God of church and the God of Camp Kanuga were NOT initially the same God. The God of church was experienced in about two hours and expected us to be quiet, to be awe inspired, and to savor formal music, all within a beautiful structure.   The God of camp was the God that was in stars that we watched from our tents, the God of short services, and the one who loved our camp songs that we sang  at every opportunity—we had Taps and Kumbaya at night, and in the morning and at every meal we sang songs to God. 

I was blessed to meet the God of ritual and the God of wonder and slowly over time began to understand that they were the same God.  I was lucky because God never fit into a certain box for me. And nor did my faith. I knew I could meet God at the altar or in the mountains. God was God, and my faith was my own—well of course with cradle Episcopal leanings!

So when I read today’s first reading from Acts, I couldn’t help but think about how some people think faith should look. In the reading, we learned that the disciples felt that they must replace the twelfth disciple. After Judas betrayed the group that Christ had called together, and after Jesus had left the disciples, the apostles struggled with how to go forward. Do they call another person to make the group twelve strong or do they take another path? Ultimately they followed Peter’s passionate plea and decided they should call someone who had walked with them since the early days. So they narrowed the list down to two names, Matthias and Barsabbas, and then cast lots. The lot fell on Matthias.  But after that, we never hear from or about either of them again in the New Testament.

But what is important to recognize is at this time the followers of Christ had just seen Jesus ascend into heaven so they were without him, and they were waiting for Jesus to send his Holy Spirit to be amongst them. (The sign we know to be the Holy Spirit descending on Pentecost). They were operating when they thought God was silent and while they were filled with faith and expectation, they also were filled with doubt and fear at the time.

          They probably wondered what God wanted from them at that time. I don’t know. But to me, it seems this account is focusing on them trying to make sure their group and how their faith was carried out had to look a certain way. To me I wonder, why the disciples didn’t get that this new faith was NOT supposed to look like how it used to. Yet the Jewish apostles were so used to how the faith was supposed to be and bound by so many laws that they still couldn’t seem to break through them. An example of this was when they were present for Jesus’ transfiguration.  When Peter witnessed it, he wanted to build temples for Jesus, Moses, and Elisha because he knew that whenever they saw or heard God, they were supposed to build an altar to God as so many people in the Old Testament had done.

The apostles knew what their faith should be like when Jesus was right there guiding them and correcting them along the way. But after he had left them they were stuck.   They had experienced God walking amongst them, and now he was gone.  And on top of that their friend had betrayed them and Jesus. What were they to do? What could they do after the mountain-top experiences of faith they had experienced?

Frederick Buechner once wrote “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” He also wrote, “Faith is better understood as a verb than as a noun, as a process than a possession. It is on-again-off-again rather than once-and for all.”

What Buechner tried to convey is that everyone does not experience faith or God the same way. That faith is not supposed to look, feel, or be a certain way. It doesn’t fit in a neat little box—that once you experienced faith that is how you will always experience your faith and that it will NEVER change again. So when the disciples tried to make an exact replication of the model that they knew, they were limiting themselves.

Today we can also fall prey to this. Perhaps whenever we experience God we then expect that must be how we will experience God for the rest of our lives. Or we expect church to be a certain way.   We Episcopalians can fall into this trap too when we slip into the familiar statement that most Episcopalians have said at least once in their life: “We have never done it that way before.”

This statement is true as we are people of tradition, but there is a fine line between what tradition is and what is being closed off.  Episcopal churches can use this statement to limit newcomers from joining the vestry, the choir, or the Altar Guild, trying to keep any form of diversity out of their pews.  Or they use it in order to only pray and worship a certain way.

          Now again I grant you that I am not talking about Emmanuel.  It’s pretty hard to worship the same way at Emmanuel because we are indeed a dynamic parish open to new ideas and new ways.  But we do fall into this trap in other ways, in that do we sit in the same pew every Sunday? Do we speak to the same people during the peace or coffee hour?

We all can do this in our personal or business lives when we stick to what is familiar instead of stretching ourselves. Do we take the same way home every time we leave church or work? Do we only see a certain type of movie?

Now I grant you, that as an Episcopalian, there is something comforting and home-like when church is familiar. But have you considered participating in Cursillo, Happening, Camp, Parish Retreat, or any other experience of community and faith outside church? What about how and when we pray—is it always the same prayers at the same time of day?  If for example you always pray at night before going to sleep, try adding good morning prayers—prayers for the day to start with God. Do we only use the daily lectionary? Try reading a book in the Bible straight through.

If our faith becomes too comfortable then we miss out on so many opportunities. So I am going to issue a challenge this week. Look at your past and current spirituality, how has it changed? Currently do you feel close to God when participating in this practice then recognize that you feel God… and rejoice! If not, I invite you to challenge yourself to try something different, to spiritually stretch yourself in a way you never thought of before. 

Remember that “faith is better understood as a verb than as a noun, as a process than a possession. It is on-again-off-again rather than once-and for all.”

 ~~~

+ In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. +