Faith Made Alive Through Action

Brad Sullivan
Second Sunday in Lent, Year A
Sunday, February 17th, 2008
Emmanuel, Houston
Genesis 12:1-4a
Psalm 121
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
John 3:1-17


Today in our Genesis reading, we have an example of faith in action. The last verse of the passage reads, “so Abram went, as the Lord had told him…” God had promised great things to Abram. God said he would bless him, that others would bless him, that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed, and Abram believed God. As Paul tells us, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Abram was made righteous through his faith in God, but remember what I said Abram’s faith is an example of faith in action.
He didn’t just hear God’s promise of blessing, say, “ok, God, that sounds great!”, and then do nothing. Abram acted on his faith. He listened to God’s message, and followed the guidance God gave him. Granted, God promised great things to Abram, blessings upon blessings, but Abram still had faith to believe God’s promise of blessing, and still followed the guidance given in order to attain that blessing. Faith, for Abram, was more than a moment, more than that one moment with God promising blessing.
Abram might have had an easy time believing God in that moment. When God was revealed to Abram and spoke to him, Abram must have been…well, probably a little scared, but enraptured, completely taken by the experience of God. The encounter was probably a big spiritual highlight in Abram’s life, a glorious moment of a clear encounter with God. As wonderful as that experience was, however, Abram did not stay in that moment. He moved on. He probably treasured the encounter with God in his heart, but he did not become stuck in the moment, trying to recreate it over and over. He accepted the gift and the blessings God gave him and then he did what God asked him to do. Abram’s encounter with God was made alive in his life by him living out the encounter with God. Abram’s obedient action kept his faith alive.
We can view our lives of faith in a similar fashion. We are saved through our faith in Christ, but our faith in Christ does not leave us staring forever at the cross. Our faith in Christ leads us to action, to bringing our faith with us, forming the rest of our lives. Looking at our Gospel reading today, Jesus said, “just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes I him may have eternal life.”
Jesus was referring to a time when the Israelites were in the desert after the exodus complaining that God wasn’t taking good enough care of them, so God sent serpents which would bite them, and many of the people of Israel died, but when the people repented, God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and set it on a pole so whenever someone was bitten, they would look at the bronze serpent and live. By telling this story, Jesus was saying look to me and live. Like the people of Israel obeying God, looking to the bronze serpent and living, by turning to Jesus and putting our faith in him, God gives us eternal life.
Our faith in Jesus, however, involves more than staring at the cross. Just as Abram’s faith was made alive by his not only believing but obeying God, so our faith in Jesus is made alive not only by believing in Jesus but by obeying him. Just as Abram did not get stuck in the moment of his encounter with God so do our lives in Christ involve more than being stuck moments of encounters with Christ. We hopefully have moments of encountering Christ in our lives, but when we do, we don’t just say, “yay, thank you so much Jesus,” and then stay there trying to recreate the event forever. When we have encounters with Christ, we thank him for the gift and blessing, and then we take those moments with us as go and do what Christ has asked us to do.
Now, we all may have many different personal encounters with Christ, but for examples of these encounters with Christ to which we can all relate, I’m going to address the sacraments of the Church, the tangible ways which we have been given to encounter Christ in our life together.
Going in reverse of how the sacraments are usually presented, think about Unction, anointing the sick with oil and praying for healing. Healing can come in that instant, but healing is also a process. Spiritual, emotional, and physical healing all take time. When we are healed, even if it is instantly, our lives don’t stop at the moment we are healed. We go on living as healed people. We are changed, and live in that new life.
Considering the sacrament of Reconciliation, the penitent doesn’t stay stuck in the moment of reconciliation, forever at the altar rail or in the priest’s office, but continues on seeking amendment of life having been reconciled to God. The sacrament of Reconciliation marks a new beginning in a person’s life.
Looking at marriage, the sacramental moment is the wedding, but the one event, the wedding, will not sustain a marriage for very long. Long after the wedding, the marriage continues. The sacrament continues in the life of the couple lived together. Ordination and confirmation, like marriage, are more than a moment, more than the moment of a bishop laying hands on the heads of ordinands and confirmands. Ordination and confirmation are sacraments lived out in lives of mission and service. Otherwise, bishops, priests, and deacons would only be bishops, priests, and deacons so long as the bishop’s hands are touching them. People would only be confirmed during the moment of being touched by the bishop’s hands. People often act that way with confirmation, they get their card stamped and then never think much about their lives in Christ again until Christmas and Easter, but in reality, confirmation is not a moment, but an invitation follow Christ in mission.
We encounter Christ in the Eucharist. We have a meal together, remembering the last meal he had with his disciples, but more than a remembrance, Christ is present with us in the Eucharist, and we take him into ourselves. Our souls and bodies are nourished by Jesus himself, and then we leave this place to take that sacrament with us, to nourish those whom we encounter.
Finally, Baptism is the sacrament which begins our lives in Christ. Our sins are forgiven by God through the waters of Baptism. We are made members of the Body of Christ through the waters of Baptism, and in our Baptism, we ask the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. Baptism too is more than a moment. The moments of each of our baptisms are great moments. We commemorate the day with certificates, maybe special clothes, parties, gifts, and the day or moment of our baptisms are great and great things to remember, but our baptisms are not moments in which to get stuck. Remember Jesus’ baptism after which he is immediately driven out into the wilderness. Even the moment of Jesus’ baptism, with the heavens being ripped open, the spirit descending like a dove, and the voice of God speaking to everyone there, even that moment was not one in which to remain, but one which Jesus took with him as he began his ministry.
Our baptisms too are not moments in which to stay. If we believe our baptisms simply to be one moment, then we fall into what Dallas Willard, in his book The Divine Conspiracy, calls “Bar-Code Faith”, something he believes to be grossly inadequate in describing our Christians lives. According to Mr. Willard, the idea of bar-code faith is as follows:
…there is something about the Christian that works like the bar code. Some ritual, some belief, or some association with a group affects God the way the bar code affects the scanner. Perhaps there has occurred a moment of mental assent to a creed, or an association entered into with a church. God ‘scans’ it, and forgiveness floods forth. An appropriate amount of righteousness is shifted from Christ’s account to our account in the bank of heaven, and all our debts are paid. We are, accordingly, ‘saved.’ Our guilt is erased. How could we not be Christians? For some Christian groups the ‘account’ has to be appropriately serviced to keep the debts paid up, because we really are not perfect. For others…every debt past, present, and future is paid for at the initial scan. But the essential thing in either case is the forgiveness of sins. And the payoff for having faith and being ‘scanned’ comes at death and after. Life now being lived has no necessary connection with being a Christian as long as the ‘bar code’ does its job. (P. 37)
According to bar-code theology, baptism really is just a moment. We’re scanned, we have faith, and we’ve got our ticket to heaven. Bar code faith, however, doesn’t match the faith that Abram had. Baptism, or any sacrament, as a moment doesn’t match the faith that Abram had. In our baptism, in that moment, we are forgiven, but like God’s call to Abram, our baptisms are also a beginning. Like Jesus’ baptism, we don’t stay in the water. Our baptisms remain active in our lives as we obey Christ, seek his guidance, and follow him. True belief, true faith involves action. True faith in God involves seeking guidance from God and following that guidance. Our faith is made alive in our lives not only by the big moments when we encounter Christ, but by taking those moments with us and living out our encounters with Christ. Amen.