Our opening passage this morning continues to live in the context that was established last Sunday: we are hearing from one of the prophets who is watching as his homeland is about to be overrun by the Babylonians.
However, this time, there is a greater emphasis on the wrongs that the Judeans committed. That is what Habakkuk is decrying in our opening verses. “God, where are You?! Wrongs are being committed by our leaders and they are not held accountable; anger flows out and there is not a call to return to Your peace; Divine law is spoken of, but never followed through on thereby negating justice; God where are You?!”
The amazing and wonderful thing is though, Habakkuk remains true to his faith in the Living God. This faith is rewarded as the prophet receives a vision which reassures him that these injustices will not stand, that the proud will fall away, and that the righteous will continue to live on, live on in faith. The scripture reads this way.
Habakkuk
1:1-4, 2:1-4
1 The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? 3 Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. 4 So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous— therefore judgment comes forth perverted.
2 I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint. 2 Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. 3 For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. 4 Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.
Our second passage has an example that is exclusive to the Gospel of Luke. The thing is, the story that is used, utilizes the example of slave, and how the disciples (and therefore correspondingly, us) should also be like slaves. It’s an example, that with our cultural ethic as it is, we immediately recoil at, and what ends up happening is that we miss what Jesus is trying to say (does this sound familiar to anyone who has been coming to the Bible 101 class?).
So, this morning, instead of reading from the New Revised Standard Version, which is an attempt to be as much a word for word translation as possible, I’m going to be reading from the Contemporary English Version, which conveys the message that is being spoken in a way that is a little more palatable for our ears.
What we hear is that we don’t need more faith, we just need to live out the faith we have been blessed with; we need to put it into practice. For when that happens, then we will know that all things are possible. The scripture reads this way.
Luke 17:5-10
5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Make our faith stronger!”
6 Jesus replied: If you had faith no bigger than a tiny mustard seed, you could tell this mulberry tree to pull itself up, roots and all, and to plant itself in the ocean. And it would!
7 If your servant comes in from plowing or from taking care of the sheep, would you say, “Welcome! Come on in and have something to eat”? 8 No, you wouldn’t say that. You would say, “Fix me something to eat. Get ready to serve me, so I can have my meal. Then later on you can eat and drink.” 9 Servants don’t deserve special thanks for doing what they are supposed to do. 10 And that’s how it should be with you. When you’ve done all you should, then say, “We are merely servants, and we have simply done our duty.”
Jesus had just finished talking with
his disciples about the fact that there will always be something that causes
people to sin. The disciples are called
to correct those who follow the Way, and also to forgive all those who come
before them and ask for forgiveness. It
goes so far as to state that even if a person wrongs you seven times in a day,
if they ask for forgiveness, you should offer.
It is out of this conversation that the disciples cry out, “Make our faith stronger!” They’re looking at what God, through the message of Jesus, is calling them to do, and they’re thinking about themselves, “um, … I can’t do this, that, or the other thing in regards to what you’re asking. At the very least, I can’t do it near as well as it sounds like you need me to do it. I need some help here! Jesus, make my faith stronger: make our faith stronger!”
The disciples in asking for their faith to be strengthened are asking for their position, their understanding, their grasp of how God is working in the world to be increased. They think that they don’t have enough of all these things, of their faith to accomplish the responsibilities that are before them.
But what Jesus reflects back to the disciples is that they’ve got everything that they need in order to accomplish all that is before them. They just need to trust the faith that they have been blessed with by God as they put it into action.
That’s why Jesus uses the example that he does. He knows that the servant is going to be tired after working in the fields in one way or another. Jesus understands that.
But the question is not whether the servant is tired. The question is whether or not the work that is the servant’s responsibility has been accomplished. If it hasn’t, then the servant continues to step forward trusting that they will be able to do the things that they have been called to do.
The disciples hear this example and are confronted with the reality that what they have asked for, their faith to be strengthened, is a request that is out of place.
They have been called by their Master, by their God, to love God and their neighbor as themselves. Specifically in this passage, they have been called to forgive even when forgiveness seems contrary to everything that is just. But not only is God saying that it is just, but that the disciples can do the work that they have been called to do. They serve a Master who will supply them with everything that they could ever need to do the work that is before them. They just need to trust in that truth; they need to believe in that truth; they need to have faith not only in that truth, but in the God, the Master, who has called them to serve in this way. They have to have faith.
So do we, because the message that was given to the disciples has been passed down through the generations to us here today. This call to faithful service is now our mantle to carry.
But saying that we have to have faith, and actually feeling like we have enough faith to step out and serve in a Godly way, can be two drastically different things. Again, looking back at where the passage in Luke started out, I think that the disciples totally got that one.
So how do we go from a place where we believe in God, to a place where we know that we have been granted all that we need to serve God in all the ways that we have been called? How do we put our faith into action?
Very simply, we’ve got to work at it.
First and foremost, we’ve got to get into the Word of God. This book is not a paperweight. It is not a glorified dust collector. It is, as we talked about in the Bible 101 course this past week, “a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path”. That’s what it is! But the only way that it can be that for us, is if we actually begin to open it and discover the truths that are there for us. Those truths will allow us to know that that the faith that we have, and the God whom we serve, are enough to accomplish all of the respective calls that may be before us.
But you’ve got to get into it. So what are you doing in order to get into the Word of God? Are you a part of a Bible Study (regardless of who may host it)? Do you have some sort of devotional material that you are regularly utilizing? Are you taking the opportunity to just open the Word and start reading? I put these questions out there, not as someone who has it all figured out, but as someone who, so much more than I care to admit, lapses into irregularity and neglect when it comes to getting into the Bible. So, how did you answer those questions? As a person of faith, are you okay with those answers? Do you think that our Master would be okay with those answers? Each of us, however, whenever, and wherever need to immerse ourselves into the Word.
The second step to put our faith into action, is that we need to be in relationship with God and with other people of faith. How this manifests itself is that we need to be persistent and consistent in regards to both prayer and worship. Again, for a variety of reasons and rationales, it can be so easy to be negligent in regards to both, but what we hear throughout the scriptures is that we need to be in relationship both with the Divine and each other. Faith is not something that is to be lived out in some sort of individualistic bubble.
Again, how did Jesus sum up the law? Love God and your neighbor. You can’t do that by remaining solely unto yourself.
So, we need to develop and foster a regular communication with God by taking everything to Him: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Start out by setting specific times throughout the day. If you need to, literally put it in your calendar. Take the time to slow down and be with God.
These habits of neglect (even when it started for good reasons), also creep very easily in regards to our worship with one another. Worship is vitally important because it gives us the opportunity to rediscover that there is something beyond the world as we have created it. There are needs; there are joys; there are moments of conviction and moments of ‘a-ha’. All of this happens in worship.
We need to be in relationship with God and one another. That happens through prayer and worship.
So we put our faith into action by getting into the Word, and being in relationship. The third step that must be made is by finding and responding to the various needs that are around us. We have to practice our faith through our service to others. Once again, it’s so easy to think that you might not have all the things you need in order to serve others in God’s name. However, the only way you are going to realize that you can is through your service. You’ve got to work at it. Loving our neighbor as ourselves can be flat out hard (again, the disciples are asking for their faith to be strengthened after they heard how they are to forgive others), but we can do it, because God goes with us and works through us.
So how do we get to the place of knowing that the calls that God puts before us can be accomplished through our faith being put into action? We have to get into the Word; we have to be in relationship through prayer and worship; and we have to step forward in service (we have to practice). These three things will begin to help fill your respective toolbox of faith so that when God calls, we are able to respond, not, “No way” or “help!”, but instead, “here I am”.
The fact that we are here today, able to partake in this meal of the Lord’s Supper, is illustrative of the fact that people who at one time felt that they were ill equipped to answer the calls put before them, were ultimately able to respond in such a way that the light of the Lord shined forth. Think about it, those same disciples who said, strengthen our faith, ultimately became the sort of leaders who spoke out to their friends, to their communities, to their world, the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord. People throughout the world are able to gather together and declare their faith in Jesus Christ because those individuals and the generations that were called to follow them, put their faith into action.
It’s so easy to think that we are not equipped to serve the God whom calls us. But if we are willing to dig into the Word, be in relationship, and reach out in service, we will know, truly know, that through God, we have everything that we need to help build up God’s Kingdom. Utilize the tools in your toolbox and put your faith into action.
After Sermon Prayer
God, strengthen our faith! In so many ways, each of us has said this
very thing. But God, the faith we have
is enough, enough to allow us to follow Your Spirit in such a way that we put
our faith into actions. Help us to use
the tools You have blessed us with so that Your will might be done, and Your
love might be shared. In Jesus’ name we
pray. Amen.