20 Pentecost C/Lectionary 27 October 6, 2013
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie Guengerich Hutson
Habbakuk 1: 1-4; 2: 1-4 + Psalm 37: 1-9 + 2 Timothy 1: 1-14
Luke 17: 5-10
Open our ears, O LORD, to hear what your word speaks to us.
Open our hearts, O Spirit, to embrace your divine presence within us.
Amen.
When the Williams family made it home after the service, they were at once saddened by the death of their mother and grandmother and blessed by the time they had just spent. Family and friends had gathered in. They had sung all of Granna’s favorite hymns. They had listened to Scripture and the pastor had proclaimed the Gospel message – the sure and certain hope of the resurrection, made known to us in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Granna’s children and grandchildren assembled themselves back in Granna’s house. The last of the lilac bushes were blooming around the porch. Family photos sat on every available surface. There was still a pitcher of iced tea in the fridge, for anyone who happened by would be offered a glass of tea or a cup of coffee and the invitation to sit for a while.
Emily, Granna’s youngest granddaughter was fifteen years old. She and Granna had been close, especially when Emily was a little girl, sitting on Granna’s lap and listening to stories. As the adults talked and cleaned up the kitchen, Emily wandered back to Granna’s bedroom. Walking with gentle grief, Emily picked up framed photos that told the story of Granna’s life. She fingered the silver hand mirror that rested on her dressing table.
Finally, settling in Granna’s favorite chair in the corner by the window, Emily’s eyes fell on Granna’s Bible. It had been awhile since Emily had done any Bible reading….not a lot since Confirmation class, to be honest. After all, her school work involved so much reading, who had time to read the Bible? Emily remembered that Granna had always had time – even on the busiest of days, Granna would begin and end her day in that very chair, in that very corner, with her Bible in her lap.
Very carefully, Emily opened the Bible and began to turn the pages. She found notes made in the margins of the Bible in Granna’s familiar handwriting. Some of the notes were dates, penned next to verses that must have been important to her. From Zephaniah…The Lord will rejoice over you with gladness, the Lord will renew you in love and exult over you with loud singing (Zephaniah 3:17b). From Romans 12…Let love be genuine, hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another…rejoice in hope (Romans 12: 9, 12). From Romans 8…If God is for us, who is against u? (Rom. 8: 31).
Emily began to read the notes in the margins and she also found names there. Names of her cousins, Granna’s other grandchildren. Names of her mother and her aunts and uncles, Granna’s children. She found the names of Granna’s neighbors and friends written there too.
Squinting her eyes to read the tiny writing in the margins, Emily found prayers there….next to Psalm 32 “I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you” Granna wrote Please teach me God, I need your help! And near Psalm 4, Granna had written a prayer during a sleepless night, near where the Psalmist wrote “I will both lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone O Lord, make me lie down in safety” (Psalm 4:8)
To Emily, it felt as though her beloved Granna were sitting right next to her. She could still smell her perfume in the air, mingling with the lilacs from outside. Gently turning the pages, Emily was gifted with her Granna’s faith, pouring out from the pages of her well worn Bible.
From our second reading today, in Paul’s letter to his friend Timothy, (2 Timothy 1: 1-14): I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.
The faith of your mother Eunice. How could I not be drawn to this text for this day in this place? Some of us have been blessed to have had Eunice as our mother. Our dear Eunice. But I venture to say that all of us have had someone who has been that person to us. Who has carried the faith so deeply within them that every encounter with them was like a brush with the holy.
In the Gospel reading today the apostles implore Jesus: “Increase our faith!” And isn’t this also our cry? In seasons of doubt we beg “Increase our faith”. In difficulty and disappointment we weep “Increase our faith”. In the midst of uncertainty we wonder “Increase our faith”.
And then, most often, we set about trying to make this happen ourselves. How can we increase our own faith? Maybe if we read our Bibles more, or pray more, or light candles, or come to church, or only listen to Christian radio stations….maybe then our faith will increase! And those sorts of practices are good – prayer and study and worship are marks of discipleship. But they are not faith. They are responses to our faith.
And this is so difficult for us in the Western world to figure out. We are so self reliant that it’s hard for us to imagine that something as critical as our faith is not something of our own doing. After all, if I want to learn about math, I take a class or study a book and do my homework. If I want to learn how to drive, I take a class and read the rules of the road and hope for a patient driving instructor. If I want to learn how to do almost anything….I must do it.
But faith is something else entirely. Faith, says Paul, requires that we rely soley on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to God’s own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began. (2 Tim. 1: 8-10)
Faith is about relying on God in a way that we seldom rely on anything else. We Lutherans say that we are saved by grace through faith, which is itself a gift from God. That pretty much takes matters out of our hands. And thankfully, it places them squarely in God’s hands.
Life is challenging and filled with things we don’t understand. Like the prophet Habakkuk we may cry out “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not listen?” (Habakkuk1:2) Like Habbakuk and like Paul and like Timothy and like Lois and Eunice, like Emily and her precious Granna, we see violence, wrongdoing trouble, destruction, strife, contention, and wickedness all around us. They are things that drive us to our knees….that drive us to cry out to Jesus “Increase our faith”.
And the word to us is the same as it has been throughout time….God is in charge. God is God. Through it all. In spite of us. The Lord answered Habakkuk’s cries and said “For there is still a vision for the appointed time” The Psalmist sung these words just as we did this morning “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently.” Jesus said…If you had faith the size of a mustard seed” and this is a translation issue, because the “if” in Greek is actually “because”. Because you have this faith….it is all you need. And Paul reminded his friend Timothy, to rekindle the gift of God that is within you. It is already within us. It is in every one of us. Sometimes it is like a burning ember, warm and glowing and small and sometimes it is like a roaring fire. But that spark of faith that has been passed along to us from our mothers and our grandmothers and our fathers and our grandfathers and our friends and the person that you are holding in your mind’s eye right now. That faith, just like the markings and notes in Granna’s Bible, remind us that the faith we have within us, is a great gift, given to us in Christ Jesus, long before the ages began.
This is the Good News, the Gospel news, on this day and all days. Thanks be to God. Amen.