Figuring out Faith

Learning to see faith as a friendship with Jesus

12/03/2018

Matthew 8:5-11 When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully." He said to him, "I will come and cure him." The centurion said in reply, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come here,' and he comes; and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it." When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, "Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven."

One of the most frustrating of all human experiences has to be that of faith. Nevertheless, faith is something we better figure out because we cannot be saved without it. Ephesians 2:8 says: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you, it is the gift of God.” So, what is this elusive but essential faith? My personal definition of faith is simply: “friendship with Jesus.” But this is more than like my friendship with 5,000 people on Facebook. Jesus is my best friend, and therefore my mind thinks like him, my behavior imitates him, my joy is found in him, and I like the same stuff he likes because he’s my friend. In other words, faith is a friendship with Jesus which fashions a whole world-view that includes both time and eternity, both earth and heaven, both my individual happiness and the communal happiness of all humanity. All that is wrapped up in my friendship with Jesus. Faith is frustrating but when you start to see it as friendship with Jesus, you start to figure it out.

Now, let me give you three examples of what faith is not. Faith is not found in an ethnic identity. This was the chief failing of the Jews, who believed they were the Chosen People who had the true faith while all other people would not be saved. And yet we know our culture is critical in passing on the faith. So, Fort Smith Catholics congregated in the German church of St. Boniface or at the Irish church of St. Patrick. Ethnicity helps pass on the faith but it is not faith itself. Secondly, a country does not create faith, which is what King Henry VIII attempted to do when he declared himself head of the Church of England. You can legislate many aspects of social life, but not faith. Just because we are Americans does not make us better Christians, even if we are better in basketball than everyone else. And thirdly, faith cannot be shared genetically, like you give your children the color of your eyes or of your skin, or your aptitude for academics. Do you know any parents who feel deeply frustrated that their children do not practice the same faith they did? In other words, faith is not found in a culture, or within the borders of a country, or in the genealogy of a family tree. Faith is a gift, the gift of friendship with Jesus that slowly changes my life and gradually transforms the whole world.

We see these same facets of faith in Jesus’ encounter with the Roman centurion today. The soldier asks Jesus to heal his suffering servant, but insists that Jesus just give the command, like a general, and his soldiers will carry out his orders without fail. To which Jesus is astonished and exclaims: “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven.” Notice how Jesus explains that faith is not tied up with a particular country (Israel), or with a certain culture (faith stretches to east and west), or with a genealogy (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob). But rather, faith is a gift of God, given freely to whomever he chooses, and it forges a friendship with Jesus that changes our whole world-view. That Roman centurion had started to think like Jesus, to behave like Jesus, and finally found his joy in Jesus, because he had a friendship with Jesus.

May I share with you my personal frustration with faith? If faith is so crucial to our sanity and our salvation, then why doesn’t God give everyone an equal share of faith? Clearly some Christians receive a greater “dose of the Ghost” as my Charismatic friends love to say. Why doesn’t everyone get an equal “dose of the Ghost”? I certainly don’t know the answer to that question, but maybe it’s a little like how no matter how many children you have each one is different. Even though each child comes from the same set of parents (with the same genetic material), they are decidedly different, each with his or her own strengths and weaknesses. But regardless of a child’s talents, you, as a parent, love each one unconditionally. I believe God loves each of us unconditionally, too, no matter how much faith each person has. Faith is God’s gift to us, just like life is God’s gift to us, and just like love is God’s gift to us, and just like my father’s famous chicken curry is God’s gift to us. No matter what gifts he gives his children, that does not change God’s unconditional love for us. But what we do with those gifts shows God how much we love him in return, especially what we do with the gift of faith.

Have you finished your Christmas wish list yet? If you haven’t done so already, maybe you should add “faith” to the items you would like to receive as a gift this year. The gift of faith is the gift of friendship with Jesus, and it maybe even better than a Red Ryder BB gun.

Praised be Jesus Christ!