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Editorial:
"Know Thyself"
Alwyn Thomson
Comment:
Illiberal Democracy
Alwyn Thomson
From
the Director: Good News People?
David W Porter
Balancing
on the Edge
Tony Davidson
Grateful
to God
David McMillan
Space
& Freedom
David Hewitt
Imaginative
Engagement
Keith Getty
No
longer at ease with this dispensation?
Mike Wardlow
Living
with our deepest differences
Os Guinness
Deep
Questions
Johnston
McMaster
Steady
presence
Cecelia Clegg
No
longer lonely
Joseph Liechty
Something
to give
Ingri Sakaria
Bible
study series: Faith in the future
David
W Porter
Review:
The Elusive Quest, Reconciliation in N I by Norman Porter
Bill
Brown
Review:
Journeying Towards Reconciliation, A Song for Ireland by Ruth Patterson
Lynda
Gould
Review:
Islam in Conflict:Past Present and Future by Peter G Riddell &
Peter Cotterell
Alwyn
Thomson
Review:
The R Option - Building Relationships as a Better Way of Life by
Michael Schluter & David John Lee
Anna
Rankin
Review:
Blue Diary by Alice Hoffman
Glenn
Jordan
Summer
School Poetry
Various
For
God and His Glory Alone:
Study 6: Truth
FAITH IN THE FUTURE
The last in the series of reflections on the future of faith, taking a fresh look at the ministry of Jesus as recorded in Luke's gospel. In these studies we have seen how Jesus finds faith where it is least expected – a persistent, obedient, loving, risk-taking, grateful and expectant faith that works because its priorities are right. Faith binds us to Christ on whom we depend in order that our meagre faith may grow through testing times.
The final three direct references to faith in the ministry of Jesus recorded by Luke occur in two passages where he speaks directly and personally to the disciples: Luke 17:1-10 and Luke 22:31-34.
Keeping Faith
. . .
Jesus says to his disciples, "occasions for stumbling are bound to
come . . ." Peter's response is, "Lord, I'm ready to go with
you to prison and to death." Jesus replies, "I tell you, Peter,
the cock will not crow this day until you have denied three times that
you know me."
These are hard words for Peter to hear from Jesus – direct, personal, challenging words. Having put our trust in God, how do we keep our faith in testing times? Keeping faith is the test of Jesus' ministry. If we have really grasped it, and taken hold of faith, then it is something that we will keep. I want to suggest that this faith is kept in three ways: in relationships, through potent resources and with repentance.
In Relationships
Faith is kept in relationship with one another. Jesus talked to his disciples
very frankly about relationships in the community of faith and about the
responsibilities that we have to one another as brothers and sisters in
Christ. He talks about the awful possibility that we might be responsible
for causing someone else to sin. "It would be better for you if a
millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea,
than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble. Be on your
guard."
If you have ever seen a millstone you will know that it is no small kitchen gadget. A millstone as tall as me has been erected beside the road leading to the church at the top of Mount Nebo in Jordan. It would be a frightful prospect to have such a stone hung around your neck and to be thrown into the depths because you had caused someone else in the community of faith to sin. A prospect so frightful, who would want the responsibility of being part of such a community? The heart cry of the disciples is, "increase our faith! In the light of this frightful prospect, increase our faith!"
Not only have we the potential to be the cause of sin in the community, we too can be sinned against. In the situation where we have been wronged there is an equally demanding response required of us: even if we have been sinned against seven times a day, and seven times the person comes back and says, "I repent," Jesus says, "You must forgive."
Can you imagine the challenge of living in a community with such a demand? Jesus demands that we must forgive when our brothers and sisters repent. This rule for community life is so demanding, who would want to be part of it? Who is up to it? Despite repeated offence, who has the capacity to forgive? The disciples cry out, "Increase our faith!" Keeping faith in relationships in the community is demanding, and it consistently brings the disciples and us back to cry out to Christ, "Increase our faith".
We are also challenged to keep faith in our relationship with Christ. At a time of mounting crisis in the ministry of Jesus it is Luke who records these sombre words of Jesus to Peter about Satan demanding to sift all of them like wheat. Satan has already made his move by entering Judas who has gone off to betray Jesus to the authorities. The authorities are conspiring now to arrest him, and Satan has demanded to test the relationship of all the disciples to Christ. He wants to put them to the test, to sift them like wheat. The heart of their faith is going to be tested – not just in their relationships with one another – but also in their relationships with the Lord himself. Will they keep faith?
With Potent Resources
However, in the challenge of keeping faith we do have a potent resource
– we are not left on our own to flounder. The resource is not only
our faith in Christ, but also the fact that Christ has really grasped
us through his ministry. And it is because Christ has hold of us that
our faith, even though the size of the smallest of seeds, is so potent.
When challenged by the daunting prospect of relating to one another in
a spirit of true forgiveness and repentance, Jesus says, "If you
had faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree
'be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you."
Tiny and insignificant, yet potent. A seed, Jesus tells us elsewhere, that goes into the ground and produces one of the largest bushes around. So large that Jesus uses it as an image for the kingdom, where all the birds of the air may come and sit. If Christ has really grasped us through his ministry we have a resource for keeping our faith potent despite its small size.
A second resource for keeping faith is prayer – not, surprisingly, our prayer, but the prayer of Jesus. Satan has asked to test all the disciples, but Jesus says, "I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail." Note the difference here – Jesus does not say, "That you may not fail, Peter," because Peter did fail. Despite his proud boast, he failed Jesus at a time when being identified with Christ would have cost most. Rather, the test of Jesus' ministry is that his faith would not fail. The intercession of Jesus held Peter fast. In the same way, faith that is so small is sufficient because Jesus is its object and its fulfilment. That is why little faith works. That is why all we're asked to keep is that little faith, because its object and fulfilment is Christ himself, who prays for us, that our faith may not fail. A faith that is the gift of God, so that no one can boast.
Later in Luke 17:7-10, having said about the little faith that they should have, Jesus goes on to give the disciples an example of slaves who, at the end of all their work, can only say, "We have done what we've been given to do and what was expected of us." They look for no credit; they have just done their duty and carried out their orders. For those of us who are people of faith and disciples in this world, the very faith that we have is not a cause for boasting. Faith is the gift of God, and keeping it is part of God's ministry to us as much as our service to him.
Repentance Restores
Relationship
Thirdly, keeping faith requires repentance. There was a confrontation
implied in the Christian community when Jesus talked with the disciples
in Luke
17:3 and 4. Those who had sinned were rebuked in order to bring them
to repentance. "Be on your guard! If another disciple sins you must
rebuke the offender and if there is repentance you must forgive."
This confrontation brings about repentance and requires forgiveness. Nowhere
do I see Jesus talk about repentance without – in the same breath
– bringing us to forgiveness. He does not demand without offering.
He does not draw us to the requirements of the justice of God without
offering us the mercy of God and his forgiveness.
The confrontation, repentance and forgiveness result in the restoration of relationship. Jesus says to Peter, "This is what's going to happen to you. You are going to fail, but I have prayed that your faith will not fail. When you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. When your relationship with me is restored you will be restored to leadership."
Jesus plays an active part in that restoration of Peter. He doesn't leave him. His prayer that his faith will not fail is lived out in what happens over the coming days. Later in Luke 22:60 at that very moment when Peter denies him for the third time and the cock crows, we read that Jesus turns and looks at Peter. And Peter remembers the words of the Lord, how he had said to him, "before the cock crows today you will deny me three times". He goes out and weeps bitterly. Jesus lived out his prayer in keeping Peter's faith and bringing him to that point of repentance.
Even after the resurrection in Luke 24:12 we read that Peter gets up and runs to the tomb, looking for Jesus. If Jesus confronts him with his failure, then it was in looking for Jesus that Peter showed he had begun the journey of being restored.
Finally, Luke makes note in verse 34 that when the people on the road to Emmaus returned to Jerusalem saying they had met Jesus, the disciples say to them, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon." Jesus takes time to be with Peter after his resurrection, to restore him, having confronted him with his failure. This is keeping faith: in relationships, with the resources freely given maintaining the ongoing repentance that is called of all of us, no matter how long we have been on the Christian journey.
Finding Faith
. . . Where it Grows
We are to be people who are keeping faith where it grows: where the small
mustard seed grows into the large bush.
In the face of
sin
Faith grows, paradoxically, in the face of sin. When we are hurt, when
we are sinned against, faith grows – not out of our ability to rebuke
the sinner – but by our capacity to forgive. That is the test. That
is what some find too hard: forgiving seventy times seven. That's where
we keep faith in the face of sin.
In the midst of
crisis
We keep faith in the midst of crisis. When we fail to live up to our commitments,
to the covenant we have made with God, when we deny the lover of our souls,
faith grows – not out of our capacity to be true – but his ability
to save. That is always the test. It is Christ's ability to save that
keeps our faith in the midst of crisis.
Conclusion
So, are we concerned, as Jesus is, for the future of faith? Finding faith
where it was least expected was at the heart of his ministry. Showing
faith where it mattered was the touchstone – proof that his ministry
was effective, and keeping faith where it could grow was the test that
the faith of the community was real.
If these were Jesus' concerns, are they ours? Are we unduly anxious about the future not of the faith but of the traditions and institutions of the faith? Or is it truly our calling and concern to nurture people of such faith as Jesus desires? That is always the challenge for the effective future of the faithful.
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