Dimensions of faith
Commentary
Object:
On any given communion Sunday, various people line up either to take continuous communion or table communion in my congregation. There are no distinctions between educational credentials, financial or property wealth, status in the community, or even age. Each saint receives the same piece of bread/wafer and drink of wine/grape juice. Where they are all varied is how they have experienced their Christian faith along their life journey. Each person has experienced a different faith story to share. Regardless of status, the Christians who come forward for communion have experienced varied dimensions of faith in the God of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. Some have even wondered if God was listening. Lamentations 1 might be one such example, and 2 Timothy reminds us to beware of those who distort the faith. Luke 17 provides brief lessons on the responsibility of faith.
Lamentations 1:1-6
This section is part of the first division of Lamentations of the writer or poet (1:1-11), and the city of Jerusalem is personified in its laments (1:12-22). What happens when we lose it all after enjoying it? Modern examples might include: One has had a good job that pays well but is now left jobless and unemployment benefits are running out; a person was once the picture of health and now counts the days they will have to use assisted care to get around; a tight-knit community that was extended family is now scattered and people feel like aliens in their own job or city.
Lost glory might be worse than never having had any glory at all! But for Israel, they were God's chosen people who did have prosperous times under kings David and Solomon. Now their nation and city have been decimated by Babylonian invaders, who take skilled workers into their nation and destroy everything else they see on site. For such invaders, this is the "spoils of war" as the nation's neighbors (such as Edom) gloat over the misfortune of others. The mere shock of losing it all leaves a person isolated, speechless, and vulnerable.
God has judged the nation after repeated warnings from the prophets. God has given them up to their false gods whom they thought to be "ultimate" but are now disappointing them before the grave [Paul Tillich, Courage to Be (Yale University Press, 1952)]. No job, health insurance plan, or group of people will ever be a worthy idol over the God of creation. This is the lesson of the entire prophetic guild in the Hebrew Bible.
This text reveals the contours of suffering when one's faith in an unworthy idol lets them down. Is God even listening to the cries of the person who has just experienced the loss of something they believed to be theirs for life? Israel's land, temple, and king are all gone. Here today, gone tomorrow! Like many survivors of trauma, there is a certain pattern here in Lamentations chapter 1. It is: rejection-->dehumanization-->nobody to listen--> no sense of getting a fair hearing or "day in court." Still, the laments in and of themselves go to a God who is beyond all of this and thus points to the possibility that there is new life and hope. God is still the God of even those who have lost it all. This might be the good news of the text. Until one has gone through such a valley, it is hard to explain. In worship, they take their communion meal and pray to God in reverent silence [Kathleen O'Connor, Lamentations and the Tears of the World (Orbis Press, 2003)].
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Typical of Pauline letters, 2 Timothy has a five-part structure: 1) opening, 2) thanksgiving, 3) body, 4) exhortation, and 5) closing greetings and benediction. While the book is contested in terms of original Pauline authorship, it still reflects themes similar to Paul's letters in Romans and 1-2 Corinthians. Contested authorship does not subtract meaning of the content of the letter, which was probably written to an audience after the apostle's death. [Arland J. Hultgren and Roger Aus, Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament: I-II Timothy, Titus; II Thessalonians (Augsburg Publishing House, 1984)]
The thanksgiving portion of the epistle is intended to praise the Christians for their faithfulness and provide a hint to the contents of the letter. In this case, there are false teachers (some say Gnostics) who are preaching a message contrary to Pauline teachings. This might suggest that there is a body of teachings or doctrine developing some sort of creedal views of orthodox Christianity in the making.
This creed is: the God who saved us; grace is a freely given gift, and Christ Jesus as abolished death. Salvation is already given. God's intention was for believers to have eternal life that is imperishable in both this world and the world to come. This teaching is one that nobody need be ashamed of, as it will be vindicated on the last day (1:8-10). God is trustworthy. Those who teach otherwise are lovers of self, money, and pleasure (3:2-5).
This particular text today is a call to rekindle one's faith as their faithful ancestors have in the past. In the case of Timothy it is his grandmother and mother, Lois and Eunice (1:5). Also, as a church leader Timothy is to "hold to sound teaching" of what he was taught and to "guard the treasure entrusted" to him (1:13-14).
As people approach the communion table on Sunday, how many have to defend what they believe in every day at work, home, the community, and among friends? We live in times which some authors proclaim "post-Christendom." That is, the Christian faith is either marginalized or thrown into a larger pool with other religions as well as concoctions of personal, homemade spirituality. Second Timothy reminds Christians that people of faith in every age have had to draw lines, create boundaries, or establish foundations that sustain them in both difficult and prosperous, tempting times. This is the text that believers need to carry with them outside the church building while they are experiencing the tension of either capitulating to or standing against the populist culture of the times. Too much accommodation will ultimately lead to the destruction spoken of in Lamentations 1. Standing on one's convictions is an ongoing battle, as 2 Timothy describes (during the apostle Paul's life and when he is deceased). Discerning and standing up for what one believes are Christian teachings that support the gift of eternal life. This is another dimension of the faith of the Bible. Every community of faith will one day undergo tension as to where to create such boundaries. One interpretative lens text for both 1 and 2 Timothy might be 1 Timothy 6:12: "Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made* the good confession in the presence of many witnesses."
Luke 17:5-10
Jesus continues his serious tone from preaching to the Pharisees in Luke 16:19-31 to his followers now. This text is part of a series of brief lessons to take care of vulnerable community members. In this text, the disciples make a request to "increase our faith" (17:5). In the world of Luke, a little faith (as the size of a mulberry tree seed) is sufficient. Jesus reframes the category from "quantity" of faith toward "quality" of faith (17:6). Jesus warns Christians that faith is not about enhancing one's status in the kingdom, but simply being a faithful disciple within the kingdom with the faith they already possess. [John T. Carroll, The New Testament Library: Luke (Westminster John Knox Press, 2012)]
To illustrate this point, Jesus refers to a servant who does his duty as is expected. He should not expect any special reward for doing that which was requested of him. This text is not one intended to be used to defend the practice of slavery, but simply to suggest that service is not to be equated with power or self-promotion. This is a countercultural position in any economy which requires "networking," which is also "tooting one's horn," so that one can be considered for a higher-paying position or higher standing in any organization. Loyal service to Christ is not to be motivated by the promise of "getting ahead." This might be one reason why people in a post-Christendom era quickly recognize that a volunteering church ministry is not the "resume builder" that possibly mowing the lawn or raking leaves for one of the city council members might achieve. We are to serve Christ as his disciples for its own intrinsic rewards (as 2 Timothy 1 suggests above).
An example of such developed faith will come in the next set of verses (17:11-19), when only one of ten cleansed lepers found it necessary to return to Jesus once they were healed. This suggests that service is a way of saying "thank you to Christ," not a means to either obtaining salvation or a higher position in the kingdom.
Application
As the church is about to enter the home stretch of the Pentecost season or season of its mission, all three texts suggest sermons on where various people are struggling along their faith journey. Halloween displays in the stores will quickly be replaced by Christmas toys, clothing, and music to get people in the mood to spend money. However, as pumpkins and treat-or-treat candy fill the store shelves, there are many people in the community who have had their lives shattered as they see children back in school and they are unemployed. Maybe a corporate or political leader made bad choices that result in laments of the citizens. A sermon on prayer during impossible times might be appropriate here. Why does one have to wait for the next national tragedy to have a prayer vigil and place candles on the lawns of homes? Lamentations suggests that there is no dark time in which God cannot still be heard through prayers of Lamentations. What illustrations of loss are there in any given community?
It is the second autumn since a particular matriarch of a Christian family was diagnosed with inoperable cancer and soon died around Thanksgiving. Rather than lighting a jack-o-lantern candle in an orange pumpkin head, why not a simple white or blue candle of "hope" to be displayed in the family home?
One practical application of the 2 Timothy 1 text might be that hardly a day goes by when there are not a flurry of telephone calls, email, and snail mail envelopes of organizations trying to sell the church a product or service. Some groups might even have former church workers employed who know all of the key buzzwords or in-house terms that appeal to Christians. However, the church leadership within councils, committees, and clergy need to be aware of what the core values are of this church and what its mission and vision is for this year. The church cannot be all things to all people. At some point, there has to be a set of ministries the church focuses on with its resources. First and Second Timothy provide permission to say "no" to certain groups who put pressure on church people to purchase products they do not need at this time. (Maybe in the future, but not now!) Finally, who are the Loises and Eunices of any given church who have taught a certain set of values they hoped would be cherished?
As values of the local church go, a particular church sees that it does not have the once, great and majestic church choir or music program it once had. However, there is a small group of students and older people who love singing in a quartet or occasional trio for music during the offering. This is their ministry! They will never be in the area community choir accompanied by the symphony orchestra. But on Sunday mornings, this small group gets away from their jobs or hours at home or the senior center to sing praise to the Lord. This is a quality of faith that Luke 17 envisions.
Sermons on improving one's quality of faith (discipleship ministry) could be beneficial before the times of Advent and Christmas. In Luke, Jesus' mission statement is to "seek and save the lost" (Luke 19:10). Who has not found a place in school, at a job, or in the community where they feel they belong or have a place? Could it be a young person who did not get into college? Could it be a person who has not yet found a job? Could it be a senior citizen whose body is feeling the aches and pains that a change of weather is on the horizon, so they see the change of colors as another step closer to the grave rather than God's cycle in nature? In each of the above situations the community of faith offers their communion meal and an opportunity to serve (in my church there are always perpetual openings on "church council").
An Alternative Application
Are we in the church afraid to raise the bar of expectations for fear of lack of volunteers according gifts of faith? This question often comes to the forefront when various insurance companies and states require that church workers on all levels have background checks. With that said, there should also be a place for every Christian regardless of what level of faith they are in. For example, a person who does not like being around people may serve better on the property team rather than the outreach team. A person who can talk and talk all day might be better served in Christian education or answering phone calls to the church from telemarketers. Whenever a certain pastor goes on pastoral call committee interviews, he tells the committee right up front that he was asked to leave his school choir due to his bad voice and inability to carry a tune. Church choir is not his gift! But he sure knows how to deal with noisy and sometimes "mouthy" junior high students. Whereas, the singing bird of choir singer would have a near nervous breakdown with the junior high class. Luke 17 would say we all have our little amount of mustard-seed faith. It is simply a matter of where the community of faith needs it.
Lamentations 1:1-6
This section is part of the first division of Lamentations of the writer or poet (1:1-11), and the city of Jerusalem is personified in its laments (1:12-22). What happens when we lose it all after enjoying it? Modern examples might include: One has had a good job that pays well but is now left jobless and unemployment benefits are running out; a person was once the picture of health and now counts the days they will have to use assisted care to get around; a tight-knit community that was extended family is now scattered and people feel like aliens in their own job or city.
Lost glory might be worse than never having had any glory at all! But for Israel, they were God's chosen people who did have prosperous times under kings David and Solomon. Now their nation and city have been decimated by Babylonian invaders, who take skilled workers into their nation and destroy everything else they see on site. For such invaders, this is the "spoils of war" as the nation's neighbors (such as Edom) gloat over the misfortune of others. The mere shock of losing it all leaves a person isolated, speechless, and vulnerable.
God has judged the nation after repeated warnings from the prophets. God has given them up to their false gods whom they thought to be "ultimate" but are now disappointing them before the grave [Paul Tillich, Courage to Be (Yale University Press, 1952)]. No job, health insurance plan, or group of people will ever be a worthy idol over the God of creation. This is the lesson of the entire prophetic guild in the Hebrew Bible.
This text reveals the contours of suffering when one's faith in an unworthy idol lets them down. Is God even listening to the cries of the person who has just experienced the loss of something they believed to be theirs for life? Israel's land, temple, and king are all gone. Here today, gone tomorrow! Like many survivors of trauma, there is a certain pattern here in Lamentations chapter 1. It is: rejection-->dehumanization-->nobody to listen--> no sense of getting a fair hearing or "day in court." Still, the laments in and of themselves go to a God who is beyond all of this and thus points to the possibility that there is new life and hope. God is still the God of even those who have lost it all. This might be the good news of the text. Until one has gone through such a valley, it is hard to explain. In worship, they take their communion meal and pray to God in reverent silence [Kathleen O'Connor, Lamentations and the Tears of the World (Orbis Press, 2003)].
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Typical of Pauline letters, 2 Timothy has a five-part structure: 1) opening, 2) thanksgiving, 3) body, 4) exhortation, and 5) closing greetings and benediction. While the book is contested in terms of original Pauline authorship, it still reflects themes similar to Paul's letters in Romans and 1-2 Corinthians. Contested authorship does not subtract meaning of the content of the letter, which was probably written to an audience after the apostle's death. [Arland J. Hultgren and Roger Aus, Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament: I-II Timothy, Titus; II Thessalonians (Augsburg Publishing House, 1984)]
The thanksgiving portion of the epistle is intended to praise the Christians for their faithfulness and provide a hint to the contents of the letter. In this case, there are false teachers (some say Gnostics) who are preaching a message contrary to Pauline teachings. This might suggest that there is a body of teachings or doctrine developing some sort of creedal views of orthodox Christianity in the making.
This creed is: the God who saved us; grace is a freely given gift, and Christ Jesus as abolished death. Salvation is already given. God's intention was for believers to have eternal life that is imperishable in both this world and the world to come. This teaching is one that nobody need be ashamed of, as it will be vindicated on the last day (1:8-10). God is trustworthy. Those who teach otherwise are lovers of self, money, and pleasure (3:2-5).
This particular text today is a call to rekindle one's faith as their faithful ancestors have in the past. In the case of Timothy it is his grandmother and mother, Lois and Eunice (1:5). Also, as a church leader Timothy is to "hold to sound teaching" of what he was taught and to "guard the treasure entrusted" to him (1:13-14).
As people approach the communion table on Sunday, how many have to defend what they believe in every day at work, home, the community, and among friends? We live in times which some authors proclaim "post-Christendom." That is, the Christian faith is either marginalized or thrown into a larger pool with other religions as well as concoctions of personal, homemade spirituality. Second Timothy reminds Christians that people of faith in every age have had to draw lines, create boundaries, or establish foundations that sustain them in both difficult and prosperous, tempting times. This is the text that believers need to carry with them outside the church building while they are experiencing the tension of either capitulating to or standing against the populist culture of the times. Too much accommodation will ultimately lead to the destruction spoken of in Lamentations 1. Standing on one's convictions is an ongoing battle, as 2 Timothy describes (during the apostle Paul's life and when he is deceased). Discerning and standing up for what one believes are Christian teachings that support the gift of eternal life. This is another dimension of the faith of the Bible. Every community of faith will one day undergo tension as to where to create such boundaries. One interpretative lens text for both 1 and 2 Timothy might be 1 Timothy 6:12: "Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made* the good confession in the presence of many witnesses."
Luke 17:5-10
Jesus continues his serious tone from preaching to the Pharisees in Luke 16:19-31 to his followers now. This text is part of a series of brief lessons to take care of vulnerable community members. In this text, the disciples make a request to "increase our faith" (17:5). In the world of Luke, a little faith (as the size of a mulberry tree seed) is sufficient. Jesus reframes the category from "quantity" of faith toward "quality" of faith (17:6). Jesus warns Christians that faith is not about enhancing one's status in the kingdom, but simply being a faithful disciple within the kingdom with the faith they already possess. [John T. Carroll, The New Testament Library: Luke (Westminster John Knox Press, 2012)]
To illustrate this point, Jesus refers to a servant who does his duty as is expected. He should not expect any special reward for doing that which was requested of him. This text is not one intended to be used to defend the practice of slavery, but simply to suggest that service is not to be equated with power or self-promotion. This is a countercultural position in any economy which requires "networking," which is also "tooting one's horn," so that one can be considered for a higher-paying position or higher standing in any organization. Loyal service to Christ is not to be motivated by the promise of "getting ahead." This might be one reason why people in a post-Christendom era quickly recognize that a volunteering church ministry is not the "resume builder" that possibly mowing the lawn or raking leaves for one of the city council members might achieve. We are to serve Christ as his disciples for its own intrinsic rewards (as 2 Timothy 1 suggests above).
An example of such developed faith will come in the next set of verses (17:11-19), when only one of ten cleansed lepers found it necessary to return to Jesus once they were healed. This suggests that service is a way of saying "thank you to Christ," not a means to either obtaining salvation or a higher position in the kingdom.
Application
As the church is about to enter the home stretch of the Pentecost season or season of its mission, all three texts suggest sermons on where various people are struggling along their faith journey. Halloween displays in the stores will quickly be replaced by Christmas toys, clothing, and music to get people in the mood to spend money. However, as pumpkins and treat-or-treat candy fill the store shelves, there are many people in the community who have had their lives shattered as they see children back in school and they are unemployed. Maybe a corporate or political leader made bad choices that result in laments of the citizens. A sermon on prayer during impossible times might be appropriate here. Why does one have to wait for the next national tragedy to have a prayer vigil and place candles on the lawns of homes? Lamentations suggests that there is no dark time in which God cannot still be heard through prayers of Lamentations. What illustrations of loss are there in any given community?
It is the second autumn since a particular matriarch of a Christian family was diagnosed with inoperable cancer and soon died around Thanksgiving. Rather than lighting a jack-o-lantern candle in an orange pumpkin head, why not a simple white or blue candle of "hope" to be displayed in the family home?
One practical application of the 2 Timothy 1 text might be that hardly a day goes by when there are not a flurry of telephone calls, email, and snail mail envelopes of organizations trying to sell the church a product or service. Some groups might even have former church workers employed who know all of the key buzzwords or in-house terms that appeal to Christians. However, the church leadership within councils, committees, and clergy need to be aware of what the core values are of this church and what its mission and vision is for this year. The church cannot be all things to all people. At some point, there has to be a set of ministries the church focuses on with its resources. First and Second Timothy provide permission to say "no" to certain groups who put pressure on church people to purchase products they do not need at this time. (Maybe in the future, but not now!) Finally, who are the Loises and Eunices of any given church who have taught a certain set of values they hoped would be cherished?
As values of the local church go, a particular church sees that it does not have the once, great and majestic church choir or music program it once had. However, there is a small group of students and older people who love singing in a quartet or occasional trio for music during the offering. This is their ministry! They will never be in the area community choir accompanied by the symphony orchestra. But on Sunday mornings, this small group gets away from their jobs or hours at home or the senior center to sing praise to the Lord. This is a quality of faith that Luke 17 envisions.
Sermons on improving one's quality of faith (discipleship ministry) could be beneficial before the times of Advent and Christmas. In Luke, Jesus' mission statement is to "seek and save the lost" (Luke 19:10). Who has not found a place in school, at a job, or in the community where they feel they belong or have a place? Could it be a young person who did not get into college? Could it be a person who has not yet found a job? Could it be a senior citizen whose body is feeling the aches and pains that a change of weather is on the horizon, so they see the change of colors as another step closer to the grave rather than God's cycle in nature? In each of the above situations the community of faith offers their communion meal and an opportunity to serve (in my church there are always perpetual openings on "church council").
An Alternative Application
Are we in the church afraid to raise the bar of expectations for fear of lack of volunteers according gifts of faith? This question often comes to the forefront when various insurance companies and states require that church workers on all levels have background checks. With that said, there should also be a place for every Christian regardless of what level of faith they are in. For example, a person who does not like being around people may serve better on the property team rather than the outreach team. A person who can talk and talk all day might be better served in Christian education or answering phone calls to the church from telemarketers. Whenever a certain pastor goes on pastoral call committee interviews, he tells the committee right up front that he was asked to leave his school choir due to his bad voice and inability to carry a tune. Church choir is not his gift! But he sure knows how to deal with noisy and sometimes "mouthy" junior high students. Whereas, the singing bird of choir singer would have a near nervous breakdown with the junior high class. Luke 17 would say we all have our little amount of mustard-seed faith. It is simply a matter of where the community of faith needs it.
