Passing The Test
Sermon
Sermons on the Second Readings
Series III, Cycle C
"Students, it is time to get out your pencils, close your books and remove any notes from your desks. The test is about to begin."
Those are words that make us shudder, our hearts start to pound and the palms of our hands begin to sweat. From our earliest days in school, we all have had to learn to deal with tests. It may begin with a simple first grade spelling test. But it doesn't take too long before it morphs into ISTEP, the SAT, the Bar, the Boards, or a doctoral qualifying exam. Or it might be as ordinary as a driver's test or as basic as remembering the correct password on your email account. No wonder the Boy Scouts insist that their young men must "Be Prepared!" (If I remember correctly from my scouting days, that is the motto of the Boy Scouts.)
The worst situation you can be in when taking a test is not being prepared. Maybe you forgot to study or maybe you never understood the subject matter or worst of all you were so sure of yourself that you never bothered to study. But then after taking the test you knew you were in over your head. You knew that your grade would be a disaster. You were embarrassed to admit that your complacency got the best of you. You knew you could have done better, if you just hadn't taken things for granted.
Every year in Faith Inkubators we struggle with giving tests. We don't want the students to be obsessed with grades or scores. We tell them that this is all about the gospel, which has nothing to do with grades or scores. So we call the tests "X-rays" because we are trying to send them the message that this is less about us "testing" them for a score or giving them a grade than it is about us trying to find out how much they have learned and how well we have taught them. The gospel is not about how well you can memorize the Creed. It is not about reciting the catechism. Rather, the gospel offers good news in the form of a radical answer to a simple question: "What do you have to do to be saved?" Answer: "Nothing! because God did it all for you in Christ and you get to believe that." The students, after they get over the initial shock of that answer, often get the impression that, since they don't have to do anything to be saved, they can literally do nothing for Faith Inkubators. Do they need to learn their memory work, read the assigned materials, participate in discussion, or even remember to bring their Bibles? No, they don't need to do any of that because ... the pastor told them they don't have to do anything! They feel justified in their complacency.
You can see the pickle we have gotten ourselves in. We want the students to study and learn. But what we are ultimately trying to teach them, faith in God, is something that has little to do with academic prowess or the ability to pass a test. As Jesus once reminded his disciples when they protested his spending time with little children who were too young to pass a test or memorize the catechism, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs" (Mark 10:14). It is the simple trusting faith of a child that God wants and not the sophisticated, measured, calculated, and qualified faith of a reasoned commitment. God wants our heart and not a flawless recitation of the Ten Commandments or the 66 books of the Bible. So how do we motivate youth or even adults for that matter to learn and study without the "carrot and stick" of a test or the threat of a grade?
Paul faced a similar problem in today's second reading. There were those in the Corinthian congregation who had become complacent. They were treating the sacraments, baptism, and communion as if they were some sort of magical and mystical guarantee of their eternal salvation. They could tell you all about God's grace and forgiveness. They could extol the benefits of baptism. They loved to celebrate communion, so much so that sometimes their celebrations got a little out of hand. They had no problem with participating in the immoralities and excesses of one of the most notorious cities in the entire Roman empire. No matter! They were baptized! They received holy communion! They could do anything they pleased because these sacraments guaranteed their privileged status. You can just imagine them standing around the narthex on Sunday morning sipping on their cups of coffee and telling one another what a "good deal" this being a Christian was. "God loves to forgive sins. We love to commit them. Isn't the world admirably arranged?"
But Paul could smell a rat. The Corinthians had lulled themselves into a dangerous situation. Today's reading is Paul's word of warning to them. "So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall!" (v. 12). They had become so complacent that they had lulled themselves into thinking that nothing bad could ever happen to them. They were automatically in. Nothing could ever touch them, not even the displeasure of God. They could pass any and every test. No big deal! But they were kidding themselves. God will not be mocked. Or as that great modern "prophet" and humorist, Erma Bombeck, once said, "Life is not a bowl of cherries."
Sooner or later the roof falls in on all of us. No one goes through this life unscathed. Despite the incessant sales pitches of our consumer driven, immediate gratification culture, every one must eventually suffer. Everyone must deal with those stretches of life where we are in the wilderness, utterly alone, where no one seems to care. In those dark and dreary expanses of the desert it seems that even God has forsaken us. The sad story of human history is that more often than not in such times of darkness we will turn to anything but God. Instead of trusting God, we will make just about anything else we can get our hands on our god. Such idolatry has deadly consequences and does not go unnoticed by God.
To make his point, Paul calls the Corinthians' attention to the history of their brothers and sisters in the faith, ancient Israel. Through some rather deft biblical interpretation he points out several parallels between the Corinthians and the Israelites. Just as the Corinthians were rescued through the waters of baptism so also the Israelites were rescued by passing through the waters of the Red Sea. In a sense the Israelites were "baptized" into Moses, just as the Corinthians were baptized into Christ. Just as the Corinthians were spiritually fed and nourished by the bread and wine of holy communion, so also were the Israelites fed with manna in the wilderness. Just as the Corinthians "drink living water" from Christ, so also the Israelites drank water from the rock that Moses struck in the wilderness (Exodus 17:1-17). Paul then cites an ancient rabbinic tradition that said that this rock followed Israel during their forty-year sojourn in the wilderness providing them water on a daily basis. It was the first "rolling stone." Paul then compares this "rolling stone" to Christ who continues to nourish the Corinthians and satisfy their thirsty hearts.
The problem is that Israel became unfaithful. She became complacent taking her privileged status as God's chosen people for granted. She turned to other gods and practiced idolatry. Remember the "golden calf" that the Israelites made to represent their god when they became impatient with Moses and his long stay on Mount Sinai? God didn't overlook that sin and destroyed many of the Israelites by swallowing them up into the earth. When the Israelites practiced sexual immorality with some Moabite women, 23,000 of them were struck down. When the Israelites complained in the wilderness and became impatient with God, God destroyed many of them by sending an invasion of poisonous snakes.
Throughout her forty years in the wilderness, God repeatedly tested Israel with all kinds of hardships to see if she would remain faithful. All too many times Israel flunked the tests and suffered the consequences. Not all that unlike the Corinthians, she thought that her privileged status permitted her to do anything she pleased without suffering the consequences. She was wrong. She paid dearly for her presumption and her complacency.
Paul cites these examples from the history of Israel in order to warn the Corinthians of the fate that awaited them, if they continued in their complacency and indifference, doing as they pleased. They would be tested. If they flunked, dire consequences awaited them.
Paul directs this same warning to us. We had better not take our faith for granted. We had better not be too complacent. We had better stay alert and on our toes, because God is going to test us. God is going to send trials, temptations, and tribulations our way to see how we handle them. If we pass the tests, if we remain faithful, we are okay. If we don't, look out!
But what about all this talk about grace and the gospel? We thought we didn't have to do anything to be saved. Is grace conditional after all? It appears that what Paul gives us with one hand, he takes away with the other. "So, if you are standing, watch out that you do not fall!" In other words, we still have to do something. We still have to stay on our toes, pass those tests when they come and, as the Boy Scouts say, "Be Prepared" ... or else!
We need to clamp down on those Faith Inkubator students who don't do their homework. We may say that they don't have to do anything to be saved, but we really don't mean it. The bottom line is that they still have to do something: They still have to believe, they still have to show up in church, they still have to pray, they still have to try to be good, they still have to pass confirmation ... or they won't be good Christians and respected members of this congregation. Why? Because God won't tolerate complacency! You have to be committed and prepared because you never know when God is going to tell you, "Students, it is time to get out your pencils, close your books, and remove any notes from your desks. The test is about to begin."
The tests come in a multitude of ways. You are not welcome at anyone's table in the school lunchroom. You tried too hard to make the team and you got cut. There is that sudden pain in your chest. You become a casualty of corporate downsizing. You receive that unexpected phone call at 3 a.m. and it is the police with a message you never wanted to hear. The promotion that you know you deserved goes to someone else. The friend you thought you could count on betrays you. The depression everyone tells you to do something about only gets worse, slowly strangling what little hope you had left in your life. Your children, you had such high hopes for them, only continue to disappoint you. You wake up in the middle of the night crying because you never thought that your life would turn out like this. You are in the wilderness ... thirsty, hungry, alone ... even God seems to have forsaken you. This wasn't supposed to happen to Christians. This wasn't supposed to happen to those who believe in God. Wasn't going to church and saying your prayers supposed to fix all this stuff? This is not what you signed up for.
Then to add insult to injury, someone quotes verse 13, "He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength." Really? You have to be kidding! What kind of a God would do this to you? Does God really think you are strong enough to handle this? You know your strength and it sure feels like God is now crushing you. It must be your fault. You must be letting God down because God surely wouldn't be laying these burdens on you if he didn't think you were strong enough. This is a test and you are flunking it. There is no way you are ever going to pass it.
It is then that God has us just where he wants us. Jolted out of our complacency, pushed to the edge, about ready to collapse, having had everything we thought was so important stripped out of our hands, all we can do is cry for help. All we can do is open our hands to receive ... for we have nothing. It is then that Paul's words begin to make sense.
Paul boldly declares, "God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength." He is not just telling us to "grin and bear it." No, these are words to comfort. God is coming to the rescue. "With the testing he will also provide you with the way out, so that you may be able to endure it." What is the "way out"? How can we possibly hope to "endure it"?
Christ is the "way out." Christ is the one who enables us to "endure it."
It must be because Paul was under the influence of the Holy Spirit that he is able to see in these ancient stories of Israel's wandering in the wilderness something Israel never saw. Paul sees Christ. At two places in today's reading Paul makes this explicit connection.
First, Paul knew of that ancient rabbinical tradition that spoke of the rock Moses struck, which brought forth water to quench the thirst of the Israelites (v. 4). According to the rabbinical tradition the rock followed the Israelites throughout their forty years in the wilderness giving them fresh water every day. Paul says the rock was a symbol of Christ, the same Christ who now satisfies the spiritual thirst of the Corinthians.
Second, Paul recalls another story from Israel's wilderness wandering (v. 9). In that story the Israelites so complained and murmured against God that God sent poisonous snakes among them. Stripped of their pride and complacency, realizing their desperate plight, the Israelites cry for help. God in his mercy relents and tells Moses to mount a bronzed serpent on a pole. Whenever someone who was dying from the snakebites would look at the serpent, they would be healed. Just when they were about to completely bomb the test, God rescues them.
In this season of Lent we recall that Christ and his cross are the signs that God is present with us in the wilderness of our lives. When we suffer, when we are alone, when our soul is parched and we long for someone to tell us that all is okay, when we are convinced that God has handed us over to the poisonous snakes because we have once again failed our test, Christ, like that bronzed serpent, is lifted up on the cross to assure us that God is faithful. Christ is our rock, our "rolling stone," following us wherever we go in the wilderness of this world giving us a drink, soothing our snakebites, helping us to pass the test, giving us an A when we deserve an F.
In the midst of our trials and temptations, even as we are tested, God is there coaxing out of us the right answers so that we can pass the test with flying colors.
Doc Christman underwent a test. He was a pillar of the community. The old, retired teacher had been awarded Teacher of the Year by the State Teachers Association in 1982. Everyone admired and respected him, but now he was a shadow of himself. He had shrunk to less than 100 pounds. His life was slowly consumed by cancer.
Doc had to leave the hospital. He had to decide where he wanted to die: at home or in a nursing home. His pastor, Reverend Braun, came to help him decide. His pastor wouldn't tell him what to do but helped him to decide.
Reverend Braun leaned over the hospital bed and whispered into Doc's ear, "Doc, where is your home?"
Doc mumbled, "321 North Maple Street." That was the house he had lived in for fifty years.
Reverend Braun once again leaned over the bed and asked, "Doc, where is your home?"
Again, Doc mumbled, "Oh you must mean 200 Eastgate Drive." That was the address of the nursing home.
Again Reverend Braun spoke into Doc's ear but this time with a firm prosecutorial tone, "Doc, where ... is ... your ... home?"
This time Doc perked up. His eyes glowed as if a light had just gone on in that tired mind of his. This time he didn't mumble but spoke with conviction, "... with ... the ... Lord!"
That is just what Paul is talking about in today's reading. God keeps on testing us, pushing us, questioning us, so that we can discover the faith that is already within us, so that, when the time of testing comes, we can pass the test. We can confess the faith that he has already given to us. God doesn't need us to prove our faithfulness ... or else. God is testing us for our benefit and gain, so that we can better understand, appreciate, and confess the hope that is by God's grace in our hearts. God wants us to pass the test ... and does everything to make that possible, even to the point of sending his only Son to the cross, so that all our F's might be forgiven. God even gives us his very own Spirit who, when the time of testing comes, will help us to speak all the right answers.
So what about the Faith Inkubators? We will continue to give them "X-rays" and not tests. We won't give them grades. We are not interested in shaming them into working harder. No, we will continue to teach them, to prod them, to question them, to coax out of them the childlike faith we believe is already within them. We will whisper into their ears, "Where is your home?" Why? So that when they find themselves in their wilderness, when they must face their trials and tribulations, which they surely will as they become adults and continue to live their lives, they will get to confess their faith and say with old Doc Christman, "with the Lord." And then they will have discovered that they have passed the test. And God will smile and all the company of heaven will sing with joy. Amen.
Those are words that make us shudder, our hearts start to pound and the palms of our hands begin to sweat. From our earliest days in school, we all have had to learn to deal with tests. It may begin with a simple first grade spelling test. But it doesn't take too long before it morphs into ISTEP, the SAT, the Bar, the Boards, or a doctoral qualifying exam. Or it might be as ordinary as a driver's test or as basic as remembering the correct password on your email account. No wonder the Boy Scouts insist that their young men must "Be Prepared!" (If I remember correctly from my scouting days, that is the motto of the Boy Scouts.)
The worst situation you can be in when taking a test is not being prepared. Maybe you forgot to study or maybe you never understood the subject matter or worst of all you were so sure of yourself that you never bothered to study. But then after taking the test you knew you were in over your head. You knew that your grade would be a disaster. You were embarrassed to admit that your complacency got the best of you. You knew you could have done better, if you just hadn't taken things for granted.
Every year in Faith Inkubators we struggle with giving tests. We don't want the students to be obsessed with grades or scores. We tell them that this is all about the gospel, which has nothing to do with grades or scores. So we call the tests "X-rays" because we are trying to send them the message that this is less about us "testing" them for a score or giving them a grade than it is about us trying to find out how much they have learned and how well we have taught them. The gospel is not about how well you can memorize the Creed. It is not about reciting the catechism. Rather, the gospel offers good news in the form of a radical answer to a simple question: "What do you have to do to be saved?" Answer: "Nothing! because God did it all for you in Christ and you get to believe that." The students, after they get over the initial shock of that answer, often get the impression that, since they don't have to do anything to be saved, they can literally do nothing for Faith Inkubators. Do they need to learn their memory work, read the assigned materials, participate in discussion, or even remember to bring their Bibles? No, they don't need to do any of that because ... the pastor told them they don't have to do anything! They feel justified in their complacency.
You can see the pickle we have gotten ourselves in. We want the students to study and learn. But what we are ultimately trying to teach them, faith in God, is something that has little to do with academic prowess or the ability to pass a test. As Jesus once reminded his disciples when they protested his spending time with little children who were too young to pass a test or memorize the catechism, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs" (Mark 10:14). It is the simple trusting faith of a child that God wants and not the sophisticated, measured, calculated, and qualified faith of a reasoned commitment. God wants our heart and not a flawless recitation of the Ten Commandments or the 66 books of the Bible. So how do we motivate youth or even adults for that matter to learn and study without the "carrot and stick" of a test or the threat of a grade?
Paul faced a similar problem in today's second reading. There were those in the Corinthian congregation who had become complacent. They were treating the sacraments, baptism, and communion as if they were some sort of magical and mystical guarantee of their eternal salvation. They could tell you all about God's grace and forgiveness. They could extol the benefits of baptism. They loved to celebrate communion, so much so that sometimes their celebrations got a little out of hand. They had no problem with participating in the immoralities and excesses of one of the most notorious cities in the entire Roman empire. No matter! They were baptized! They received holy communion! They could do anything they pleased because these sacraments guaranteed their privileged status. You can just imagine them standing around the narthex on Sunday morning sipping on their cups of coffee and telling one another what a "good deal" this being a Christian was. "God loves to forgive sins. We love to commit them. Isn't the world admirably arranged?"
But Paul could smell a rat. The Corinthians had lulled themselves into a dangerous situation. Today's reading is Paul's word of warning to them. "So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall!" (v. 12). They had become so complacent that they had lulled themselves into thinking that nothing bad could ever happen to them. They were automatically in. Nothing could ever touch them, not even the displeasure of God. They could pass any and every test. No big deal! But they were kidding themselves. God will not be mocked. Or as that great modern "prophet" and humorist, Erma Bombeck, once said, "Life is not a bowl of cherries."
Sooner or later the roof falls in on all of us. No one goes through this life unscathed. Despite the incessant sales pitches of our consumer driven, immediate gratification culture, every one must eventually suffer. Everyone must deal with those stretches of life where we are in the wilderness, utterly alone, where no one seems to care. In those dark and dreary expanses of the desert it seems that even God has forsaken us. The sad story of human history is that more often than not in such times of darkness we will turn to anything but God. Instead of trusting God, we will make just about anything else we can get our hands on our god. Such idolatry has deadly consequences and does not go unnoticed by God.
To make his point, Paul calls the Corinthians' attention to the history of their brothers and sisters in the faith, ancient Israel. Through some rather deft biblical interpretation he points out several parallels between the Corinthians and the Israelites. Just as the Corinthians were rescued through the waters of baptism so also the Israelites were rescued by passing through the waters of the Red Sea. In a sense the Israelites were "baptized" into Moses, just as the Corinthians were baptized into Christ. Just as the Corinthians were spiritually fed and nourished by the bread and wine of holy communion, so also were the Israelites fed with manna in the wilderness. Just as the Corinthians "drink living water" from Christ, so also the Israelites drank water from the rock that Moses struck in the wilderness (Exodus 17:1-17). Paul then cites an ancient rabbinic tradition that said that this rock followed Israel during their forty-year sojourn in the wilderness providing them water on a daily basis. It was the first "rolling stone." Paul then compares this "rolling stone" to Christ who continues to nourish the Corinthians and satisfy their thirsty hearts.
The problem is that Israel became unfaithful. She became complacent taking her privileged status as God's chosen people for granted. She turned to other gods and practiced idolatry. Remember the "golden calf" that the Israelites made to represent their god when they became impatient with Moses and his long stay on Mount Sinai? God didn't overlook that sin and destroyed many of the Israelites by swallowing them up into the earth. When the Israelites practiced sexual immorality with some Moabite women, 23,000 of them were struck down. When the Israelites complained in the wilderness and became impatient with God, God destroyed many of them by sending an invasion of poisonous snakes.
Throughout her forty years in the wilderness, God repeatedly tested Israel with all kinds of hardships to see if she would remain faithful. All too many times Israel flunked the tests and suffered the consequences. Not all that unlike the Corinthians, she thought that her privileged status permitted her to do anything she pleased without suffering the consequences. She was wrong. She paid dearly for her presumption and her complacency.
Paul cites these examples from the history of Israel in order to warn the Corinthians of the fate that awaited them, if they continued in their complacency and indifference, doing as they pleased. They would be tested. If they flunked, dire consequences awaited them.
Paul directs this same warning to us. We had better not take our faith for granted. We had better not be too complacent. We had better stay alert and on our toes, because God is going to test us. God is going to send trials, temptations, and tribulations our way to see how we handle them. If we pass the tests, if we remain faithful, we are okay. If we don't, look out!
But what about all this talk about grace and the gospel? We thought we didn't have to do anything to be saved. Is grace conditional after all? It appears that what Paul gives us with one hand, he takes away with the other. "So, if you are standing, watch out that you do not fall!" In other words, we still have to do something. We still have to stay on our toes, pass those tests when they come and, as the Boy Scouts say, "Be Prepared" ... or else!
We need to clamp down on those Faith Inkubator students who don't do their homework. We may say that they don't have to do anything to be saved, but we really don't mean it. The bottom line is that they still have to do something: They still have to believe, they still have to show up in church, they still have to pray, they still have to try to be good, they still have to pass confirmation ... or they won't be good Christians and respected members of this congregation. Why? Because God won't tolerate complacency! You have to be committed and prepared because you never know when God is going to tell you, "Students, it is time to get out your pencils, close your books, and remove any notes from your desks. The test is about to begin."
The tests come in a multitude of ways. You are not welcome at anyone's table in the school lunchroom. You tried too hard to make the team and you got cut. There is that sudden pain in your chest. You become a casualty of corporate downsizing. You receive that unexpected phone call at 3 a.m. and it is the police with a message you never wanted to hear. The promotion that you know you deserved goes to someone else. The friend you thought you could count on betrays you. The depression everyone tells you to do something about only gets worse, slowly strangling what little hope you had left in your life. Your children, you had such high hopes for them, only continue to disappoint you. You wake up in the middle of the night crying because you never thought that your life would turn out like this. You are in the wilderness ... thirsty, hungry, alone ... even God seems to have forsaken you. This wasn't supposed to happen to Christians. This wasn't supposed to happen to those who believe in God. Wasn't going to church and saying your prayers supposed to fix all this stuff? This is not what you signed up for.
Then to add insult to injury, someone quotes verse 13, "He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength." Really? You have to be kidding! What kind of a God would do this to you? Does God really think you are strong enough to handle this? You know your strength and it sure feels like God is now crushing you. It must be your fault. You must be letting God down because God surely wouldn't be laying these burdens on you if he didn't think you were strong enough. This is a test and you are flunking it. There is no way you are ever going to pass it.
It is then that God has us just where he wants us. Jolted out of our complacency, pushed to the edge, about ready to collapse, having had everything we thought was so important stripped out of our hands, all we can do is cry for help. All we can do is open our hands to receive ... for we have nothing. It is then that Paul's words begin to make sense.
Paul boldly declares, "God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength." He is not just telling us to "grin and bear it." No, these are words to comfort. God is coming to the rescue. "With the testing he will also provide you with the way out, so that you may be able to endure it." What is the "way out"? How can we possibly hope to "endure it"?
Christ is the "way out." Christ is the one who enables us to "endure it."
It must be because Paul was under the influence of the Holy Spirit that he is able to see in these ancient stories of Israel's wandering in the wilderness something Israel never saw. Paul sees Christ. At two places in today's reading Paul makes this explicit connection.
First, Paul knew of that ancient rabbinical tradition that spoke of the rock Moses struck, which brought forth water to quench the thirst of the Israelites (v. 4). According to the rabbinical tradition the rock followed the Israelites throughout their forty years in the wilderness giving them fresh water every day. Paul says the rock was a symbol of Christ, the same Christ who now satisfies the spiritual thirst of the Corinthians.
Second, Paul recalls another story from Israel's wilderness wandering (v. 9). In that story the Israelites so complained and murmured against God that God sent poisonous snakes among them. Stripped of their pride and complacency, realizing their desperate plight, the Israelites cry for help. God in his mercy relents and tells Moses to mount a bronzed serpent on a pole. Whenever someone who was dying from the snakebites would look at the serpent, they would be healed. Just when they were about to completely bomb the test, God rescues them.
In this season of Lent we recall that Christ and his cross are the signs that God is present with us in the wilderness of our lives. When we suffer, when we are alone, when our soul is parched and we long for someone to tell us that all is okay, when we are convinced that God has handed us over to the poisonous snakes because we have once again failed our test, Christ, like that bronzed serpent, is lifted up on the cross to assure us that God is faithful. Christ is our rock, our "rolling stone," following us wherever we go in the wilderness of this world giving us a drink, soothing our snakebites, helping us to pass the test, giving us an A when we deserve an F.
In the midst of our trials and temptations, even as we are tested, God is there coaxing out of us the right answers so that we can pass the test with flying colors.
Doc Christman underwent a test. He was a pillar of the community. The old, retired teacher had been awarded Teacher of the Year by the State Teachers Association in 1982. Everyone admired and respected him, but now he was a shadow of himself. He had shrunk to less than 100 pounds. His life was slowly consumed by cancer.
Doc had to leave the hospital. He had to decide where he wanted to die: at home or in a nursing home. His pastor, Reverend Braun, came to help him decide. His pastor wouldn't tell him what to do but helped him to decide.
Reverend Braun leaned over the hospital bed and whispered into Doc's ear, "Doc, where is your home?"
Doc mumbled, "321 North Maple Street." That was the house he had lived in for fifty years.
Reverend Braun once again leaned over the bed and asked, "Doc, where is your home?"
Again, Doc mumbled, "Oh you must mean 200 Eastgate Drive." That was the address of the nursing home.
Again Reverend Braun spoke into Doc's ear but this time with a firm prosecutorial tone, "Doc, where ... is ... your ... home?"
This time Doc perked up. His eyes glowed as if a light had just gone on in that tired mind of his. This time he didn't mumble but spoke with conviction, "... with ... the ... Lord!"
That is just what Paul is talking about in today's reading. God keeps on testing us, pushing us, questioning us, so that we can discover the faith that is already within us, so that, when the time of testing comes, we can pass the test. We can confess the faith that he has already given to us. God doesn't need us to prove our faithfulness ... or else. God is testing us for our benefit and gain, so that we can better understand, appreciate, and confess the hope that is by God's grace in our hearts. God wants us to pass the test ... and does everything to make that possible, even to the point of sending his only Son to the cross, so that all our F's might be forgiven. God even gives us his very own Spirit who, when the time of testing comes, will help us to speak all the right answers.
So what about the Faith Inkubators? We will continue to give them "X-rays" and not tests. We won't give them grades. We are not interested in shaming them into working harder. No, we will continue to teach them, to prod them, to question them, to coax out of them the childlike faith we believe is already within them. We will whisper into their ears, "Where is your home?" Why? So that when they find themselves in their wilderness, when they must face their trials and tribulations, which they surely will as they become adults and continue to live their lives, they will get to confess their faith and say with old Doc Christman, "with the Lord." And then they will have discovered that they have passed the test. And God will smile and all the company of heaven will sing with joy. Amen.
