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Advent 1 :
The Meaning of Jesus Restoration. As I reflected on the readings set for today, one phrase jumped out at me and would not leave me alone. It was the phrase from 1 Thessalonians 3:10 where Paul is commending and encouraging the people of Thessalonica and then he says: ‘Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and restore what is lacking in your faith.’ “Restore what is lacking in your faith”. Faith, it can be said, is the gate-way into spirituality. It is like the bridge that connects us and establishes us in a relationship with God. Thus we could say that the search for an authentic faith is also the search for an authentic relationship with God. As with all relationships, being in relationship with God requires commitment and a willingness to spend time and energy working on that relationship if it is to grow and deepen and that work of growing our faith is a holistic process that engages not only our thinking and intellectual processes but also those non-cognitive parts of us like our emotions, our longings, our aspirations, dreams, hopes, fears, desires, drives and intuitions. Building Faith is challenging. It requires us to think bigger than the limitations of concrete thinking and then bigger still. It may take us along paths we sometimes would rather not go, challenge us to entertain concepts and possibilities we cannot easily understand; shift us outside our comfort zones to confront things about ourselves that we are not keen to look at; take us to lonely places, where those near and dear to us either feel they cannot go or are unwilling to go with us. It may challenge us to surrender cherished illusions and prejudices and horror of horrors, to embrace change and transformation. Small wonder then that Paul, felt the need to support the Thessalonians in their faith journey! Paul knew as well as you and I know, that while we live in this world our faith journey is never complete. Not only do we run the risk that we might go astray, fall back or even lose our faith, but there is always something more that we must learn and there is always more growing that we must do as we build our relationship with God. Now I am not sure where you are in your faith journey today, but I would like to suggest that you are here today because at very least one of the following statements will ring true for you: · You have an interest in matters spiritual. · You perhaps have had some wake-up calls that have reminded you that your faith journey is important. · You feel the immediacy of something more in life that cannot be accounted for in the secular world. · You know that you are alive today and that one day you will die and you feel an urgency of finding your place in the world before you vacate it so to speak. · You aspire to an honest and authentic faith because you feel it would be dishonest to deny the existence of a spiritual dimension to life. · Perhaps you have some disquiet about confessing some of the basic creeds and doctrines of the church but all in all you would like to build and grow your faith. Advent, the time set aside for spiritual preparation for the coming of Christ. It offers you me an opportunity to take stock of where we are in our faith and to build our faith and to move into a deeper relationship with God. I once read about a musician who asked a famous conductor what was the most important thing to learn about playing the big cymbal. The conductor answered that the most important thing to learn was when, when to crash the cymbal. Advent is a good time for you and me to take stock of our faith…. Time to crash the big cymbal! So where are you in your faith? Wherever you are, know that you are not alone. So often people feel lonely in a crowd, they think that they are the only ones with doubts or who think a certain way. Let me assure you, nothing could be further from the truth, sitting in these pews are people who will be close to where you are at in your faith. Many of us were brought up with some sort of faith. As our lives have progressed perhaps that faith has grown and flourished. Great! But let’s be honest. There will be some of us for whom that is not the case. Our faith has weakened, or been knocked and dented, or seems inadequate. We can no longer rely on our earlier faith to fuel our relationship with God. Wouldn’t you just love to embrace a more mature faith, one that has greater relevance to your life experience? Are you sitting here today feeling like you no longer have much confidence in the faith you have? Far from bringing you comfort and peace of mind, thinking about your faith brings you discomfort and pain, rather like trying to walk with a sprained ankle. Don’t Jesus’ words ‘come to me all who labour…’ resonate in your heart. Don’t you wish you could shed that painful faith for a more life-giving one? There will be some of us sitting here today whose faith is at best described as nominal, a faith in name only. It certainly doesn’t affect our behaviour, our decisions or our day to day lives. We have a faith but it is simply a smoldering ember. Wouldn’t you just love to kick start it, pour some kerosene on it and set it on fire? But wait there are still others sitting in the pews today who have come to this place because something attracts you to it and you are not quite sure what. You were perhaps brought up in a non-religious home with no faith at all. Faith may seem a strange concept, even a little odd. Yet you are here because you find that your world view is unfulfilling to that dimension of being human that we loosely call the spiritual. Wouldn’t you love to find a faith that resonates with your deep hunger for spiritual meaning? Where are you today? Do you need to restore the faith you have lost, Invigorate the faith you have, Find and develop the faith you wish you had? Turn to the collect for today. ‘Come o come Emmanuel’. This is why he came, to build our faith in God. No matter where you are, he came for you, to help you build your faith. This is why he is still relevant, because in spite of 2000 years of people coming and going, Jesus, God amongst us, God one of us and not of us, remains the only one who can adequately help us in our quest for an authentic and relevant faith and relationship with God. And Jesus offers to do this in a way that totally respects our humanity. 1. Jesus understood that Faith is developed internally, it has to grow up from within us. It has to be our own, our own choosing and our own understanding. So we find when we read the Biblical text, that Jesus is far more focused on questions than answers in his dialogue with people. He asks personal questions: What do you want? What can I do for you? What do you think? Who do you say that I am? He continues to ask us these same questions today. 2. Jesus understood that authentic faith needs to be relevant to every day life. Thus we find that still today the stories he told about the kingdom of God, that are so grounded in every day experiences, ring true for us also. 3. Jesus understood that there is no one right protocol by which to search for God. No simple formula or easy recipe that we can follow to build our faith. Faith is deeply personal and needs to be worked out in our own unique way. This is why he offers to be your personal saviour. 4. Jesus understood that faith needs to be lived. Books and academic learning only take a person so far in their faith journey. The example of a Life lived offers important data for those who are spiritually seeking. The message of faith is best told through the life we are living. “You have seen me so now you have seen my Father”, he said. So then how to proceed with this faith-building venture? We need to start with an honest self assessment of where we are in our faith today. Are you at a place where you wish to restore a faith that is lost, damaged or failing? Do you wish to invigorate, enliven and ignite a faith you already have? Do you wish to discover and develop a faith you wish you’d had? Do you want to deepen a faith that is already growing and blossoming. Then I suggest you do something and nothing. The something is that you turn to Jesus, the risen, living Christ. Take a step in faith. Pray an honest prayer that invites him to join you in your faith journey from where you truly are, not where you imagine you should be. Commit yourself to action and take a step of faith, go through that gateway into the spiritual realm so to speak. Then do something risky. This may mean forgiving a friend, reconciling with a brother, helping a stranger. Use this advent season to reflect daily on your life . Set time aside at the end of the day and ask yourself Where can I see God at work in my life today? Read and reflect on Jesus teaching; emulate his life, submit to his authority, receive his Holy Spirit and then do nothing, wait and watch and you will be amazed at the way your faith will grow! He will honour his promise to restore renew and revitalize your faith. Don’t just take it from me, watch and see it for yourself in your own life. Bibliography: |
