“It all comes down to faith- what is faith?” First UMC Carroll Iowa 7/5/2020

  “It all comes down to faith- what is faith?”

First UMC Carroll Iowa 7/5/2020

A man was walking in the mountains just enjoying the scenery when he stepped too close to the edge of the mountain and started to fall. In desperation he reached out and grabbed a limb of a gnarly old tree hanging onto the side of the cliff.

Full of fear, he cries out, "Help me!" But there was no answer. Again, and again he cried out but to no avail. Finally, he yelled, "Is anybody up there?"

A deep voice replied, "Yes, I'm up here."

"Who is it?"

"It's the Lord"

"Can you help me?"

"Yes, I can help."

"Help me!"

"Let go."

Looking around the man became full of panic. "What?!?!"

"Let go. And have faith that I will catch you."

"Uh... Is there anybody else up there?"

 

 For the next five weeks we will be learning with the children in VBS about faith.  If you haven’t signed your kids of grandkids up for VBS, now it the time It technically starts today and there will be one lesson this week and each of the next 4 weeks.

 

 The Bible contains many stories of faith. Today we look at a story about a woman with a hemorrhage.  She had been bleeding for 12 years and couldn’t stop it.  Can you imagine how physically and emotionally exhausted and weak she must have been. The bible says no one could help her.  Imagine how many doctors she had seen in 12 years. Imagine the treatments. Imagine the cost of medical treatment. Imagine the sacrifices she made.

In addition to the medical side of her problem, she also had a social problem. You see she lived in a Jewish society where blood was ritually unclean and so was she. She hadn’t been able to go to temple for the last 12 years.  She had to social distance just like we do.  No physical contact for 12 years… imagine how lonely she must have been. Imagine how hopeless she must have felt. She had tried everything, and nothing worked. She was at the very end of her rope; the only thing left was to give up.

Do you know the feeling?  Friends in recovery will recognize this as the first step in recovery, I have long believed that the recovery community gets many things right, one of them is that our faith journey starts when we admit that we are powerless.  The woman finally had to admit that everything she was doing was a failure. She had nowhere to turn and no other ideas to try. She was powerless.

This week the children will have an opportunity to illustrate this in a VBS activity.  Let’s see how.

(video)

 

You see it is just not possible to jump that far no matter how many times I try it.  So, I must admit that I can’t do it myself.  That I am powerless

There are so many voices today telling us you can do anything you want if you take a magic pill or treatment, or rub on a cream, or wear a certain glove, or use a certain shampoo, or get that new car. Let me just say.  Don’t fall for it.

We are all this woman. We are the walking wounded, hurting, and bloody because of sin; both ours and others.  We want and need to escape sin.  But on our own we are powerless against sin. The first step toward faith is admitting that on our own we are powerless.

 

 The woman who was bleeding apparently heard something about Jesus. We don’t know if she was Jewish or not. We don’t know if she was religious or not.  I tend to think she had to believe some of the stories she heard about Jesus or she would have blown him off as a kook.

She heard about Jesus and decided that he might be the answer to her problem As desperately weak as she was, as desperately sick as she was, she just had to Get to Jesus.

Jesus had just arrived home from the other side of the sea of Galilee. A leader of the synagogue named, Jarius, asked Jesus to heal his dying daughter. Jesus was on his way to Jarius’ house when our woman caught up with him.  She made her way through the crowd traveling with Jesus.  It was a large crowd and every time she bumped into someone, she made them ritually unclean and risked being stoned to death. When she got to Jesus her faith blossomed and she knew she would be healed if she could even touch the hem of his robe.

In AA terms she “came to believe that a power greater than her could help her.”

When we go back to our demonstration, I start thinking that maybe Jesus could help me.

 

 Finally, the woman reached Jesus and touched the hem of his garment.  Immediately… Mark says (That’s one of Mark’s idiosyncrasies… saying “immediately.”) Immediately she was healed.  Immediately. She risked everything, risked all she had, placed all her life, all her past and all her future in Jesus hands. And immediately she was healed. After 12 years of smashed hopes, immediately Jesus power healed her.  It was no accident it was faith. 

I suspect she hoped she could touch him, be healed and run before she got in trouble.  But faith in Jesus is not an anonymous faith. It is very personal. Jesus said “Who touched me” he felt the power go out of him. I don’t think he was angry. I think Jesus felt the power leave and wanted a personal relationship with that person. When she finally came forward and told her story, he said, “Daughter, your faith has healed you.”  “Your faith has healed you!”

If we go back to the vacation bible school demonstration, I am unable to make that leap to the other side… but then … as I realize I cannot do it myself and wonder if Jesus could help me. (video)

 Jesus came with the cross to show me the way.

Just like the woman, however, I must be willing to place my whole life in Jesus hands.  I must place my whole trust in the cross. Relying only on God’s promises, I have to place my past, my present and my future in the hands of God.   Using AA language again, “I have to place my will and my life in the hands of my higher power,” Jesus.

That is faith.

 

 What is faith?  Faith is not just a decision we make.  Faith is when we run out of solutions to our problems, and the only option is to fall exhausted into God’s powerful hands.

Faith is not just a feeling we have. Faith is when we run out of hope but we know that it is ok to fall limply into what seems like emptiness trusting God to catch us.

Faith is beyond our ability. When we get to the end of our rope, realize there is no rope left, and instead of trying to climb back up which we know would be futile, we know that it is OK to   allow ourselves to drop trustingly in the hands of God.

 

Faith might start as a decision, but doesn’t come from our heads, because by definition it is not rational.

Faith does not come from our strength; it is not an ability By definition faith is more than we can do. 

Faith might start in the heart like love, it is more than love. 

Faith might start as hope, but it is more than hope.

Faith is more than optimism.

Faith is more than confidence.

Faith comes from the gut.  The gut that knows that even though we are at our end, there is one whom we can trust who has more planned for us. 

Faith comes from the gut that inexplicably trusts that even when we can’t see God, can.

Even when we are at a dead end, we can completely trust God to carry us to the unseen beyond. 

Faith comes from a gut that knowns that when we and everything around us crumbles there is one in whom we can trust completely. God almighty.

 

 The great Quaker theologian D Elton Trueblood, whom Robyn and I had the honor of knowing… said “Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation.”