“Basic How To’s: How to Guard the
Good Deposit”
October 23, 2022
Dear brothers and sisters, grace and
peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
Amen.
As we see from the announcements
this morning, we have a lot that’s going to be happening in the life of our
church family, which is a wonderful thing! In just a couple of weeks, we’re
going to be having our Fall Dinner, for the first time in a couple of years,
which will give us a chance not only to carry on a tradition we’ve held dear
for a long time, but will also give us something we’ve really been missing out
on having a lot of, also for the past couple of years: fellowship. We’re also
going to be looking forward to Youth Sunday the following week; the Community
Thanksgiving Service on the 20th; getting to help with Hands Against
Hunger again, with a Church Family Christmas Party later in the evening (more
about that soon as well); the concert by DaMac; getting to go caroling in
December; our Sunday School Christmas Program; Christmas Eve, which has
generally been a large service during regular times; and then, best of all,
getting to be excited about what God has planned for us in this coming year,
and all the wonderful possibilities we’ll get to experience. These are fun times
when we get to spend together as a church family, something which, once again,
we’ve admittedly been lacking in for the past couple of years, mainly due to
covid. But now, we’re looking forward to moving forward. Will this new year
also bring challenges? Of course it will. One of them is certainly going to be
the fact we’re still continuing to struggle financially. And really, every year
has brought up new issues, but with God’s help, we have been able to face them,
address them, and get through them every time. So we can look to the future
with hope, because we have faith that God is going to cause good and better
things to happen, just like He has before, and He always will.
Yet, undoubtedly, for the past
couple of years, we have been crying out the same words as the Prophet Habakkuk
in today’s First Reading: “How long?” Which can also be said as, “How much
longer?” Especially starting in 2020 and continuing through 2021, that was the
constant refrain: how much longer is this pandemic, and everything else it’s
caused, going to go on? As a church family, early in 2020, we were asking, how
much longer do we have to wait before we can open up the church and get back to
worshipping together? When are we going to enjoy all the things we used to
again, like our Ice Cream Social, Fall Dinner, and other times we got together?
As in Habakkuk’s time, we also ask, how much more often are we going to have to
hear about civil unrest, division, and hatred? Even now, we still say: is there
ever going to be an end to our struggles? How long is it going to be before we
see lower gas prices and costs of things start to go down again? Are we going
to have to keep dealing with rising costs for our utilities, especially heating
this winter? Will conflicts going on not just in Ukraine but in other parts of
the world come to a conclusion? And, God, aren’t you going to do anything about
it? That’s really what Habakkuk is complaining about, and what we also find
ourselves saying a lot of the time. It’s not just whining: it’s a valid
complaint. God is supposed to be all-powerful, in control of everything, and
overcoming all the bad things that happen in the world. So why isn’t He doing
anything?
Well, then, as it happens, in verse
3, God gives Habakkuk an answer: “The revelation awaits an appointed time; it
speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it
will certainly come and will not delay.” In other words, God is doing
something, just as He promised He would. But what we have to do is wait. That’s
what we’ve had to do all along, and, admittedly, it’s caused us a lot of
frustration in the process. But look at what’s happened: little by little, as
we’ve waited for the right time, we’ve been able to bring things back, and now
we have a lot to plan and look forward to. Is everything going to be exactly as
it was before? Probably not for at least a little while longer. But we can
still trust God and wait. Which, of course, is the hardest part: when we end up
in a desperate situation, we want things to happen right away. Even when we
pray, we expect God to either give us an answer or cause something to happen
instantly. But that’s not how God works – that’s not even how faith works.
Yet we think, especially because
of misreadings of what Jesus says in today’s Gospel reading, that if we have
strong enough faith, and if we pray hard enough, we will be able to influence
God. Again, though, that’s not how things operate. Instead, what we’re asking
for when, like Jesus’ disciples, we ask for our faith to be increased is not
that we would somehow gain greater supernatural powers, but that we would trust
in God’s power alone. What Jesus means when He says that we could command a mulberry
tree to be uprooted is not that we would have mastery over things, but that, if
we relinquish any desire for control, and if we stop trying to take charge of
certain situations ourselves, we would witness God doing great and powerful
things right in front of us. After all, that’s exactly how and why we’re saved
as it is: not because of anything we’ve done, but because God did it all. He
sent His Son to die on the cross and rise again to save us from sin’s power
over us, something we couldn’t do ourselves, but which He did all His own. And
just as we trust that everything God did ultimately causes us to be saved,
forgiven, and destined for eternal life, we also We would also be able to
experience God accomplishing acts of great power through us – if we let Him
lead us. Faith is not trust in facts, but in a promise: the promise being that
God is always working His power.
So when we ask God to increase
our faith, we are not asking that our agreement with Christian teaching and
doctrine would be stronger; that our knowledge just of what God has done in the
past would be firmer; or even that God would make us somehow more powerful.
Instead, we are asking God to make us more trusting, more dependent on Him. This
is actually the boldness of faith we are to express as Christians.
As Paul says in today’s Second
Reading, verse 7, “God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of
power, of love, and of self-discipline.” We are to be bold, rather than timid,
in our trust, and, though it may seem to be a contradiction, be even more
courageous in our letting go and letting God. When we are able to trust God and
let Him lead, then we are free from frustration and the anger that comes from
it. We are then free to love, to show compassion to those who are struggling
along with us. We also are able to exercise self-discipline as we resist giving
into temptations to sin. We are not ashamed, because we know who we believe in,
and we are convinced that He is able to guard what we have entrusted to Him for
the last day – our very lives. This is the deposit which has been entrusted to
us: living a life of faith in God. And how does this happen? Well, Jesus gives
us three important ways:
1.
Watch yourself. Even though God is guarding you, you
do have responsibility for making sure you are vigilant against sin and sinful
influences. While we normally think of simple moral choices, the sins of
falling away from trust in God are even more important. We always have to be
looking forward to the good things coming, and making sure we don’t fall into
pessimism and negativity which would cause us to stop believing God. All of us always
have to remember that we are destined for eternal life, and that we are to live
as though we were already there – hoping only in God, and living in peace with
our friends and neighbors. This is the holy life to which we are called. This
leads to the second one:
2.
Forgive. One of the greatest sinful influences we
have to deal with, especially now more than ever, is a lack of forgiveness.
Whether it be trying to bring up past history, or personal grudges which you,
or any of us, have been hanging on to, the inability to forgive is often the
greatest obstacle both to us being able to trust God, and others to do the
same. A lack of forgiveness shows a lack of being able to let God resolve
whatever has caused the rift between us and the person we have offended, or who
has offended us. But being able to forgive allows God to change us, and
possibly change the other person . Forgiveness also helps us to see who we
really are, and what we need to change in order to prevent future hurts from happening,
which often means giving up those sinful influences which might cause us harm.
This, however, requires letting God do His work. Which then leads to:
3.
Be humble. Recognize that who you are, and what you
have, is entirely a gift from God. The reason you can call yourself a Christian
is not simply because you decided to, but God made you one. This means that
your life is under God’s guidance and leadership. It is therefore your duty to
let God lead you. Whenever you feel like you have to wait, and you’re asking,
“how much longer?”, trust God. And do so with boldness and courage: tell
everyone else what God has done for you, and how faithful He has been to you
all along. Let us all continue, as we are all God’s righteous people, to live
encouraged, and to live by our faith.
Now may the peace of God, which
passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord,
Amen.
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