Isaiah 6.1-8; 1 Corinthians 15.1-11
I was born and baptized into the Christian Faith … a gift for which I remain profoundly grateful …
I grew up with good ministers … men of faith, passion, intellect … they knew the gospel, and proclaimed it with joy … men to be trusted … who gave of themselves to the churches they served.
I had Sunday School teachers who made a positive and lasting impression on me … when my family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, I attended a Christian high school, with lots of talented teachers … women and men of faith … who opened windows of understanding for me, and cared about me … and made it clear: life and faith belong together … science and literature and culture are reflections of God, and God is the source and energy of everything.
A God of mercy … a God of great love … who’s son is our Savior.
From high school, on to a Christian college, remarkable professors … a typical college life for me … and always thoughts about God … thoughts about faith … prayer … in my own peculiar way.
Then, to Seminary, where the Bible and Church History laid claim to my life … especially my Hebrew professor - we called him The Student, because he was always learning … he’d come bounding into the classroom for an early-morning Hebrew class, delighted to tell us of something he had just learned … I’ll not forget one singular moment - a very famous Hebrew scholar quoted him in a highly regarded academic paper, and like a child at Christmas, he was beaming with delight.
And a Church History professor - who taught me to pay attention to the obscure connections between events, people, ideas, and faith … like paying attention to a brick wall … each brick is an event, a person, an idea, a moment in time … but what holds it all together is the mortar … keep your eyes on the bricks, of course, but more importantly, the mortar, which holds it all together … each layer of mortar tells its own story, but mostly in whispers … the bricks shout at us, but the mortar demands we listen with great care.
And then into ministry … to the coal fields of West Virginia, then to Altoona, Pa … a blue collar town centered in the American railroad … then to Pittsburgh with its steel industry, to the northern woodlands of Wisconsin … to the oil fields of Oklahoma, to the auto industry of Detroit … my interim ministry began in a Northern Michigan resort community, then on to California … Covenant Presbyterian at 80th and Sepulveda in LA, Calvary in Hawthorne, First Congregational Church, Los Angeles … then we moved to the Grove in Pasadena, Covid came a-calling, and when that was over, the invitation to serve where the Tower still stands.
Looking back, my faith is a bit like the wave form of light … or radio energy … ups and downs … never a straight line … with all sorts of flux … but always moving toward God … even as it all comes from God … in some kind of giant loop, a world without end … energy and light
Speaking of light … it takes 8.3 minutes to travel from the sun to the earth … the light streaming through our windows is 8.3 minutes old …
The Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy is only 25,000 light years from the Sun.
What we see of that galaxy is 25,000 years old by the time it’s light reaches us …
The next closest galaxy is 70,000 light years away.
When I was born, when was I baptized, when the Spirit began to awaken the impulses of faith in my little heart, that faith was already thousands of years old, billions of years old … flowing from the very moment of the universe’s creation, when God said, Let there light …
After I’m gone, the faith I have known will continue moving along the timeline of history … moving through the universe, galaxy to galaxy, light-year after light-year.
Faith moves constantly …
Faith wants to know … faith studies and learns, grows and moves … faith is wonderfully curious … faith loves to peek around the corner, faith checks out the cookie jar, faith stands on its tiptoes … to see what’s on the other side of the fence.
Faith moves like lighting sometimes - crackling, booming and snapping … sometimes faith slows down to a crawl …
Sometimes faith comes to a grinding halt … life changes … sorrow, loss, tragedy … faith retreats, hibernates … faith knows when to leave us alone …
And then faith grows again …
Like seasons of the year, seasons of faith … springtime and buds appear, summertime and steady growth … fall, everything slows down … winter, it’s dormant … dormant, but not dead … waiting for a new season, and with the coming of spring, faith takes off again like a Pasadena parrot.
Faith is a connection … to my own soul, to the creator of the universe, to the Savior we call Christ … faith is a bridge to my world - a bridge I cross to help others, and others cross to help me … faith is an open door, an open mind, an open heart …
Faith is not dogma … or doctrine … those things are helpful, even important, but they’re not faith … that’s why Jesus reminds us that faith, the size of mustard seed, can sometimes move a mountain … that faith is best seen in a child who holds out its arms to be held.
Faith is a gift … it comes to some early … it comes to some in their maturity … it has its seasons … intense and then cool … vibrant and then quiet … a gift given by the Spirit, at the right time, in the right way, according to who you are, and no one else … it’s your faith …
Over 50 years of ministry, it’s been my privilege to help people celebrate the faith they have … no sense looking with envy at others, because faith is different for everyone … and everyone has their own kind of faith … no sense in saying, “Oh gosh, I wish I were like Joan over there, or Bob who prays so well.”
No, no, no, no … look inward to your own faith, and see how it’s shaping up … pay attention to what the Spirit is doing in your life before you get sidetracked with what the Spirit is doing in someone else’s life.
Nobody ever makes great music imitating others … it’s gotta come from you.
God is doing a fine work in your life … life is hard, for sure … but the work of God in your life is trustworthy … that which God begins God completes, says the Bible, all the way to the finish line.
I give thanks for my journey … I think I’ve made a difference, but that’s up to God to decide, not me …
I’ve worked hard to fulfill my desire to “know everything” …
I’ve always kept my Hebrew Professor in mind: be the student, always learn, work at the big questions, pay attention to the small ones … never stop exploring … pray without ceasing, as the Bible puts it … put your hand to the plow, and don’t look back.
Dear friends, be of good cheer in this matter of faith … it’s yours for awhile, for the span of your years … a precious possession … it lives and breaths the stuff of life and eternity …
To the glory of God … Amen and Amen!
