Transcript
The Lord replied, “You had faith the size of a mustard seed. Please be seated.”
Faith, it’s all over scripture. Like literally, it is a really big part of our belief system. Scripture even gives us a direct definition. In the epistle to the Hebrews, we are told, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” And as the author continues, by faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
Martin Luther King Jr. says, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” In the movie Miracle on 34th Street, George Satan says, “Faith is believing in something when common sense tells you not to.” And Helen Keller says, “Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.” I can certainly keep going with more and more quotes about faith. And I’m certain you all have your own favorite quotes and your own definitions of what faith is.
You probably understand that sometimes life requires a lot of faith. And sometimes life requires no more faith than the faith the size of a mustard seed. Although one would argue faith the size of a mustard seed like what Jesus is talking about in today’s gospel reading that is a lot of faith if it can uproot a mulberry tree. Faith is what gets us up in the morning and out the door to our jobs or our hobbies or even just our daily walks to the mailbox. Faith is what it means to buy a house or sign a lease. To sign a letter of agreement or study for that one test, to take those daily meds and avoid too much red meat or whatever it is your doctor tells you to do. Faith is the very idea that what is will not be what will be with a twist of hope of course because faith is the idea that this isn’t all there is.
And hope is what makes us think that what will be is going to be even better than what is. Because hope is anticipation and cherished desire. As Miriam Webster dictionary defines it, hope is desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment. Both hope and faith have a future orientation to them. Not just a in five minutes kind of future, but a real significant perhaps not even in our lifetimes future orientation to them. Faith creates space for us to dream and imagine and envision and hope allows us to think those dreams and imaginings and envisionings will be amazing. Faith is when we make choices to take action and create change now for the future. And hope is thinking that those choices and actions and changes will create a better future.
You know this is what happened in the past to make today what it is to make St. John’s church what it is to make us the people of St. John’s who we are. Someone or someone’s had faith and hope. They imagined and dreamed of something different. They made choices and changes and they created what has now become our foundation, the roots, the footing, the solid grounding of today. You know, kind of like in today’s epistle reading that refers to a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Ununice and now in you. Our solid foundation was once someone else’s faith and hope. And now it is time for us to have our own faith and hope to begin to build what will become the solid foundation of our future generations. Now it is time to invest today in what will come next in what will happen tomorrow.
Did you hear it? I’ll say it again, but before I do, I want you all to know today is officially the start of the season where we talk about money. Yay. when we ask for your willingness to dream and imagine and envision to have faith in St. John’s Church and all of us here today and for your willingness to have hope that what we are dreaming and imagining and envisioning is even better than what was before. So the theme for this year’s season of dreaming and imagining and envisioning of having faith and hope of establishing the foundations for the future the theme drum roll please invest in what’s next. Before we established the foundation now we invest.
Next we watch as all our work, our time, our money, ourselves. Now we invest all that to create a quote next that is worth sharing with the many generations that will come. I was talking to someone about faith and hope and investing recently, a member of the church, and I’m not going to say who it was, but he’ll know I’m talking about him. He said he doesn’t like the idea of faith or hope when it comes to investing our money. He said instead we should be fully confident that the money is being spent wisely. And I 100% completely and totally agree. We should be fully confident that the money we are investing today and not just the money also the time and the energy and our gifts. We should be fully confident that all that we are investing today isn’t just some leap of faith, isn’t just a foundationless hope, isn’t just a instead what we are investing in today is guaranteed to be the foundation of tomorrow, the foundation of what’s next.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll learn more about some of the ideas about what’s next. For the past 10 months, the vest has been looking at the church and the people and all the various things we offer in all the various roles we play. And they have been working on their own hoping, their own dreaming and imagining and visioning for what could be next. They’ve come up with a really great list of ideas. And over the next few weeks, you’ll hear about those ideas and possible projects, things that maybe you’re willing to invest your time and your gifts and your money. We’ll be able to build, to create, to establish for those who are next. We’ll hear from some of those who are next. In fact, next week, I’ll invite our children and youth to come forward and talk about their favorite parts of church, of St. John’s and the people here and we’ll hear from some who were the quote next generation many many years ago because just as we are looking to the future we cannot forget the past and I want us to all hear from some of our members who have been here for decades to hear why they are investing in St. John’s Church for what comes next.
The future is generally unknown and that can be scary. But at St. John’s, the future doesn’t have to be scary. Instead, it can be filled with hope because the faith of each of us has in one another and in the work we are doing to make the future a better place than the present. So, please join me. Fill out your quote investment card and commit your own resources to St. John’s Church. Invest in what’s next at St. John’s.
Amen.