F is for Faith

And also for forgetfulness!

By that I mean, that I tend to talk off the cuff and I promptly forget what I’ve said 5 seconds later, never mind a whole week later!

But sometimes I forget about my faith in my everyday life too.

Mostly this happens when things are going just terribly. I lose faith in God’s abilities and in try to fix things on my own. Those of you who have seen my handyperson attempts will know what a disaster this is! But that faith that I am losing, that I am forgetting isn’t the faith that comes from God. That lost faith is my own lack of understanding, it’s my own doubts and insecurities coming to the surface.

I’m sure that you don’t care too much about my doubts and insecurities, and if you do it’s probably because I’m laying on a sofa paying you big dollars to care! Since that isn’t the case let’s look instead at the faith that comes from God!

I’ve been throwing this faith word around willy-nilly but haven’t really taken the time to talk about what it is. To do so I want to throw a couple of bible verse at you Ephesians 2:8-9 and Galatians 3:23-28. So faith is a gift, according to Ephesians and according to Galatians it is what frees us from the obligations of the law. So for our definition: Faith is a free gift that frees us from the obligations of the law. That’s scripture, baby!

But of course faith isn’t something that exists only as an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, it’s an action; something that we see happening!

We are given numerous examples of what faith looks like from the Old Testament. Peruse through Hebrews 11 for a bit and there are some amazing examples of faith. And how beautifully written is Hebrews too by the way? Just a bit of Hebrews love is all. But for serious, go have a look, and here are some fun faith bits (like Alpha-bits?) in Hebrews!

An addendum to our definition “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” A couple things stand out: hope and conviction. We talk a lot about wishing and hoping (and thinking and praying) but it always seems like a 50/50 probability. It might happen, or it might not. I hope that it won’t snow. Now there is a possibility that it might not snow, although it’s more likely that it will. Hope doesn’t seem to have a sense of certainty attached to it; unless, of course, you read it in Hebrews, in which case the next phrase is attached, the conviction of things not seen. Our faith is not something that we view as something that might or might not happen. We are convinced that it is real; it is true, even though we cannot see it. And in a world full of people living out the adage “Unless I see it with my own two eyes…” (are pirates exempt from this?) the idea of being fully convinced of something without the physical, scientific proof is really quite the anomaly.

But lest we think that we are the only ones considered fools for our faith, continue reading Hebrews 11. Some of our greatest known biblical heroes, known for their strong faith, found themselves in this same boat. Abel had great faith and was killed for it. Abraham wandered in an unknown land for his faith. Moses cast off the privileges associated with being Egyptian royalty and lived the life of a nomadic Israelite outcast. These are our great biblical heroes. The reason why is because they were faithful. Even though they had more to gain in placing their faith in the ways of the world: keeping the best of their crop for themselves; staying at home where they would be guaranteed all the comforts they had worked for; and living in the lap of luxury rather than living out the rest of your life in the unforgiving desert, that isn’t what they chose. They took the more difficult path of faith, and even though they didn’t see the rewards during their lifetime, we see them now as having been rewarded for their faith.

Now, we aren’t being called in faith in the same way. We don’t make sacrifices, there isn’t really a desert nearby and Egyptian royalty is essentially a death sentence. So what are we supposed to do?

If we look in James we’re told that our faith is lived out through our deeds towards others. And you’re going to freak out and say SOLA GRATIA, SOLA FIDE, SOLA SCRIPTURA!!!!!! DIDN’T YOU LISTEN DURING THE REFORMATION SERMON!!!!! And of course, we’ve already defined faith as a free gift that we can’t earn, but we also said that it isn’t something that exists only in definition. It is meant to be used! I always thought that the cruelest thing a person could do was to buy a toy, say a Barbie, for a kid and then tell them that they had to keep it in the box and not play with it because, of course, toys are meant to be played with. If someone is giving you a gift, you then should have the ability to use it, to play with it. This is the same with our gift of faith. It’s not meant to sit on the shelf with our collector Barbie, it’s supposed to be used. We have the great example of how the people of the Old Testament used their faith, and we are called to do the same thing. We gotta have faith.

D is for Diaconate

Hmm, now what reason could I have for studying this? OH RIGHT! That one where that’s totally what I do!!

Now going in I was sure this would be the easiest bible study ever. All I’d do is recount some funny DPS stories, talk about what I do, how I got into it and maybe look at the bible a bit. No big deal.

But then I started thinking; what do I do? Is what I classify now as being part of my job actually part of what it means to be a deacon? I’ve learned by now what the difference between the responsibilities of a pastor and a deacon are, but are there differences between deacons and the laity?

A lot more work than I first thought!

Now I’m a bit of a free spirit. Well, no, that’s not exactly true. I am, however, stubborn and I dislike being told what to do. Oooh that works well for someone whose main job descriptor is to help people! But I did have a point to this! My point was that as someone who has difficulty being told what to do, I always inwardly groan when I think of the “job description” of a deacon in 1 Timothy 3:8-13. Now, there’s nothing wrong with it. I think I would agree with all the points (except maybe the wife thing) but as a sinful human being I know that I can’t be all of those things all the time: Dignified, when I need to; proven blameless, well, I very rarely take the blame for anything if that counts; not addicted to too much wine, oh boy, it’s loud in here.

Looking at this list it speaks to the logistics of the job. It tells you what you need to do to accomplish the requirements of being a deacon. But why does that even matter? I alluded to it earlier when I started to question the difference between a lay person and a deacon. The answer that I can come up with is: nothing. The only difference comes in terms of intent. A deacon isn’t the person who fulfills all of the qualification, but instead they’re the people who have desired to take on this position full-time.

I want to go back a bit to the book of Acts. Particularly Acts 6:1-7. What the deacons were called to do wasn’t anything exceedingly extraordinary. Essentially it boiled down to taking care of those who were in need, something that we’re all called to do.

The thing is, our good intentions stay as that; intentions not actions. We need some form of organization, and I’d say that’s where the role of the deacon comes in. The idea is not to rise to a greater authority; to take over someone’s role, but instead to help them. The role of deacon is supplementary. You’ll notice in the 1 Timothy and Acts descriptions that the implementation of the diaconate is on an as needed basis. The diaconate is not meant to take over the role of the pastoral office, but to support it. The diaconate is not meant to take over the responsibilities of the laity, but again, they are there to support them.

C is for Cookie, I mean, Covenant

Do you know what boggles my mind? The versatility of Harrison Ford. Well, more the fact that he featured prominently in two very distinct and different, yet both wildly successful theatrical series.

The one that comes to my mind at this point in time is Indiana Jones with which I hope you are all well enough acquainted that I can just delve into my point here. The point is in their search for the Ark of the Covenant. It’s made insanely interesting in that the Ark is essentially this mystical object that provides magical powers for those who possess it.

What is at the centre of the Ark though? The title says it all; the Ark of the Covenant. Whilst the movie focuses on the physical aspects of the Ark itself, for believers in God, the importance for us is in that second part, in the idea of a covenant with God.

If you look at the Old Testament it’s a series of covenants made with God and his chosen people. From the very beginning you see in God’s creation that he makes a covenant with Adam promising him that he will be taken care of, and expecting in return that Adam would serve as a steward over the land. The covenant in this is that God provides, and man cares for His creation, and of course stays away from one of the trees.

Being the good bible toting students that you are, you know how this promise goes, i.e. not well! Man fails to listen to what God has said. And as my confirmation class wisely pointed out, “Adam and Eve didn’t listen to God and that’s why we have to wear clothes!”

I’m sure that you’ve heard these phrases, “Once bitten, twice shy,” or, “Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Besides just hearing them I would imagine that you live fairly closely to their stated mandate where you give someone a chance and if they botch that up, well, tough luck for them next time!

Given the dismal failure of Adam and Eve in keeping this covenant with God, you would assume that God would take on a similar attitude. I would be pretty darn unwilling to take on any more promises knowing that I would be left holding the bag in the end!

Let’s look at another example found in Genesis 15:1-18 where God makes a covenant with Abram. The promise extends beyond just Abram and goes into the generations following. Abram is at a disadvantage because he wasn’t created perfect. Instead he was born into a sinful world and for the majority of his life did not believe in the God of Israel. But this was the man with whom God chose to make his covenant. In the past 12 chapters or so, however, God learned a lesson. He learned that mankind is not able to keep their side of the agreement. They tried really hard, but were unable. In this covenant we see God’s wisdom and grace as he ensures that this covenant will be kept in full by both sides by taking on the responsibility of both parties. Using the standard covenant contract of walking through the blood of sacrificed animals, God passes through, representing both parties and ensuring that this covenant would be upheld.

In the Mosaic covenant it becomes even more blindingly apparent how inept we are at keeping a covenant with God. In this covenant we are given rules that directly benefit us, and even so we are unable to keep them.

It takes a little longer this time but once again we see God taking on the same role as in the covenant with Abram in his promise of the new covenant. Jeremiah 31:33-34, Hebrews 8:8-13, Matthew 26:26-28 all talk about the promise of the new covenant. God has promised us that we will be given eternal life, that our sins will be forgiven and that He will make sure that it’s all taken care of. The sacrifice of Christ’s own blood is the covenant contract that enables us to live in this promise. In various circumstances God’s people showed how unable they were to keep these promises on their own. In the same way we know that we would also fail in living up to these promises.

But even while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us. Even though there was no way we could ever repay Him, God sent His son so that the promises we made to God might be kept. We know that we could never be righteous enough to enter into a covenant with God and keep it in its entirety. This is why we rely on Christ. His sacrifice, His blood, His love is the reason why God’s covenant remains.