“The Struggles of Faith” February 28, 2010

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 & Luke 13:31-35 Stephens City UMC

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

I. I don’t know which drama you like to watch on television, perhaps you like Law & Order or The Mentalist or one of the many CSI shows, but one place you can find great drama is in the first nine chapters of the Book of Genesis.

A. It is a long running drama as it takes 25 years to play out.

1. One reason that it is great drama is that there is a poignant tension between unfulfilled hope and delivered promise.

2. For many years Abraham and Sarah have been unable to conceive and they are now way beyond the stage of life when one could expect to start a family.

3. But God had promised that they would conceive and that they would have many descendents, so many that they would be the progenitors of a new and mighty nation.

4. So Abraham and Sarah kept waiting for the time to come when they could put the promised baby in the crib and that wait was continuously being extended.

5. They tried to hold on to the promise, but with each passing year that became more and more difficult to do.

6. The fact was that they were struggling with their faith.

B. When you watch your favorite drama on television it is probably because you find it entertaining but it may not have much relationship with your life and the problems you face.

1. The story of Abraham and Sarah and their struggle to maintain faith is a story with which many of us can relate.

2. Like Abraham and Sarah we are on a journey in life, a journey of faith and at times we struggle to hold on to our faith.

3. Sometimes we will share with others that we are struggling with our faith and the response we receive is “Just have faith.”

4. That’s one of those phrases that sound so good but if you’re facing the dark night of the soul it comes across as simplistic.

C. I suspicion that had Abraham and Sarah been told in their situation to “just have faith” that they wouldn’t have found it to be very helpful and a major reason I think that is because Abraham finds another way to respond to his distressing situation.

1. What he does is he lays bare his struggles to God.

2. Instead of “just have faith” he “just gets honest” with himself and with God.

3. Abraham doesn’t hold anything back.

4. He reveals to the One who created him everything that he is thinking and feeling, and the true God is more than able to handle that honesty.

5. In fact as this drama plays out God Almighty seems to appreciate the honesty.

D. Maybe today is one of those good times in your life when you are not struggling in your faith or possibly you are right in the middle of one of those times.

1. Perhaps this has been going on for years, although I hope not 25 years because that’s a load of pain.

2. But during this season of Lent when we Christians talk so much about our spiritual journey and what it means to walk with Jesus who is heading to the pain of the cross, this seems like an excellent time to be honest with God and with ourselves.

3. To do so would be liberating which is one of the things Jesus and his ministry are about.

4. Such liberation was what Abraham experienced when he ceased in his effort to “just have faith” and instead gave voice to his struggle.

5. Abraham realized, and you and I would do well to realize, that it is actually very unbiblical to think that pious acceptance or what some would call resignation is the only faithful response to struggles with faith.

6. The story of Abraham weaves into the biblical story of salvation the fact that God does not want us to suppress our questions and our doubts when we go to Him in prayer.

7. Like Abraham we are to let it all out and there is a liberating blessing that will come with that.

E. Throughout history there has been people who were freed to do some great things when they moved from the static strategy of “just have faith” to “just being honest with God.”

1. For instance Ludwig van Beethoven struggled mightily when he began to lose his hearing, yet it was because of how he approached that struggle that he wrote some of his most beautiful music.

2. Louis Pasteur made some of his greatest discoveries after a stroke threatened to cut short his life.

3. John Milton, a man of deep Christian faith, wrote his best poetry after he was blind.

4. William Cowper, who wrote the lyrics for “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood” and “God Moves in a Mysterious Way” suffered from spells of insanity yet in his struggles composed words that have uplifted Christians in their faith for centuries.

5. Some of Annie Johnson Flint’s best-loved poems were written during her years of deepest suffering.

6. And we now know from her diaries that even Mother Teresa struggled at times with her faith while ministering amongst the poorest of the poor in India.

7. None of these people were two dimensional people.

8. Rather, they were all three dimensional people which made them real and that realness is a blessing to those of us who at times struggle in life with the matter of faith.

9. Like Abraham who established the biblical way to approach this struggle the way forward is not resignation but instead is praying honestly and openly to God.

10. One reason that resignation is not effective is that a resigned person has decided to handle the situation on their own by doing nothing.

11. This means that they are trying to go it alone without God and they may tell themselves they have a good reason for doing this because they don’t want to offend God.

12. But excluding God from one’s life, even when one is angry and confused, is what is actually offensive to God because God does not want to be excluded from our lives.

13. Including God in the difficulties and struggles we have in life by opening up about how we feel through prayer is the biblical approach.

14. This was the way of Abraham and it is one reason we refer to Abraham as the Father of the Faith.

II. In response to Abraham’s honesty, God took him outside and offered a visual aid.

A. That aid was the stars in the heavens.

1. God reaffirmed his promise to Abraham and told him that his descendents would have a number that would match the number of stars in the night sky.

2. That’s quite a number!

3. Now as I have reflected on this when one looks up in the night sky mostly what one sees is darkness.

4. However, there is some light for those stars twinkle.

5. There is more darkness than light but one is very aware of the light.

6. I wonder if there’s an analogy in that when our life is in darkness God, who has made promises to us in Jesus Christ, shines some light to help us continue through our struggle.

7. It’s not complete brightness but neither is it complete darkness and so there’s just enough light that we can begin to move forward.

B. That’s what Abraham did.

1. After being honest with God and himself about his struggle God provided him an experience that revealed to Abraham that God is God and that God is to be trusted.

2. And scripture tells us that at the moment Abraham was able to trust that “the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.”

3. It is such a great moment but only two verses later Abraham is struggling again, questioning again, and needing reassurance again.

4. Once more Abraham becomes our teacher in the faith for he reminds us that this is an on-going journey and is not a “thing” we possess once and for all.

5. I can’t possess my faith like I can possess my coffee cup.

C. That’s because faith is so dynamic.

1. Retired Lutheran pastor, Larry Henning, has accurately written that faith is never simply believing that God exists.

2. Faith is trusting God with our lives and faith is the willingness to put that trust on the line.

3. Abraham demonstrates for us radical trusting and as I said earlier it set him free.

4. The comment that you’ll hear from people “just have faith” seems to me to make things worse for a couple of reasons.

5. That comment to me treats faith like a trained dog that one can command to stand up and sit.

6. And if you are unable to command your faith to stand up and sit than you are going to feel like a failure and sink even deeper into your depression.

7. When you are unable to make it happen then you’ll begin to think “What’s wrong with me that I can’t ‘just have faith?’”

8. What I’m trying to get at was thought about more deeply than I’m capable by the great Reformation leader Martin Luther.

9. With regards to having faith in Jesus Christ Luther wrote “I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to him.”

10. That’s because faith is a gift and Jesus comes to us before we ever think of coming to him.

11. Faith is a gracious gift freely given.

12. Faith is not something that I command or order to be given to me.

13. The second problem with the “just have faith” command is that it does not give permission for struggling or questioning.

14. What Christian counselors will tell you is that people who honestly and sincerely struggle with their faith make progress because they involve God while those who work hard to “just have faith” find that striving to do it by themselves doesn’t build their faith, but destroys their faith.

III. So today I’m not going to tell you to “just have faith” because there is no “just” about it.

A. I am going to encourage you to be biblical this Lent and make one of your spiritual disciplines being open and honest with God and with yourself.

1. Abraham and Sarah’s spiritual journey of 25 years during which they struggled in their faith led to the blessing they most truly desired for unto them was born Isaac and from that one star other stars eventually emerged so that the descendents of Abraham and Sarah are a number that is like that of the stars.

2. And in that number you and I are now numbered.

3. If we are to shine so that others might see and have hope in the midst of their darkness, then what will produce such a bright faith is our commitment to being like Father Abraham which requires being honest with God and with ourselves.

B. Do so and I think you’ll be blessed for in opening up to God you will find that God will be honest with you for what God honestly wants to do is to renew you with His love, cover you with forgiveness, provide you guidance, secure you in His promises and lift you from your despair and depression with His strength.

1. Amen.