Faith

Good morning! Today I am going to be talking about faith. I think in normal everyday life the word faith is used in multiple contexts. Some might say “I have faith that I can finish that 10K run,” “I have faith that my vegetable garden will take off,” or “I have faith that the Eagles will win another Super Bowl.” For me, this weekend, I have faith that the weather will get warm and stay warm into summer. Other things are spoken of as being faith-based. Family Promise is a faith-based organization. Groups from different faiths participate in helping temporarily homeless families get back on their fee. For the rest of my time, I will be talking about having faith in the resurrection of Jesus, for the forgiveness of our sins, so that we are able to approach an almighty, unapproachable God.

In our Gospel lesson from the book of John Chapter 21 we hear the story of “The Miraculous Catch of Fish.” To put this story in perspective, we need to step back to the happenings in Chapter 20. Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene on the morning of his resurrection at the tomb. Later that evening he appeared to the disciples who were meeting in a room behind a locked door. The disciples rejoiced at the presence of Jesus and Jesus immediately speaks of the mission he has for them. “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” he says in v21. Jesus calls them to go out and spread the gospel. He then fills them with the power of the Holy Spirit and authorizes them to forgive sins. Now they are receiving the Holy Spirit prior to it being released to ALL believers on the day of Pentecost. After this first encounter with Jesus, they were filled with peace, joy, and faith that Jesus was truly the Son of God. A week later, the disciples are back meeting in a locked room and Jesus further convinces Thomas, who wasn’t there the first time, that he has indeed risen and Thomas needs to doubt no more. The Spirit has continued to work in the disciples preparing them for their mission. The growth in their faith continues. The disciples’ faith is not vague here. They had an open acceptance and trust for God through Jesus. John wrote of these events so that all future readers would “come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing (read having faith here) you may have life in his name. Thus chapter 20 ends with the disciples being full of faith and committed to spreading the gospel to all nations.

So now we jump back to John chapter 21 and the “Miraculous Catch of Fish”. In this passage, we find the disciples back in Galilee fishing. They are fishing for fish. Jesus had told them to return to Galilee, but they seem to be at loss for what to do next. They seem to resort to doing what they knew how to do before Jesus. It makes you wonder if they did not quite understand the commission Jesus had just given them to go out and be fishers of PEOPLE. It is not a surprise that they were unable to catch any fish, that’s not what they were supposed to be doing! After a night of coming up empty, they are dejectedly making their way back to shore in the darker hours of dawn. They see a man on the shore who recommends they try one more time and toss their net out of the right side of the boat. With nothing to lose, they take the recommendation of a stranger and instantly catch more fish than they can haul in. But Ah Ha! It was likely John who put together that this was only possible by the power of Jesus. They all then realize it is actually Jesus who is on the shore. Jesus was yet again teaching the disciples what they needed in order to be successful in their commission to gather disciples. They need to be obedient to the Lord for any of their labor to be fruitful. Once they obeyed Jesus, their fishing was bountiful. It took three personal visits from Jesus after his death for the disciples to understand that what they needed to do to be successful in their ministry was to trust and obey God through the guidance of his son Jesus.

I would like to suggest that this is a reminder for us to follow Jesus’ directive of having trust in him and our Holy God during this time of battling COVID-19 and living in self-isolation. Unlike the disciples who had Jesus directly encouraging them, we need to rely on the faith that we heard about in our reading from Hebrews 11. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”. Abel, Enoch, and Noah were all declared righteous by God for acting in faith. Our faith allows us to understand that the world around us was brought into being by the invisible word of God. Our faith allows us to trust that Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. Our faith allows us to trust in God and God’s promises Matthew Henry’s Bible commentary puts it that “Faith proves to the mind, the reality of things that cannot be seen by the bodily eye. It is a full approval of all God has revealed, as holy, just and good.”

As a church, we have discussed Spiritual Gifts and some of us went through the process of discovering which particular gifts God has given us individually that allow us to serve him with joy. As a refresher, we read 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 from the New Living Translation

A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

Whether faith falls on the upper or lower scale of your gifts, it is a precious, wonderful gift given to all in part and parcel. Many people in the Bible were able to demonstrate supernatural reliance on God’s promises, power, and presence. Their faith equipped them to make heroic efforts for the church. Noah’s act of faith set an example for his family and ultimately saved the human race from dying out. Joshua obeyed God and marched around the walls of Jericho until they fell down. He demonstrated to his troops what faith in God looked like. How have you seen God work in your life through small or large acts of faith?

As a parent, one of my biggest challenges was the angst and concern I felt in ensuring my children chose a good college to go to. When I found that on each occasion my worry was overwhelming me, I reminded myself to trust in God for the decision. When I faithfully turned over the concern to God, I felt at peace and could wait for their decision process to come to a natural end. Both of them ended up going exactly where they fit the best. Interestingly, my son ended up going the way I was praying God to send him. My daughter Kaiti’s decision worked a bit differently. God worked through me and changed my heart to understand she was making the perfect choice for her. Either way, I had faith in God to lead HIS children, step out of the way, and be rewarded with peace and joy in their future directions. I look back on many other times that I put worry into God’s hands and let him take over. I do that today as my son has continued working in a hospital during the pandemic and as my daughter has been called back to working in the office this past week. What burdens are you carrying that you can give over to God for his power and might to work through?

During these difficult times it can be tough to keep the faith or remain positive with the illness, isolation, and death we are having to face or hear about on a daily basis. It is particularly important now to be steadfast in our faith and to remain positive amongst the uncertainty. The Pastor Greg Wilcox in a recent Facebook Live stream suggested five practices that can help us keep our faith in a Holy God strong during these times:

Take some time away. Isolation can give us too much time to ourselves, too much time to get stuck in our heads. Take a walk or a drive. Process what is going on. Take time to be able to think.
Pray. Connect with the one you trust. Draw on that sense of the promise and power of God’s love for you. Remember that you are not alone and there is one who loves you.
Laugh. Laughter is critical in heavy times. Take an opportunity to push away the heaviness and enjoy the light-heartedness of laughter. Laughter can lighten a heavy situation.
Take time for something or someone you love. This can be family or friends. It can be hobbies. Focusing on something you love, can really give you something to look forward to.
Finally, be grateful. We tend to only focus on the negative. There’s a whole lot of it. We’re stuck at home, the businesses around us are closed, we can’t go to the mall, we go to the grocery store and the shelves are empty. If we can intentionally look away from the negative things and focus on what we have to be grateful for, that can significantly shift our perspective and our attitude.

I pray that you hold on tight to your faith and do what it takes to keep it strong. By keeping our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are able to approach God through his son with our sins and our burdens. By the blood of the lamb of God the barriers have been broken and through our faith, the doors have been opened to approach the unapproachable light of God through Jesus Christ his son. Hallelujah. Amen.

New Testament Lesson: Hebrews 11:1-7
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. 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.

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain’s. Through this he received approval as righteous, God himself giving approval to his gifts; he died, but through his faith he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken so that he did not experience death; and “he was not found, because God had taken him.” For it was attested before he was taken away that “he had pleased God.” And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. By faith Noah, warned by God about events as yet unseen, respected the warning and built an ark to save his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with faith.

Gospel Lesson: John 21:1-14
After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. 8 But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.
When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Meditations For Your Week

Sunday, May 10 ~ Saturday, May 16, 2020

Sunday: “Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, ‘Children, you have no fish have you?’ They answered him ‘No.’ He said to them, ‘Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.’ So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there we so many fish.” (John 21:4-6 NRSV). Do you feel like you are spinning your wheels and getting nowhere? Throw aside self-reliance and ask the Lord to show you the way to move forward.
Monday: “When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, ‘Bring some of the fish that you just caught.’” Even though Jesus helped the disciples successfully catch fish after a night of catching nothing, he still had breakfast prepared for them when they arrived. Jesus is always prepared and ready for us to come to him. What do you need to take to the cross today to have Jesus help you with?
Tuesday: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1). Through a personal relationship with Jesus our faith grows stronger. Remember today, that you can have faith when you know what you are having faith in.
Wednesday: “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain’s. Through this he received approval as righteous, God himself giving approval to his gifts; he died, but through his faith he still speaks.” (Hebrews 11:4 NRSV) God accepted Abel’s offering as better than Cain’s because it was offered in faith. Pray for clarity that the time, talents, and resources you give to the Lord are also given in faith.
Thursday: “And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6 NRSV) Works alone are not enough to earn salvation. Think about when you do service for the Lord. Ensure you are doing it out of faith in knowing the one true God and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Friday: “By faith Noah, warned by God about events as yet unseen, respected the warning and build an ark to save his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with faith.” Have you felt a nudging that there is something God wants you to be doing, but you are afraid to try it? Have the faith of Noah and trust that God will see you through it.
Saturday: “You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book! How precious it is, Lord, to realize that you are thinking about me constantly!” (Psalm 139:16-17 TLB) Pray each day knowing that God hears you and is thinking of you always.