Sheringham: St Peter

How’s your faith today?

This week?

This month? Year?

Have you removed many mountains, lately? How’s about raised the dead, or healed the very sick,

or someone deaf,

or mute,

or lame?

When was the last time you made a packed lunch sate the hunger of maybe 15,000 people?

Right.

OK. I thought as much!

I think as much about my life, along the same lines.

Every day.

It does seem to be a conundrum, doesn’t it?

How many times have you been blamed for “not having enough faith?” Or blamed yourself? Or blamed someone else? It’s an egregious offense throughout the Church – especially among some of the more extreme – and extremist - fundamentalists, at least.

You know what I mean.

So, what’s wrong with my faith? Because there must be something, surely; or my friend would not have died of cancer; my son would have passed his driving test; my mother’s broken neck would have been healed as soon as I asked God, wouldn’t it? [And I mean this personally.]

So, what’s going on in today’s Epistle reading, then?

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesian Church, he emphasised this, about faith: “For by grace you have been saved by faith; and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, lest anyone should boast.” Many translations seem to favour the word “salvation” to be the object of the word “that” in “that not of yourselves...” Historically more recent scholarship points to a different emphasis. In the latest paraphrase translation, The Mirror Bible (and commentary), we read Ephesians 2:8 from another angle:

Your salvation is not a reward for good behaviour! It was a grace thing from start to finish; you had no hand in it. Even the gift to believe simply reflects [God’s] faith. Indeed, word-for-word translation of the Greek gives us “By Grace you are having been saved by the gift of faith; grace reveals who we are, and the faith of God persuades us of it. It was God’s faith to begin with!”

Our text from Hebrews 11 informs us that “faith is the assurance – the substantiation – even the certainty - of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The Mirror Bible goes further:

Persuasion confirms confident expectation and proves the unseen world to be more real than the seen. Faith celebrates as certain what hope visualizes as future. And to verse 3: Faith alone explains what is not apparent to the natural eye; how the ages were perfectly framed by the Word of God. Now we understand that everything visible has its origin in the invisible.

EVERYTHING VISIBLE HAS ITS ORIGIN IN THE INVISIBLE.

Which is how Paul could write with joyfully shouty letters:

For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and in the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created through Him and for Him.

Jesus said if we have the faith the size of a mustard seed we could move mountains, heal the sick, raise the dead and have the demons running for their lives!

It is not my faith - that is to say, the faith I can muster in and by myself; It is not your faith you have to beg, borrow, or sweat up by your own effort (“lest any of us boast,” said Paul!) but God’s Grace-Given Gift to enable, enliven and empower us EVERY. SINGLE. MINUTE. EVERY. DAY.

Further down in the same letter to the Hebrews we read:

“ Therefore [because God has provided something better for us] since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race set before us, fixing our [faithful] eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector [Origin and Completion, Alpha and Omega] of faith…”

We are also reminded that without faith it is impossible to please God – so He gave us His own!

How about that?

It is all distilled into the one glorious and all-encompassing word Hebrew ḥeseḏ - which our translations routinely translate as “lovingkindness,” or “steadfast love” or, sometimes, “faithfulness” or “loyalty” and is better appreciated as “God’s Covenant Love.” Which is why I have it tattooed afresh on my arm!

It is why Paul can assert “I am crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And the life I live in this body, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loves me and gave himself up for me.”

The faith of Jesus Christ IN you is the power of your salvation because it is the gift of God to you and for you!

Trust is faith; faith is Trust. TRUST GOD – Father, Son and Holy Mothering Spirit, for They, alone, are trustworthy!

Let us stand, then, if willing and able, and repeat these glorious truths about ourselves, together, shall we?

“I am crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And the life I live in this body, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loves me and gave himself up for me.”

Toby Perks, LLM in training

Sheringham: St Peter

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