Words for Worship

Ministry Today

Faith builder 6

 

Using Faith

 

I don’t know  if you caught the first episode of the new TV series –

Robin Hood last Saturday. Now if you are wanting historical accuracy

this is not the place to look. For I suspect that the Sheriff of Nottingham’s men

would not wear berets and capes nor I think that maid Marion

was an expert kick-boxer.  In other words, the whole show was a sort

of Magna Carta meets Dr Who with the SAS thrown in for good measure.

 

Yet as an over-the top-display of martial arts wobbled about an medieval market square, I realised that the difference between a sword and a shield

was crucial to faith building. For the former is obviously for defence

and the latter for offence. But the shield is also a negative object

as it only protects the status quo nor does it aid advancement.

 

Put bluntly, defence just staves off defeat.

 

The sword on the other hand is a positive in the sense of causing change, movement  forward and the achievement of a personal victory. And in a way

faith can be both shield and sword. Most of the time we use it to protect

what we believe, to shield the things we want to stay the same or as a defensive hope we can put things back to where they were.

 

Of course, this is an entirely legitimate use of faith – but sometimes that is a limited even negative deployment of God’s gift. If you want an illustration,

its a bit like using a Formula One racing car to drive to the shops.

 

For faith can be infinitely more powerful on the offensive. Because then it forces us genuinely to win new ground.

 

And if you don’t believe me listen to what our lord said and did

with the sword of faith.  Please now read Matt. 17.14-21

 

 

 

Now if you think that faith  is dead. Wait to you hear this tale.  

Early this year,  Britain’s top woman paraglider pilot told how she cheated death after two huge eagles attacked her, sending her into 8,000 foot drop

above the Australian Outback. Nicky Moss thought “Why me?”

when the eagles came screeching out of the sky and began shredding

the fabric wing of her paraglider. In fact, one of the bird got  caught in the lines of the glider sending her into a freefall. “It collapsed the glider completely. We were plummeting for 1600 feet before the eagle got himself out,” she said.

 

 

She went on -  “I screamed at the eagles. I just had to carry on flying.

 

I got out of the skies as quickly as I could by doing some manoeuvres and at about 300 feet from the ground the eagles left me alone.

 

I landed safely in a paddock.”

 

 

 “Everybody said I was very lucky,” said Nicky. ”

 

There then was someone who risked her life to nylon strings and sheeting –

a great faith indeed!

 

Well, I hope you too have a great faith – this time in something less fallable than a paraglider. Yet believe it or not comparing faith to a paraglider is quite useful. Because a hang glider looks remarkably like that ultimate symbol of safety a parachute.However, the former can be used for something

far more exciting and stand fast eagle attacks something far more enjoyable than the latter.

 

Becuase with parachute you can only come to earth safely but with a hang glider you soar over mountains. One then is defensive and preventative

whilst the other is positive and adventurous.

 

Just - as we have already said – like the two faces of faith.

 

But faith has even more dimensions than that – because it can move mountains as well.

 

Matt. 11.4-10

 

 

There was once a young businessman in Germany named Neckerman who had a burning ambition to build his small shop into a large chain of department stores.  

 

His problem was that no one knew his name. He couldn't attract customers.

 

He had only limited capital.Now as this was shortly after World War II,

there were vast shortages in Germany. Therefore, the established big shops saw no reason to cut prices. Neckerman in turn saw this as an opportunity.

 

As it happened, Neckerman managed to acquire a large shipment

of spools of thread.  Thread was in great demand in those days

as women were constantly repairing their families' old garments.

 

The obvious step then for Neckerman would have been to sell

these bobbins in his own store. Instead he offered the thread

to the largest department store chain in Germany at only a slight profit.

 

However as German housewives finished their spools of thread,

a piece of paper that had been wrapped around the spool’s spindle fluttered out. It read like this:

IF YOU HAD BOUGHT

THIS THREAD AT NECKERMAN'S,

IT WOULD HAVE LASTED TWICE AS LONG.  

 

Overnight, everyone knew the name Neckerman. From then on,

the firm had no trouble attracting customers.

 

And that is the clearest example of an attacking,  aggressive even audacious faith as I can give. So if we want to use our faith

as sword rather than a shield - where do we start.

 

And probably the best is where we already are!

 

All we need do is turn the defensive into the attack.

 

Because I am very aware of the great contribution that this congregation collectively & individually makes to charities.  

 

And for that I am enormously grateful. But do we get enormous joy and sense of achievement from our giving?  

 

For if you are like me, I often give out of a sense of distress for the plight

of the orphan in Africa or the flood victim in Bangladesh.

 

I am sure you do to and that is good as we are giving from sense of compassion.

 

We give also because we are aware we a generally well provided-for

with a good medical service, secure food supplyand a stable nation.

 

Put another way we often give out of gratitude.

 

And once again – that is a pretty laudable motive and I know the Lord notices.

 

Yet sometimes when we give even from these motivations we feel less than positive.

 

In fact, we don’t feel like an attacker at all. For deep down

we feel probably we didn’t really change things – our small effort

will only have a minimal effect and our hard earned dough might not

even go to the right place. And a result of our negativity

we get no real satisfaction in giving.

 

But if we use our faith as it is meant not now as a shield but as sword to cut through our doubts – we can get true enjoyment from our action.

 

Because, as we give, we should say to ourselves – I have today

achieved a success from the Spirit’s urging. Therefore, I have changed someone’s world for the better – I have done some child in need some good

and my donation will be used well. I have helped a people not so much to climb another mountain but start to get their mountain size problem out of their way.

 

 For be in do doubt that whatever we offer to the lord

he will use it, he amplify it and wield it to sort things out.

 

So next time you give – be in a positive spirit about it

and get real pleasure in it for you have made a real advancement in faith.

 

And that is something to walk tall about.

 

As a youngster I was addicted to the Swallows and amazons books of Arthur Ransome. But that whole series starts with the Walker family having a picnic

in a Lakeside field when their father’s telegram comes allowing them to go sailing on Windermere.

 

And it is the somewhat enigmatic message – better drowned than duffers – if not duffers won’t drown!Well, the church today often takes up

defence stations behind the first part of a similar message from God.

 

And that is – better faithful than successful. Yet it then fails to read on

to the offensive bit which say – if faithful will be successful.

 

 

For who has not felt that the Christian Church at the moment

is a bit embattled. In all honesty, sometimes we bathe in a certain righteous pleasure as being Britain’s faithful remnant. But if we go onto the attack

and use the weapon of faith it need not be that way. For if do want

to thrust aside the mountain of disinterest before us then we must use some savvy.

 

We must grasp that Christian faith will be adopted by others

when they can see its benefits to them.For just we started

by ascertaining we have faith because it bestows meaning and purpose and joy then so must others want these too.

 

Indeed, if not for themselves then for their children.

 

For being young today must be a most bewildering experience.

 

One moment, computerised make-believe violence the next gun crime

with real blood and corpses; One moment, texts and mobile phone calls

from friends and the next all alone in a consumer jungle. One moment,

the Australian soaps agonising over fictitious love affairs

and the next the authentic quicksand of the ever shifting relationships

in their own family.

 

Strange days and days that can be made much easier with the direction of meaning; a clear sense of purpose and the assuring joy that the church

is a place of active certainty, of  clarity, of honesty and wholesomeness.  

 

All we need do then is to unleash the faith that  Christ’s bride has something priceless to offer now and the courage to attack by telling people about it.

 

For just as a Robert burns once wrote faint heart ne’er won a lady fair

then let us recall that faint faith never won anyone. Conversely,  

as Michael Portillo infamously reminded us – who dares – wins!

 

Maybe you have managed to see my short video clip on the website giving a message in illness. Now I have to say I did not make it lightly. For it is easy

when one is not ill to be trite even utterly insensitive when talking about faith

to those who are ill. And it is at this point I have to declare a certain theological viewpoint. Because if I was the Divine, I would be tempted to legal action

against those sanctimonious individuals who suggest he sends serious tribulations purely as trials.

 

Because any reading of the New Testament shows that Jesus never ever inflicted illness or any other harm upon anyone. Rather, he went out his way

to cure and to relieve and to save humans burdened with all the miseries

that life can throw at them.  We should then be in no doubt that the Gospel

of which Christ spoke to John’s disciples about is unalloyed good news

for all not least the afflicted. How then do we start to find that gospel

for our own arduous situation?

 

 

May I suggest not with a defensive faith but an offensive and crusading faith.

 

For faith as a weapon has one mighty advantage over one that is a mere citadel

to ward off problems. It allows us to move out and confront life’s difficulties with an axe in hand. It can lay a sharp blade at the roots of our torment

and it can chop away until the gospel of hope is our own experience

and campaign medal. So if today you face some foe, then summon up faith

as a sword and sally forth to meet it.

 

For that is to lay about with a will and strike the situation down to size;

for that is to clear our view so that we can see Jesus’ arm reaching out across the fight strengthening us till the war is won.

 

 Born in Yugoslavia, she responded to God's call and became

a missionary nurse in Calcutta. Years later this woman who established colonies for over 10,000 lepers in 28 cities was interviewed by Malcolm Muggeridgefrom the BBC News.

 

"Mother Teresa,

the thing I noticed

about you a

nd the hundreds of sisters

who now form your team

is that you all look so happy

, is that a put-on?"

 

She replied, "Oh no, not at all.

 

Nothing makes you happier than when you really reach out in mercy to someone who is badly hurt.”

 

There then was true warrior for the gospel. And faithful warriors we need to be too.

 

For positive faith makes our little efforts soar above the mountains

of doubt that we all have.  Faith too is ever a weapon for conquest

rather than just as a stopper of further decline in disinteresting times.

 

And faith is better brandished as a demolishing cleaver than a distrustful hideaway during personal strife. Because faith as both sword and shield

is just what the letter to the Hebrews promised.  

 

Let then our refuge and battle cry always be –

faith is the assurance

of things hoped for

and the certainty

of what we cannot see.

 

Amen

 

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