This religion thing is not calculated. We learn about doctrine. We can recite (maybe) the Ten Commandments. We’ve memorized important phrases like “God is love.” We know a few Bible passages by heart, maybe the 23rd Psalm. These are all foundations of our Christian religion. But those foundations don’t quite get us to Faith. Faith is about feeling. Faith is about feeling confidence and energy and purpose. Faith isn’t theology and it’s not intellectual. Faith is an experience, a feeling of trust in the God you cannot see, but whose work is all around us. Faith is peace of mind in the middle of chaos and disappointment. Faith is comfort when attacked by badly motivated people doing you wrong. Faith is happiness, even joy driving out anxiety and fear and disappointment. But faith takes practice.
Paul describes faith as putting on the “full armor of God” by hearing and believing the scripture., Faith is also taking up the sword of the Spirit. The sword of the spirit is an odd phrase. But the sword of the spirit is a powerful weapon. It’s found by asking for and accepting the gifts of the Spirit. God’s Holy Spirit has given you gifts, even if you are late to realize who gave you that gift and to what purpose. And it’s never too late to find it and use it. Whatever the natural gift or talent you have, you also have the gift of faith. Like your other gifts and talents, it’s important to be persistent in polishing it, nurturing it. Hone your gift like the fine weapon it will be when God calls on you to use it. It takes practice.
A short story. My family’s dairy farm was in a small town just north of Boston. We only had 30 acres, so aside from a little sweet corn we sold from a roadside stand for 25 cents a dozen, and the big vegetable garden that fed us all summer, we used most of the land to pasture our 72 cows.
One of my jobs as a kid was to “mind the cows” as we called it. A shepherd. We had electric fences around the pastures. We also had a mix of cows, a lot of docile Holsteins, but also some mischievous Ayrshires. Those Scotland-bred cows would use their horns to goad and push the sweet Holsteins into the electric fence. The fence would break and those Ayrshires would trot straight into the sumptuous feeding buffet of our neighbors’ lawns and gardens. This was not good. Very not good. Larry the Shepherd had to do a lot of running around to protect the different sections of the pastures. This was a problem since I always had short legs and am definitely not built to be a sprinter. I needed a better solution than running after the troublemakers.
When the cows were back in the barn - and my father was not around - I used to bat rocks across the lower pasture down behind the milk room. It was farther across than the distance to the wall in center at the old Braves Field in Boston. It was maybe five or six hundred feet across to the woods. But I never could whack a stone more than maybe a few hundred feet. That was just a pop fly at Braves Field. I’d be out. I had a fantasy about getting a stone all the way across, clearing the center-field fence for a homer, but no way could I do it.
All Jewish kids knew the story of little David and the giant Philistine Goliath. How David had a shepherd's sling he had been practicing with for years while protecting his flock. He used that same sling to put the threatening Neanderthal Goliath down. You can guess what I did. Faith and fantasy combined, and I experimented making rawhide slings with a leather pouch for stones. I practiced whipping and firing the sling over and over until I could put the stone pretty much where I wanted to.
One day, curious to see how powerful the sling could really be, I picked up a good sized smooth stone, whipped it around and let it fly across the field. It went so far and fast I lost sight of it, way across the field I saw leaves move, then heard a solid clunk of rock whacking against tree-trunk. David putting down Goliath with a shepherd’s sling wasn’t just a story, it was real. I saw how I could use a sling and small stone as “Larry’s air weapon” to, ahem, caution those wily Ayrshires from way across the field. I could keep those Ayrshires away from the fence. I kept practicing and it worked.
David spent years working with his sling, tending Dad’s sheep and goats and, when necessary, knocking down a predator. David was ready when the call came. God called and he confidently put his skill to God’s use. A very practical and practiced use of both talent and faith.
“Here am I” said David. David rejected King Saul’s heavy armor and calling on the name of God, David calmly and confidently selected five smooth stones from the wadi. As Goliath lumbered towards him, David preemptively struck by air. His sling brought down Goliath. David’s practiced and honed skill was ready at the moment of need.
Today as always there is an enemy, an opposer. Sometimes on all sides. Each of us needs to be ready to use our skills and talents in confidence when God presents the need. We need to be able and willing to answer, “Here am I, send me.”
So what are our weapons? Do we need armor or slingshots? Unless you’re dealing with Ayrshires, I think not. No, I think we need to work constantly to strengthen our faith and confidence and trust in God who acts. And who acts in God’s own time.
Psalm 9 reminds us; The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. 10 And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you... The nations have sunk in the pit that they made; in the net that they hid has their own foot been caught. 16 The LORD has made himself known, he has executed judgment; the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands.
I think so often we feel abandoned by God. The world is so full of troubles. It’s easy to get so focused on our problems, on whatever is battering us, assaulting us, threatening us, punishing us, scaring us. We forget God is here in the same boat with us. And he’s given us the faith and strength and power to endure and overcome and bring the peace of Shalom to any situation. But we’ve got to use it or lose it.
Where to start? One possibility is to take time every day to look for God around us. A brief Scripture reflection to encourage us and then a look at here and now. God IS here with us, but we often don’t see that because we aren’t looking. We see our problems. We think God is MIA. Pause, look around. God IS here with us. Maybe God will call us to take action, maybe to walk with someone in sorrow, maybe we’re simply called to be grateful. But we will see God there and we’ll be practicing our faith; strengthening that faith muscle.
Paul in Second Corinthians urges us to remember God’s grace when things get tough. Paul reminds the Corinthian church of what he’s been through as a disciple. The litany of woes is not much different in degree from what many of us have gone through: Paul has suffered in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger. Yet, Paul says, we have endured...6by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, 7truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute.
In the midst of all these woes he brings to mind the weapons of righteousness and the power of God, the faith and strength and confidence faith brings to find peaceful Shalom in the middle of these storms. We can prepare those weapons.
The Gospel of Mark gives us a perfect storm story. The apostles were in a boat on the big lake heading for the far shore. A great windstorm arose and the waves rose up and began to swamp the boat. Jesus was with them, and asleep in the stern of the little boat. He was sleeping peacefully, but they were wide awake and filled with fear of death by drowning. Did they pray as Jesus’ taught? Did they in faith ask and expect their daily bread, their basic need for survival would be met? Did they in confident fearlessness confront the terrifying wind and waves? Did they even ask what God was up to with this storm? They were being tested... and did not rise to the challenge.
Instead, they turned to Jesus and actually rebuked him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” What about US?
Jesus wakes up, and first rebukes the wind, then comforts the sea. Peace, shalom, Be still. The wind dies down and stops. Dead calm. The sea is still. Then Jesus surprises the disciples. He turns to them and asks, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith? Their jaws dropped. and they gave Jesus no answer. Instead, they turned to one another, and said to one another, “Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?
They didn’t get it. Even after traveling with Jesus, listening to him, questioning him, seeing the miracles he performed, his own disciples still didn’t quite get it. They had failed to look for God in their lives. Like us. We know the stories of the Bible, we study, we pray. But when hard stuff happens, when life happens, because we are just human we can forget who’s in the boat with and what he told us. Jesus is in the boat with us, and he reminds us, gently, no rebuke. He reminds us to keep in mind that God is in charge. Perfect peace can be ours.
David showed that with preparation and practice, and with calm faith in God, when you are called on, God can multiply and power your faith beyond any human expectation. God knows our weaknesses and our human nature. He literally has made allowance for it. We are not perfect, and we may give in to our troubles. We may forget that God is with us. Forgetfulness is in our nature as forgiveness is in God’s essence. We need each other to remind and practice with each other that God is here, in the boat with us. We are not alone. Never alone.
We come to church both to honor God and to exercise our faith. A practiced faith is always at hand. God does not sleep. Always in God’s own time and purpose, God will require your talent and your faith and your strength. Practice it. Practice it. Practice it. You never know when God will call on you to use it. God will comfort you in your need, and you will comfort others in theirs.
You will be astounded at what God and you can do.