The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation

West Point, Mississippi

The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 5](A)

Genesis 12.1-9 Psalm 33.1-12 Romans 4.13-25 Matthew 9.9-13, 18-26

May the Lord be in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart, that

I may rightly and truly proclaim His holy Word. Amen.

Outline of a Sermon Delivered Extemporaneously

1) It’s been said that when we can’t explain something about God and belief we tend to fall back on the formula of saying, “Well, it’s a mystery,” or “Well, you have to have faith.”

a) Let’s pass over the detail of what it really means to say something is a mystery, and how that does not mean that it is unknowable, and look at an anatomy of faith.

2) In today’s lessons we are given examples of faith:

a) Abraham obeying the Lord, and leaving his native country.

b) Matthew following Jesus.

c) The leader of the synagogue coming to Jesus, and saying of his already dead daughter, “[L]ay your hand on her, and she will live.”

d) The woman suffering from hemorrhages seeking Jesus, saying, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.”

3) Paul also speaks of faith as that which is “reckoned to” us who believe as righteousness.

a) Of faith justifying us, allowing us to stand before God.

i) To stand before God despite our fallen state, as redeemed by Jesus’ sacrifice and our faith that by His sacrifice we are redeemed.

4) So let’s take a look at faith.

a) I could get a little technical here, and talk about faith involving both assent and trust.

b) I could look very much at faith as belief in action.

c) But, for today. I’d like to focus on the relationship involved in faith.

i) On the fact that we have faith not just in something, some idea or teaching, but in someone.

5) We have faith in God.

a) We have faith in God whom we call “Father” at His own invitation (Luke 11.2).

i) Whom we call Father as the One who created and provides for us.

b) We have faith in God whom enters our hearts when we open them to Him; who enters as the Spirit who leads and guides us into all truth (John 15.17).

c) And we have faith in God who tells us that we are His brothers and sisters when we do His will (Mark 3.35).

i) We have faith in this same Brother who died for us.

6) We have faith in someone, and that’s what happens in each of the examples of faith we are given in today’s lessons:

a) Abraham is not instructed by the Lord. The Lord speaks and he acts.

b) Matthew does not respond to an idea, but to the call of a person, of Jesus saying “Follow me”.

c) And the leader of the synagogue and the woman with the issue of blood do not come to Jesus seeking dialogue, or instruction.

i) They seek Jesus the person.

ii) They seek relationship with that person.

7) And are we any different?

a) Regardless of how we are called to a knowledge of the content of our faith (because assent and not just trust are necessary for a more mature faith), if we’re honest with ourselves we recognize that we in general do not come to Sunday worship to learn anything.

i) We come to have a relationship with God, to better know the Person and to offers ourselves in relationship.

(1) Assent comes after trust.

(a) When Jesus calls, He doesn’t offer instruction: to Matthew or any other disciple, or to Paul on the Damascus Road.

(i) He says “Follow me.”

8) That’s what He says to each one of us. “Follow me.”

a) He calls us to identify ourselves with Him, to follow Him that we may know Him, know His will for us, and do it.

b) And when we do follow, we follow because of trust.

i) Trust first because someone else has told us about Jesus and that we should follow Him.

ii) But trust above all when we come to know Jesus, that our trust is founded on that individual relationship.

9) Think of the times in your life when you have acted not on an idea or even desire, but because or who asked you to act.

a) Maybe it was a family member or dear friend.

i) You acted because you trusted that whoever asked to act asked not just because of self-interest.

(1) In other words, you acted because you trusted the person who asked.

(a) And to do this, you needed to have a real relationship with him or her.

10) And so it is with God.

a) And so this Sunday, let’s focus not on what God teaches us or the Church teaches us in His Name, but on the fact that God calls each one of us by name to have a personal relationship with Him.

i) A personal relationship that we can then share, trusting Him when He says, “[W]here two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18.20).

b) Let’s look on Matthew, who hears “Follow me” and follows.

c) Let’s look on the ruler of the synagogue, who says, in effect, “Lord, if you act, it will be.”

d) Let’s look on the woman who suffered from hemorrhages, who said that if she could just reach out to God He would act in her life.

e) And in looking on each one of these examples of faith let us then remember the words of Paul, when he teaches that our faith will be reckoned to us as righteousness, that our faith in the Lord whose name means “God saves” will allow that verb to act in our own lives.

i) Our faith will live and act, just as God lives and acts.

(1) Our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior will be that relationship with Him which saves us, that He may turn to us too and say:

“Take heart ...; your faith has saved you” (Matt. 9.22)

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.