Sermon for the 9th Sunday of Pentecost
Rev David Howells
Grace Church in Scarborough
Date 2013.08.02
Believing IN...
Lucy and I were in BC for our Summer vacation. We had lived there for three years prior to coming
to Toronto, and for fun we particularly wanted to repeat some of the spectacular walks that had
been our delights in the past.
Mystic Beach had been my favourite spot on the island. Just a half hour drive from Victoria up the
West coast of Vancouver Island this beach lies across the water from the end of the Olympic
Mountains that, like a sheltering hand, protect the south of the island from the strength of the
Pacific Ocean. Mystic Beach has a real wilderness about it, huddled under a cliff and shrouded in
forest it is exposed to the waves that can crash in a storm or break with a tumble in good weather.
We got to the place where you leave the car and begin to walk. It should be a half hour stroll
through the woods, we remembered. But half an hour on we were still in the midst of towering
trees The old trees are huge! The spread of the roots above ground could fill the chapel. Majestic,
but where was the beach? On and on we went. Over an hour later we heard the waves. Exhausted,
we climbed down to the beach and were filled with joy at the beauty of the place.
This sort of mis-remembering repeated itself. The worst was on a steep walk up Mount Work,
appropriately named! Again a 30minute climb had grown to an hour and a quarter. And it had
become steeper!
Each of our walks had this same element of finding ourselves half way along a much bigger
expedition than we had prepared for. Each time we both began to wonder if we could do it. Could
we keep going? Was it worth it? Did we have the stamina? Would the top of the mountain ever
appear?
What is going on when you are half way through something much bigger than you expected? I
think it is a struggle between doubting yourself and believing in yourself. “Oh. I can’t do this. It’s
too hard!” or “I think I can do this! Yes, I will do this!” Or together, “Yes. We can do this and
encourage each other on.”
It becomes something, not about the walk, but about yourself, or the person you are with. It is
about believing in yourself.
Amazingly Lucy and I managed all the walks we began and the destinations more than amply
rewarded us. They became moments to build belief in ourselves.
Someone asked Jesus, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” and he replied, “This is
the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
Oddly it is not “Believe him”, or “Believe that he is the Messiah”, but “Believe in him”.
So often people think Christianity is a religion that requires you to sign up for a whole list of
beliefs. Our Creeds sound like that too.
But Jesus didn’t say anything about how many un-provable things you have to believe, or how
many theological statements you have to agree to that begin, “I believe that….”
Jesus said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
When you believe in yourself, like Lucy and I had to do, as the expected hilltop did not appear as
expected, but just seemed to get further and further away, then you are doing something more like
trust, or confidence, or even like gambling on what you think is a sure winner.
So believing in Jesus is about trusting him, having confidence that he is right, and risking yourself
to go along with him.
Where this meditation is taking me is that something other than affirming a creed is what Jesus
asks for.
From today’s Psalm it goes that way too, saying;
You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
From today’s Ephesians reading it says:
Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with
patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in
the bond of peace.
To believe in Jesus is to trust yourself to being like him. The works of God then become growing
the truthfulness of your inner being, inner wisdom, a heart that is clean and a spirit which is right
with God and with your actual, real neighbours.
The works of God then become living humbly, in gentleness, being patient with people, bearing
even unbearable people, and doing everything in love. It is about not getting into “us and them”
thinking, but always looking for the points of unity and valuing peace in the way Jesus did.
Now this is not at all about doctrines and theologies. This, which Jesus calls “the works of God”,
this is about how you do things, how you govern your self, how you treat people, what you
consider to be the guiding principles of your life.
I have known people who say that being a Christian is about being right, and you are free to
condemn and dismiss people who disagree with you. Well, that is an easy way to live, inside your
own bigotries. You don’t need to believe in anyone when you are comfortable in your rightness.
But to believe in the One whom God has sent means choosing to trust a way of life that does not
offer you security, or strength or victory or power. It means trusting that you walk up the
mountains of life with the Spirit of Jesus beside you.
Often the mountains will seem higher and harder than you ever imagined. You say,
“Oh. I can’t do this. It’s too hard!” but believing in Jesus you find you can say “I think I can do this!
Yes, I will do this!” Or together, “Yes. We can do this and encourage each other on.”
When you decided to join in the unknown journey of amalgamation it was by believing in Jesus,
trusting that this mountain climb would be OK. When Graham started to offer hot dogs to anyone
who is hungry on Wednesday lunchtime he did so believing in the Spirit of Jesus who feeds the
hungry and cares for the outcast. When I leave Grace Church without knowing what happens next
I do so believing in Jesus walking with me.
The works of God are to live your life with the Spirit of Jesus within you (as within you as the
bread and wine you eat and drink in church is within you)
The works of God are not just creeds and loyalties, they are living your life in a Christ-like way.
May you be blessed to overcome your safe and sure responses and open your heart and mind to
find the way of Christ.