One Step at a Time

What the heck is faith, anyway? And what does it have to do with us other than in church on Sunday? If you choose to read this sermon, it may suggest some answers to those questions.

Faith is one of the most used words in our Christian vocabulary! Faith, after all, is one of the foundations of our resurrected life. In the book of I Corinthians (13:13), Paul says that faith is a part of the “Big Three” – faith, hope, and love. And in his first letter (5:4), John says that our faith is “the victory that has overcome the world.” That’s pretty powerful stuff! But it makes me wonder what “faith” is, anyway. We use the word “faith” at least as much as we use the word “love,” but we don’t usually stop to think about what it means.

What does the Bible say about faith? The most famous definition of “faith” in Scripture is the first verse of chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews. Many people know that verse by heart. In the King James Version, it goes like this: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  That’s clear as mud, isn’t it? So let’s put that verse in more modern language: “Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we don’t see.” We have faith when we rely on God’s promises, knowing we can’t prove that those promises are reliable. No experiment with test tubes and boiling liquids will ever prove that God’s promises are true. We either believe them or we don’t. Faith is believing that God is reliable in his promises to us. But what does that mean for us Christians as we live our daily lives? What does faith have to do with making breakfast and going to work and paying the bills? Before we get to that – and we will – let’s take a look at what faith isn’t; because there are a lot of mistaken notions out there about Christian faith!

First of all, having faith doesn’t mean believing in things that are impossible. Atheists frequently accuse Christians of doing just that. “Faith in God,” they say, “is just a delusion. Do you believe that pigs can fly, too?” These folks think that we Christians are like one of the characters in the book Alice in Wonderland, who exclaimed, “Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” Believing in impossibilities may be imagination or whimsy or humor; but it’s not faith. Faith also isn’t magic like Love Potion #9, although there are plenty of Christians who consider their faith to be just that. “If I only had more faith,” they say, “then I would be able to…” You can finish that sentence any way you like. “If I only had more faith, I could make a million dollars… I’d be able to lose 50 pounds… I’d be patient with my mother-in-law.” But these folks are confusing faith with skills or ability. Let’s face it, no matter how much faith each of us has, there are some things that we will never be able to do. I can have all the faith I want, but I’ll never be an Olympic basketball player! And faith doesn’t guarantee divine rewards, either, even though a lot of people believe that it does. They twist faith into a way to please God. Having more faith, they say, makes God happy with you; and if God is happy with you, you have a better life. You make more money; you have more friends. But this makes God into a divine dog trainer. If you have faith, you get a biscuit. Obviously, then, if you don’t have many biscuits – if your life is difficult – you must not have very much faith. But this is a terrible misunderstanding! Having a difficult life doesn’t mean that you have no faith. After all, Jesus had the most faith of anyone in history, and his life was very difficult, indeed! No, faith has nothing to do with having an easy life. Faith is something else entirely.

So if faith isn’t believing in impossibilities, or magic, or a way to get a good life, then what is it? Faith is quite simply, believing that God is on our side. Faith is trusting that God has your back! Now, that doesn’t mean that God will pull you out of every mess that you get yourself into. Faith isn’t an insurance policy. But it does mean that God is with us through thick and thin, good times and bad, whether we’re healthy or sick, rich or poor, elated or depressed. So, now we come to the practical side of faith. What does that mean for us Christians as we live our daily lives? What does faith have to do with making breakfast and going to work and paying the bills? It means just this: we can go forward in joy and confidence! It means that we can’t do anything that will make God abandon us. It means that wherever we go and whatever we do, God is there, too. Now, beware! Having faith doesn’t mean that we can plan out our whole lives and expect God to buy into our plan. In fact, if we do that, we might be in for some surprises! You know what they say: If you want to give God a good laugh, make plans! But it does mean that we can go through our lives step by step, one day at a time, knowing that God is walking beside us, ready to help us whenever we ask for that help!

The best image of faith that I have ever seen is in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. If you’ve seen it, you know that archaeologist Indiana Jones is working with his father to find the long-lost Holy Grail. But, of course, the bad guys want it, too! Near the end of the movie, those bad guys shoot Indiana’s father, who lies dying in the cave of the Grail. Only by going to fetch the Grail can Indiana save the life of his father. But to get it, he has to risk his life by solving three tests. He successfully solves the first two, avoiding both falling into a pit beneath the crumbling pathway and being beheaded by a whirling sword. But the third test requires “a step of faith” into a deep chasm with a certain fall to death on the rocks below. There is no other way across. So Indiana closes his eyes and steps into thin air, only to feel his foot land on solid ground! A hidden bridge has been there all the time, invisible until the first step was taken. Faith leads us the very same way, one step at a time. As we look into the future, all we can see are deep, threatening chasms; and we are afraid to move because we’re afraid of falling over the edge into their depths. We can’t see the bridges that are right in front of us, because they are only visible when we step out in faith.

In the gospel of John, Jesus meets a lame man and asks him if he wants to be healed (John 5:1-9). Jesus then invites him to take a step – just one step. When the lame man does it, he is healed. That man isn’t so different than we are. We all need to be healed, too; and all Jesus asks of us is to begin that healing by taking just one step in faith. Sometimes the healing that we need is personal. At a recent denominational gathering, the keynote speaker was a woman who has dealt with mental illness all of her life. She described her shame at realizing that her family was different than others; and her fear that other people would discover her secret. It took her a long time to take the first step towards healing; but when she did, she eventually found the health and peace that Christ offers to us. Other times, that healing involves many of us. Sometimes, it involves a whole congregation. Take our church, for example. We’re a very healthy church. Our worship attendance has remained stable for the last several years; and our giving continues to be generous. But we have some problems. There are very few children in our Sunday school program. The activities that have meant so much to us for years aren’t attracting the attendance that they once did. And while we have an active group of young adults, most members of our church are on the older side. Our church needs some healing. And all that Jesus asks us to do is to take one step in faith. Now, I know that’s hard to do! When we look around, all that we can see are the pitfalls that surround us. Like Indiana Jones staring into that chasm, we’re afraid that we’ll fall over the edge if we take a step. But without that step, we’ll stay right where we are, treading water when we should be swimming!

Now, there is no guarantee that our steps will lead us where we want to go. Sometimes they do. On those occasions, all kinds of things fall into place; and it’s easy to feel God walking beside us. Those are the times for prayers of thanksgiving, as we take joy in where we are and where we are going. Other times, our steps are more difficult, and we aren’t sure that we’re on the right path. That’s OK. God knows that we make mistakes sometimes! Those are the times that we can pray for wisdom and guidance even while we’re walking along. And there are times that we’re so confused, we don’t even know what direction to take! That’s when prayers for courage are in order. Taking the very first step is sometimes the hardest one; but if we really have faith in God’s promises, it’s something that we’ll decide to do.

Yes, faith is knowing that God has our back. Faith is being certain that God will always be there for us with guidance, comfort, and wisdom. Faith is taking one step at a time, and trusting that a bridge over the next chasm will appear even if we can’t see it until we step out on it. Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we don’t see. While the world tells us to play it safe and keep ourselves secure, faith encourages us to step out even (maybe especially) when we don’t know where we’re going. Faith gives us the victory over all the challenges that the world can throw at us – one step at a time.